If I had to boil employment law into one overarching maxim, it would be this: Be fair and document everything, in case someone thinks you’re not being fair.
If you doubt the importance of thorough documentation, consider two recent cases decided by the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals.
Campbell’s in hot water?
Abdulnour v. Campbell Soup Supply Co. is a national-origin discrimination case brought by an Iraqi national after Campbell’s Soup fired him for job performance that was less than “M’m! M’m! Good!”
The 6th Circuit upheld a trial court’s dismissal of the lawsuit on summary judgment because Abdulnour could not come forward with any objective evidence that Campbell’s Soup didn’t honestly believe in the reasons proffered for his termination.
Despite the employer’s victory, there is a lot for HR pros to learn from the company’s failure to document Abdulnour’s performance problems. The court wrote:
“As the record r...(register to read more)
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