AI: the new complaints adviser

WHEN employers receive a formal written grievance from an employee, one very common response having read it is this: "They didn't write that themselves. That's not how they speak. Someone must have helped them with that.

- BETHAN DARWIN

It's not a new thing for grievances to read quite differently to how employees speak in real life. It's always been the case that employees raising grievances will seek drafting help from others.

That might be from a trade union official, a solicitor, a HR consultant, or a friend or relative who is familiar with grievances and the kind of complaints typically raised in the workplace.

However, nowadays employees have access to a completely free and quick source of help for drafting grievances, which doesn't require them to even talk to another person or adviser about their concerns. This is, of course, AI.

If you ask ChatGPT to draft a grievance complaining of a toxic working environment or sexual harassment, it produces a decent template grievance in seconds, although one that still requires the user to fill in the necessary facts on which the grievance is based.

However, if you then ask ChatGPT to provide examples of sexual harassment in real-world style scenarios, it instantly produces a long list of examples an employee might choose to slot into their grievance.

A drafting task that might previously have been both time-consuming and stressful or upsetting for an employee is completed in minutes and can be cut and pasted into an email, so doesn't even require much typing.

It is not surprising, therefore, that HR professionals and solicitors are reporting increasing use of Al-generated grievances and an uptick in the number of grievances being raised.