In yesterday’s Advisor, we featured attorney Jonathan A. Segal’s take on the most common mistakes in discipline and termination. Today, more of his practical advice, and an introduction to a unique training system that will help all your supervisors and managers avoid lawsuits
Segal, a partner in the Philadelphia office of law firm Duane Morris, delivered his suggestions at the Society for Human Resource Management Annual Convention and Exhibition held recently in San Diego.
[Go here for mistakes 1 through 8]
9. Delaying implementation of discipline decision
Unfortunately, when you delay a discipline decision, you open a window for the employee to make preventive strike, Segal says. The employee senses that something’s going on and goes to his therapist and says, “My self esteem is bad.” The therapist says, “I can’t help but I know a lawyer who can.”
The employee comes in the next day: ” I’m clinically depressed—ADA-style—because of religious discrimination—of the Title VII variety—but my son’s sick, so, let’s talk when I’m back from FMLA.” Now if you take action, it looks like retaliation, says Segal.
When you make a decision like a termination decision or final warning, put it in writing. “Today we met and decided to issue a final warning to Steve. Because he is on vacation this week, we will notify him on his return.”
10. Considering protected absences as part of excessive absenteeism
When your supervisors and managers fire for excessive absenteeism, they typically lump in days missed because of a legitimate reason, such as FMLA. If you are going to terminate for attendance, says Segal, do a day-by-day analysis of all the absences. Include a note that says, ‘We haven’t counted the FMLA absences, and we haven’t counted other absences that might be protected. Counting just those absences that are unequivocally unprotected, your absence is excessive.”
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11. Denying employee opportunity to tell his or her side of the story before finalizing decision
“There’s no legal manadate to do this,” says Segal, “but it’s wise. First, it’s a basic fairness issue. But second, you might be wrong.”
Segal recounts one particular incident: The CEO’s office was a mess. The cleaning woman was fired for not cleaning the executive suite. To later questioning, she responded as follows:
Did you clean the suite? No.
Did you know you would be fired if you didn’t clean it? Yes.
Was there a reason you didn’t clean it? Yes, the door was locked.
Whoops. It developed that an executive was having sex with his admin assistant. Moral: Ask for the employee’s side of the story.
Even with the best of intentions, supervisors and managers will get the company into hot water when disciplining and terminating—unless they are trained. Unfortunately, up until now, training has been a real challenge—there’s such a load of extraneous planning, preparing, and tracking involved. But we’ve got good news—BLR’s editors have developed a unique new program that’s done all that work for you.
It’s called the Employee Training Center. This turnkey service requires no setup, no course development time, no software installation, and no new hardware. Your employees can self-register, and training can be taken anytime (24/7), anywhere there is a PC and an Internet connection. Courses take only about 30 minutes to complete.
No time to prepare or deliver training? With the BLR® Employee Training Center, your employees can start taking essential training courses the same day you sign up. Workers (and supervisors) train at their convenience, 24/7. We track, and you save with this turnkey solution. Yes, it really can be this simple. Learn more.
The Employee Training Center automatically documents training. As trainees sign on, their identifications are automatically registered. When the program is completed, the trainee’s score is entered. So, when you want to see who has been trained on any subject, or look at the across-the-board activity of any one employee, it’s all there, instantly available to you, your boss, an inspector—even a plaintiff’s attorney.
Course certificates can be automatically generated from within the training center and are automatically retained for recordkeeping purposes.
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