“Poor attitude”
or “negative tone”.
When vague behaviour concerns turn into formal escalation without clear, consistent definition. Three managers, three different outcomes.
“Negative tone” is not a clear, shared definition. It is an interpretation — and interpretations vary.
The concern starts vaguely. An employee comes across as abrupt in messages. They participate less in meetings. A colleague describes them as “difficult to read.” The manager has a feeling. The feeling becomes a label.
The label is a problem because nobody asks what behaviour was actually observed. What standard was being applied. What evidence supports the concern. What context might explain it. Once the label is in use, the conversation has already happened — even if no one has spoken to the employee yet.
And by the time HR is involved, the label has set the frame. The employee is responding to a characterisation, not a behaviour. The conversation that should have happened first has been replaced by a process designed to manage a behaviour nobody has clearly defined.
When this scenario meets the tribunal.
Example 01 · Tribunal caseKhorram v Capgemini — The Email Nobody Answered
A senior employee disclosed ADHD. Asked for adjustments. Got silence. The behavioural concerns that followed were treated as conduct rather than as the predictable consequence of a request that was never addressed. The tribunal found unlawful disability discrimination.
Read full case →Same behaviour.
Three different responses.
Manager A reads “negative tone” as a conduct issue and starts documenting. Manager B reads it as a communication style difference and addresses it lightly or not at all. Manager C reads the same behaviour as a signal that something underneath is being missed — and explores context first.
Same behaviour. Three different responses. Three different outcomes. The label “negative tone” never had a shared definition — so it never could have produced consistent decisions.
See how your managers
would handle this.
Bring one real behaviour concern. See how different managers in your team would respond — and where the inconsistency is already creating risk.
Surface the Decisions Driving Turnover →Browse all scenarios →