Trust me, I’m a solicitor.

The problem with having a reputation is that you can sometimes be falsely accused.

I’m a fanatical football fan, and a fan of alcohol.

Which means that when I’m seen on the football terraces with a cup in my hand, it’s automatically assumed that there is champagne in it, even though I’m very aware of the rules about drinking outside of the lounge during the match.

So I can deny it emphatically – because much as I like my drink, I like my season ticket even more and I’d never want to risk it – and I can go 45 minutes without a drink, despite the stress of waiting for the final whistle!

or

I can smile sweetly and enigmatically and refuse to answer – because I do quite like cultivating the slightly evil image that I have, even though deep down I’m a bit of a goodie goodie who would never break the really important rules.

But it does demonstrate how easy it is to misinterpret things.

The partner that has cheated on you before is unlikely to get the benefit of the doubt when they’re late home from work….again!

The opponent who missed an important court deadline last time is unlikely to be believed when they insist they’ll be on time this time.

The employee who blamed their late arrival on bad traffic when it turned out their emails showed that they were still at home when they should have already left for work, not to mention their posts on social media that shows they were out on the town the night before, is going to be automatically assumed to have overslept.

It’s not uncommon for employers to make assumptions – if they didn’t have a good reason for being late/missing a deadline/going off sick last time, then they probably don’t have a good reason this time, so let’s just dismiss them, but assumptions can be expensive.

Unfortunately, no matter how certain you might be that the employee won’t (for example) improve their performance, so that you don’t think it’s worth coming up with a Performance Improvement Plan (known as a PIP), you should still go through the process, keeping an open mind, before you take any action, particularly if such action involves dismissal. This will almost certainly amount to unfair dismissal, which can be much more expensive than it would have been if you’d done the PIP.

Which means that you should never judge a book by its cover, and more than, you should make assumptions about what’s in my cup!

Kleyman & Co Solicitors. The full service law firm. It really was just tea!  Honest!!!