The abrasive, confrontational employee – you’re fired?

An employment relationship is inherently unequal. The employer dishes out instructions, and the employee is duty-bound to follow those instructions (if they are lawful and reasonable), and in general to be respectful of the employer and her authority.

For that reason, our law recognises insolence and insubordination by an employee as misconduct that, if wilful and sufficiently serious, could justify dismissal after a single offence.

An employee can be both insolent and insubordinate, or merely insolent.

Insolence refers to rudeness and disrespect. An employee might make a snide, sarcastic comment, slam a door, or ignore you when speaking. The insolence can be directed towards a senior, equal or junior in the workplace.

Insubordination goes further, and refers to a deliberate, persistent and serious challenge to, or defiance of, an employer’s authority, whether through words or conduct. Insubordinate conduct may include refusal to carry out a lawful and reasonable instruction from an employer, but could also include such actions as a verbal or physical altercation with the employer that clearly challenges the employer’s authority. The insubordination can only be directed upward, to a senior in the workplace.

A couple of weeks back, a prospective client telephoned and related an alarming incident at her office: a member of staff had screamed and shouted at her, stormed out of the office, slamming the door, stormed back in, grabbed her handbag, and announced that she was leaving and would be back in the morning. The employer concerned implored: “I need to dismiss her, I cannot accept her back in the office. This is unacceptable – other employees witnessed this incident.”

On the face of it, the employee’s conduct was certainly insolent and possibly insubordinate. But would it be grounds for dismissal?

A similar case came before the Labour Appeal Court. That employee had an acknowledged abrasive style, loud voice, and sense of justice that compelled her to speak up when she felt her rights were being infringed upon. The relationship with the employer was deteriorating, as they were unhappy with her performance and with her abrasive manner with colleagues. The employer was concerned that she had allowed staff to use a work phone and run up a sizeable bill. The employer threatened to deduct the cost from her salary, and in fact did so.

The employee was aggrieved, and approached the employer to challenge the deduction, which had in fact been unlawful. The employer refused to discuss the matter with her, and turned his back on her when she tried to talk to him. The employee than raised her voice at him, telling him not to turn his back on her. The employer claimed in evidence that she had screamed and shouted at him, calling him unprofessional and “not an MD”, but this was disputed by the evidence of witnesses to the incident.

The employer charged the employee with insubordination and dismissed her.

At the CCMA, the commissioner agreed that the employee had been guilty of insubordination, and upheld her dismissal.

The employee took the matter on review to the Labour Court, who agreed with her that the CCMA award could not stand. The Labour Court’s decision is problematic, as it wrongly held that insubordination required a prior instruction. It ruled that the employee’s conduct was not insubordination but gross insolence, and that dismissal was too harsh a penalty. The employee did not want to be reinstated and was awarded 10 months’ salary as compensation.

On appeal by the employer to the Labour Appeal Court, the court rubbished the Labour Court’s finding that insubordination only arose from non-compliance with an instruction. But it agreed that the award was unreasonable and could not stand. Significantly, the employer’s conduct in unlawfully deducting money from the employee’s salary and then condescendingly refusing to discuss the matter with her, was found to have been serious provocation. In the circumstances, the seriousness of the employee’s conduct was reduced. It was found that she had been insolent but not insubordinate, as she had not persistently, wilfully and seriously challenged the employer’s authority – she had reacted in a knee jerk manner to provocation in the heat of the moment.

In the case of mere insolence or mere insubordination, not of a particularly gross nature, a prior warning was required before dismissal. The warning had to be given after the employee had enjoyed a full opportunity to be heard on the matter. There had been no prior warning in this case, although there had been allegations of past rude conduct, and so dismissal had been inappropriate. The finding of unfair dismissal and award of compensation were upheld.

And so, could the prospective client fire the employee who had shouted at her and stormed out of their meeting? The answer is more complex than it might first appear, and what preceded the incident is important. If the employee was responding to an intolerable provocation by the employer, then the seriousness of the offence may be mitigated, and a hearing may result in a warning.