1 | P a g e Teen Behavior Isn’t Just in High School; It’s Also at Work Whining, tattling and tantrums are just a few of the ‘adolescent’ behaviors employees say they have seen from colleagues By Dana Wilkie 8/25/2015 Whining. Pouting. Tattling. Throwing tantrums. Refusing to share. Making a face behind someone’s back. Sound like preschool? It’s actually what CareerBuilder calls “adolescent” behaviors in the workplace, and according to the company’s recent survey, 3 in 4 workers report that they’ve witnessed such childishness among co- workers. The survey, conducted by Harris Poll, canvassed 2,532 hiring and human resource managers and 3,039 employees between May 14 and June 3, 2015. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 1.95 percentage points for the managerial pool and plus or minus 1.78 percentage points for the employee pool. “Some degree of what we may consider ‘adolescent’ conduct can be harmless, enabling employees to let off some steam and even promote a sense of camaraderie in the office,” said Rosemary Haefner, chief human resources officer at CareerBuilder. “But … actions like spreading rumors, tattling and forming cliques to exclude others can be perceived as mean-spirited, bullying and even harassment.” Top 10 Adolescent Behaviors in the Workplace When asked which childlike behaviors they’ve seen colleagues display at work, respondents gave the following answers: 1. Whining (55 percent say they have seen this). 2. Pouting over something (46 percent). 3. Tattling on a co-worker (44 percent) 4. Playing a prank on a co-worker (36 percent). 5. Making a face behind someone’s back (35 percent). 6. Forming a clique (32 percent). 7. Starting a rumor about a co-worker (30 percent). 8. Storming out of the room (29 percent). 9. Throwing a tantrum (27 percent). 10. Refusing to share resources with others (23 percent). Real-Life Examples Respondents gave Harris Poll real-life examples of the childish behavior they had witnessed, including: • A company owner who threw tantrums, yelled and slammed doors when he didn't get his way. 2 | P a g e • An employee who hid to avoid work duties. • Workers who ate other employees’ food from the company refrigerator. • Someone who blocked parking spots to prevent other employees from parking closer to the front door. • Someone who gossiped about all of his direct reports, then pretended to be their advocate. • A worker who continually pulled up inappropriate content on her cellphone and showed it to her colleagues. A separate CareerBuilder survey conducted earlier in 2015 found that some adolescent behaviors can reduce an employee’s chances of being promoted, including: • Negativity: A majority of employers (62 percent) said they’re less likely to promote workers who have a negative or pessimistic attitude, which can be demonstrated through whining and pouting. • Vulgar language: More than half ...

1. 1 | P a g e
Teen Behavior Isn’t Just in High School; It’s Also at Work
Whining, tattling and tantrums are just a few of the ‘adolescent’
behaviors employees say they have
seen from colleagues
By Dana Wilkie
8/25/2015
Whining. Pouting. Tattling. Throwing tantrums. Refusing to
share. Making a face behind someone’s back.
Sound like preschool?
It’s actually what CareerBuilder calls “adolescent” behaviors in
the workplace, and according to the
company’s recent survey, 3 in 4 workers report that they’ve
witnessed such childishness among co-
workers.
The survey, conducted by Harris Poll, canvassed 2,532 hiring
and human resource managers and 3,039
employees between May 14 and June 3, 2015. It has a margin of
error of plus or minus 1.95 percentage

2. points for the managerial pool and plus or minus 1.78
percentage points for the employee pool.
“Some degree of what we may consider ‘adolescent’ conduct
can be harmless, enabling employees to
let off some steam and even promote a sense of camaraderie in
the office,” said Rosemary Haefner,
chief human resources officer at CareerBuilder. “But … actions
like spreading rumors, tattling and
forming cliques to exclude others can be perceived as mean-
spirited, bullying and even harassment.”
Top 10 Adolescent Behaviors in the Workplace
When asked which childlike behaviors they’ve seen colleagues
display at work, respondents gave the
following answers:
1. Whining (55 percent say they have seen this).
2. Pouting over something (46 percent).
3. Tattling on a co-worker (44 percent)
4. Playing a prank on a co-worker (36 percent).
5. Making a face behind someone’s back (35 percent).
6. Forming a clique (32 percent).

3. 7. Starting a rumor about a co-worker (30 percent).
8. Storming out of the room (29 percent).
9. Throwing a tantrum (27 percent).
10. Refusing to share resources with others (23 percent).
Real-Life Examples
Respondents gave Harris Poll real-life examples of the childish
behavior they had witnessed, including:
• A company owner who threw tantrums, yelled and slammed
doors when he didn't get his way.
2 | P a g e
• An employee who hid to avoid work duties.
• Workers who ate other employees’ food from the company
refrigerator.
• Someone who blocked parking spots to prevent other
employees from parking closer to the front
door.
• Someone who gossiped about all of his direct reports, then
pretended to be their advocate.
• A worker who continually pulled up inappropriate content on

4. her cellphone and showed it to her
colleagues.
A separate CareerBuilder survey conducted earlier in 2015
found that some adolescent behaviors can
reduce an employee’s chances of being promoted, including:
• Negativity: A majority of employers (62 percent) said they’re
less likely to promote workers who
have a negative or pessimistic attitude, which can be
demonstrated through whining and pouting.
• Vulgar language: More than half of employers (51 percent)
considered the use of vulgar language to
be an indication that an employee wasn’t ready for a promotion.
• Gossip: Nearly half of employers (44 percent) said they’d
think twice before moving an employee
who participates in office gossip up the ranks.
• Sloppiness: More than one-third of employers (36 percent)
said workers who don’t clean up after
themselves—for instance, in the company kitchen—hurt their
chances for promotion.
Dana Wilkie is an online editor/manager for SHRM.

5. 1 | P a g e
Blunders in Documenting Discipline
Don’t exaggerate or soft-pedal when documenting employee
problems.
By Jonathan A. Segal
9/23/2014
Sometimes I hear people say “document, document, document”
as if that were the answer to all
problems. Were that true, wouldn’t we all just document and
spend money on our mission and
employees instead of litigation?
Of course documentation is important. But bad documentation is
worse than no documentation at all.
The content of your paper trail—including word choice—is key.
Plus, timing is critical. There are times when documentation
may actually increase your legal risk.
Why Documentation Matters
We tell our employees how much we love them in our
handbooks. Then we remind them that they
are at-will—that is, that we can fire them at any time, with or

6. without cause or prior notice, as long as
the reason is not discriminatory.
Well, if an employee is at-will, why do we need documentation?
I am sure each of you has had a
manager ask that indignantly.
As a human resource matter, the goal of performance
management is not to create a record that can
withstand attack but to help an employee improve so that he or
she has no need to attack.
Documentation helps employees to focus on areas for
improvement.
2 | P a g e
As a legal matter, if an employee is let go, documentation helps
to show that the reason you are
providing is a legitimate one that you have articulated and not a
post-termination pretext. Plus, no
matter what the legal theory may be for attacking the discharge,
juries consider fairness. Fairness
always matters, and documentation increases actual and
perceived fairness.
Counterproductive Documentation

7. Another of my favorite expressions is “consistency,
consistency, consistency.” Were it that simple,
would so many lawyers on both sides of the litigation aisle have
summer homes?
The most common equal employment opportunity charge for the
last few years has been retaliation.
Sadly, sometimes when you provide an employee with notice of
deficiencies and an opportunity to
improve reflected in disciplinary documentation, he or she plays
legal chess and tries to argue that
any adverse action is retaliatory. The employer very well may
prevail, but not without incurring the
time and cost of a fight.
Sometimes, it may make sense to terminate an employee without
prior notice. Consider a situation
where the employee has been employed for only six months and
has not taken any leave, made any
complaints or had any medical problems. If the person who
hired the employee is the same one who
is firing him, the same-actor inference applies (a legal
presumption that a supervisor who hires an
employee in a protected category will not later discriminate
against the employee).

8. In this situation, the legal risk of termination without prior
notice is low. But if you give a warning, the
employee may weaken your position by engaging in protected
conduct to manufacture a retaliation
claim if fired later. Sad but true!
Helpful Documentation
Still, more often than not, documentation will be helpful.
Generally speaking, it should include:
s for the employee going forward.
requisite improvement.
Common Mistakes
Below are the 10 most common disciplinary documentation
mistakes I have observed:
Using labels without providing behavioral examples. Using
labels provides little guidance to the
employee about where improvement is needed and provides only
marginal defensive benefit. Stating
that an employee has a bad attitude isn’t saying much.

9. 3 | P a g e
Drill down to what the employee did or did not do in behavioral
terms—for example, “The employee
denied responsibility for his failings, blaming others. Further,
he often discussed why things would
not work as opposed to how to make them work.” (You have one
of those, too?)
Using words that sound like “proxies” for bias or retaliation.
For example, all too often “lack of
commitment” is used to describe someone who gets the job done
but not necessarily at the office
because that individual has child or elder care responsibilities.
That person is more often than not a
woman. As long as the work product meets your expectations of
quality and timeliness, it should not
matter whether the employee completes it between 6 p.m. and 8
p.m. in the office or between 10
p.m. and midnight after the kids are asleep.
Of course, that does not mean the concern about commitment is
always without legitimate basis.
What if the employee never volunteers, must be persuaded to

10. accept assignments and complains
incessantly about how things were better before the bar was
raised? Then say that.
Focusing on the employee’s intent (as opposed to results).
Focus on results, and stay away
from impugning an employee’s intent. Avoid statements like
“You didn’t try,” “You don’t care” and
“You weren’t applying yourself.” Intent is largely irrelevant;
you cannot prove it, and it may be taken
as a personal attack. Employees who feel attacked attack back.
Focusing on the perceived cause of a performance problem as
opposed to the problem itself.
Don’t state or suggest that you believe an employee has a
physical or mental condition or that
performance deficiencies relate to reasons for a prior leave. “I
am concerned that your performance
has declined since your second child” may buy college tuition
for both children. Similarly, “You seem
depressed” may help lift any possible depression when the
employee realizes that you have just
given him or her a viable perceived disability.
Using absolutes that are not credible. No one is perfect or
totally flawed. Your comments should

11. reflect balance, not extremes. Remember, absolutes (always and
never) are absolutely assailable
and almost never defensible. If the employee can provide one
example contrary to the stated
absolute, you may be portrayed as a liar trying to target the
employee because of his or her
protected status, activity or leave.
Hedging so much that the employer seems uncertain of the basis
for its own decision. “It
would appear” or “It would seem likely” will be heard as “I
don’t know.” Recast the sentence: “You
don’t seem to understand the new computer software” becomes
“You have made three major
mistakes with the new computer software that have. …”
Including too much detail. Sometimes supervisors nickel-and-
dime the employee with details on
everything he or she has ever done wrong. This is overkill and
looks like a setup. Provide a general
statement, and then make it clear that you are including only
some examples of the deficiency so
4 | P a g e

12. that you can later raise other examples: “There have been a
number of interactions with customers
that have been less than acceptable. The following are three
examples.”
Using technical rather than plain language. With knowledge
workers, sometimes the deficiencies
are of a technical nature. You need to express the technical
deficiency in plain language.
Remember, you are writing not just for the employee but also
potentially for a court, commission or
jury.
Failing to make clear the consequences of lack of improvement.
It is very important that
employers be specific here. If it is a final warning, say that and
make clear that if there is not
adequate improvement, the employee will be subject to
immediate discharge without further
warning. I prefer “will be subject to” rather than “will result in”
so that you convey a strong message
but have some wiggle room. If it is not a final warning, then the
consequences usually are “more
severe discipline up to and including immediate discharge.”
Using labels that may create liability. Sometimes employees
who engage in offensive behavior

13. are fired for sexual harassment. Then the “victim” sues and tries
to use the label as an admission by
the employer. Meanwhile, the terminated employee also sues for
defamation because the conduct,
even if it is as alleged, is not severe or pervasive enough to be
unlawful harassment. There is a big
difference between “unlawful harassment” and “unacceptable
conduct inconsistent with our
harassment policy.” Avoid the legal label.
Another example: You are a professional services provider,
whether it is a health care system, a law
firm or an engineering firm. You state that the employee’s
performance is “substandard.”
Why not just concede malpractice? At a minimum, the
documentation would support a breach of
contract claim in terms of services provided. Again, there is a
big difference between “substandard”
and “below our high standards.” Use words that focus on your
appropriately high expectations.
Jonathan A. Segal is a contributing editor of HR Magazine and a
partner at Duane Morris LLP in
Philadelphia.
Blunders in Documenting Discipline
Don’t exaggerate or soft-pedal when documenting employee

14. problems.