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Firing

Stop harassment lawsuits by requiring bosses to log employees’ performance problems

09/21/2011
Here’s a great reason for insisting that all supervisors document their subordinates’ performance problems: If an employee later claims her manager behaved abusively, good documentation will support any discipline for poor performance. That could block a harassment lawsuit.

EEOC targets Pine City firm for yet another ADA case

09/16/2011
For the second time since 2009, Product Fabricators is being charged with disability discrimination. Accord­­ing to an EEOC complaint, the Pine City-based sheet metal manufacturer fired an injured employee instead of accommodating him.

Lying may mean no unemployment compensation

09/16/2011
Employees who lie when confronted about wrongdoing are ineligible for unemployment compensation benefits—at least if the lie concerned something about which the employer could reasonably expect the truth.

Bad hair day: Fired for refusing to color the gray?

09/08/2011
An employee at Capital Title of Texas refused her boss’s request to dye her gray hair and was fired. As you can guess, she sued for age discrimination and is awaiting her day in court … probably in front of a gray-haired judge.

Was accent on no accents at tony Princeton Club?

09/07/2011
New York City’s Princeton Club faces a lawsuit alleging it terminated a long-time employee because of her accent. The employee claims the club fired her after nearly 30 years of service because a new general manager found Hispanic accents “embarrassing.”

At Jones Beach, fashion foul or was it age discrimination?

09/07/2011
When Long Island’s Jones Beach re­­quired its lifeguards to wear Speedo swimsuits for an annual swimming test in 2007, it chafed 61-year-old Roy Lester in more ways than one. He re­­fused to don the skimpy trunks for his test. The beach patrol fired Lester for in­­subordination.

Strictly speaking, there’s no ‘freedom of speech’ in the private workplace

09/02/2011
It’s a free country, right? Em­­ployees can express themselves however they want at work. Wrong. The right to free speech on the job only applies to public employees, and even then there are significant limitations.

Carefully account for all FMLA leave absences

09/02/2011

Smart employers make sure that no employee is ever punished for taking FMLA leave. They do that by carefully cataloging when every employee takes FMLA leave. And if they must discipline an employee for attendance problems, they spell out the reason why each absence counted toward punishment.

Don’t fear old, properly resolved complaint

09/02/2011

When faced with discipline and the possibility of getting fired, some employees try to revive old complaints that have long since been resolved. They hope that resurrecting an old complaint will make their employer think twice about terminating. But employers are entitled to get work done. Don’t let a ploy like this prevent legitimate and necessary discipline.

Punishing worker for loud complaint: Retaliation or legit insubordination penalty?

08/30/2011

Employers obviously can’t punish employees simply because they complain about discrimination. That would be retaliation. But that doesn’t mean you have to tolerate loud, obnoxious or disruptive complaints, no matter their content. That’s simply unacceptable in the workplace … and grounds for legal termination.