A large global employer in New Zealand recently learned what poor performance management costs. A young employee in her early twenties received an out-of-the-blue email inviting her to a ‘performance management meeting’ with three senior people: the head of HR, her manager, and a business partner. No prior formal feedback. No representation offered. No documented improvement process. Just an ambush dressed up as a meeting.

You started your business because you’re brilliant at what you do. Maybe you build things, fix things, serve customers, or solve problems that no one else can. What you didn’t sign up for was becoming an overnight expert in employment law, contracts, and the dozens of acts of legislation that govern how you treat the people you hire.

Can retail and hospitality businesses trade during the Easter period, and what are the specific pay and leave obligations for staff?

She’d been with the organisation for months, doing good work on a funded project with a clear end date. Her contract ran through to the end of the financial year in June. It was straightforward. Everyone knew where they stood. Then the funding got pulled early.

She’d been with the company for over a decade. In that time, her role had changed, her position title had changed, her hours had changed, and her days had changed. Not once. Multiple times across a decade.