• The HR Specialist - Print Newsletter
  • HR Specialist: Employment Law
  • The HR Weekly

Discipline / Investigations

Threatening to reduce employee’s bonus isn’t enough to justify quitting

04/03/2019
A grieving husband has lost a lawsuit that claimed he had no choice but to quit after his employer threatened to reduce his bonus if he continued to take time off to recover from a tragic personal loss.

Respect the results of outside investigations into complaints

03/26/2019
Be prepared to honor the findings of outside investigators you hire to get to the bottom of internal complaints. Accept the results and act immediately to remedy the situation.

Cite specifics to document poor performance

03/26/2019
When disciplining workers, consider the potential for lawsuits. Assume that anyone you terminate might sue.

Document why discipline may have differed

03/20/2019
Before you discipline any employee, review how you handled similar situations in the past. If you decide to discipline more harshly in a new case, be sure to detail in your records exactly why.

Track details of incidents leading to discipline

03/05/2019
Want to make sure discipline sticks? Then details matter. It’s far easier to defend a termination decision if you can show the court that you specifically pointed out the employee’s work problems and offered an opportunity to improve instead of simply terminating her.

Workplace fight? OK to punish based on severity of injuries

02/22/2019
If two workers fight, employers are free to issue harsher punishment to the worker who inflicts the most severe injuries. Just make sure you document exactly why you believe the more aggressive worker deserves greater punishment.

No-fighting rule? Punish combatants equally

02/22/2019
You probably have a rule against any form of violence in the workplace. Make sure you uniformly discipline everyone involved in any altercation.

Note all details that led up to discipline

02/01/2019
Having good documentation of your reasoning will often persuade a judge or jury that discrimination wasn’t the real reason for differing discipline, and that you legitimately used discretion to arrive at the appropriate punishment.

Subway employee invents black assailant to cover theft

02/01/2019
A white resident of Rice, near St. Cloud, Minn., has admitted to police that she lied about being assaulted and robbed by a black man as she carried the day’s receipts from the Subway store where she worked.

Justify why you decided not to follow the ‘same rule violation, same punishment’ rule

02/01/2019
Generally, if two employees break the same workplace rule and don’t have any prior violations, you should punish them the same way. But that doesn’t mean you can’t make judgment calls on which one may deserve more severe punishment, including discharge.