Problem: If an employee’s insubordinate behavior was caused by her bipolar disorder and you fire her, is the termination a violation of the Americans with...
Plenty of employees have chips on their shoulders. Some are hypersensitive to perceived slights and constructive criticism. Others get angry over minor problems....
How belligerent does an email have to be to warrant firing the sender for willful misconduct and threatening a co-worker? A court has concluded that typing in all...
Progressive discipline policies are not mandated by either state or federal employment laws. But legal issues often arise from the application of progressive discipline...
Insubordination can result when difficult employees intentionally disregard a direct order from a manager, or inadvertently cross the discipline line when company...
HR wears many hats, one of the most important being keeping your organization out of court. An equally important—and related—hat is smoothing out the...
Sexual harassment allegations often come down to he said/she said arguments. Without hearing from both sides, there’s no way to determine what happened. If one...
Paul Falcone, author of 101 Tough Conversations to Have with Employees, offers these scripts to follow when you need to have awkward but essential conversations with...
While the Jan. 3 Iowa caucuses feel like the end of a long campaign season, it’s really just the beginning of a heated political year … one that could...
With a record number of Americans now in prison and police and prosecutors increasingly taking a hard line on crime of all kinds, more employers are finding...
Employers have the right to expect employees to listen to reasonable directions, accept criticism and otherwise behave in a civilized way. When an employee...
If an employee ever sues, you need to have strong documentation of performance, behavior and discipline issues. Managers sit on the front lines of the documentation...
In the past few weeks, several Hollywood celebrities—including Catherine Zeta-Jones and Demi Lovato—have publicly announced they suffer from bi-polar...
Employers and employees have the right to a safe work environment free from violence or direct threats of harm. Punishing an employee who puts others in danger or...
A reader of The HR Specialist Forum asks: “What can I do about a data entry employee who doesn’t sit upright? I don’t mean ordinary slouching; this guy...
In a much-watched case, the Texas Supreme Court has refused to expand employer liability for employee off-duty conduct. That’s good news for employers, which faced...
Question: “I am a fairly new manager. One of my employees thinks he knows everything and frequently talks back to me. Every morning, I have a short staff meeting,...
