Yay, Morgan Stanley! The “global leader in executing transactions in cash equity-related products for institutional clients around the world” gave an employee some extra time off to cheer at Wimbledon for her brother, tennis player Ben Shelton.
This is a quirky feel-good story, but it brings up a question of when should you grant exceptions. It may well be that this wasn’t an exception anyway—most likely, Ben’s sister, Emma Shelton, hadn’t used all her vacation days anyway, so getting approval for more time off was a matter of asking her supervisor. The supervisor would have been foolish to say no, because the response was going to be blasted in the media. The supervisor chose wisely.
But what if she didn’t have any extra vacation days? When should you grant employees an exception to the rules? It’s a tough decision, because you need to remember the principle, “what you do for one, you do for all.” If cheering on a brother in a sporting event is a legitimate reason for you to grant an exception, then does it matter whether that sporting event is Wimbledon or a town T-Ball championship? Do you only grant exceptions when it’s professional sports and not high school?
You can see where it can become very sticky, very quickly.
to keep reading, click here: Use These 11 Guidelines to Decide When to Bend the Rules for Employees
Good thing my office is unionized. No exceptions, ever. Just one set of rules that never quite covers the intricacies of any specific scenario.