Employee Relations

Hypersensitive employee? What’s hostile depends on objective analysis

08/08/2013

Don’t worry too much if a sensitive soul finds the workplace unpleasant. Absent tangible, objective evidence that an environment is truly hostile, her lawsuit won’t go far.

Warn bosses about personal liability risk

08/07/2013

Remind supervisors that the integrity of the performance evaluation process depends on their honest assessment. Providing anything less may mean a court date and personal liability under North Carolina law.

Employees’ emotional outburst: A patient, calm response is legally smart

08/06/2013

Occasionally, all supervisors and HR professionals have to deal with overly emotional employees. Handling such situations with a calm and measured response isn’t just good for morale, it could mean the difference between winning and losing a lawsuit.

Document stressful work conditions to defend against retaliation claim

08/05/2013

Some jobs are inherently more stressful than others and some positions require careful supervision. Employees with such jobs may feel anxious and under constant scrutiny. That can be an unexpected benefit should an employee claim some form of harassment based on sex, race, disability or other protected membership.

@#$%&! Maybe partisan politics isn’t the problem

08/02/2013

They may fight like cats and dogs in Washington, D.C., but they swear like sailors. The nation’s capital is America’s foulest-mouthed city, according to a survey by CareerBuilder.com.

There’s a reason for all those disciplinary rules!

07/31/2013

You should be able to easily pull up every employee’s disciplinary history and show that the employee received a copy, acknowledged an oral warning or was counseled. Consider what happened in the following case when recordkeeping lapsed.

Supervising difficult employees? Mend it, don’t end it

07/31/2013

Rather than ignoring tough situations or automatically getting rid of “difficult” employees, it’s better to learn techniques to effectively manage those situations.

Discuss firing only with those who need to know

07/30/2013

As a general rule, you should only discuss a worker’s termination with those who really need to know about it. That’s especially true in sensitive cases involving alleged fraud, theft or falsifications. You don’t want to lose a defamation case because a manager decided to make an example of a fired employee.

When it comes to discipline, details matter

07/30/2013

Here’s an important reminder for HR professionals and managers who must investigate employee misconduct and decide on appropriate discipline. Don’t forget to provide a detailed account of what happened, whom you interviewed and how you arrived at an appropriate punishment. Make sure similar misconduct results in similar consequences.

Target misses mark with multicultural training

07/29/2013

Minneapolis-based retailer Target is scrambling to explain a training document that surfaced at one of its Northern California distribution centers. The document purports to tell supervisors how to interact with Hispanic employees—and in the process betrays some offensive stereotypes.