📓 chaos calls, we answer

🍿 tardiness & drama 

✍🏾 What can we do if “higher up HR” has been brought in to shut down employee drama and they won’t get involved?

Context: It was suggested to escalate the issue to higher up in HR to shut down the drama.

An employee came to HR with what on the surface appears to be a valid complaint against another employee for ongoing harassment. The HR Leader told the employee that they ought to be more careful complaining about hearsay and assumptions and sent them on their way! 

The rest of us are just shocked at the way this is being handled. We are concerned that we’re risking a good employee who doesn’t appear to be instigating this behavior and morale is taking a hit in both departments. 

What do we do if the “higher up HR” has no interest in shutting down the drama?

📣 Inas Laghzaoui, Head of HR & CSAT @ CE Brands International:

Do you have a process? I suggest you make one if you don’t; make it tiered and give each a set of responsibilities and have them sign off on it so they comply. Emphasize that even if the complaints have ‘no basis ‘ everything is worth investigating. Is there anyone who could corroborate what the employee said? Have there been other incidents? What’s the relationship between these two employees?

Dismissing employees like this will only make them feel unsafe to come forward and create a toxic environment.

Document everything, sit down with people from the different departments and note down what they say, if possible take care of this at the low level but keep receipts in case this goes higher, and do remind the higher up that they have an obligation to investigate and prevent workplace harassment and violence.

I hope this helps!

📣 Tammi Burnett, Director of People and Culture @ Rainforest Action Network:

What does your policy say? Best practice is to investigate any complaint that could point to discrimination, harassment, or violation of your code of conduct and work rules, especially if it includes any of the magic words (or anything that sounds like them), like “targeted,” “bullied,” “harassed,” “policy violation,” “retaliation,” etc. If you willfully ignore situations that could turn out to be legitimate complaints, you are opening up the company to lawsuits. I’ve been in HR for many years, and worked with many attorneys, and you would be surprised how often a complaint is validated by an investigation.

Even if the complaint turns out to be “petty,” it points to some breakdown in interpersonal communication or behavior, and that’s an opportunity for HR to work with managers and staff to clearly articulate behavior expectations and provide training on what is/is not appropriate at work.

Ultimately, if your HR leadership is dismissive and refuses to engage in what is absolutely their scope of work, you may want to re-evaluate if the environment itself supports toxic workplace dynamics and if it’s the right for you (because you clearly care!)

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✍🏾 We have an employee who is always late, disappears for no reason throughout the day, and usually leaves early, the top boss says “he doesn’t care as long as the work gets done.” How is this fair to the rest of the staff who do what they are told?

Context: We are a mid size Accounting firm in Chicago.

📣 Rosetta Williams, Sr. Director, People Talent & Culture @ Immigrant Justice Corps:

I would explain why this matters beyond “getting the work done”:

1. Erosion of trust: Others will wonder, “Why bother following the rules if no one else has to?”
2. Decline in engagement: Good employees get demotivated. That quiet quitting you hear about? This is how it starts.
3. Accountability drift: If one person is above the rules, eventually others will start testing boundaries too – and then it’s chaos.
4. Cultural inconsistency: Accounting firms rely on consistency, structure, and accountability. This sends the opposite message.

You want to highlight the business risks and cultural impact of allowing inconsistent behaviour, even if deliverables are being met. Some talking points with sample language you can have with leadership are:

1. Acknowledge Leadership’s Perspective (to show you’re aligned)
   “I understand the priority is outcomes and productivity – and that makes sense. We all want high performers who deliver results.”
   “Even if their individual work is getting done, the inconsistency in expectations is creating confusion and frustration among other staff – particularly those who are showing up, staying late, and sticking to policies.”
2. Call Out the Issue Respectfully, with Evidence
   “That said, this employee’s pattern of late arrivals, long disappearances, and early exits is becoming increasingly noticeable to the rest of the team.”
   “Even if their individual work is getting done, the inconsistency in expectations is creating confusion and frustration among other staff – particularly those who are showing up, staying late, and sticking to policies.”
3. Name the Risk – Culture and Retention
   “When one person is allowed to operate outside of the norms, others begin to question the value of following them. This kind of inconsistency erodes trust and affects morale.”
   “Over time, this can lead to disengagement, lower performance from others, or even attrition – especially among your steady, reliable employees who feel their efforts aren’t being respected.”
4. Position It as a Leadership Credibility Issue
   “Whether we intend to or not, leadership is sending the message that rules and expectations are optional – for some. That undermines our ability to hold anyone accountable moving forward.”
5. Offer a Constructive Path Forward
   “I’m not suggesting we discipline this person immediately – but we do need a clear, fair standard that applies to everyone, and we need to be proactive about reinforcing it.”
   “We could have a direct conversation about expectations – not just about hours, but about presence, responsiveness, and team visibility.”
6. Optional Close: Invite Leadership to Set the Tone
   “If leadership reinforces that we’re all held to the same core expectations — even in flexible environments – it makes it easier for managers and HR to support a strong, engaged, and fair workplace.”

📣 Stefanie Pitts, VP, People @ Bizzabo:

The only thing I can add is if you navigated this before within another team, sharing that with the manager to show you are being consistent. If you’ve actually heard complaints or mummerings about this individual I would mention that too. 

Some professional services firms have core hours that everyone needs to be in the office/online for – that could be something you could consider more long term if needed.

📣 Mary Miller, Director of Finance & Business Ops @ Christian County Library:

I would lean away from all the “It looks bad” comments until I made sure that the manager of that group had met with them and made sure that the work was distributed as evenly as possible. Why is this person the only one able to get their work done early? Or could it be a training issue? Is there a group portal that this person should be working on that they aren’t aware of? 

Early in my career I worked in an office that had an inbox that was to be worked on by whoever had time. No one told me about it until I had been there for over a month. I felt like such a jerk!

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