Document 09 of 10

Accountability & Risk

The systems that protect the business when things go wrong.

Global work carries real risks: power cuts, dropped internet, time-zone mix-ups, and the slow drift that creeps into any remote team. None of them are excuses. Each one has a system that turns a potential failure into a handled event.

This document is the safety layer of the Global OS: the redundancy that keeps work moving through an outage, the accountability system that corrects performance without drama, and the clean process for the rare case when someone has to go.

Type

System

Purpose

Protect the business

Pairs with

Doc 06

Next doc

The Toolkit

Section 00

The 30/60 Outage Policy

Every hire has a mobile hotspot ready during working hours. This is not optional, and it is the single most important piece of remote redundancy. When the primary connection fails, the work does not stop; the hire switches over and keeps going.

Immediately

Switch to hotspot

The moment the primary connection fails, switch to the mobile hotspot and keep working.

By 30 minutes

Report

If you cannot restore full service, notify your manager within 30 minutes.

By 60 minutes

Relocate

If service is still degraded at 60 minutes, move to your backup location.

The policy lives in the Expectations Agreement (Doc 02), is reviewed on Day One (Doc 04), and is enforced through the strike system below. Confirm the whole chain is in place:

0 / 8

Hard Stop

If a hire does not have a working hotspot, they do not start. Document the plan to acquire one and the timeline, and get manager sign-off. A hire without a hotspot cannot meet the professional standard remote work requires.

Section 01

Handling Performance Slips

When performance slips, respond in tiers. The point is never to punish. It is to correct early, in writing, so a small problem does not quietly become a firing.

Where this comes from

Why write it down at each step? Because the manager-employee relationship is a relational contract, an informal agreement sustained by the value of the ongoing relationship, in the language of Baker, Gibbons and Murphy's 2002 paper Relational Contracts and the Theory of the Firm, building on Ian Macneil's relational contract theory. These informal expectations shape behaviour more than any formal document, and they only work when they are clear. A tiered, documented response removes the most corrosive thing in that kind of relationship: the ambiguous maybe, where nobody is sure whether a standard is real. Clarity is the kindness here.

Tier 1

First miss: coaching

A conversation, not a punishment. Name what happened, understand why, and agree the fix. Use the difficult conversation scripts in Doc 06.

Tier 2

Second miss: a documented plan

A formal, signed Performance Improvement Plan stating the problem, the required change, the timeline, and the consequence. Use the PIP template in Doc 06.

Tier 3

Third miss: exit

If the improvement does not come, end it cleanly. Use the termination checklist below.

Section 02

The Three-Strike System

The three-strike system applies those tiers specifically to the technical failures that are common in remote work: outages, power cuts, hardware failures. These are not excuses for missed work, because the Expectations Agreement already required a Plan B. The strikes hold the hire to implementing it.

Strike	What it is	What the manager does
Strike 1	A technical issue caused missed work and the Plan B was not implemented	Verbal warning, documented in a shared file. Review the policy and test the hotspot together.
Strike 2	A second incident	Formal written warning and a Performance Improvement Plan, signed by both parties.
Strike 3	A third incident	Immediate termination. A repeated failure to implement the contingency plan is a failure to meet a core professional standard.

At strike 1, document the facts while they are fresh:

Time of the outage
How long before the manager was notified
Whether the hotspot was available and functional
The employee explanation
Confirmation that the policy was reviewed

Performance Issue Documentation

Header

Employee
Manager
Date
Strike: 1st / 2nd / 3rd

Issue

What happened
Policy violated
Impact on the team or business

Previous discussions (for strike 2 or 3)

Strike 1: Date and brief description
Strike 2: Date and brief description

Employee explanation

Stated reason

Corrective action

What must change
Timeline for improvement

Consequence

Level applied: Strike 1 verbal warning / Strike 2 written warning and plan / Strike 3 termination

Acknowledgment

Employee signature and date
Manager signature and date

Section 03

Personal Excuses and Life Happens

Family emergencies, health issues, and real life are just that: real. Show empathy. But draw a firm line between a genuine one-off emergency and a pattern that keeps the work from getting done. Both can be true at once, and the job is to hold them together: care about the person, protect the business.

The check-in

The first time, treat it as a point of contact. Ask if they are okay, remind them the role matters and the team relies on them, and ask how you can help them meet their commitments while they manage it.

The documentation

If it continues, start a shared tracking document with the employee: the date, the reason given, and the outcome. Both of you can see the history plainly.

The final conversation

If the pattern holds, have the clear, direct conversation. Name the pattern with specifics, state that the role requires reliability, and end it if it is not the right fit.

The standard is the same for everyone, and that is the point. A team where the rules apply evenly trusts the rules. A team where they bend for some stops believing in them.

Section 04

Culture Drift

Culture does not collapse in a day. It drifts. Standup posts get thinner. Response times slide. Updates go quiet. Do not wait it out; reset immediately, as a group, before the drift becomes the new normal.

The reset

I have noticed our communication standards slipping. Response times are slower and standup posts are inconsistent. This is a reset. Here is what I need from everyone going forward, and then re-state the standards plainly.

Re-explain the standards, get the team to recommit, and model them yourself the next day. Culture unravels fast when it is left unchecked, and it re-tightens fast when a manager names the slip out loud.

Section 05

The Termination Checklist

When termination is the right call, run it cleanly and professionally. A clear exit protects the person's dignity, the team's morale, and the business's records. Work the checklist in order.

0 / 22

Before the call

The termination call

Immediately after

Follow-up

Keep the team message short and professional: [Name] is no longer with the company as of [date]. Their responsibilities will be handled by [person or process]. Questions come to you directly.

That closes the systems. Doc 10, the Toolkit, gathers every template, script, role kit, and glossary entry from across the Global OS in one place, ready to copy and use.

Paying Your Global Team

The Toolkit→