Pitfalls

A labour dispute or a dismissal is like a pan that is suddenly boiling over. It is often a slumbering situation that has been lingering below the surface for a while. But it is almost always an ‘attack’.

One is usually not aware of the fact that the ‘playing field’ has suddenly changed and totally new rules apply. A dangerous game in which much is at stake and many things can go wrong.

The subdistrict court formula is not a right but a directive! The dismissal law does not give a direct answer. Taking responsibility and acting sensibly do.

>> What position should I take on?

The step-by-step plan

Please find below specific information on what you should or should not do when confronted with a labour dispute or a case of dismissal.

A labour dispute or dismissal case is like a pan that is suddenly boiling over. It is often a slumbering situation that has been lingering below the surface for a while. But it is almost always an ‘attack’.

Wear and tear

At a certain point in time your perception will unconsciously change and your own ‘agenda’ will stray from the strategic course. Your priorities will no longer necessarily relate to those set by the strategic course.

Your own learning process is no longer satisfying. Getting and keeping business matters on the right track is proving difficult. Your performance is drifting. You are partly following your own agenda but you have noticed that you are less connected. Your attention is increasingly shifting to solving disputes and increasingly difficult discussions with senior management and colleagues.

Labour dispute

Results and your own position are under increasing pressure. At some point, closer than you think, this pattern will derail and a labour dispute is born.

Your position

You are vulnerable and feel you have become subordinate. This is a situation in which you have, along the way and in a sense unconsciously, lost the overview. It is difficult at that point to put the causes and effects in the right order.

“Truths do not exist and are constructed”

The employers considerations

Parallel to this process a picture is developed – a decision is made by your senior management. You hold a key position. Boardroom considerations are, by definition, made with the alleged company interests in mind and usually avoid risks. Decisions are made quickly and with the political situation in mind. The criterion is simple, namely, win or lose. This is not by definition the best solution to the problem. It cannot be avoided that both parties will be subject to ‘tunnel vision’. This is an important cause of lack of understanding and many conflicts.

Falling behind

You are still busy trying to ‘swim against the current’ and often try, against your better judgement, to ‘turn the tide’. Success or lack of it is at this point in time ‘unsatisfactory’. An invitation for a discussion ‘catches up’ with you….

“The deepest crises lead to the best of things”

The decision

You are told of your dismissal and this decision is explained to you or alternatively a proposal is made which at that point in time you consider to be unreasonable. A threat but at the same time an opportunity. This situation presents negotiation opportunities to work towards a good proposal.