by Tim Gould
You may have a lot of experience interviewing candidates for open positions, but interviewing employees as part of a workplace investigation is another animal entirely.
Bernard J. Bobber of Foley & Lardner LLP authored a guide for HR pros to follow when they need to interview a staff member following an employee complaint.
Starting the process …
His three tips for getting each interview underway:
- Lay out the purpose of the meeting — without giving away info you might already know. Identify why you’ve asked to speak to the employee in general terms.
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by Christian Schappel
When is asking employees to sign off on their time sheets before they’re submitted to Payroll for processing not enough to protect you from an overtime lawsuit? When this happens.
Here’s when you can get nailed: A manager knows or should’ve known that an employee worked more hours than he or she claimed to have worked.
A recent lawsuit shows just how hard it can be to defeat employees’ claims that they weren’t paid proper overtime.
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by Tim Gould
One of the great things about writing about HR is the unbelievable range of stupid stuff that human beings do during work time. Here’s a small sampling.
If you’re thinking, “Oh, I bet this is another one of those CareerBuilder surveys,” you’re right. This one asked 2,175 hiring and human resource managers for examples of the most bizarre things they caught employees doing while they were supposed to be working, and the most common productivity killers in the workplace.
First, the most outrageous behaviors:
- Employee was taking a sponge bath in the bathroom sink
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by Tim Gould
When an employee asks for an accommodation for a disability, the EEOC expects management to go through the full process of determining whether or not a reasonable arrangement can be made. Two health-related firms recently learned that lesson the hard way.
Brookdale Senior Living Communities, Inc. of Denver will pay $112,500 and furnish other relief to settle a disability discrimination lawsuit, the agency announced.
Bernadine Adams worked for Brookdale as a health and wellness director. After Adams took leave from work due to symptoms of fibromyalgia, Brookdale refused her request for a temporary modified work schedule, an ergonomic chair, and adjustments to the lighting in her office, the EEOC alleged.
Brookdale also required Adams to remain on leave until she was able to return to work without any restrictions or accommodations. After further requests for accommodation and a discrimination charge, Brookdale fired Adams via letter.
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by Christian Schappel
More than half of HR pros (51%) said they’d automatically dismiss a candidate if they found a lie on a person’s resume. So it’s likely these applicants are still job hunting.
In a recent Harris Poll on resumes conducted on behalf of CareerBuilder, 2,188 HR pros and hiring managers were asked to provide the most memorable lie they’ve ever caught on an applicant’s resume.
Here are the highlights:
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by Christian Schappel
A man fired for making “extreme” threats to kill his supervisor sues, claiming he was a disabled individual protected by the ADA. A federal court ruled he may indeed have been disabled, but …
… that didn’t necessarily mean his job was protected by the ADA.
Planned ‘to take out management’
Timothy Mayo was a welder for Oregon-based PCC Structurals, a superalloy, aluminum and titanium casting company. He suffered from major depressive disorder. Medication and treatment allowed him to work without significant incident for several years — until a supervisor started getting under his skin.
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by Christian Schappel
In HR, we’re constantly preaching that everyone should be treated equally. So why, then, are women constantly freezing in the office wearing parkas and Snuggies, while men can relax in polo shirts?
It’s because some employers’ thermostat settings may unintentionally be biased toward males.
Now you may be asking: We make everyone work in the same facility, at the same temperature. How can that be bias?
Here’s how: Many building thermostats follow a “thermal comfort model that was developed in the 1960s,” and one of the variables used in their thermal comfort equation is the resting metabolic rate (how fast we generate heat) of a 40-year-old man weighing roughly 154 pounds.
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