Employee Misconduct and Discipline

The decision of an employer whether to discipline an employee and the type of discipline that is appropriate for specific offenses committed by the employees are some of the inevitable issues that employers must face. It is pertinent that for the success of a company, it is viable that employers make these kinds of decisions in a wise way. This will avoid any undesirable behaviors from happening again in the future or eliminate the offenders who do not show any sign of changes in the workplace.
Poor disciplinary decisions made by the employer may lead to legal liability and most frequently, lawsuits. However, specific misconducts committed by an employee will automatically lead to discharge There are some laws that dictate that employers will be justified to discharge any employee who successfully lies on the documents provided during job application. Such laws include the after-acquired evidence doctrine and the employee may not have the right to complain of being discriminated even when he or she is discharged.
The offense of making lies on employment application papers is therefore serious misconduct offense and deserves discharge. The assumption here is that the employee would not have incurred any loss if he or she was not employed by the employer and therefore no compensation or claim will be accorded to such employee who falsify or omit important details in their application for employment. There are however several serious offenses that may lead to employee discharge and the examples given in this paper are not exhaustive.

Apart from making successful lies on the employment applications, employees may be discharged after he or she has violated the employee procedures, instructions and policies. It is assumed that the violation of any of these instructions, procedures and policies is done intentionally and will always lead to discharge. Violation of any set instructions or policies will show how irresponsible an employee is and may not manage to execute roles as per the precept. The inability to adhere to the principles will be understood as the unwillingness to work under the conditions and discharge will be accorded to free the employee.
Another serious offense that may automatically lead to discharge is theft and abuse of abuse of the company’s property. Theft is a serious misconduct offense and it shows how irresponsible employees can become as they do not take proper care of company property and premise. It is assumed that the subsequent discharge of such employees who are caught stealing will not only protect the company’s property but also provide an example to the rest on how stealing offenses are such grave.
While stealing and falsifying of employment applications are some of the serious misconduct which require discharging of the employee, other misconducts also result to discharge. These misconducts include violation of federal or state laws, gross misconduct, unauthorized possession of company’s property, and unauthorized sleeping while at workplace, failure to execute roles as assigned, violation of policies about drug abuse and so much more.
All these offenses will surely lead to discharge of employees and the employer is justified to take such decisions when they happen. In general, serious misconducts are given disciplinary actions where in some cases the disciplinary board has to be involved in making the decisions. It wil not be entirely the decision of the employer to discharge the employee but it will be a carefully decided action that is taken while discharging any employee.