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Employee Relations

Speaking up at staff meeting generally not protected by the First Amendment

06/24/2015
Public employees have the right to free speech and can’t be punished for exercising it. But that doesn’t mean they can say anything, anywhere. The exercise of free speech must concern a matter of public importance and not be done as part of the employee’s job.

It’s legal to use different disciplinary standards for probationary employees

06/24/2015

No doubt you have been warned many times that the best way to avoid discrimination lawsuits involving discipline is to treat everyone alike. The assumption is that by always being fair and punishing the same behavior, rule violation or poor performance the same, no one can argue that they were demoted, suspended or fired because of their protected status. But there is a situation in which you can—and probably should—treat some employees more strictly as a class.

Employee failed to tell us about the unsafe condition that led to her injury–can we discipline?

06/17/2015
Q: “I have an employee who told me on Monday that she was hurt on the prior Thursday. While we will certainly take care of the injury and report it and offer care, we would like to write up a disciplinary notice for her not immediately reporting both the unsafe condition that caused the injury as well as the injury itself. May we do this?” – Kary, Maryland

6 tips for turning your slugs into sprinters

06/15/2015
Dealing with underachievers requires using your judgment and some knowledge of human psychology. Here are some ways to get your underachieving employees moving in the right direction.

Dealing with employee attitudes: 10 guidelines

06/08/2015
With some employees, the problem isn’t a matter of ability; it’s a matter of attitude. This can manifest itself in everything from quiet disobedience to outright insubordination.

Top 5 kinds of employee recognition

06/08/2015
Almost 90% of employers have a formal employee recognition program, according to a new study by the WorldatWork association. Two-thirds offer three to six different programs. Here’s what’s most popular.

An investigation is inevitable: Now what?

06/05/2015
At some point the question becomes not whether you need to dig deep into a case of workplace misconduct, but who you’re going to get for the task. Here are some guidelines.

Tech-free meetings improve ideation

06/03/2015

More and more research is surfacing that indicates that technology hurts your ability to understand and process important information. The next time you conduct a brainstorming or problem-solving session, follow these tips to encourage deep thinking.

SHRM survey: Employee satisfaction makes big jump

06/01/2015
U.S. workers are feeling good about their jobs again, the Society for Human Resource Management discovered in its latest Employee Job Satisfaction and Engagement Survey.

The big lie about work that no one really believes

05/29/2015
Writing in his new book The Alliance, Hoffman calls out what he calls the biggest lie employers tell employees.