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February 23, 2007
Employee Claims - Don't Invite Them
Lawsuits for wrongful termination in employment are costly, and painful. Practitioners who work in this area of the law doing mediations or litigation will come right out and say that they are more often than not triggered by an emotional component. It makes sense. Rarely do you hear about a sensational employment wrongul termination case where the ex employee sues because they were fired for not typing fast enough.
A very common thread in these type of lawsuits (leaving out the harassment and discrimination categories for now) is a failure of expectations. The employer fires the employee because they did not live up to the expections of the employer and the employee sues the employer because they felt they not only met, but exceeded the expectations. So what happened, exactly?
The perceived expectations were as different as day and night.
How does one close the gap? Here are some valuable tips.
Make sure the expectations are clearly stated, unambiguous, and in writing.
Job Application Process: Make sure the persons that do the interviews are trained to carefully read the applications and question the applicants within legal parameters of course, and that they look for and question applicants carefully about gaps in employment and anything else that leaves a question to be answered. Catch the problems early, before hiring.
Job Description What better way to clarify expectations than to have a clear, concise and to the point job description. If something is left off, to be added later, or appears on the description and the hiree is not the right person for the job, and practical changes are to be made, make sure that changes in the description are discussed and it is modified as appropriate, and review and if pertinent, updated, at least annually. Make sure that time off, vacation accrual, sick leave and all other leave, and absence matters are written down either in the job description or association policies that are shared with new hire.
Ongoing Evaluations: Clarify expectations, as well as lack of satisfaction and failure to fulfill the job description, in ongoing employee evaluations, in writing. Share these with the employee so that they may respond, verbally or in writing, and so that they may know the areas of concern and be given the opportunity to tender a response.
Do not think that you are too small an association to need the above things. Small employers get sued under the same causes of action that large employers do. The complainants do not discriminate, and the courts do not take sympathy, based on size. (And see concurrent blog related to termination of management.)
Posted by Beth Grimm at February 23, 2007 6:26 PM