Lott, who counsels employers on policy building and lawsuit avoidance from www.Hunterlott.com, offered his suggestions at SHRM’s Annual Conference and Exposition, held recently in Atlanta Georgia.
Personal Relationships Policy
Lott is fascinated by personal relationship policies. They typically read about like this, says Lott:
“Personal relationships in the workplace are strongly discouraged. A company employee who is involved in a personal relationship with another company
employee will not be permitted to work in the same department as, work directly for or supervise the employee with whom he or she is involved. For purposes of this policy, a personal relationship includes any romantic or intimate relationship between individuals who have or have had a continuing relationship of a romantic or intimate nature.”
This is great, says Lott. Under this policy, best friends, partners, and ex-spouses can work for each other, but not current spouses. He recommends this more concise and permissive policy:
“Any relationship, on or off the job, that affects our ability to run our business, or your ability to do your job, may be grounds for disciplinary action.”
hip at any time, with or without notice, reason, logic, or cause.”
Are class action lawyers peering at your comp practices? It’s likely, but you can keep them at bay by finding and eliminating any wage and hour violations yourself. Our editors recommend BLR’s easy-to-use FLSA Wage & Hour Self-Audit Guide. Try it for 30 days … on us.
Complained 18 Times
Another way that managers say, “Please sue me,” is by ignoring employee complaints. In one recent case, Lott says, a physician’s assistant complained to management 18 times about harassment. She was called a “stupid chick” (she was a Yale graduate), was accused of having Al Qaeda connections, was slapped on the butt by a doctor who told her, “I’m horny.”
She sued after being fired, and was awarded a total of $168 million in damages.
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In another recent case, a company’s management decided to get rid of some older workers. They decided that to avoid age discrimination lawsuits, they’d simply give the older workers the most physically demanding jobs so that they’d quit. Und, unbelievably, says Lott, they managers apparently said to themselves, “Let’s e-mail each other about these plans.”
That one went for 18.3 million, Lott says.
From overtime to discrimination, managers can indeed seem clueless. And there’s only one way to find out what sort of compensation shenanigans they‘ve been up to—regular audits.
To accomplish a successful audit, BLR’s editors recommend a unique checklist-based program called FLSA Wage and Hour Self-Audit. Why are checklists so great? Because they’re completely impersonal, and they force you to jump through all the necessary hoops, one by one. They also ensure consistency in how operations are conducted. And 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.
Experts say that it’s always better to do your own audit, and fix what needs fixing, before authorities do their audit. Most employers agree, but they get bogged down in how to start, and in the end, they do nothing. There are, however, aids to making FLSA self-auditing relatively easy.
What our editors strongly recommend is BLR’s FLSA Wage & Hour Self-Audit Guide. It is both effective and easy to use, and even won an award for those features. Here’s what customers like about it:
- Plain English. Drawing on 30 years of experience in creating plain-English compliance guides, our editors have translated the FLSA’s endless legalese into understandable terms.
- Step-by-step. The book begins with a clear narrative of what the FLSA is all about. That’s followed by a series of checklists that utilize a simple question-and-answer pattern about employee duties to find the appropriate classification.
All you need to avoid exempt/nonexempt classification and overtime errors, now in BLR’s award-winning FLSA Wage & Hour Self-Audit Guide. Find out more.
- Complete. Many self-audit programs focus on determining exempt/nonexempt status. BLR’s also adds checklists on your policies and procedures and includes questioning such practices as whether your break time and travel time are properly accounted for. Nothing falls through the cracks because the cracks are covered.
- Convenient. Our personal favorite feature: A list of common job titles marked “E” or “NE” for exempt/nonexempt status. It’s a huge work saver.
- Up to Date. If you are using an old self-auditing program, you could be in for trouble. Substantial revisions in the FLSA went into effect in 2004. Anything written before that date is hopelessly—and expensively—obsolete. BLR’s FLSA Wage & Hour Self-Audit Guide includes all the changes.
You can examine BLR’s FLSA Wage & Hour Self-Audit Guide for up to 30 days at no cost or obligation. Go here and we’ll be glad to arrange it.