Expert Advice on Real HR Scenarios

Employers will face many battles in 2020, a number of which will be human resources related. Many of these issues are complex challenges; however, some of the most difficult problems for HR managers to handle are those more common ones that seem to keep cropping up. Here are some tips on how you can be proactive about solving three HR-related challenges.

You have been informed that two employees got into a verbal disagreement in the middle of shift change. Profanity was used, and a third person decided to enter into the disagreement and displayed a weapon (knife). What do you do?

Because of the seriousness of the allegations, all three employees should be suspended with or without pay pending an investigation. In this case, after the investigations were conducted, these decisions were made. First, the employee who displayed the weapon was terminated based on a violation of the “weapons free policy.” Second, the two other employees were terminated as well, based on “average” to “below average” performances in their respective jobs and attendance. Another reason they were terminated was because this incident happened over “shift change” and more than 100 employees observed their poor behavior, which did involve some pushing and shoving, as well as prolific profanity.

So, if the employer had chosen not to terminate these employment relationships, what would this inaction have conveyed to the employee population? That you, too, can behave extremely poorly and still keep your job.

You have an employee who has many performance issues and cannot get along with the team or the customers. The supervisor wanted to terminate the employee, but when the supervisor finally sat down with the employee, the employee announced she is pregnant. Can you terminate this person?

Yes, you can terminate a currently pregnant woman based on performance issues, but not based on her pregnancy. Before termination, the employer and employee should discuss the nature of the performance issues. If these issues are related to the employee’s pregnancy, an accommodation may be necessary. In this case, many “verbal” warnings had been given, but nothing was placed in writing. By the time concerns were documented, the information was not current. Nevertheless, the employer made the business decision to terminate, because they were losing customers and employees due to her behavior.

Did she sue? Yes, the Pregnancy Discrimination Act (“PDA”) amended Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to “prohibit sex discrimination on the basis of pregnancy.” The PDA covers discrimination “on the basis of pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions.” Did she win? No, it was settled. Like most employment cases, it did not go to trial because of cost.

The HR Manager has told you that an upper management staff member became intoxicated at a company-sponsored function and acted inappropriately with their subordinates. To make matters more interesting, the behavior occurred in front of a lot of staff who took pictures and recorded the incident on their cell phones. Since no one is “complaining,” should you discipline this person?

Alcohol. I see problems with it at conferences, out of town company events, and company celebration parties (i.e., holidays, a good year, etc.). So, you need to have some expectations with these events as to what is appropriate when it comes to alcohol consumption.

In this case, you should do something about it. Even though no one has complained, the liability is on the employer because they have been informed of the situation. The employer needs to investigate, and then make a business decision on next steps. Here, the employer terminated the executive who acted inappropriately with their subordinate employees. The employer made this decision because of the executive’s leadership status and its desire to send a message to all employees that this type of behavior would not be tolerated.