It was 1 hour 41 minutes after our daughter sat her last prelim, when, after regaling her friends, no doubt, with a question-by-question, detailed account, of how her exam had gone, she found the time to reply to our panic-stricken enquiry with simply “okay”.

Ordinarily, my teenage daughter’s one-word responses would frustrate me but, on this occasion, I was willing to rise above it because, in all honesty, I had run out of puff. It’s not just kids who suffer from exam stress. She has, in fact, another three prelims in the New Year, and I now need to ask myself whether I’m willing to practise what I preach.

Like many working parents, my life is full of spinning plates and juggling balls, and between firefighting, I’m seeking the elusive extra hour in the day. The irony is not lost on me that if I spent less time googling ‘top tips to create an extra hour’, I’d actually have found that hour.

Donna Reynolds is an Employment Partner with Blackadders.

So, when, for example, my daughter didn’t empty the dishwasher because she was too busy studying, or didn’t tidy her bedroom because she was too tired after studying, or flew into a rage because of the stress of studying, I turned a blind eye because I didn’t want to add to her stress by dealing with the behaviour, I was too busy or, more likely, like that illusive extra hour, I wanted a quiet life.

Anyone who has ever had to manage employees will understand the dichotomy between the need to manage employees’ behaviour and having the time to do so. As a manager, just managing your to-do list is a full-time job: meetings to take, meetings to attend, an order book to fulfil, budgets to manage, sales targets to chase, customer complaints to deal with.

The list goes on and on. (Don’t bother googling ‘effective strategies for managing your to-do list’; it’s only another task to complete.)

When you’re then faced with an employee who, say, has had more absences from work than most, or turns up 10 minutes late most mornings, or stomps around sniping at others, it’s easier to tell yourself that their behaviour is not so bad than finding the time to deal with it, especially when, for the most part, the work gets done. This is the cae even if it’s getting done by others who are picking up the slack – and the underlying issue might not be work-related (financial worries) or sensitive or difficult to deal with (health and personal relationships).

The stress of studying for and sitting exams can excuse a lot - but at some point you have to draw the line

The problem I’ve found is, if you don’t deal with problems as they arise, complacency sets in, problems only get worse which, in turn, makes them more difficult and time-consuming to address and, you get so frustrated, that you finally snap and wildly overreact.

Take it from me; I don’t think my daughter will make the mistake of rolling her eyes at me again when I remind her that she’s been slipping with her chores. In the workplace, these issues can, among other things, impact on morale, engagement, staff turnover and productivity and even result in costly employment tribunal claims.

While I may not like (fear?) the prospect of confrontation with my daughter, I’m no longer going to ignore or excuse her difficult or lazy behaviour with the promise to myself that I’ll deal with it once her prelims are finally over. Because guess what? We’ll then be on the countdown to her exams. And where do we draw the line?

It’s my responsibility as her parent to ensure that she is not only pulling her weight, but she is behaving in a way that is respectful to and co-operative with others. If you make only one New Year’s resolution as a manager, make sure that it’s to deal with employee issues as they arise, whatever they are and whatever their root cause. It can’t be any harder than dealing with a teenager, surely?

Donna Reynolds is an Employment Partner at Blackadders.

Don’t allow issues with employees to fester - Donna Reynolds