consistency and fairness, provide verbal and written warnings to ensure that incidents are documented in detail, issue a final written warning that clearly states all expectations and consequences, and possibly put an employee on probation. An employee who has been informed that her work or demeanor is unacceptable cannot easily claim later that her discharge was arbitrary or discriminatory. To protect your business from unfair termination claims it is important to: • Preserve your “at-will” status. o Do not ever make statements to an employee that state or imply that employment is permanent. • Use progressive discipline and document every disciplinary discussion you have with an employee. • Be firm, fair, and consistent. Follow the guidelines in the Employee Handbook. • When terminating an employee, offer the opportunity to resign or quit. o This outlines company rules and disciplinary procedures including a listing of offenses for which discipline may be imposed. • The rules and policies outlined in the Employee Handbook are guidelines. They do not in any way modify the at will policy. • Violation of rules or policies that results in gross insubordination may lead to immediate termination. • Always follow these procedures faithfully and consistently. • Document all disciplinary warnings in writing, including verbal warnings, and state the reasons for the action taken. • Document what the consequence will be if the employee does not change the behavior. • Ask the employee to sign acknowledgment of any disciplinary warning. • If the employee refuses to sign, make a note of this and have the form signed by a witness. • Require that all serious disciplinary actions be authorized by you or your designate and witnessed by at least one person other than the employee and yourself. 13.3.2 Discharge • Determine the factors underlying the proposed discharge. o What did the employee do or fail to do? o Are there any “red flags?” (i.e., a new team leader, office manager, a public policy issue) • Check on any possible statutory problem (i.e., race, sex, national origin, age, 13.3.1 Key Concepts of Progressive Discipline • Prepare and distribute the MOLLY MAID Employee Handbook.
handicap discrimination, polygraph test). • Check on any possible public policy issues o Discharge for attending jury duty
o Filing a worker’s compensation claim). • Were any indications made to the employee that could be regarded as promises of job security?
MOLLY MAID Personnel Manual Copyright 2015, Molly Maid, Inc.
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