If Chris Rock and Will Smith Were Your Employees: What HR Thinks

If you want to call your employees Will and Chris, take away the Hollywood, glamour, and awards. Will slaps Chris after Chris made a tasteless joke. What do you do?

I asked the HR managers what they would do. Should something like this happen in your business, let their answers guide you through it.

You would need to get security or the police involved to separate the pair if Will hadn't stopped at one slap or Chris had fought back. Immediate action would be a suspension of both.

Will should be escorted out of the event, but should you allow him to remain? The conflict between Will and Chris did not escalate, so you need to separate. Will should be removed from the room.

But, permanent action, like a write-up? HR managers want you to investigate.

What is there to investigate? It was caught on camera. We all saw it.

Sometimes managers and HR fall into this trap because the last act is all we see. There is always more to the story.

There are some questions you would like to find answers to.

• Do Will and Chris have a history of conflict?
• Chris's joke was part of a presentation. Did he tell that joke in rehearsal? Were the producers okay with it? Or did he go off script?
• Has there been previous violence between the two parties?
• Did Chris know about Jada's medical condition, or was he joking about her hairstyle?

Even if you feel that Will should be terminated for violence, and that the majority of Evil HR Lady members supported it, how you handle Chris will depend on the results.

If management cleared his joke, you would need to discipline them the same as you would him. It is either who authorized it or who did not.

This makes a difference, and opinions differ on whether this would be considered a work obligation. I would consider the award show a work event as Will is present for a movie he was paid to do.

She makes a point that going to award shows is part of being a movie star. Will may have a contract with it. Chris was telling jokes, which is what they pay him for. Not everyone felt that way. A human resources person suggested that this was not a work event but a professional conference. The difference? An experienced HR manager and one of the group moderators wrote that they had to fire Will because he punched them at a work event. If he punched him on his own. That is not my business.

If you have two employees involved in a conflict, where it takes place makes a difference.

Are your employees unionized? This can affect how you react. You will need to follow your union contract. This can be difficult according to one HR person. It takes too long to fire anyone in my organization, so things will be awkward for the next four years.

She is not alone. Are your processes so convoluted that you can't act quickly? Is there too much appeal? It can be challenging for others if you are doing this to be nice to one employee.

Most people agreed that fire Will and counsel Chris were the ones to do it. Even if Chris provoked Will, violence is not acceptable in the workplace. Chris doesn't get off free. His joke was cruel. It was his job to make fun of the stars, but it was not funny to make fun of someone with a disability.

Hopefully, you won't have to deal with this type of behavior in your workplace, but there's a good chance that will happen. Be prepared.