The rules of the workplace should be given to each of your direct reports upon their employment. Rules that deal with security and safety, such as the requirements about protective clothing and securing the work area, should be prominently posted. Constant reminders help keep employees in compliance with the rules as well as avoid debate about what is acceptable.
When rule violations happen, remember that the purpose of discipline is not to punish but to correct the behavior. After all, the employees you are dealing with are adults. Corrective discipline gives them the opportunity to try again and to change unacceptable behavior. Rather than simply impose punishment, let the individual know that you don’t expect a recurrence of the problem.
Those managers who practice punitive discipline seem to spend much of their workday looking for wrongdoings against which they can level punishment. Such a management style is unhealthy for the workplace, communicating a lack of trust in one’s employees and a demand for blind obedience—which actually encourages willful disobedience of rules and regulations. Employees play a game with their managers when they work in such environments, deliberately breaking the rules to see if they can beat the system and get away with it.
So explain the reasons for the rules. Look upon disciplinary action as corrective in the initial stages. It should become punitive only when counseling fails to change the employee’s behavior.