Impartial discipline: The best defense against bias claims

Treat all employees impartially and you’ll rarely end up on the losing end of a discrimination lawsuit.

Recent case: Donise was a supervisor at UPS, which has a strict honesty policy. UPS decided to have all workers complete an employee engagement survey to provide anonymous, presumably honest feedback. Supervisors were responsible for pulling workers off the production line long enough for them to complete the survey.

Donise and another supervisor devised a plan by which another employee would simply fill out the surveys. When that employee told management about the scheme, UPS launched an investigation. Donise and the other supervisors were fired.

Donise sued, alleging she had been terminated because of her age.

But UPS pointed out that the other supervisor was considerably younger and had also been fired. That was enough to get the lawsuit dismissed. (Wilkey v. UPS, ND TX, 2018)