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Discipline / Investigations

Can we discipline for bad behavior at party?

10/15/2015
Q. At our company holiday party, which was not at the workplace or during work hours, an employee told some inappropriate jokes and put an arm around a co-worker who did not appreciate it and complained. The company is aware that the employee took a leave of absence for treatment of chemical dependency and is concerned that the employee might have been drinking at the party. Can the company discipline the employee? The company would like the employee to get additional help for chemical dependency.

No money changed hands? Legal settlement still stands

10/13/2015
Have you ever considered settling an employment dispute by having an employee promise to quit or retire, without any monetary payment? Don’t worry that such an agreement will later fall apart.

NLRB: You can’t gag talk about investigations

10/05/2015
For years, attorneys have urged employers conducting workplace investigations to make the employees they interview swear to keep the conversation confidential. But that conventional wisdom is in danger.

Is it time to require arbitration of employee claims?

10/02/2015
Increasingly, mandatory arbitration clauses are surfacing in employment contracts and employee handbooks. What are the pros and cons?

What managers need to know about sexual harassment

10/01/2015
Here’s a primer on what sexual harassment is and how to react when you see it.

Should have foreseen psychic reading trouble at the VA

09/30/2015
Following an investigation by the Department of Veterans Affairs inspector general, two high-ranking managers at the VA’s troubled pension management center in Germantown have been suspended for getting too friendly with some employees.

Justice has execs looking over their shoulders

09/28/2015
Attorney General Loretta Lynch appears to be placing her imprint on Justice Department prosecution strategy—by making it a matter of policy to go after not just companies that break the law, but the individual executives and CEOs who tolerate or encourage misdeeds.

Build flexibility into your disciplinary process

09/25/2015
When two employees break the same workplace rule, the surest way to avoid a potential lawsuit is to punish both exactly the same. However, that’s not always practical or appropriate.

3 out of 4 workers agree: We’re working with adolescents!

09/23/2015
It’s not a jungle out there in the workplace anymore—certain behaviors are making it more like middle school.

Details make the difference when defending discipline

09/16/2015
We’ve said it before: Document every disciplinary action and be specific. The employer in this case won because it had excellent contemporaneous records to explain its disciplinary action.