Discipline / Investigations

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.

Disability isn’t ‘get out of jail free’ card–it must be revealed before discipline

08/24/2015

Some workers who learn they’re about to be disciplined or even fired for poor behavior may try to use an alleged disability as an excuse. But if they never revealed before that they have a disability, it’s too late to try that tactic on the eve of being punushed.

Anticipate lawsuit by offering second chance, fresh supervisor to struggling employee