Comments on: Who won this case: Terminated employee sues over mixed signals

By: Stacey, PHR

Stacey, PHR — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 15:00:01 +0000

My mentor always used to say “all managers/supervisors should be forced to wear a big “L” on their shirt….for LIABILITY”.

By: Anjel

Anjel — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 19:12:16 +0000

I agree with all of them. HR should have the final say and be in the know. I just took an Employment Law class and you really have to be careful about what you say to employees in all situations. Training the managers on proper terminations rather than their emotions or perceived professional ideals run the show is the best option. All questions should be direted to HR beforehand.

By: Cher

Cher — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 20:31:47 +0000

Our policy is, no one is terminated (laid off, etc.) without the final approval of HR. The HR department reviews the employee’s personnel file and consults with the manager before the final determination is made. At that point HR creates the termination notice. Many issues can be avoided if management involves HR in the process.

By: Angel M

Angel M — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 17:53:13 +0000

Unfortunatley many supervisors feel daying your laid off instead of actually firing someone is easier on the termed employee.
As we know, this just causes trouble down the line for HR

By: Matt

Matt — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 16:01:55 +0000

With the Sotomayor confirmation, we can only expect this to get worse. CYA

By: Edna

Edna — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 15:14:52 +0000

I have continually stressed to our supervisors the need for documentation for terminations and the need to be careful about the reasons. We are also very careful about replacing people and making sure to never say that we a RIF if we didn’t. You have to watch out for putting yourself in a spot where you are giving mixed signals regarding what your reasons are for letting someone go. We will have the supervisors show the Plant Manager and myself the writeups on employees before they are given to employees to make sure that nothing is done that could come back to bite us later.