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Discipline / Investigations

‘Interrogate’ without triggering legal liability

09/19/2019
Aggressively questioning an employee suspected of stealing from your workplace can be a flash point for a lawsuit. If you are part of the investigation, follow these guidelines when interviewing suspects.

Track every disciplinary action in detail

08/14/2019
Document all the details when you discipline or terminate. That way, you can review past discipline and compare it with currently proposed action. Similar conduct should result in similar punishment.

It was just a meeting, not false imprisonment

08/02/2019
An employee whose supervisor ordered her to take a seat in a conference room has lost her request for a trial on charges of false imprisonment.

How to document employee infractions: 4 ‘musts’ to include

07/27/2019
In his recent Business Management Daily webinar, Documenting Employee Performance, author and HR executive Paul Falcone explained how much (and what kind) of details should be included when documenting employee performance and behavior problems.

Document problems that justify discipline

07/18/2019
Some employees are more difficult to manage than others. Be sure to document exactly what errors the employee makes and the rules he breaks. Then discipline strictly by the rules.

Keep all drafts of disciplinary documents

07/17/2019
Sometimes, a performance appraisal or disciplinary report will go through several drafts. It’s a good idea to keep every one of those preliminary versions. If you are sued, you may be glad you retained the draft versions.

Same broken rule, different discipline: Show why you punished one more harshly

06/28/2019
Courts like to see employers equally treat workers who break the same rules. That doesn’t mean employers have no wiggle room. The key is to document why one worker deserves a different punishment than another for breaking the same rule.

What should we do? Two no-show/no-call situations were treated differently

06/11/2019
Q. We have a strict rule against not calling in before a missed shift to report an absence. We require workers to make that call at least one hour before the shift is to start, unless they cannot do so due to an emergency. Otherwise we mark the absence as unexcused. Recently, an employee went to the emergency room and couldn’t make the call because she could not get cell service where she was and was undergoing triage treatment. We didn’t hold her to the rule. Now another employee, who heard from the first employee that she was excused, is complaining she’s being treated unfairly, but her situation was not the same. What do we do?

Flight attendants say JetBlue failed to investigate rape

05/23/2019
Two female JetBlue flight attendants allege they were drugged and one was raped by two JetBlue pilots during a layover in Puerto Rico. They reported the incident to JetBlue, but have now filed a lawsuit alleging the airline did not investigate their allegations.

Is it possible to discipline for body odor?

05/16/2019
Q. We have several employees who apparently don’t use deodorant and have very offensive body odor. What can we do to get them to clean up their act? Can we discipline them? Our dress code does specify that all employees shall practice good hygiene.