Please Sue Me? Teach Your Managers the YouTube Test

It used to be the ’60 Minutes Rule,” but lawsuit avoidance expert Hunter Lott now encounters people who say 60 Minutes, what’s that? So he advocates the ‘YouTube Rule”—don’t do anything in the office, he says, that you wouldn’t want to see on YouTube.

Lott, who is a popular speaker and consultant and owner of PleaseSueMe.com, made his comments at the recent SHRM convention and exposition in Las Vegas.

Lott often tells the story of the manager who arrived home after a long day and his 10-year-old says, ‘Daddy lost it at the office today.” It was true—the person he’d been mad at had shot video of the exchange with her phone and posted it to YouTube!

Three Pieces

Compensation managers and HR managers have three pieces to deal with, Lott says; the harmony part (morale, culture, conflict resolution), the productivity part (since the recession, getting at least 110 percent out of everyone), and the compliance part (not getting sued).

These days, the three have to work together, Lott says. He tells of a lawyer who represents employees who told him that employees don’t sue because of their legal rights, or because of money. They sue to get even. So treating people right is critical, and that means the three parts are equally at play for HR managers.

For example, he says, the number one charge by the EEOC is retaliation. That’s not just compliance, it’s the culture piece and the harmony piece as well.

Reluctance to Sue

Too many CEOs Lott deals with are afraid to fire, he says. A typical CEO asks him, What do I do with an employee who keeps coming to work drunk? Lott wants to ask, ‘Whose side of the family is it? Yours or your wife’s?”

Don’t be held hostage by bad employees, Lott says. Don’t allow that attitude of ‘We can’t fire; we’ll get sued.” Good people know who the bad ones are—and they know you know, and they’re watching you to see what you do, Lott adds. Firing is not a compliance issue. Firing is a strategy.

As Lott says, happy, well-managed people don’t sue. And of course, a key part of employee happiness is compensation. But that also makes comp ripe for lawsuits. What to do?

We asked our editors for a helpful tool to keep compensation challenges under control, and they came up with a unique collection of compensation checklists.

Why are checklists so great? Because they’re completely impersonal, forcing you to jump through all the necessary hoops one by one. They also ensure consistency in how operations are conducted. That’s vital in compensation, where it’s all too easy to land in court if you discriminate in how you treat one employee over another.

And checklists compel thoroughness. Take any one of the checklists listed below. You’d likely never think of all the possible trouble areas without a checklist; but with it, just scan down the list, and instantly see where you might get tripped up.

Here are the checklists you’ll find in this unique compendium:

• Administrative Exemption Checklist
• Administrative Exemption: Insurance Claims Adjusters Checklist
• Administrative Exemption: Financial Services Industry Employees
• Aligning Payroll Policies with the Family and Medical Leave Act Checklist
• Bonuses Checklist
• Break Time, Sleep Time, and Hours Worked Checklist
• Compensation Administration Checklist
• Combination Employees Checklist
• Computer Employee Exemption Checklist
• Correcting Improper Deductions Checklist

Using the “hope” system to avoid compensation hassles? (As in: we “hope” we’re doing it right.) Be sure! Check out every facet of your compensation program with BLR‘s unique Compensation Checklists. Click here for more information or to download!

• Creative Professional Exemption Checklist
• Disciplinary Deductions Checklist
• Drivers Who Sell Checklist
• Education Exemption: Administrative Checklist
• Education Exemption: Professional Checklist
• Emergency Work and Occasional Jobs Checklist
• Employee Classification Checklist
• Employer’s Teen Safety Checklist
• Executive Compensation Checklist
• Executive Exemption Checklist
• Federal Laws on Compensation Checklist
• Flexible Work Hours Checklist
• FLSA Exemption Checklist
• Garnishment Checklist
• Garnishments and Attachments Checklist
• Hours of Work Checklist
• Highly Compensated Employees Checklist
• Incentive Compensation Checklist
• Independent Contractors Checklist
• Job Analysis Forms Design Checklist
• Job Description Information Checklist
• Job Descriptions Checklist
• Joint and Dual Employment Checklist
• Learned Professionals Checklist
• Learned Professional Exemption: Nurses Checklist
• Loans and Payroll Advances Checklist
• Outside Sales Exemption Checklist
• Personal Leave, Disability, and Sickness Deductions Checklist
• Physical Requirements Checklist
• Safe Harbor for Improper Deductions Checklist
• Salary Administration Checklist
• State Laws on Compensation Checklist
• Time Off in Lieu of Overtime Checklist
• Trainees Checklist
• Training Time, Charitable Work, and Hours Worked Checklist
• Waiting Time, Travel Time, and Hours Worked Checklist

To download BLR‘s Redi2use Library—Compensation Checklists or to find out more, go here.

BLR‘s Instant Solutions Resource Library features hundreds of instantly downloadable aids for compensation and HR managers. Visit the Library.