Issue: Responding to employee harassment complaints is a high-stakes venture. Risk: A botched investigation can damage employee moral and spark a lawsuit. Action: Make sure you (or any manager …
Q. If an exempt employee has no more paid leave left, can he take a couple hours off without pay? We’d just manually adjust his salary to reflect this. —A.D., Pennsylvania
Issue: Courts won’t consider a manager “insubordinate” for ignoring a boss’s order if the manager believes the order is discriminatory. Risk: Increases danger of retaliation …
Don’t allow employees to use their disabilities as justification for poor behavior, especially if it clearly threatens your workplace. Even if an employee is …
THE LAW. While law doesn’t directly regulate employee handbooks, they are extremely important legal tools. A handbook documents your policies, builds trust …
Don’t hesitate to discipline first-time sexual-harassment violators. Even one outrageous comment or act, if severe enough, can make your company liable for fostering …
The rule has been drummed into your brain: An employee can take job-protected leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) if he suffers from a …
A manufacturing firm’s new plant had only one restroom, which was designed for men. Female workers were told they had to use that restroom during work hours, …
Q. We’re afraid that a previously injured worker returned from medical leave too early. Can we require him to take additional leave if it’s obvious that the injury is still hurting his job performance? —M.D., Wyoming
After railroad laborer Sheila White complained that her foreman sexually harassed her, her employer investigated and temporarily suspended the foreman without pay. Soon after, the company gave White’s forklift duties to …