Court Jester
speeches with content, compassion and comedy
The Most Momentous Mistakes Managers
Make
By Makana Risser Chai
It might be funny if Steve Carell, the boss on The Office, has sex at work, but in real life that’s a lawsuit waiting to happen. And it’s just one of the most momentous mistakes managers make. Do you think in hard times you don’t have to worry about lawsuits? Think again. A Stanford University study found with each 1.5% increase in unemployment, there is a significant increase in employee lawsuits. So what are bosses’ biggest blunders?
Fishing off the company pier. Dipping your pen in the company inkwell. Getting your meat where you get your bread. Whatever metaphor floats your boat, don’t do it in or out of the office. In the past few years, companies lost lawsuits brought by women who had affairs with managers, by women who rejected their manager’s advances, and by women who lost out on promotions to women who slept their way to the top. One manager fooled around with numerous women in the office, then sued his company claiming they harassed him! And he won!
Fumbling harassment claims. When sex turns to harassment and someone complains about it, managers often react one of two ways – both wrong. Some make excuses. “That’s just the way he is!” “But she didn’t touch you!” And my favorite, “Can’t you take a joke?” When managers say these things, they illegally discourage harassment complaints. Other managers over-react and fire the accused without even asking for his or her side of the story. That’s unfair and could lead to a wrongful termination lawsuit. Accused harassers have rights, too.
Bumbling documentation. Managers often don’t document at all. That’s bad enough, but it’s not the biggest blunder. A manager once called me to approve his termination of an employee. “Did you document it?” I asked. “Oh yeah, I sent him several emails and drafted the final notice,” he assured me. “Great, send them over.” The final notice read, “I know I promised to train you for the job and I haven’t, and I said you would have 60 days to get up to speed, but you’ve been here 30 days and that’s enough time to see you won’t work out so we’re letting you go.” That’s not only a wrongful termination, it’s really easy to prove since the manager documented all his mistakes!
Bungling overtime exemptions. Overtime exemptions are boring – until you see how much blunders cost you. One company with 546 employees paid $2.76 million in 2008 for exemption violations. Exemptions apply to few employees. For example, many “administrative assistants” and “assistant managers” do not qualify as exempt. If you don’t pay them overtime, not only will you have to pay it going back two or three years, plus their attorney’s fees, you also can be fined up to $1100 per pay check. Multiply that by all the people in your organization misclassified as exempt, and it adds up quickly. What’s the risk you’ll get caught? The U. S. Department of Labor audits employers and last year won record amounts for employees.
Joking in emails. Did you hear the one about the executive who sent racist and sexist jokes to his friends? That’s not illegal harassment because his friends worked outside the company and enjoyed the emails. In fact, they sent him racist and sexist jokes. The problem came when he denied a promotion to an African American employee, who claimed discrimination. The employee’s attorney found the jokes in pre-trial discovery and got them admitted at trial to show the manager’s bias towards blacks. As the boss in The Office said, “There is no such thing as an appropriate joke – that’s what makes it funny.”
Muddling company policies. Do you think your company’s policies are ridiculous? Maybe they are, but if you, the manager, violate them, you could set yourself up for suit. In a 2008 case, an organization’s policy prohibited personal use of company-provided pagers. The manager thought that was dumb, so let his people use them as long as they paid any overage fees. One thing led to another, an employee sued, and won. None of that would have happened if the manager just followed the policy.
College educated, well-intentioned managers who haven’t been trained in the law look like fools in court. Ignorance of the law is no excuse – and if you’re ignorant, you’re in trouble!
---