Case Study: When Managers Avoid Difficult Conversations

When managers avoid difficult conversations, the whole team pays

The hardest part of managing people isn't the initial hire or the annual review. It's the conversation no one wants to have about lateness, phone use, or underperformance. This Rebox HR case study shows what happens when a manager avoids that conversation, what it costs the team, and how to put it right. With the Employment Rights Act 2025 reducing the unfair dismissal qualifying period to six months from January 2027, getting these conversations right matters more than ever.

Case study background

Please note that names have been changed and details adjusted to protect the confidentiality of our client and their employees.

We worked with a small manufacturing business in the Midlands. The company employs 25 people and has been trading for ten years. John, the operations manager, has been with the business for seven years and manages a team of twelve on the shop floor.

Jane has worked at the company for five years. She was, until recently, one of John's more reliable team members. Over the past few months her behaviour has shifted, and John, by his own admission, hasn't known how to respond.

What was actually happening

Jane had started arriving ten to twenty minutes late most mornings and leaving fifteen minutes before her shift ended. She was also using her personal phone during working hours, which the company's employee handbook explicitly prohibits on the production floor for safety reasons.

Other team members noticed. They were picking up the work Jane wasn't finishing, covering for her at the start of shifts, and watching her scroll on her phone while they worked. Two of them had mentioned it to John in passing. He'd nodded, said he'd "have a word", and then hadn't.

Lateness is one of the most common issues in people management. According to a 2014 survey by Heathrow Express, common reasons cited were traffic (41%), public transport delays (29%), unforeseen circumstances (25%), bad weather (18%), sleeping through an alarm (14%), and leaving something behind (12%). Most of these are genuine. The problem isn't the occasional late morning, it's the pattern that gets ignored.

What John got wrong: the cost of inaction

By the time the business called us, the problem had spread well beyond Jane. Here's what John's avoidance had cost the team.

Decreased productivity

Jane's reduced hours and distracted working meant targets were slipping on her line. Colleagues were absorbing the slack, which slowed their own output. The knock-on effect was measurable in missed delivery dates that month.

Decreased morale

Other employees had started to disengage. The message they were reading from John's silence was simple: the rules don't apply equally. Two of the most conscientious workers had begun turning up exactly on time rather than fifteen minutes early as they used to.

Loss of trust in the manager

John's authority had quietly eroded. The team no longer believed he'd enforce policy, which made every future conversation harder, not just the one about Jane. Trust, once lost, takes months to rebuild.

Decreased customer satisfaction

Late deliveries and rushed work had generated two customer complaints in six weeks. For an SME relying on repeat business, that hit matters.

Financial loss

Lost productivity, overtime paid to cover missed work, and the risk of losing a key customer combined to create a real cost. None of it would have been spent had John addressed the issue in week one.

The conversation John should have had

The fix, when we worked through it with John, was not complicated. It was a conversation he could have had in fifteen minutes in month one.

Step 1: Set expectations privately

John needed to invite Jane to a private, informal chat. Not the canteen, not the shop floor, a quiet office. The tone should be factual and supportive: "I've noticed you've been arriving late most mornings over the past six weeks, and I've seen you on your phone on the floor. I wanted to check in and understand what's going on."

This isn't disciplinary yet. It's the informal step the Acas Code of Practice on Disciplinary and Grievance Procedures encourages employers to try first.

Step 2: Reference the policy clearly

John should have the employee handbook open. Policies on timekeeping and phone use on the production floor should be referenced directly, with a reminder that the phone rule exists for safety, not surveillance.

Step 3: Document the conversation

A short written note covering what was discussed, what was agreed, and a review date. Shared with Jane so she has the chance to add her perspective. This protects everyone and builds the evidence trail that would be needed if the issue later escalated under a formal procedure.

Step 4: Rebuild trust with the wider team

John also needed to talk, briefly and without naming Jane, to the team members who'd raised concerns. The message: "I've heard you, I've acted, I'll let you know if anything changes." No breach of confidentiality, just a signal that speaking up wasn't pointless.

Why this matters more from January 2027

The legal backdrop is shifting. Under the current Employment Rights Act 1996, employees gain unfair dismissal protection after two years of continuous service. From 1 January 2027, the Employment Rights Act 2025 reduces that qualifying period to six months.

What does that mean in practice? A manager who tolerates performance issues in a new starter through their first year will, post-2027, have far less time to act before that employee has full unfair dismissal protection. Failing to follow the Acas Code during any subsequent disciplinary or grievance process can trigger an uplift of up to 25% on tribunal awards.

The window for informal, documented conversations has narrowed. SMEs that avoid performance conversations now will find formal action much harder to defend later.

6 lessons for UK SME managers

Every Rebox HR case study teaches the same underlying lesson in a different way. Here are the six that apply to every SME manager reading this.

1. The first conversation is always the cheapest

A fifteen-minute chat in week one beats a grievance investigation in month six. The cost of action is almost always less than the cost of avoidance.

2. Silence is a decision

When a manager says nothing, the team hears something. Usually, that the rule doesn't matter, or that some people don't have to follow it. Both messages are expensive.

3. Document from the start, not when it goes wrong

Notes written after a grievance lands carry less weight than contemporaneous records. Keep a brief log of conversations, dates, and agreed actions from the first chat onwards.

4. Policy only works if it's enforced

A polished employee handbook is irrelevant if managers don't use it. Consistent, fair enforcement is what makes policy real.

5. Managers need training, not just job titles

Promoting a good technician into management without training in difficult conversations is one of the most common mistakes SMEs make. CIPD research consistently identifies managing underperformance as the area managers feel least confident in.

6. Get HR input before the issue becomes a dispute

Retained HR support costs a fraction of a tribunal claim. By the time you're at tribunal, the cheap options are gone.

How to spot this pattern in your own business

Most owners discover this problem after the damage is done. Here are the early signals worth watching for.

• A manager who keeps promising to "have a word" but never does.
• Other employees mentioning the same colleague's behaviour to you informally.
• A quiet drop in punctuality across a whole team, not just one person.
• Rising informal complaints that never turn into formal grievances.
• A manager who avoids one-to-ones or cancels them repeatedly.
• Targets slipping without a clear reason in the data.

If two or more of these are present, it's worth asking your manager directly what conversation they've been putting off, and why.

For deeper guidance on the formal process, read our managing employee performance guide for SMEs and our disciplinary procedures step by step guide.

How Rebox HR can help

When this client called us, the conversation had been avoided for nearly four months. We worked with John over two sessions: first to script and rehearse the conversation with Jane, then to coach him through the follow-up review two weeks later.

Jane's lateness stopped within three weeks. The phone use took a little longer but resolved after a written informal warning. The bigger win was rebuilding trust with the wider team, which took about two months of visible, consistent management.

Our retained HR support gives SME managers a direct line to qualified HR consultants when these conversations feel too hard to handle alone. We also deliver tailored HR training for line managers covering difficult conversations, the Acas Code, and documentation. For businesses already facing escalation, our disciplinary and grievance support covers investigations, hearings, and appeals. If you need a one-off project, our HR project support covers short-term work without a retainer.

To see how avoidance plays out in a different scenario, our case study on when kindness turns to conflict covers a manager who was too informal rather than too silent. Both end up in similar places.

Further reading

• Acas Code of Practice on Disciplinary and Grievance Procedures
• Acas guidance on managing performance
• CIPD Performance Management factsheet

For related reading on our blog, see our guides to handling an employee grievance, managing employee absence, and creating a positive workplace culture.