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Employee Relations

Limit sensitive meetings to ‘need-to-know’ managers

03/01/2000
During a management meeting, an operations director warned Karen Bishop, a human resources manager, not to share information with another employee whom …

Don’t ban employees from discussing a co-worker’s health

03/01/2000
Jolene Conn, a security guard at Lockheed Martin Astronautics, developed a medical condition that made it hard to carry a gun …

You can recoup loss for payroll error

03/01/2000

Q. We direct-deposit the wages and salaries of most of our employees. Last week, two checks for the same pay period were deposited into an employee’s account. Can we legally have the bank withdraw the extra funds from the employee’s account? —M.F., California

New risk: Workers can claim retaliation even if there’s no adverse job action

03/01/2000
Judy Morris’ supervisor at the county road department first evaluated Morris’ job performance as “excellent.” Later, he rated her as “very good.” The supervisor said …

Women-hating comments, even if not sexual, can equal sexual harassment

03/01/2000
Elizabeth Smith got hit with a double whammy: a harassing boss and a company that didn’t take it seriously. In the end, the company’s lax response cost it big-time …

Don’t fear distress caused by proper investigations

03/01/2000
You don’t have to worry that the target of your harassment investigation will turn around and sue you for emotional distress. The 2nd Circuit said he …

Harassment: How to stop it before, and after, it starts

03/01/2000
Protect your organization from employee lawsuits for harassment by focusing your attention on both preventive and corrective measures. Provide every employee …

More firms crack down on employee use of the Web

02/01/2000
Nearly a third of employers, 31 percent, now monitor and/or restrict employee Internet use, according to a Vault.com survey. Approaches range from restricting …

Notify employees before stripping unused vacation

02/01/2000

Q. Can we require employees to forfeit vacation time that they don’t use within a certain period? —G.J., Massachusetts

Don’t hand out authority without giving training to match

02/01/2000
Promoting lower-level employees to supervisory roles, even if it’s on a temporary or “acting” basis, can backfire if you fail to educate them on their new legal responsibilities. That’s what happened …