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Employee Relations

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.

Channel your inner referee

02/21/2019
As a manager, you cannot stop workers from blowing their tops. But you can defuse their fury. Take these two steps.

6 college experiences turn students into engaged workers

02/19/2019
A survey released in January found that recent college grads who cited these six college experiences also ranked highest in measures of workplace engagement.

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.

Hey, where is everyone the day after the Super Bowl?

01/29/2019
Employee absenteeism after major sports events like the Super Bowl is on the rise, suggests new research from staffing firm OfficeTeam.

How’s your onboarding process? Survey to find out

01/25/2019
Don’t just hope that your onboarding efforts are working. Wait 30 days after each hiring and then survey the employee on his or her experience on that first day.

Break the FMLA shield: Document when you began considering discipline

01/23/2019
An employee may think taking FMLA leave will prevent serious discipline such as being terminated. That strategy won’t work if you can show the disciplinary process had already begun before she asked for FMLA leave.

Don’t let disability stop legitimate discipline

01/23/2019
It’s reasonable to worry that disciplining an employee who is disabled might trigger a lawsuit. Don’t let those kinds of concerns dissuade you from otherwise legitimate discipline. Courts general allow employers great leeway to punish employees who seem to genuinely deserve it.