Articles tagged 'termination'

Terrifying Topics: How to Successfully Navigate a Termination Meeting

by Mark Toth on Aug 24, 2012, 10:20 AM | 2 Comments

This week, we’ve been taking on one of the most terrifying topics in the employment law universe: terminations.

First, we gave you our official Top 11 Termination Troubles (Top 11 Troubles When You Do a Termination).

Then, we gave you a handy test that you can use to make sure that each and every one of your terminations is legally (and maybe even morally) defensible. You can find it here.

Today, we close the week with our patented guide to one of the most frightening occurrences in the workplace: the termination meeting. Read more…

HR Basics, HR Management

Top 11 Troubles When You Do a Termination

by Mark Toth on Aug 20, 2012, 11:35 AM | 2 Comments

In survey after survey after survey, termination troubles top the list of employment law issues that freak you out.

Freak no more. This week, we’ll give you some of our patented termination tools and tips to help make your terminations as painless and humane as possible.

We’ll start today with our official – Top 11 Termination Troubles. Read more…

HR News & Trends, Talent Management

More on the Fired Lifeguard: Is It Simply a Parable About Outsourcing?

by John Hollon on Jul 16, 2012, 12:20 PM | No comments yet

That story last week about the young Florida lifeguard who was fired for going to save someone out of his area seemed to get a lot of people talking.

One TLNT reader who responded to Ron Thomas‘ post here about the incident (Fired For Being in the Moment – What We Can Learn From a Young Lifeguard) felt it was a story that was simply overblown:

“It’s misleading to characterize that this termination was carried out by “Management.” … It was carried out by “a manager.” And her actions were quickly countermanded by the company. The owner of the company said “this never should have happened.”

The company exposed a management flaw here — the termination should not have been possible without a higher level review or approval. At the same time this more clearly represents a case of a “bad manager” than it does “bad management” overall in the company.” Read more…

HR News & Trends

Weekly Wrap: At Facebook, Job Board Is In, Tough Yoga Instructor Is Out

by John Hollon on Jul 13, 2012, 11:25 AM | No comments yet

It’s been quite the week for Facebook.

First, the word came out that they were jumping into the job board business — a prospect a lot of people are questioning and seem to be willing to do without.

Then, the story broke that Facebook management fired a contract yoga instructor for simply flashing a dirty look (or some kind of look) at a Facebook employee who whipped out her cell phone during the middle of a stretching exercise during a recent class at the Facebook gym.

If bad media events, like dying celebrities, come in threes, the wrongly-fired yoga instructor simply rounds out the trifecta that started with Facebook’s botched IPO followed by the less-than-well-received job board announcement. Read more…

HR News & Trends, Legal Issues

Supreme Court Limits Federal Workers Ability to Challenge Terminations

by Wendy Hyland on Jun 12, 2012, 11:30 AM | No comments yet

By Wendy Hyland

Representing a victory for the federal government, the U. S. Supreme Court held this week that federal employees do not have a right to challenge their terminations from employment in federal district court on constitutional grounds.

The ruling reinforces the statutory scheme of the Civil Service Reform Act, which establishes the Merit Systems Protections Board (MSPB), an administrative agency governing federal employment disputes. The case is Elgin v. Department of the Treasury.

The decision is significant because it reinforces the exclusivity of the MSPB as the exclusive remedy for employee challenges to terminations, subject to appellate review in federal court. Moreover, it is a significant departure from the previous legal principle that administrative agencies do not have the authority to rule on the constitutionality of laws passed by Congress. Read more…

HR News & Trends

Weekly Wrap: The Dirty Little Secret of Performance Improvement Plans

by John Hollon on Jun 1, 2012, 9:28 AM | 15 Comments

There are three words that no employee (and most managers) ever want to hear, words that will frighten the bejesus out of anyone who encounters them.

Performance improvement plan, or PIP for short.

If you work in talent management or HR, you surely have had to deal with them on a few occasions — maybe more than you care to admit — but I’ll bet that you always tried avoid them whenever possible, sort of in the same way you would try to avoid a root canal.

Yes, performance improvement plans have that impact on people. Read more…

Recruiting and Staffing, Talent Management

Rookie Hiring Mistakes: Holding on to Bad Hires Too Long

by Tim Sackett on May 17, 2012, 7:17 AM | No comments yet

The New York Times recently had a good article titled “The Top 10 Rookie Mistakes for Entrepreneurs,” and it looks at the top reasons people usually fail when starting a new business.

As you can imagine many of the reasons were typical: expense control, fiscal responsibility, having a strong value proposition, etc. But out of all 10 mistakes, there was one glaring omission to why so many new business owners fail when it comes to hiring, particularly with the HR side of the business:

11. Holding on to bad hires too long. Read more…

HR Management, Leadership

What a Baseball Manager Can Teach Us About Letting People Go

by John Hollon on Apr 18, 2012, 11:55 AM | 1 comment

Baltimore Orioles manager Buck Showalter (26)

One of my leadership pet peeves is about wanna-be managers who take the title, the pay, and the goodies, but then go out of their way to avoid handling the tough stuff — like having to fire someone.

No decent person ever wants to have to let someone go (and anyone who does shouldn’t be managing people in the first place), but as I’ve said before, it’s one of those unpleasant duties that comes with the territory.

Yes, Donald Trump seems to have no problem firing people, but then, he’s doing it each week as entertainment with B and C-level celebrities who aren’t taking it all that seriously anyway. For most managers, however, firing someone is difficult, sometimes emotional, and always best done face-to-face. Read more…

Legal Issues

Different Severance Packages: They May Create Discrimination Claims

by Eric B. Meyer on Apr 11, 2012, 9:32 AM | No comments yet

By Eric B. Meyer

A severance agreement helps to allow businesses to ensure that former employees don’t sue.

The concept is fairly simple: in exchange for $X dollars, the former employee agrees to release the company from every claim under the sun from the beginning of time through the date the former employee signs the agreement (or seven days after the agreement is signed in cases where the employee releases claims under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act).

Where am I going with this? Let’s take a hypothetical. Assume that ABC Company decides to lay off two employees: Bob and Mary. Both worked the same position, have the same seniority, and reported to the same supervisor. However, ABC offers Bob six weeks of severance and Mary only three weeks of severance. Does Mary have a potential gender discrimination claim against ABC?

According to a recent decision from the Fourth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals based in Richmond, Va., Mary may have a claim. Read more…

HR Insights, HR Management

Why You Need to Champion Your Organization’s “Must-Do” Moves

by Tim Sackett on Mar 6, 2012, 7:45 AM | No comments yet

I spoke at the inaugural TLNT Transform event last week in Austin. My topic was What Your CEO Wished HR Would Do.

One thing that came up during my presentation was a conversation around “Must-Do Moves.” Must-do moves are those things in your organization that you grab hold of, as an HR Pro, and make sure they happen.

I asked the group a question: Do you have anyone in your organization that you need to get rid of? Read more…