Practical HR Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
Somehow the new thing with our employees is to “protect their interests” in meetings. Almost every time we have a meeting, they want to bring a witness along and they want to tape record the meeting. Do we have to allow this? —Susan P., HR Director in Merced
Recently, the abusive ex-husband of one of our employees entered our facility and threatened the employee and several of her co-workers. No one was injured, but the employees are now looking to us to do something. Should we encourage employees who are victims of domestic violence to notify us if there’s a possibility of this […]
We have a few employees who want to work from home. While their work is the type of thing that can be done from home, we’re unsure if there are any legal risks we need to watch out for. Also, we’re concerned that their productivity will suffer. Do you have any advice for us? — […]
We have an employee who just got divorced, and lately he’s been coming to work late and cutting out early. His work is suffering, too—he’s making lots of careless mistakes and has been short with our customers, not to mention picking fights with his co-workers. While he used to be a better employee than he […]
According to the results of a new poll by Accountemps, most employees get distracted and are less productive during the holiday season. The poll included responses from HR, finance, and marketing executives at the country’s 1,000 largest companies. Forty-four percent of executives polled said their employees are less productive the week before a major holiday, […]
We have an issue around employee dating. We tried a no-dating policy, but we can’t seem to put any teeth into it. When we confront two employees we think are dating, they say, “Hey, we’re not dating—a few of us like to get together after work for drinks.” And another couple wouldn’t answer because “It’s […]
I just found out that one of my employees is keeping a running diary on a personal website. A lot of the diary concerns his job here, his complaints about management and his coworkers, etc. Needless to say, I’m quite upset about this—it’s unprofessional, and I know he’s been encouraging other workers to check it […]
Back in September 2001, we reported on a California employer that was hit with a $30 million lawsuit after one of its employees struck and killed a teenager while driving and using a cell phone. Now the employee, a former attorney, has been ordered to pay $2 million to the family of the teenager, Naeun […]
A union worker is about to be called into a monthly performance meeting. He asks if he needs union representation, and you say no. Then, because of something that occurs during the meeting, you terminate him. Were you wrong not to put off the meeting until he had representation? We’ll review a recent National Labor […]