Why was her paperwork late? You mentioned this is the second time she’s been written up for the paperwork being late.
Is there something at work that is causing her paperwork to be late (other employee delaying something she needs, customer issues), or is she just not getting her paperwork in on time just because?
So what do they do after that? Count up demerits at the end of the month?
It just seems like such a weird concept in my industry.
No, but in Spain at least and I imagine the reasoning is similar here, minor offences need to have been recorded several times before they add up to something punishable. Every example listed below counts either as a minor breach of contract or as a legal offence.
Be half an hour late for unjustified reasons once: get scolded by boss.
Twice: boss writes you up. Counts as one minor offence. The first one doesn’t count as it didn’t get put in writing.
Three times: boss writes you up. Two minors.
Four: boss writes you up. Adds up to being equivalent to one major. Disciplinary review gives you several days “off work without pay”.
Yell at boss that you think her orders are stupid: one major (yelling at a coworker). Disciplinary review gives you several days “off work without pay”.
Yell at boss that you’re not going to take orders from no damn stupid whore and if she tries to make you she’ll get what she’s got coming: several majors (yelling at a coworker, insulting a coworker) and a legal offence (verbal threats). Congratulations, your ass just got fired. Be grateful if it isn’t the cops who catch it as you sail through the gate.
“Discipline” usually just refers to the preliminary processes of getting rid of someone. In most companies in the US, a boss cannot just bring in an underperforming employee and fire him (this is due to company policy, rather than legal requirements). There is a process whereby the employee is given warnings, etc. I would assume that your industry must do something like this, doesn’t it? The exception, I guess, would be an industry where all work is done by independent contractors. Maybe that is your situation.
HIPAA - the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, Pub. L. 104-191
msmith works in Consulting, so yes, the amount done by contractors and the subcontracting chains are much larger than those outside the industry can comprehend. I’m in the same field and have had cases with four companies between the actual client and me. My current six-people team is from one of the Big Four: only two of us are workers of that company, the rest are independent contractors. We’re not likely to get kicked out of a project without managing to piss off someone badly, but at the same time if a person belonging to the final client looks at one of us sideways, that teammate may find his contract suddenly shortened.
My first job was at a supermarket where this was SOP. Unless they had an iron-clad reason to fire someone for cause (like being caught stealing or selling tobacco to minors) the company prefered to just mess with somebody’s hours. For example if you were a partime employee your hours would be cut to something like 8 hours a week. Or you’d only be assigned shifts it was impossible for you to work (like only offering a student hours between 8am & 5pm). Or repeadedly making the same employes open the store the day after closing it (granted this occasionally happened to everyone). I’ve seen it done at other places too.
Constructive dismissal needs the employee to prove that the employer was actively trying to get rid of them. Serious harrassment, frequent abuse, and frequent petty disciplinary write-ups are typical; generally, the behaviour has to be so extreme that no reasonable person would be expectedto tolerate it. A second write-up for an actual failure, especially if significant work was not done, likely wuld not qualify.
Some other causes in Canada are if you are demoted, or if your place of work is moved significantly to make your commute too difficult or impossible. Move the office to the suburbs would not do it, but move the office 60 miles away might. The demotion aspect usually kicks in for higher level employees - when you are on a management/executive track, a resumee entry saying “back down from VP or department head to Assistant VP/Dept Head” may seriously impact future job prospects ad the employee may choose instead the option “laid off” (with serious separation pay in that situation).
We had an interesting situation several years ago where an employee fresh off the boat from India was victim of “nasty boss syndrome”. They offered him a speartion package and then told him to go home and think about it. He refused to leave and they almost escorted him off the property with security until HR discovered the boss had been lying and totally mislead HR. He was allowed to go to his desk instead.
Apparently, he told me, in India where it is pretty much impossible to fire someone, job abandonment was about the only way to actually fire someone. He though they were telling him to go, to set him up for the claim he walked off the job in the middle of the day so they could fire him. (In the end, HR offered him a demotion instead. He got a lawyer involved and got the dismissal offer upped from 2 months pay to 6 months pay, after 2 years of working there.)
So there you go - even in the 3rd world where you cannot fire people, walking off the job is sure to get you fired.
You’ve really never worked anywhere that had some form of discipline system (oral warning, then write-up, etc.) for employees? If so, I’d say you’re definitely an exception.
In Michigan you would get a 6 week no check, before you could collect . that was a few years ago, I am sure the Repubs got rid of that by now.
Yes, to fire someone for minor causes, you have to have documentation that you gave them warnings about unacceptable performance; instruction on how to correct that; they acknowledge the problem and promise to do better (sign here, please). And then… they do it again, and again, and again, each time equally documented. This is what is meant by discipline in HR circles. To fire someone for performance issues, there has to be clear evidence you’ve gone blue in the face for months or years trying to correct the behaviour. (Of course, your mileage may vary in some less progressive states).
The problem is particularly critical if it’s a new broom trying to clean up an old mess; if the problem was allowed to slide, and the employee has years of “OK” on performance reviews and no disciplinary notes, finding a reason to fire them with a flood of discplinary write-ups within a few months of a new boss coming in may appear to be simply a personality conflict rather than a real performance problem.
Depends how much the employee wants to spend on a lawyer. Do it to an executive-level employee and they may walk away with 6-figure separation pay and damages. Do it to a Wally-World cashier and the payoff won’t cover the lawyer’s bill…
Most larger companies have the entire process documented in HR procedures, so that in case of a lawsuit, they can show the same policy exists and was applied to everyone, the employee was not being victimized. If the employees are told about the policies, they know the disciplinary notes on their file could lead to dismissal and the company is serious about enforcing rules.
And HR probably has on file, a form that the employee signed when hired that says something in the nature of ‘leaving work without pre-approval is grounds for immediate dismissal’, or some shit like that.
The state employment board may grant benefits, but I wouldn’t bank on it.
This is why many employers never give a flawless performance review. There’s always something that “needs improvement,” even if it never rises to an actual performance problem. That way the employer has an out if they decide at some point it’s time to deny a raise or promotion, or get rid of the employee.
That is correct. No one in consulting firms like the Big-4, Accenture and so on really get “written warnings”. But what these firms do have is an “up or out” policy (either de facto or actual) where they rank you against everyone at your level. You may be doing a perfectly good job, but if your peers are ranked higher (by whatever arbitrary criteria is deemed “critical”).
And the higher up you rise, the more revenue you bring in, so typically stupid love memos from HR tend to be irrelevant. Usually they give all sorts of “coaching” to make you conform to the company line. A friend of mine who is a managing director at my old firm has some sort of “handler” now because he has been deemed too “agressive” in his interactions.
Also, we travel and work long irregular hours so it’s not like anyone would ever get on us for being 5 minutes late or taking a smoke break.