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Productivity / Performance

If accommodation can’t enable essential functions, termination may be only option

05/14/2008
Being qualified for a job doesn’t mean the person can do it well. And the inability to really execute an essential job function can warrant dismissal, even if the employee claims a disability. Take, for example, a newly hired professor who turns out to have psychological problems that prevent her from teaching class …

HR & the Slump: The 3 Big Trends Affecting Employee Relations

05/13/2008
While all economic cycles share certain features, they also have unique effects. What’s different for HR in the 2008 downturn versus the last one? Here are three distinctive characteristics of the current economic slump that are affecting your employees—and potentially reshaping your HR programs:

Handle disabled worker’s poor performance like any other

05/13/2008
Employees who have disabilities sometimes pose special challenges. Accommodating their work restrictions requires diligence and flexibility. That doesn’t mean, however, that you should ignore declining performance …

Discharging ill employee for performance? Better make sure you can prove it

05/05/2008
Courts often suspect the worst when employers fire severely ill employees. A judge may bend over backward trying to find a way to help the employee. An employer that can’t offer concrete, solid and compelling reasons for the termination may very well find itself trying to defend a “regarded as disabled” lawsuit …

How to Become a ‘Life Entrepreneur’

05/02/2008
When organizations become stuck in a rut, they typically step back, make adjustments and develop an action plan that takes advantage of their strengths. Now take a look in the mirror: Do you approach your business and your life with the same entrepreneurial mindset?

Consider telework’s impact on in-Office employees

05/02/2008
The more teleworkers you have on staff, the more dissatisfied your nonteleworking employees are likely to be with their jobs. And, compared to employees who only work face to face with colleagues, they’re more likely to change jobs. Those are the findings of a Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute management professor …

Tell supervisors: No pregnancy comments allowed

05/01/2008
It seems simple enough: No one should make cracks or comments about an employee’s pregnancy. Still, supervisors and managers often say things they shouldn’t, which can come together to form the basis for a Pregnancy Discrimination Act lawsuit …

In discrimination cases, don’t bet on Round 1 knockout

05/01/2008
Discrimination cases typically have two stages. First, the employee must show that he is a member of a protected class, was qualified for the job he held, suffered an adverse employment action and a similarly situated person not in the same protected class was treated more favorably. Some federal trial judges recently construed the “similarly situated” standard very restrictively …

Should I stay or should I go?

05/01/2008
It seems employees don’t want teleworking bosses, according to an Office Team survey …

The value of job descriptions—Even following termination

04/25/2008
Q. How serious is it if an employer doesn’t have written job descriptions in place? Is it safe to draft them even after a termination that could result in a lawsuit? …