While covering shifts for an employee on a leave of absence, we discovered errors in their work. How do we address their performance without seeming retaliatory for taking leave? Answer from Jenny, SPHR, SHRM-SCP: Taking disciplinary or corrective action following a leave of absence is going to...
Lately, we’ve noticed employees using wearable devices while working. We have a policy that limits personal cell phone use at work. Can we expand that to include wearables like smartwatches? Answer from Eric, SPHR, SHRM-SCP: Yes, you can expand your policy to include wearables or other smart...
It depends. There are many reasons an employee may choose to use a job title on LinkedIn that is different than their official job title with your organization. For one, employees may feel that their job title doesn’t accurately or meaningfully describe the work they...
No, federal law requires you to pay employees for all hours they have worked. While you can and should have a policy defining job abandonment (e.g., if an employee no-shows and no-calls three days in a row, you’ll take that as a resignation), you are...
If an employee’s clothing does not conform to your personal appearance rules or dress code policy, you can certainly let the employee know, ask them to change, and discipline them for violating the policy. Regarding job applicants, we would not recommend you comment on their...
Discipline is an act on the part of the employer to address and correct inappropriate behavior or a policy violation by an employee. Discipline functions both as an incentive for employees to refrain from bad behavior in the first place and as a corrective if...
No, you’re not required to pay this employee through the end of the week. The general requirement to pay a salaried, exempt employee for the full week doesn’t apply in the first or last week of employment if the employee didn’t work the full week....
In general, yes. When an employee is on a performance improvement plan (PIP), and their performance has not improved and has, in fact, gotten worse, it is perfectly reasonable to cut the timeframe of the PIP short and move forward with further disciplinary action, including...
Yes, in two circumstances. First, you can discipline the employee if their other job violates your outside employment (aka moonlighting) policy. Second, you can discipline an employee who obtained FMLA leave fraudulently. If, however, you do not have a policy that specifically prohibits employees from...
You need to investigate the matter. A racially insensitive comment could be considered harassment—unwelcome behavior that’s based on a protected class such as race. Harassment becomes unlawful if putting up with it is a condition of continued employment or if the conduct is severe or pervasive...