Whenever a supervisor has to make a critical decision about an employee, someone’s bound to ask, “You have documentation to support that? It’s not enough just to have documentation; what’s more important is having the right documentation.
To get a better understanding of what meets the standard for appropriate documentation, answer True or False to the following:
(Answers are at the bottom.)
1. If you’re writing up documentation about an employee’s major violation of behavior or performance standards, you should try to stick with the major problem, and don’t include other minor violations.
2. For performance appraisals, the following statement is acceptable: “Your work is consistently below the quality of others in the group.”
3. Promises of promotions, raises or other employee rewards are binding only if they’re in writing.
Answers
1. True. Courts are suspicious of documentation that starts to look like a grab-bag of offenses. If you’re writing someone up for a string of unexcused absences, it’s dangerous to let the write-up wander into something like, “And you were five minutes late twice.”
2. False. The problem: Making a comparison with others doesn’t address the important question: Was the employee’s performance below acceptable quality standards? Better to give examples of deficiencies, such as, “You missed three important deadlines.”
3. False. Many court cases have illustrated that spoken promises can be as binding as written ones. Of course, spoken promises are tougher to prove, but no one wants to be put in a position in court where a lawyer asks: “Did you say you’d promote Miss Smith?”
