By MARIE WILSON
Q. Several of us work as business unit administrators in one division of a large organisation that is implementing a new accounting system. The system is a nightmare; jobs that used to take minutes may now take hours.
Last month, the head of our division was entertaining clients in a high-profile event. They were running short on wine as they had a better turnout than he had expected. His PA had already gone home, but he contacted an administrator in one of the units to see if she could help. She arranged to go to the closest wine store and pick up a case of wine and deliver it. She couldn't generate a purchase order, so paid for the wine by personal credit card, and took an old purchase order to prove the account status.
Today, all the administrators received an email from the chief accountant for our business unit. He was irate about a purchase order not being generated, and threatened that if anything like this happened again that he would try to get the person dismissed.
The administrator involved has already explained the situation to him, in writing, but he can't see any further than the end of his rule book.
A. As this raises legal and management issues, I have asked lawyer John Hannan to assist in this answer.
Employees should expect a reasonable working environment. That is, you should expect that the tools and systems that you are required to use, will actually work.
It's not unusual to have teething problems with new systems, but poor systems begin to erode the working environment.
The chief accountant's email after the event could lead to tricky situations given the inefficiencies of the system. There is nothing wrong with highlighting a situation that has occurred with one employee and using that to remind/advise everyone of the correct procedure and of the consequences of not following that procedure. If the procedure is crucial to the operation of the business it may be reasonable to put staff on notice that a failure to follow it could result in dismissal.
The difficulty here is that the system is causing the problem and doesn't allow any satisfactory solutions for dealing with the problem.
Say this same scenario occurs again. This time the administrator is faced with the following options:
* Take the chief accountant's threat seriously and tell the business unit head his request can't be actioned until there is a purchase order.
* Take the threat seriously, but use a personal credit card and seek reimbursement later. To suggest that employees bankroll the organisation by using their personal credit cards to fund organisational transactions seems bizarre. The requirement of a purchase order is to assure proper authorisation for organisational transactions; suggesting that such transactions can be approved after the event by using your credit card and getting the expense reimbursed shifts both risks and costs to staff and eliminates the pre-approval process.
* Respond to the scenario in the same way as before, ignoring the threat of dismissal.
Each of these options places the administrator in a vulnerable position. That result is unreasonable and it is difficult to see how any disciplinary action could be justified.
Systemic problems within an organisation need to be recognised and dealt with. If the problems cannot be fixed, sensible procedures should be put in place to get around the problems in a realistic and practical way.
That solution needs to be communicated to everyone who may be involved or affected. At the end of the day, employees cannot be expected to carry the can for things that go wrong when the system fails.
It is difficult to imagine that the scenario you describe would actually result in a disciplinary action. A supervisor would be required to consider the circumstances of the purchase (which doesn't seem to have breached policy anyway, if she used her own credit card). The accountant does not supervise any of you directly, so he would have to work through your supervisor.
This is a "problem" with one staff member, which should be dealt with directly, although the accountant could issue a general reminder. The accountant could note the problem with the administrator concerned and if, having gone through a preliminary investigation, was not satisfied with her reasoning, he could have requested that her supervisor use the process specified in your organisation's collective agreement to discuss the problem and reach a resolution.
On the other hand, the same applies to the concerns of you and your fellow administrators; you should be able to take your concerns directly to the person who issued the email either informally or through the systems that exist in your workplace. Perhaps the accountant is struggling just as much with the new system as the administrators are.
All large employers have detailed policies on workplace disputes, and many have mediators and facilitators to assist in resolving these matters.
Here's hoping that the new year brings a resolution to your problems with the division accountant and your new software.
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