When you are busy running a business or nonprofit, it can be hard to remember that you have an employee manual sitting on a shelf gathering dust somewhere. But if you have one, you need to keep it up to date; it is not something to ignore. If you ever … Read More
There are lots of policies that can and should go in an employee manual; here are the top ten from a lawyer’s perspective: EEO and Harassment. This is pretty basic boilerplate covering nondiscrimination, harassment, and how to report it. Attendance/Punctuality. Employers can require that employees show up for work, so … Read More
Once a business has more than 5 employees, or sometimes even before that, an employee manual becomes a good idea. It is tempting to ignore it as simply more paperwork or a restraint on management flexibility, but your employee manual provides a good way to communicate company rules to employees … Read More
As Abercrombie and Fitch is discovering, there are perils associated with making assumptions about a candidate’s religion, just as there are with assumptions about their physical capabilities. “Can you do this job?” applies to religion as well as disabilities. According to Quartz, In some ways, it seems that where Abercrombie … Read More
When you sit down to write up job descriptions, the first challenge is to figure out what the “essential functions” of the job are. These come in handy for hiring, especially if you have to choose between candidates with differing qualifications, and during discussions about reasonable accommodations with an employee … Read More
One of the lesser-known aspects of the ADA is that it makes it illegal to discriminate against someone because they “associate” with someone with a disability. According to the EEOC: The ADA prohibits discrimination based on relationship or association in order to protect individuals from actions based on unfounded assumptions … Read More
When “sex” was first included as a protected class in the Civil Rights Act of 1964, it meant that women couldn’t be excluded from employment opportunities just because they weren’t men. Over the years, a more nuanced view of gender (the less distracting term borrowed from grammar) has come to … Read More
Since Montana is not an at-will state, employers must have good cause for firing an employee past the probation period. In general, good cause means that the employee did something wrong that affects the business, and that they have had a chance to fix it but didn’t. Good cause does … Read More
When an employee leaves a job, there is always the chance that they will bring a case for wrongful discharge. This is more likely to happen if they are fired, but even an employee who appears to leave amicably can claim that they were constructively discharged (i.e. forced to quit … Read More
Disciplining people is probably the least favorite thing that every manager has to do, aside from firing someone. While it will never be easy, here are some guidelines that may make it a little less stressful. First, know your company rules and polices. Talk to management or HR before doing … Read More