Some of the trickiest territory for supervisors is dealing with whistleblower jerks and jerks with disabilities, says attorney Jathan Janove. He offered a few cases where the jerks lost.
Janove is a partner in the Portland, Oregon, office of Ater Wynne LLP. His suggestions came at the recent SHRM annual conference in Chicago.
This case concerned a nuclear power plant inspector whose job was to point out safety violations. However, he had a certain "f-this,” “bleep bleep,” poking-in-the-chest style about him. He was fired, and he sued as a protected whistleblower, but the court upheld the firing on the grounds that his behavior was so far over the top that it need not be tolerated.
In another case, a worker filed a grievance. She didn't like the way she was responded to, so she filed again. The more she felt ignored, the more she filed, and the harsher her tone became.
In fact, more than a dozen grievances were filed that were consistently hostile and inflammatory. Her manager told her that she was spending so much time writing grievances that she was not getting enough work done.
She responded with another grievance. Enough already, the company said, and fired her. The court upheld the employer. Even if it was protected activity, even if she believed she was right, there was just too much disruption.
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The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) says that an employee may be disciplined for violating a workplace conduct standard even if resulting from a disability, provided the standard is job-related for the position and consistent with business necessity.
The EEOC understands this is tricky territory so it gives two examples. A librarian has a disability that causes her to be mean, rude, and obnoxious. She screams at patrons—"This book is 5 days late!" Her termination would be considered OK because the behavior involved was job-related and consistent with business necessity.
However, says the EEOC, take a similar situation except it's a warehouse worker with a disability who was surly, unkempt, rude, and had a bad attitude. EEOC says that doesn't meet the test—that employer would have to put up with the behavior.
Finally, Janove says, here's one piece of good news concerning jerks—nobody likes them, including judges and juries. And jerks can't stop being jerks. Final word—don't tolerate 'em, says Janove.
When supervisors are new to the job, they don't know how to handle jerks (or hiring, firing, managing FMLA, or accommodating a disability, for that matter).
It's not their fault—you didn’t hire them for their HR knowledge—and you can’t expect them to act appropriately right out of the box. But you can train them to do it.
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To train supervisors and managers effectively, you need a program that’s easy for you to deliver and that requires little time out of busy schedules. Also, if you're like most companies in these tight budget days, you need a program that’s reasonable in cost.
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As its name implies, it trains managers and supervisors in critical HR skills in as little as 10 minutes for each topic. 10-Minute HR Trainer offers these features:
We’ve arranged to make 10-Minute HR Trainer available to our readers for a 30-day, in-office, no-cost trial. Review it at your own pace and try some lessons with your colleagues. If it’s not for you, return it at our expense. Go here and we’ll set things up.
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