“Great advice, thanks”. “But we’re not going to follow it” is what they should have added.
ONE WEEK LATER
“We’ve had a letter from a solicitor asking for £50k for that employee we sacked.”
After 20 years of being an employment lawyer, I’ve seen my fair share of workplace disputes and can usually spot the ones that are going to go nuclear unless managed effectively. This was one of them. Maybe the client was too close to the people involved to see it, but they completely misjudged this one and caused massive, avoidable, headaches for themselves.
Of course, they had the right to ignore my advice. At the end of the day, that’s all it is, however, if they had told me what they were planning to do before they had done it, I could have given them a different strategy to mitigate the damage.
Don’t just pay your lawyer to mop up your mess, get professional advice before it hits the fan. Ask questions and if the advice still doesn’t feel right, tell them so you can explore other options and then make sure that you are clear on the risks before you act, or you are likely to pay a higher price later.