Business 18 www.aftermarketonline.net MARCH 2025 Time to keep fairness in check Carmaster Garage MD Rebecca Pullan on the twists and turns involved in ensuring fair’s fair in the workplace Are you fair? Or do you think, ‘Well, life’s not fair’, and are content with that being a valid justification? It is true, sadly, that life is not always fair, but employees expect employers to be fair. And rightly so. It’s an unwritten rule. But fairness is a strange thing, like a sixth sense. Psychologists consider fairness is an emotion built-in from birth and can be a driving force for behaviours, both rational and irrational. How does this relate to business? Well, as an employer, you have to run a fair business. But that can be easier said than done. The first type of fairness you may think about as a garage owner is most likely: Are your employees being fair to you? If you have had an issue with an employee not being fair to you, then you can talk to them and resort to the correct disciplinary channels. For example, if an employee turns up late every day, you can start by talking to them, begin to document their lateness, and then (please take HR advice on the subtle points of this) you can embark on disciplinary action. Or perhaps you’re not happy with an employee’s work. Once again (although maybe not so easy to sort), you have plenty of options… perhaps at wage review time! Fairness is back on track for you. The second type of fairness is ‘are you treating employees fairly’? This depends on you as a person, but if you run a successful business, you probably strive to achieve this. A fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work. Treating people with respect is also important, such as offering training to all and not having ‘favourites’. So far, so good. It feels good, doesn’t it? Last challenge… The third and hardest type of fairness — to achieve. Here’s another example. Your best tech, Jimmy, is always five minutes late. He gets in at 8.35am but he is always the last to go home. Isn’t Jimmy a star? It’s give-and-take, isn’t it? Then there’s young Bob, your apprentice. He is fine, nothing special (yet). He might be as good as Jimmy one day, but he certainly doesn’t make you money like Jimmy does. You are probably still funding his training and he regularly eats up everyone’s time, asking them how things work. But he’s pleasant. So, what happens when Bob is late? Maybe you let one incidence slip, but then the next day, Bob is late again. Ironically, Jimmy arrives just after him. Now today, you’re feeling the stress and decide to have a ‘proper talk’ to Bob as this cannot continue. He’s been late for two days in a row and you do not want this to become a regular thing. In a private meeting, you start by telling him that, if it continues, you’ll be embarking on disciplinary action, blah blah blah… However, Bob cries foul. “Jimmy is always late and you never say anything to him.” He is right, isn’t he? The hardest part of fairness is the fairness between employees. How can you say that you don’t mind one employee being late just because he helps to lock up and is more experienced? What then if Bob offers to help you lock up too? Now, your whole workforce is coming and going whenever it suits them! You simply have to resolve the situation. The third type of fairness is just as important as the other two. My partner has a lovely saying about our customers and front-of-house staff: “Anyone can look after the easy customers, but it takes real skill, knowledge, patience and experience to look after the hard ones.” The same principles apply here. To be a good boss is to be able to deal with all the difficult situations. You need to be better than good — you need to be an amazing boss. So, speak to Jimmy and explain why the lateness cannot continue. Say you don’t want to set a precedent that’s not good for team morale and ask if he could try coming in earlier. Tell him how amazing he is and how much you value his help, but if he can’t make it on time, you will have to find another solution. Will he consider changing his start time to 8.35am? Then, hey presto, he will be on time every day, and the fairness will be rebalanced. Now, Bob knows that everybody must be at work by their start time, it’s unacceptable to be late and everybody is being treated the same. And after explaining Jimmy’s later start to Bob, it’s heads down and off we all go back to work. Everybody’s emotions are back to a regular level, and life is once again fair at work, as it has to be. As employers, we have certain responsibilities to ensure that our businesses are fair and we have to ensure that our employees work fairly as a team. But it isn’t easy, I know!
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