Constructive criticism is not harassment

It’s the nature of the employment relationship that employers must occasionally have difficult conversations with their employees – about career progression, conduct or business strategy. If an employee is struggling, their employer may need to critique their performance. Clearly these are important conversations to have, and they must be able to take place.

Dishing out criticism is never easy and is not often well received, so employers need to tread carefully and act respectfully, as there can be a fine line between what is perceived as constructive criticism, and harassment.

Mr T Shevlin v John Wiley and Sons Limited

The case of Mr T Shevlin v John Wiley and Sons Limited is a welcome reminder that providing negative feedback about an employee’s work is not, in itself, harassment.

In this case, Mr Shevlin, who had ADHD, said that his employer’s comments about the quality of his work – described as “messy” and including “a lot of typos” – were discriminatory and amounted to harassment related to his disability (ADHD). However, the tribunal found that the employer’s actions were reasonable and that the feedback given was part of normal performance management.

As an employer, you’re entitled to address performance issues. If your employee has a disability, then this must be handled sensitively, and you’ll need to consider reasonable adjustments to working practices to alleviate any disadvantage they face at work. Make sure to use sensitive and appropriate language to avoid any argument that the feedback is ‘unwanted conduct’ and is harassing in some way. However, as this case shows, the existence of a disability does not mean that poor performance can’t be tackled at all.

Further reading

• Discrimination – Your rights – Gov.uk
• Your rights under the Equality Act 2010 – EHRC
• The Equality Act 2010 – Gov.uk