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Ask the Expert: Can We Force Sick Employee to Take Unpaid Leave?

Our non-exempt employee has no sick or vacation days left and has accrued absentee attendance points close to termination. Because of this, the same employee is coming into work while sick. We don’t want the health of other employees to be at risk because of his/her presence. Can an employer force a sick employee to […]

romance

Managing Romance in the Workplace

Valentine’s Day is here and as most people know, falling in love is simply wonderful.  Falling out of love?  Not so much.  And when romantic relationships happen in the workplace, employers need to be sure they’ve taken steps to keep romance from becoming a legal liability.

The 10 Sins of Performance Appraisers

Performance evaluation—it’s hard to get it right, but, unfortunately, it’s easy—and expensive— to get it wrong. We’ve identified the 10 most common mistakes of managers and supervisors who conduct performance appraisals. We call them the “10 Sins.”   Sin #1. Failure to set meaningful goals “Well, Sandy, I think we did fairly well this year, […]

Bully

The Key to Combating Bullying Is Accountability

In part 1 of this article we began to explore what Catherine Mattice, a consultant, coach, and trainer had to offer about workplace bullying, including its similarity to harassment and the differences under the law. Today we’ll look at the importance of accountability as well as some methods for preventing bullying.

Workers’ Compensation: Q&A on Return to Work Scenarios

Returning employees to work after an injury can raise questions from both the employee and the employer. Must you keep someone on staff who is restricted to part-time hours (when the position needs to be full-time)? If an employee comes back to work without restrictions but still requests a reduced time schedule, how should you […]

Misclassified? Me? Where’s My Back Pay?

If you reclassify employees after a self-audit, you’ll likely face some tough questions, especially about back pay. Attorneys Allen Kato and Saundra Riley recently offered tips on how to respond. But first, here is Kato’s third option for dealing with reclassification (see yesterday’s issue of the Advisor for the first two). (The attorneys are associated […]

The 6 Universal Drivers of Employee Engagement

“Six factors need to be present for true employee engagement,” says consultant Keith Branham. Highly engaged workplaces score high on all six drivers and tend to have “signature” drivers—that is, drivers for which they are particularly known. Branham, who is founder and principal of Keeping the People, Inc., offered his expertise at WorldatWork’s 2013 Total […]