What to Do When an Employee Files an Ethics Violation Complaint Against You?

You are a manager and you think you are doing a good job. You have succeeded a manager who has been with the organization a long time and has basically managed the status quo. You have a powerful, positive vision of what this department or unit needs to become. To achieve your vision, you have raised the level of accountability of what performance levels you expect from employees. Some employees have stepped up and are excited to contribute to the new vision. Other employees are not excited about either your new vision or higher levels of expectations. Instead of stepping up and aligning their behaviors to the new vision, they file an ethics violation complaint. For thirty years, I have worked as an executive coach and advisor. In the last six months, I have seen more ethics complaints filed than I have in my entire career. Almost every one of these complaints are sent to the company’s ethics “hotline” and are completely anonymous. And, HR, wanting to do a great job, feels compelled to investigate every complaint and respond to the satisfaction of the confidential informant. Here are my recommendations for successfully dealing with an ethics complaint.

For Human Resources:

1. First, address the ethics question. Is the manager clearly violating a company policy or crossing the ethics as outlined in your policies and procedures?  Examples could include: the employee is stealing from the company; the employee is in a secret relationship with a direct report; or the employee is sexually harassing or bullying an employee. All these examples are ethical in nature and, if found to be true, deserve a strong and swift response from Human Resources. If any of these examples are true, the employee needs to be fired or removed from their position of leadership.
2. Determine if the complaint is really an ethical issue? Many times, an employee who calls the ethics hotline with a complaint states an issue or situation that is a problem for the employee, and possibly the employee’s manager, but is not ethical in nature. Examples might include: the manager is asking the employee to document how they are spending their work hours; the manager is communicating to the employee that the employee’s performance is not meeting expectations to be successful in their job; the employee does not like the way the manager is managing their department or unit; and the employee does not like that the manager does not listen to the employee and act on their recommendation. I recently worked on an ethics call to the hotline where a social worker did not agree with a physician’s decision on when was the right time for implementing the patient’s and family’s need to compassionately end the patient’s life. In this case, the physician still had hope for this patient, but the social worker did not. To be blunt, the question was when should the plug be pulled?  Although this example seems like a huge ethical issue, the patient’s physician, especially a specialist, is almost always the best person to make the call. If other physicians have concern over how this specialist makes decisions, ethics would most certainly be of primary concern. In the above example, most likely, this is a disagreement over how to practice medicine and the physician’s decision will most likely be how this ethics complaint will be decided.
3. Provide the right advice: When the complaint is not an ethical issue, HR needs to provide the correct response and recommendation to the anonymous employee. For example, if the employee does not like the way they are being managed or communicated to, HR’s recommendation needs to be that the employee needs to talk to their manager or the manager’s boss. HR may coach the employee on how best to get the conversation started. If the employee does not feel the concern has been adequately addressed, they need to bring their concerns to Human Resources.  This is the proper protocol when the issue is focused on style, not ethics. When HR has the opportunity to dialogue with the employee, they can ask the right questions that will provide them with all the necessary information to write the prescription. Here is HR’s first clue they provided the right advice. Instead of following HR’s recommendation, the employee files another anonymous ethics complaint. Human Resources needs to provide the right advice and not become the advocate and leader of the disgruntled employee in the organization. 
4. What if I am right? About now, there are some human resource professionals who are thinking, this author has no clue. These HR professionals may be right. They are thinking, “I work with some really bad managers who treat employees poorly and I think the employee’s complaints are valid. You are probably right. If five great employees tell you their manager is toxic, they and you are probably right. Go with your gut and hold the manager accountable to building strong relationships with all their employees, even the ones who are difficult to lead.

Recommendations for the Manager Accused:

1. Thank people for bringing the concern to your attention. When someone tells you that you have an ethics complaint filed against you, the worst thing you can do is become defensive. Before you respond by telling anyone anything, ask open ended questions to better understand what the issue is. After you listen to the answers, ask more questions to better understand if you have behaved in a way that goes against the values and ethics of the organization or if your leadership and communication style is the issue. 
2. Make HR part of YOUR team. When HR tells you that you have an ethics complaint against you, this is the time to bring HR closer to you and align them with your team, not argue with them and push them away. For example, if you are holding an employee accountable and the employee does not like it, what does HR recommend you do or do differently to align with the company’s vision and values.
3. Ask yourself, “What if it is me?” If you have multiple complaints about your leadership or communication style, there is a good chance that you need to improve as a leader. My dad once told me, “If five people tell you that you have a tail, you had better turn your ass around and take a look.” One complaint is something you need to be aware of. More than one complaint is a concern that you have an opportunity to improve as a leader.
4. Ask for help. Being a leader is not an easy job. If it was easy, I would have been unemployed for the last thirty years. Every day, leaders I am advising bring to me people problems that, if they were easy to solve, they would do it on their own. Ask your Human Resources department for their help or ask to have access to an executive coach who can help you take your leadership skills to the next level. 
5. Act on HR’s advice. If HR determines that you have committed an ethical violation of the company’s values or policy, shut up and take their advice. Check in with HR often to make sure you are in alignment with their recommendations. The only thing worse than having a disgruntled employee strategically planning against you is to have that disgruntled employee in perfect alignment with HR in their complaints against you. 

In conclusion, there are points to clarify if these situations are going to be handled correctly. 

1. First, Human Resources needs to determine if the complaint is truly an ethics violation or an issue that is a leadership or communication style. If it is not an ethics issue, the employee needs to be advised to take their complaint through the proper chain of command. If that does not achieve resolution, bringing their complaint to their Human Resources business partner is the next logical step.
2. If you are the manager or individual accused of an ethical violation, follow the steps above. Almost 100 percent of the time, these recommendations work to support the manager when Human Resources has done a great job in determining whether the issue is an ethical or a managerial issue.