Hazel is asleep under my desk, completely unbothered by the employment rights bill. Which feels about right, because on paper this looks like a problem for future you. April 2026, December 2027. Plenty of time, right? And that's exactly why I wanted to record this episode. Because this is the first real shake-up in employment law since I've been working in HR. I started my HR career in 1996. You can do the maths, I'm not going to. I've eaten enough Christmas cake to feel emotionally delicate. But in all the years I've worked in HR, this is the first time I've seen a reset like this. Not a tweak. Not a bolt-on. Not it will just update the policy wording and crack on. This is a proper foundations up rethink. An employment law isn't a standalone thing you dust off once a year. It's woven into everything you do with people. Recruitment, hours, flexibility, absence, performance, complaints, dismissal. And those everyday conversations managers have without realizing they've just created an HR issue. So no, this isn't a quick fix. No single policy. No one example you can copy and paste. No two businesses affected in exactly the same way. And anyone telling you otherwise is either oversimplifying or selling something. Kettle on cake optional. And if you've already overdone the chocolate logs or Christmas cake, I won't judge. The danger of a long rollout. On the surface, the long rollout looks generous. Some changes from April 2026, others not fully landing until December 2027. So it's very easy to think, great, I'll deal with it later. But long timelines create complacency. Complacency leads to rushed decisions. And rushed decisions are where the trouble starts. Because by the time the law fully lands, the way you already operate will be baked in. Habits will be set. Managers will be doing what they've always done. Expectations will feel established even if they're vague or inconsistent. Trying to unpick that quickly is where things go wrong. And here's the sneaky part. You won't realise you've left it too late until you're in a live situation. Someone asks for something. Someone challenges something. Someone says that's not fair. And suddenly, you're trying to make decisions with a wobbly foundation. And if your foundation is we've always done it like this, you're basically building a house out of biscuits. What should already have happened and probably hasn't. Here's the uncomfortable bit. Some things should already have happened, even though the main changes aren't live yet. You should already have a clear idea of where flexibility genuinely matters in your business and where it doesn't. You should already be able to explain how working patterns are agreed. Your managers should already understand what they can and can't promise. Not perfectly, not formally, but clearly. But it's the boring stuff that protects you when things get spicy. Mini scenario, the casual promise that turns into a problem. Let me give you a real-world example. A manager says to an employee, casually, in the kitchen while making a coffee. They mean it in a nice way. They're trying to reassure them. Everyone smiles. Then life moves on. Six months later, trade drops, shifts reduce, and that same employee says, but you promised. Now you've got a dispute, a trust issue, and a manager swearing they didn't mean it like that. This is why I keep saying it's not just a policy thing. It's how we speak, what we imply, and what people take away. Employment law is basically the consequences of human conversations. Why there's no one size fits all answer? One of the reasons this feels messy is because there is no single example you can copy. What's reasonable for a cafe won't be reasonable for a consultancy. What works in a care business won't work in manufacturing. And that brings me neatly to the word that gets used constantly in employment law. Reasonableness. Reasonableness, what it actually means. Reasonableness does not mean being nice. It does not mean saying yes. And it definitely does not mean doing whatever the employee wants. It means whether a reasonable employer in your circumstances, with your resources, made a decision based on sound business reasons and handled it fairly. Examples. A small business saying, we can't guarantee hours because customer demand genuinely fluctuates week to week can be reasonable. A business saying, we can't consider any flexibility at all, because we don't like it, probably isn't. Saying no with a clear, consistent explanation is reasonable. Saying yes to one person, no to another, and being unable to explain why is not. Reasonableness is about clarity, consistency, and evidence, not perfection. And the key word here is in your circumstances. A huge corporate can absorb change differently to a 10-person business. Your size, your resources, your customer demands, and your operational reality matter. It's why I always roll my eyes when someone says, Well, just do what big companies do. That's like telling someone with a mini to drive like they're in a lorry. Different vehicle. Which tells me she's heard this before. Hazel's job title upgrade. At this point, it's only fair to officially upgrade Hazel's job title. She is no longer just office dog, she is now senior head of risk management and consequence avoidance. Because she knows exactly what happens when you rush something, ignore warning signs and hope for the best. You end up at the vets with a face like thunder and a bank account that needs emotional support. Same principle here, just swap the vet for a solicitor. The ERB readiness plan in bite-sized chunks. Getting ready for the employment rights bill doesn't mean rewriting everything now. It means breaking it into bite-sized chunks. Now to early 2026. Habits before paperwork. Focus on awareness and habits. Clean up vague conversations. Clarify working patterns. Train managers to be clear and consistent. Most ERB risk won't come from paperwork. It'll come from conversations. That's why we're launching Coffee, Cake and Complain in February. Because managers need confidence, not scripts. And this matters because when the law shifts, the people stuff doesn't politely wait until you're ready. Complaints and misunderstandings still happen. People still feel hard done by. Managers still say things off the cuff. So if your managers are wobbling now, you want to steady them before April 2026 rolls in. Mid-2026. Align what you do with what you say. Tighten clarity where needed. Make sure your contracts reflect reality. Make sure your working patterns match what's documented. Make sure your approach to flexibility is consistent, not personality based. Here's a good test. If you had two employees in the same role ask the same question, would they get the same answer? If the answer is it depends who they ask, we've found your risk. 2027. Refine, don't panic. Refine and finalise as later changes land. This should feel like adjustment, not panic. A quick don't do this list. Let me save you some pain. Here are the things I do not want you to do. Do not wait until 2027 and then try to fix everything in a weekend. Do not rewrite policies without changing how managers behave. Do not remove flexibility out of fear if flexibility is part of your business model. Do not assume that one template will cover you. And please do not let a manager wing it in a difficult conversation because they're nervous. Winging it is how you end up with a solicitor bill and a team WhatsApp group that you really don't want to see. FAQS. Cake, coffee and compliance. Do I need to rewrite every policy now? Number. Please don't. Start with habits and clarity. Policies come later. What if we don't have time for this? That's exactly why you do it in small chunks. Ten minutes of clarity now saves hours of mess. Later. Can I just wait until the guidance is clearer? Some guidance will take time, yes. But your habits and manager conversations are happening today. Start there. Is it reasonable to say no if it's going to cost us too much? Sometimes yes. But you need to explain it properly. Show you've considered options and be consistent. Is coffee mandatory? Sadly, no. But it should be. Is cake mandatory? Also, no. But if you've already overdone the chocolate logs, cake can be emotionally optional for a week. What's the biggest compliance mistake SMEs make? Assuming compliance is paperwork. It's behaviour, conversations, and consistency. So if you take one thing from today, let it be this. A long delivery timeline doesn't mean this is a problem for future you. It means you have the chance to deal with it properly, steadily, and without creating a mess you'll regret later. Employment law is woven into everything. There is no quick fix. There is no identical case. And reasonableness is your anchor through all of it. If you want help working out what getting ready actually looks like for your business, download the ERB Readiness Pack. It'll help you focus on what matters now, what can wait, and what you don't need to lose sleep over. And if you want your managers to stop winging it and start handling tricky conversations confidently, Coffee, Cake and Complain launches in February. Hazel and I will be taking this slowly, sensibly, and with minimal vet or solicitor visits. Kettle on, standards up, see you next week.