- Punish only undesirable behavior. You should give punishment only when employees show frequent undesirable behavior. Otherwise, employees may come to view you negatively as a tyrannical boss. Thus, for example, you should reprimand employees who show up, say, a half hour late for work but not 5 or 10 minutes late.
- Give reprimands or disciplinary actions as soon as possible. You should mete out punishment as soon as possible after the undesirable behavior occurs. Thus, you should give a reprimand to a late-arriving employee as soon as he or she arrives.
- Be clear about what behavior is undesirable. Tell employees exactly what kinds of work behaviors are undesirable and make any disciplinary action or reprimand match the behavior match the behavior. A manager should not, for example, dock an hourly employee’s pay if he or she is only 5 or 10 minutes late for work.
- Administer punishment in private. You would hate to have your boss chew you out in front of your subordinates, and the people who report to you also shouldn’t be reprimanded in public, which would lead only to resentments that may have nothing to do with an employee’s infractions.