Verbal warnings: valid or void?

A common misconception that employers often hold is that they can rely on verbal warnings to justify formal disciplinary or performance management outcomes, instead of going through a formal process.

The reality is that it's not that simple. While there is a place for verbal warnings, employers should be cautious when seeking to rely on them to justify formal employment outcomes.

Issues will often arise in situations where an employer is at their wits end and wants to dismiss a "problem employee", but they have never undertaken a formal disciplinary or performance management process or issued any formal warnings previously. Instead, the employer may have simply expressed their dissatisfaction to the employee verbally; this can create tricky procedural and evidentiary issues for employers.