Page 114 - An Indispensible Resource for Being a Credible Activist

INCONSISTENT APPLICATION OF POLICIES

There are significant inconsistencies that are liability risks in terms of disparate policy
application to different employees without justification. It is my observation that several
instances of policy interpretation and application have been made based on personal
relationships and personal conflicts of interest and not according to actual policy, to pre-
vious interpretations and applications of policy. This has happened with no attention to
precedent and no attention to the spirit of the policy.
I have observed, as have other employees who have raised these issues with me, that this
positive bias extends to performance evaluations, promotions, raises, tolerance of unac-
ceptable behavior, company influence allowed, hiring decisions allowed, allowance of
several policy violations, and various other inconsistencies that are problematic.

I have also observed, as have other employees who have raised these issues with me, that
this positive bias also extends to whether or not problematic job performance is noted,
addressed sufficiently, documented, or acknowledged at all.
There have been inconsistent responses to different employees regarding certain policy
infractions. I recommend that we apply responses to policy infractions consistently to
all employees. There are staff members at (Company) who have not received any
response to policy infractions despite engaging in problematic behaviors regularly, even
daily. There are other employees who don’t enjoy the privilege of personal relationships
that have the outcome of protecting them from the consequences of policy violations
who have been disciplined and/or terminated for the very same or even lesser policy
infractions.
There are also several examples of staff members who have regularly and repeatedly
engaged in policy infractions yet have been given raises, promotions, public praise, and
extremely unusual privileges without having their regular policy infractions addressed at
all. If these policy infractions have been addressed, I have no documentation of these for
these employees’ personnel files and have not been made aware of any documentation
or actions taken.

When our policies are not consistently applied, it becomes extremely difficult for me to
perform my job ethically or well. I can almost never predict how a policy will be inter-
preted or implemented because of these inconsistencies. Furthermore, this inconsistent
application of policies creates a serious morale problem among staff, who notice this dis-
parate treatment, discuss it amongst themselves, and now experience diminished trust in
both HR and (Company).
I recommend that conducting sound staff performance evaluations be made mandatory,
that those supervisors not conducting them have this noted in their own performance
evaluations, and that new firm deadlines be given to those supervisors. I also recom-
mend that all management (including leadership) be trained in effectively evaluating
staff without personal bias or attribution error and in preparing and giving feedback
soundly. I recommend that HR and/or leadership review all performance evaluations

CHAPTER 7 • Dealing with Inconsistent Application of P olicies 97