Losing sleep over your unethical workplace? Here's 3 Places you can go...

You are not alone and it's not because you're working for a two-bit organisation. Here's a fact many organisations (understandably) don't report more broadly on.

More than 70% of employees working at North America's top 4 companies "don't trust HR." Yes - you read that correctly!

In an attempt to better understand employee perception, uncover unethical or poor business practices among HR Practitioners and the extent of distrust for HR overall, among 18 surveyed tech companies and over 15,000 responses on 'TeamBlinds' 2018 survey were collated and analysed. Researchers findings show that distrust of HR and concerns around their unethical practices form a majority cohort. With the percentage of their employees who don't trust HR at a concerning level:

• Apple: 72%

• Amazon: 76%

• Google: 72%

• Microsoft: 71%

For those of you reading this and thinking to yourself yeah - but they're like large capitalist - 'tech first, people second' companies, well here's a surprise; the best performing company: LinkedIn, still had ... 59% of its employees not trusting HR. Yep! So - I think we can agree, that this is not personal.

This is not you in your one-off shitty company or one-off shitty HR department or with your one-off horrible boss, HR don't seem to want to hold to account; this is far wider spread than most suggest. The stats don't lie.

The good news is that there are some resources out there - for people just like you! But first...

It's not all bad, it's also not all unicorns with roses between their teeth!

Before we dive into the world of unethical HR and the outright dodgy business practices that support, no, nurture them! and what you can do about it, it's worth mentioning that companies with great leadership, solid accountability mechanisms and a supportive work environment tend to have great ethical Human Resources (HR) teams. Companies that don't...well, not surprisingly, they're characterised by unethical business practices, far from ideal responses from HR and a general (intentional or not) reliance on good fortune (no one has complained yet!) or scare tactics (ensuring employees don't formalise complaints) to sustain such toxic cultures.

Why outright unfair or unethical HR practices matter?

There's an almost bottomless pit of consequences resulting from a lack of employee trust and (dear large multinationals listen up!), they all have a significant impact on the financial health of an organisation!

Recruiting top talent becomes increasingly difficult. Employees are doing more online research into company backgrounds than ever before. Heeeeelllllllo Glassdoor Reviews! Companies that have historically flown the status highs, are being avoided en masse, as a result of the reputation they've gained from frankly - treating their employees like shit!

Mental Health. SafeWork Australia's most recent findings show that more than 39% or mental disorder claims were found to be a direct result of harassment, bullying or exposure to violence in the workplace. Employees off sick from work, as a result of this distress and trauma, cost companies more than $100 million annually. So yeah - for anyone who has ever said 'get over it,' or 'it's not a biggy, just get on with work.' It IS BIG!

Employee turnover, aka, the amount of people leaving the business over time increases dramatically. People would rather quit than stay and try to 'fight the fight' against unfair and unethical HR and business practices. The bygone years of career loyalty have passed, people know they have choices and resultantly move into different jobs with different companies when it becomes clear that they report into for instance a psychopath, sociopath or narcissist (top talent tends to be fired or let go of more often than they quit, as they pose the biggest risk to a company with their well planned out whistleblowing acts).

Employees become increasingly toxic themselves. On the minor side - biscuits get stolen out of the lunch rooms and passive aggressive notes start popping up! This goes all the way through to an 'us and them' mentality, with major implications on communication or lack thereof. This shows up in the areas of compliance with employees taking a 'why bother' attitude to work each day and it's often not long till toxic behaviours like bullying and harassment start to fester and worse yet are inadvertently nurtured by the organisation.

Why we Care

We've been where you are. We all have our fair share of horror stories, from horrible bosses, their bosses that protected them to sustained outright bullying and harassment. It is for this reason that we at Your Best You Coaching put our heart and soul into helping create a new type of working world: where people can come to expect and experience more! One where you know your rights, your confidence is rejuvenated, you understand you've got options and find freedom in learning what they are!

If you’re losing sleep at night and are over the complete lack of attention HR is giving your challenge OR frankly you just feel like they’ve kind of got it in for you and frankly, you don’t trust them...then what follows may assist.

Unethical HR - Who can you turn to?

What are your options and are there any outside of the legal domain?

The simple answer is YES, yes and yes my loves there are!

Here are the top 3 GO-to’s for you - if unethical HR form part of your current challenge

Don’t fret, we and some other amazing organisations have you covered. 

Our Founder dedicates so much of her joyful soul to ensuring you get the help you need. She’s won a legal battle, been diagnosed with PTSD and come out the other end, as developed an individual as you can get! If you’re drowning in a sea of emotion, it’s not only about her expertise in Psychology, Neuroscience and HR - it’s that “she’s been where you are, she gets it! ”(an online client review)

Our Louise teams commitment to getting you the freedom and joy you freaking deserve, is evidenced in the provision of 3 emergency slots per month (our Founder insists on it), to help ensure that if you’re in this truly nightmare like situation, if we can’t help you we will absolutely connect you with the organisation that can. We’ve stocked up on (those nice Aloe Vera) tissues for this stuff. It’s serious. It’s shit and we’ve got you. Here's some pointers from our Founder, Louise:

1. Firstly, nurture your wellbeing, if the business has an Employee Assistance Program (EAP), reach out to them or an external HR Support Ally - share your concerns, it’s important you know you can talk to someone neutral. While your organisation may show many unethical - by law you're EAP sessions are obliged to be confidential. Trust me on this! And yes, I get it - I once had a Manager who told me that if I even thought about reaching out to our EAP - I'd regret it, as she'd come to know every word I said. And, yes - at the time, I actually believed her. I've learnt these lessons, so you don't have to!
2. If you feel your complaint with internal HR, ‘falls on deaf ears,’ don’t fret - you still have options. If you’re in the US you can contact the Government agency, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EOCC) or in Australia, The Fair Work Commission (FWA). In the event that the case is more serious, you should reach out to a law enforcement agency.
3. Your company also may have measures in place for dealing with unhelpful HR, such as a confidential hotline and it’s more than likely there’s an industry union out there for you - irrespective of whether you’re a member, consider reaching out and be sure to keep records. You can also check out our relevant service in this area.

If you're Managing People...

Aaaannnddd, if you're reading this and in a role where you manage people are aware of some of these challenges and would love some pointers on what you can do help 'manage up,' and help build out a healthier workplace environment then these actions can help build a more transparent and trusting enviornment.

1. Create Employee Feedback Surveys, run them by Management and send them out (ideally quarterly), to ascertain real data on current state and future ideas for what your staff might like to see more of. **I'd preface this with a HUGE - careful communications built out around the launch of this survey are key. Employees need to know that much of the change needs to occur with them as the heartbeat of it.
2. Position yourself as a responsive Manager. Ensure that you help mentor your staff on the importance of mapping out their realistic expectations and managing outcomes from their end, with follow up meetings diarised in HR's Calendar.
3. Leverage the news. If pain points are centered around pay rise or employee benefits - then work with your team to build out justification for your case. Collate news articles, external survey findings, reported recruitment company trends that speak to the gap you and your team believe exist in the market for instance between what is being offered at present and what competitors are offering.

The Louise Team hope that the above helps - if you've got comments or feedback, we welcome them below.

While most HR practitioners will do their very best to help you, it’s a reality, we’re certainly not blind to - that sometimes you can find yourself on the ugly side of justice...or rather, lack thereof: unethical HR practice.

Give us a call: Our Founder, Louise Spinks, knows what unethical HR looks like - first hand and is passionate to help those that really need it. She's even created a FREE resource to help ensure that outside of taking the necessary steps to protect yourself, you proactively take efforts to harness a working world surrounded by people who will support you - for when shit hits the fan, and you need champions.

In order to help ensure she prioritises this we've set aside one free 3 month scholarship to coaching for PostGrad students each year, she also tries to make time for three 15 minute slots a month, to provide you with additional direction as a newbie, keen to understand if we’re right for you. Click here for more info.

Louise also mentors junior to mid level HR Practitioners looking to practice great HR! There's 2 yearly intakes and we're trialing the 1st 2020 intake virtually, as a result of COVID.

**UPDATE: Fully booked out, next opening for this is November 2020 (enquire for an application: it’s a 3 month program).