Treating Employees Like Adults: Empowerment versus Discipline
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Speaker : Bob Oberstein
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When : Thursday, February 19, 2026
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Time : 01 : 00 PM EST
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Bob Oberstein is uniquely qualified with over 50
years of resolving conflicts in the workplace (both sides of the Labor
Relations table in both the private and public sectors as mediator,
arbitrator and special master), community, family and civil disputes and
is the recipient of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service
Director's Award for lifetime achievement in promoting positive Labor
Management Relations. Bob was also the Director of the Labor Management
Relations BA and certificate programs at Ottawa University, Phoenix
where he developed and taught negotiations and conflict Resolution
related courses on both the graduate and undergraduate levels. Bob has
several published articles to his credit in addition to his arbitration
awards and has also been recognized in Who’s Who Among America’s
Teachers as well as in “Who’s Who in America.” Additionally, Bob has
served on several boards, commissions, and panels where he participated
in resolving or adjudicating all manner of workplace issues in a variety
of industries. Bob also continues his work with students as a coach for
a local Law school’s mediation and negotiation competition teams and a
judge for their internal competitions as well as for international
competitions in both negotiations and mediation. Moreover, Bob also
holds a Master of Jurisprudence in Labor and Employment Law from Tulane
University's School of Law. Bob has and continues to serve the labor
management community as well as other groups as an Arbitrator, Mediator,
Facilitator, Investigator, Trainer and Educator.
This webinar describes,
- Realizing empowerment is a more useful/productive tool instead of traditional discipline (which all too often makes a situation worse, resulting in a damaged relationship).
- Understanding the concept and relationship between employee empowerment and performance.
- How to raise an employee’s performance awareness and accountability.
- The use of techniques/strategies for communicating non-disciplinary clear expectations/outcomes.
- How emphasizing employee empowerment can reduce friction/conflict between managers and employees (and their representatives).
- How employers can build a culture of mentoring employee success by treating employees as adults.
Areas Covered
- Documenting the Empowerment Agreement (with and without a Collective Bargaining Agreement)
○ Rights of the parties.
○ Avoiding setting a precedent or establishing a past practice
○ Empowerment Process.
○ Exemption from the grievance/appeals process.
○ Final and binding nature of the understanding.
○ Following up = Following through. - Elements and application of:
○ Limbo (or “Cryogenic Stasis”) Agreements
○ Mirroring for discipline or bidding
○ 90-60-45-30 Performance Improvement Program
○ Conditional Discharge - LCAs (Last Chance Agreements
- Pre-bid award conference for mandated seniority-based position.
- The Left-handed compliment
Who Should Attend
All level Managers, Supervisors, Human Resources, Employee Relations, Labor Relations, Attorney’s, and Union Officers/Representatives/Stewards, all levels of Law Enforcement or Security staff.
Why Should You Attend
Tired of applying the same types of discipline and still getting the same old mediocre or short-lived results? Or maybe it was a “righteous” discipline, but it was still overturned or mitigated by a hearing officer or arbitrator. If so, you might be ready to broaden your horizons by considering how treating employees like adults can not only avoid these issues but empowering employees to act like adults can also result in positive changes to not only their conduct and performance but to the bottom line as well.
Disciplining an employee is the start of what can be a long, costly, and relationship-damaging process with the potential to have that discipline reversed or lessened even if your facts are correct and you followed your process to the letter. Additionally, discipline does not always have a long-term or even a short-term effect. So, the question is, what is the purpose of discipline in your organization? Is it punishment? Or is it for behavioural change?
Would you like to stop the “shame and blame games” and perceptions of victimization resulting from discipline? If the answers are “yes" then this webinar is for you!
By learning and using the techniques discussed in this webinar, you will be able to empower employees in the best interests of their own future as well as for the organization. Additionally, should you have no other choice but to proceed with discipline these methods can help you to make a good case even better.
Topic Background
Is traditional discipline always the best choice? Does it always provide the best result? How productive is it for parties to expend resources in a grievance/appeals process or before a federal/state/local board or commission to make its case? And even if the facts are clearly on your side the discipline might still be mitigated or even reversed! Alternatively, are there better options and if so, what are they and how do they work? The answer is “yes” there are options and when used properly they can promote and enhance the empowerment of all parties. Can such options serve to de-escalate grievance/appeals procedures? Again, the answer is “yes” and this webinar will introduce several alternative approaches designed to evolve your disciplinary process from punishment into empowerment and accountability.
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$160.00
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