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Employee Relations

Texas workers are optimistic about job availability, security

09/01/2006

The Texas Employee Confidence Index recently reached a high for 2006. The index, which measures adult workers’ confidence in their personal employment situation, hit 62.7 in July, up from 60.7 in June and 58.4 in May …

Employee blogs raise privacy, confidentiality issues for employers

09/01/2006

Most organizations have comprehensive Internet, e-mail and electronic communications policies that spell out what’s acceptable usage and what’s not. But few employers have addressed a growing problem: the proliferation of employee Web logs, or "blogs" …

Announcing terminations: What’s the smartest way?

09/01/2006

A reader of our weekly e-mail newsletter, The HR Specialist Weekly, recently posed this question: “How do you let other employees know when you’ve fired someone?” Following are some of the responses from other readers …

Employer not liable for manager’s unforeseen safety breach

09/01/2006

If one of your company’s supervisors knowingly ignores a safety rule, can OSHA hold the company liable? OSHA has long argued "yes" and has moved against employers on the premise that if the supervisor knows he’s violating the rules, then the company also knows …

5 tricky issues in accommodating mental disabilities

09/01/2006

A top-performing employee is diagnosed with depression and now says her medication makes it impossible for her to make it to work on time. Must an employer change her work schedule? A job applicant volunteers that he is intellectually disabled but says he can perform his job with a job coach. Is that a reasonable accommodation? Are you prepared to answer those questions … and more?

Don’t push an employee toward disability leave

09/01/2006

Q. We have an employee (an officer at the bank) who was out six months with a heart condition. He has had performance problems on and off since then. He was hospitalized again with pneumonia and returned looking very bad, but his doctor says he’s fine to return to work.  We approached him about taking disability and SSI benefits, but he refuses. Now we face a morale issue because he constantly talks about his illness and his co-workers feel he isn’t performing. If we terminate him, what is the best approach? —C.T., N.J.

Rein in Rogue ‘Early-Clockers’

09/01/2006

Q. We’ve repeatedly warned a part-time employee about clocking in earlier than he’s supposed to, sometimes more than an hour early. We know that we have to pay him for any hours worked, but what can we legally do to get him to work only the hours set for his position? —L.K., Missouri

Help parents navigate the college application process

09/01/2006

Fred C. Church Insurance in Lowell, Mass., offers child care assistance for its young parents and retirement-planning advice for older employers. But it lacked benefits for workers with teenage children … Solution: The 130-employee company added a benefit that gives employees access to counselors who specialize in the college-application process …

Block firing-Bias charge by documenting business reason

09/01/2006

Several statutes protect pregnant employees from discrimination and retaliation. But those laws don’t guarantee employees’ permanent job security …

Firing ‘Worst of the best’ isn’t age discrimination

09/01/2006

If economic conditions force you to downsize, be prepared for lawsuits. That’s especially true if no employees stand out as obvious poor performers who should be canned. In such cases, articulate that you have no choice but to fire "the worst of the best" …