It is a well-established, unspoken principle, that employees must obey the lawful and reasonable instructions of their employers.
The critical point for employees and employers alike is that employees are required to show respect to their employers, even in the course of tough situations like disciplinary enquiries, meetings etc.
What is Insolence?
Insolence means repudiation by an employee of his/her duty to show respect. Insolence is an employee’s disrespectful behaviour towards the employer.
When an employee is insolent, it means he has demonstrated rudeness or a bad attitude towards his colleagues or superiors at work. However, it depends on how bad the insolence was.
An example of insolence is when you ignore someone at work who says Good Morning to you. This situation does not warrant dismissal, but it should be handled verbally.
A situation where you storm into work and begin swearing, using vulgar language, accusing people, and using racial slurs may be grounds for dismissal.
The severity of the incident, the severity of the words or the rudeness of the conduct may justify a different punishment.
When it comes to reporting incidents, whether you have been charged with them or you are a company dealing with an insolent employee – you look for whether they have committed some kind of behaviour; that’s rude and inappropriate.
- Do you have evidence to justify the conduct?
- How serious is the conduct?
- What impact does it have on the trust relationship? If the trust relationship is broken down, then you can justify dismissal. If you can’t trust the employee, then you can’t work with them.
As an alternative, if the trust relationship is intact and you think it justifies a written or verbal warning, you do not have to dismiss them.
Additionally, check your company’s disciplinary policy, which should serve as a good guideline as to the sanction you may impose for incidents.
