One of our employees has recently taken up a second job to help with his finances. This is having a detrimental effect on his performance level at work with us. What can we do about this?

During the recession, many employees took on second jobs to fill in the gaps caused by salary freezes and loss of overtime.

You haven’t indicated how long this additional job has been affecting the employee’s performance but I would suggest in the first instance an informal approach to address the unsatisfactory performance at this stage (subject to the terms of any performance/capability procedures you have in force, though such procedure(s) should provide for informal resolution in the first instance in accordance with the LRA Code of Practice).

It should be explained to the employee the elements of the poor performance that have come to light, giving precise examples, if possible.

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