Dismissing an Embarrassing Employee

Two recent celebrity dismissals highlight the damage that can be done to a corporate brand by an employee acting illegally or misbehaving in public.  Reality TV star Kerry Katona was yesterday sacked as the face of supermarket chain Iceland after pictures emerged in a Sunday tabloid of the troubled star allegedly taking drugs.  The termination of Kerry’s contract comes less than a week after the BBC announced the dismissal of one of its television presenters, Ashley Blake, who has been convicted of wounding a teenager with a wooden pole.

Katona and Blake are both celebrities whose behaviour had generated a lot of negative publicity for the brands they represented - how does an employer deal with an ordinary employee who misbehaves in public or brings an employer into disrepute in the media?  An employer may be able to impose a disciplinary sanction, or in severe cases dismiss an employee, depending upon:

• the severity of the misbehaviour and any mitigating circumstances;

• the damage (or potential damage) the misbehaviour does to the employer's reputation or business interests;

• the impact it has on the employee's ability to do their work;

   

An employer placed in this position should avoid making a ‘knee-jerk’ reaction; follow your own disciplinary policy (making sure it complies with the Acas Code on Disciplinary & Grievance Procedures) and consider these factors before deciding what disciplinary action, if any, to take.