Advisory Case on Structuring Personnel Measures Against an Employee Who Disobeyed Work Instructions and Violated Business Communication Standards

1. The Client's Situation

The client raised an inquiry about how to respond to a problem in which one of its employees failed to respond sincerely to a supervisor's work instructions and repeatedly used non-work-related expressions and metaphorical descriptions through internal email, thereby undermining the order of communication within the organization. The employee had persistently shown problems in work attitude, such as sending emails challenging the legitimacy of legitimate work instructions or writing at length using expressions unrelated to work. Even though the company had already provided email-etiquette training and demands for correction on several occasions, the same conduct was being repeated, so it was necessary to review the possibility of personnel measures and ways to secure procedural appropriateness. Accordingly, considering the possibility of a future disciplinary dispute, the client requested advice from Your Legal Team to examine the legal risks of a warning measure and additional personnel measures.

Your Legal Team first reviewed the possibility that the matter constituted a violation of the duty of service and the duty to comply with superiors' instructions under the rules of employment, and organized a structure for judging the legitimacy of personnel measures, focusing on the fact that no improvement in attitude had been achieved despite repeated demands for correction. We also explained that, as a stage prior to discipline, the method of issuing an official warning notice could serve as an important record in terms of maintaining organizational order and responding to future disputes, and designed a document structure that clearly stated the grounds for the warning and the corrective requirements. In particular, considering the possibility of this leading to discipline in the future, we advised on the need to clearly record in documents the fact that training had been conducted, the progress of the demands for correction, and whether the conduct was repeated. Accordingly, we presented both the wording of an official warning notice that the company could issue and a plan for organizing HR-management records.

Through the advice, the client was able to present clear standards regarding acts violating order within the organization through an official warning measure, rather than merely a verbal instruction. In addition, by securing HR-management records that would allow it to consider phased disciplinary measures if the same conduct were repeated in the future, it established a basis for proving the legitimacy of the company's measures in the event of a dispute. Through this, it can be expected to maintain the order of communication within the organization while preventing HR-management risk. Your Legal Team provides practice-oriented legal advice related to overhauling a company's HR-management system, designing disciplinary procedures, and operating the rules of employment and service regulations.