SOLID GOLD ADVICE

Released On 16th Jan 2023

The importance of choosing the right words was brought to the fore this week when craft beer company BrewDog’s CEO James Watt admitted that three innocuous tweets he put out in relation to a promotion to win a ‘solid gold’ can have cost him £500k from his own pocket.

What was the problem? Well, it transpires that he had misunderstood the production process of his ‘solid gold’ cans and, in fact, they weren’t actually solid gold at all! It’s easy to criticize from the sidelines and say surely he should have checked before he said anything but I can’t help but feel we’ve all been in that kind of situation; where we think we know what we are saying and doing, but later find out we really didn’t!

The analogy to employment law and HR? Well, sometimes things are said and done, either in the heat of the moment or in pure ignorance of what the law actually requires or permits. We are all human and sometimes we just plain get things wrong. What matters, in my view, is how we put it right and how we do damage limitation.

The first step is when you realize you’ve said or done the wrong thing. Take advice and try to put it right – don’t kick the can down the road and hope the problem will go away (especially if the can is solid gold… that might hurt!). We are a non-judgmental bunch here at PD so never be afraid to pick up the phone, admit mistakes and let us help you work things through.