Ask the expert: Mistakes offer chance to learn

Q: How can you rehabilitate yourself after being formally disciplined at work?

I was recently disciplined and told I would be transferred to another branch of the bank for which I work.

My job is at a lower level and my pay is the same. But what can I do to rescue my prospects?

A: DR MARIE WILSON is associate professor of management at the University of Auckland, research director of the ICEHOUSE business accelerator and a veteran of 20 years in corporate management and small business.

The first thing to do is reflect on what happened and try to learn from it.

Most successful professionals have failures and mistakes in their background; the best have learned important lessons from them.

Work with your new manager, or the human resources manager who arranged your transfer, to develop a plan to address whatever problems led to the disciplinary process and transfer.

You can expect that it will take a while to regain your former degree of prospects with the bank, but consistent good performance, and development to address problem areas, should resolve the issue over time.

Whenever my boss calls me into his office I am filled with dread.

No, he doesn't sexually harass me; he's a screamer instead.

If he thinks I have done anything wrong, and without any evidence or asking me about it, he starts hurling abuse, calling me every name in the book, and threatening to sack me.

My nerves are about shot, and I'm thinking of quitting, as everyone before me has.

There are two issues here: one is the screaming abuse, the other is the way he treats your performance.

You have a right to be treated reasonably and this would include providing a reasonable, non-intimidating workplace.

When your boss suspects a problem with your performance, you should expect to know about it in advance, hear his evidence, be able to present yours and have it listened to, and take part in a reasonable discussion that results in improved performance.

Obviously you're not getting any of these. You need to avail yourself of whatever help you can to deal with this juvenile and unprofessional behaviour.

Let his boss know, as a first step, but you may wish to involve the mediation services of the Employment Relations Service, or assistance programmes within your workplace to try to improve his behaviour.

If you are performing and you otherwise like your job, I would suggest that he is the one who needs to shape up or ship out!

Though I work fulltime, I have been working from home three days a week for the past seven months as I have two children under 5.

The arrangement was negotiated under a flexible work policy, but without a date being put on it. I am being put under pressure to return to the office, but I am reluctant.



Why is the pressure on for your return? You might wish to schedule a meeting with your boss to make sure that your performance is seen as satisfactory under the new work arrangements.

You might want to review this yourself in advance of the meeting and collect information about the quantity and quality of your work under the flexible arrangement.

Assuming everything is okay, you might want to discuss the terms for maintaining your new work pattern with a set schedule of reviews.

Many employers are finding it makes sense to allow greater flexibility.

If you would like to read up on this for yourself, or have some extra ammunition for discussing this with your boss, reports of recent research on flexitime can be found and researched on the Equal Employment Opportunities Trust website, EEO Trust

* Send your questions to: julie_middleton@nzherald.co.nz