Reasonable Is Not A Magic Word

Kate 0:38

Right. Can we talk about the word reasonable for a second? Because reasonable gets thrown around at work like it's a magic spell. I'm being reasonable. That's not reasonable. You have to be reasonable. A tribunal would say, I'm reasonable. And nine times out of ten, what the person actually means is I want you to say yes, and I want you to say yes immediately. And I would like you to feel guilty if you don't. Welcome to September. Everyone's back. The diaries are full. The school runs are back. Flexible working requests start flying in again, performance issues pop up post-summer, and managers suddenly discover that reasonable is doing a lot of heavy lifting in conversations. This is BuzzingAboutHR. And today we're talking the reasonableness myth. What it actually means with real examples. Because reasonable does not mean say yes. And it definitely doesn't mean do what

Why September Triggers HR Drama

Kate 1:51

the loudest person wants. Hello and welcome back. It's Kate. Hazel is here too, obviously. She's my chief common sense officer. She's not interested in opinions, she's interested in outcomes. If she ran HR, the whole process would be sniff the situation, stare at the guilty party, and then lie down until everyone behaves. Honestly, tempting. Right. Today I'm going to make reasonable make sense. No fluff, no legal waffle, no corporate theatre. Just the actual meaning and real examples you'll recognise from small business life. And the big message is this reasonable isn't a vibe, it's a process, and you can absolutely learn it. The hive brief. Let's get the definition straight. Reasonable in HR doesn't mean nice. It doesn't mean generous. It doesn't mean keep everyone happy. Reasonable means a sensible employer would do this in these circumstances. That's it. And here's the part people forget. SMS have different circumstances to corporates. A big corporate might have five layers of cover, a HR team, and a budget for backfill. A small business might have three people doing seven jobs. And if one person

What Reasonable Actually Means

Kate 3:24

changes their hours, the whole place wobbles like a jelly on a washing machine. So reasonableness is always linked to context. It's about balancing. Business needs fairness, consistency, impact on the individual, and being able to explain your decision without sounding like you've just made it up. So today I'm giving you a simple reasonable decision method you can use over and over. The sting. Here's your reasonableness as checklist. Six questions, no drama. Five minutes. What's the request or issue in one sentence? What business need actually matters here? What options did you consider? What's the impact on the person and the team? Are you being consistent with similar cases? Can you explain your decision calmly in one paragraph? If you can answer those, you're generally in reasonable territory. If you can't, you're probably winging it. And winging

The Six Question Reasonableness Checklist

Kate 4:33

it is how you end up with an inbox full of just to confirm emails that feel oddly legal. Right, let's do real examples. Example one, flexible working. Reasonable does not mean you must say yes. Reasonable means consider it properly, look at the impact, explore options, then decide. So reasonable refusal looks like this. I can't agree to you working 10 till 4 because we need customer cover from 9, and that's when most of our calls come in. If we don't have cover, we lose business. What I can offer is X, or we can trial Y for

Flexible Working Without Accidental Promises

Kate 5:19

four weeks and review. That is reasonable. It's clear. It's business based. It shows you've thought. That's a personality trait. And I say this with love. We don't do that here is basically HR's version of because I said so. It makes people instantly want to challenge you. Reasonable. Yes, looks like this. We can do two days from home, but we need you available for handover at 4 pm. Let's trial it for four weeks and review. Trial plus review is the most SME friendly phrase on the planet. It lets you be flexible without accidentally signing your life away. Example two. Performance. Reasonable doesn't mean wait until you're furious and then go nuclear. Reasonable means early, clear, fair. Reasonable looks like I want to be clear about the standard expected in this role. Right now we're not there. I'm going to support you with X and we'll check in weekly for the next three weeks. Not reasonable looks like. Then suddenly dropping a formal process on

Performance Management Done Early And Fair

Kate 6:54

someone like a piano from a cartoon. And then being shocked when they get defensive. Of course they do. They've had no warning, no chance to improve. Example three. Investigations. Reasonable doesn't mean we'll do a massive investigation into every tiny thing. It means the process fits the seriousness of the situation. If it's a serious allegation, you do it properly. If it's low level, you still gather facts, but you keep it proportionate. Reasonable investigation looks like we write down what we're investigating. We speak to relevant people. We review evidence. We keep notes. We don't decide first and investigate second.

Proportionate Investigations Not Gossip

Kate 7:47

Not reasonable looks like corridor justice. You know corridor justice. That lovely moment where a manager hears something, believes the first person they spoke to, and then corners the other person with So I've heard? No, you haven't heard. You've picked up gossip and now you're about to create a grievance. Example four. Two similar cases, two different outcomes. This is where reasonable either saves you or bites you. It is not reasonable to treat two similar cases differently with no explanation. Because this is where people start saying favoritism. Unfair. Discrimination. You always let them, but not me. Now you can treat people differently if there's a genuine reason. Different roles, different customer impact, different performance history, different evidence, different timing. But

Consistency Across Similar Cases

Kate 8:52

you must be able to explain it. Here's the test I love because it's simple and slightly brutal. If you'd feel awkward explaining your decision out loud to the team, it probably isn't reasonable. Example five. Saying no without sounding like the villain. Managers avoid saying no because they think it makes them mean. It doesn't. Not being clear is what causes drama. Reasonable no sounds like. What I can do is X or Y. Not reasonable no sounds like.

Saying No Without Being The Villain

Kate 9:47

Now here's the bit that makes people go Oh. Reasonableness isn't just the decision. It's the process you follow to get there. Did you listen? Did you consider options? Did you apply your approach consistently? Did you record your rationale? Did you communicate it clearly? That's what makes it defensible. Legal angel. Here's the legal bit, without the headache. Reasonableness is one of the main things decision makers look at when they're assessing whether you acted fairly. You don't have to be perfect. You do have to be able to show you're working. And in

The Process That Makes It Defensible

Kate 10:30

small businesses, your advantage is you can keep it simple. The biggest risk isn't saying no. The biggest risk is saying no with no logic, no consistency, and no record. Or saying yes casually, then panicking later when it doesn't work and trying to row it back like you never agreed it.

The Legal Test Without The Headache

Kate 10:53

Reasonable decisions. Clear rationale, audit trail, not essays just enough to show you weren't making it up. Small business actions. Here's what you can do this week to make your decisions instantly more reasonable. 1. Give managers the six question reasonableness checklist. Print it, stick it on the wall, put it next to the kettle. Anywhere it'll be seen. 2. Give them three scripts. Thanks for raising it. I'll consider it and come back by Friday. I can't agree to that for X reason, but I can offer Y. Let's trial it for four weeks and review. Three.

Simple Actions Managers Can Use Weekly

Kate 11:41

Pick one area and do a fairness scan. Flexible working, holidays, performance, rotors, pay decisions. Are we consistent? And if not, can we explain why? Four. Start writing decisions in one paragraph. What was asked? What you considered, what you decided, why? Next step. That's it. No novels, one paragraph. This week's challenge. Pick one tricky decision you're currently avoiding. A flexible working request. A holiday clash. A performance wobble. A complaint. Run it through the reasonableness checklist, then write your one paragraph rationale. If you can't do it comfortably, that's your sign you need to sanity check it before you create a bigger issue. Reasonable doesn't mean say yes, it means a sensible employer would do this in these circumstances. And SMEs have different circumstances

The One Decision Challenge And Wrap

Kate 12:50

to corporate, and that's fine as long as you can explain your decision clearly and apply it consistently. If you've got a tricky decision on your desk right now and you want to sanity check it before it becomes expensive, book a call. I'd much rather help you get it right early than help you clean it up later. Kettle on, standards up. See you next time.