It is normal that in every institution, there will be rules and regulations that are set aside to govern the institution. These rules and regulations should be properly followed or rather adhered to. This institution is not an exception as it also has some rules and regulations that need to be adhered to. In the last random audit that was done, it was found that there has been a bleach of the contract or the policy that allows employees to attend classes during working hours. In this case, Laura had attended a class during working hours. The situation is permitted in her case because the course was only offered during class hours. She sought permission from the supervisor and she was allowed to attend the class. However, the problem is that the expected process at the university to issue permission was not followed and for this, she is reprimanded. Even though there is misconduct in this case, she is not at fault since she had sought permission from you as a supervisor.
There is a need to seek a solution to calm Laura and make her understand that the mistake is not hers. The first step that I would advise you to take is to approach her and refund the money that she lost to the university staff scholarship funds. After this, you can Alex Farrell and Agnes Johnson and explain to them the situation telling them that Laura is not to blame as you gave her permission. You can also plead with Jerry Forrest to lift the charges against Laura. This will have an advantage in that Laura will be free as she has no misconduct issues with the university. However, it has a disadvantage in that you will be held responsible and that the academic administration can take disciplinary measures against you.
There are some other minority staff members who are also involved in the similar activities and they are not reprimanded. I would also advise you to assist Laura to go ahead with the discrimination lawsuit should the first step fail. However, you should have concrete evidence that this practice is actually taking place amongst other workers. This has an advantage in that it will help to restore Laura’s reputation within the university and therefore make her feel valuable. It also has a major disadvantage in that the process is time consuming, costly and may sometimes cost some of the employees their jobs especially supervisors like you for not following the right procedure to give permission.
In conclusion, this is a very complex situation in that your job is at stake here. I would therefore recommend that you employ the first option of owning up the mistake and freeing Laura. You should recommend to the university a way that the workers will be benefiting from the Employee Education Program without having to compromise university policies and regulations. This may be setting some of the classes at times when the employees are freer so that they can attend them. Another alternative may be allowing employees to work in shifts and encouraging them to have local arrangements so that they are able to cover up for each other when they attend classes. It would also be advisable to inform all the workers the need to follow the right procedure before attending classes that coincide with their work.
Yours Faithfully,
Thomas Johnson,
Welfare Advisor
References
- Baugh, S. (1999). Handbook For Memo Writing . Irwin : McGraw Hill Publishers.
