It used to be so much easier, says Hunter Lott. “If you won’t work, I’ll fire you or cut your pay.” Try that now, he says. Employees will say, “Big deal, go ahead and I’ll sue.”
Lott is a partner at HCap International, a human capital training and consulting organization in Lawrence, Kansas, and the author of Please Sue Me, a guide to “safe hiring and firing practices for the frontline manager with a short attention span.”
How Management Loses It and Blames HR
Speaking at a SHRM conference, Lott described a case in which a left-handed grocery checker’s store converted to a right-handed scanning system. The boss said right-handed scanning only–my way or the highway. The checker did hit the highway but, on her way home, stopped at a lawyer’s office.
She sued, receiving $18,000 in back pay; for feeling hurt and emotionally traumatized, she received more than $100,000 in additional payments. This is where management loses it, and starts to blame HR, says Lott.
Simple Precautions
Most suits could have been prevented by a few simple precautions, Lott says. In every lawsuit, someone failed to do one or more of the following five things:
- Check your ego.
- Send the right message.
- Be consistent.
- Document.
- Think like an outsider.
Lott elaborated on his five tips.
Please Sue Me #1–Check Your Ego
This means stopping bad, ego-based ideas before they turn into problems, says Lott.
For example, concerned about employee theft, one boss decided to fire people in alphabetical order until the stealing stopped. Another manager tried “Survivor” style management. He decided to vote one employee “off the island” every month.
Lott’s message? Left to their own devices, managers will implement some screwy ideas. HR has to be the ego check.
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Please Sue Me #2–Send the Right Message
Too often, says Lott, we don’t send the right message, and then we are surprised at outcome. For example, some organizations have absenteeism, PTO, and vacation policies that say employees must “use it or lose it.” Then, when they use it, managers get mad at them for using it.
Speaking of time off, Lott adds, watch out for questionable definitions of vacations. Bosses now say, “I expect you answer your e-mail and to do whatever you need to do to keep management and customers happy while you are gone on vacation.” Sounds like work to me, says Lott, adding that those employees may be owed another vacation day.
Probationary periods are another practice that can send the wrong message. The probationary period system tells supervisors they don’t have to worry about interviewing and, because they hate it anyway, that’s fine with them. With a probationary system, they just hire whomever, and if it doesn’t work out, just get rid of them in 90 days and try again.
Get rid of probationary periods—that effectively puts people on probation forever, Lott says.
Progressive discipline procedures also give the wrong message. “Joe is smoking in the dynamite factory, but I have to give two more warnings before I can get him out of there.” Say in your policies that progressive discipline may include verbal and written warnings, but that you are not limited to that.
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#3 Be Consistent
Inconsistency that is based on age, sex, minority status—“the list” as Lott calls it—that’s what gets us in trouble. The key is to remember that equal opportunity doesn’t mean equal treatment.
“We’re a merit company. Top people get up to 5 percent and poor performers get as low as 3 percent.” That’s treating good people and bad people the same, says Lott. That’s equal treatment, but it sends the wrong message.
Do you have a key employee? Ask yourself, what have you done for him or her in the last 7 days? She’s low maintenance, so you ignore her, right? Does that make sense?
In the next issue of the advisor, we’ll look at #4 and #5 of Lott’s “please sue me” advice, and one sure step you can take to get your policies in line.
re: the left handed ee faced with using a right handed scanner. Yes, the employer was insensitive to the ee, but wouldn’t having to install a special scanner for an ee be considered “major accommodation?” I was suprised at the court ordered penalties. Please help me understand this on a legal level.
“We’re a merit company. Top people get up to 5 percent and poor performers get as low as 3 percent.” That’s treating good people and bad people the same, says Lott. That’s equal treatment, but it sends the wrong message.
Please clarify this comment. How does it treat good and bad people the same, or send the wrong message? Does Mr. Lott think the spread is too small?