Avoiding Litigation Landmines

Here we have another title that speaks to the necessity for professionally documented discipline files. This is a well produced title that illustrates a common and realistic scenario.

An established employee has begun to raise the attention of a newly appointed supervisor. The female manager feels her gender may be a factor in the employee's reluctance to acknowledge her disapproval. She slowly realizes the importance of documenting the corrective actions she is taking. This documentation dossier will later serve as fodder for a wrongful termination lawsuit.

Like many other compliance training videos Avoiding Litigation Landmines emphasizes the pitfalls of including opinion or commentary in a discipline document. The supervisor makes the error of alluding to his age as a contributing factor to his inability to learn new methods of conducting business. When his case goes to trial this one sentence accusation threatens to undermine her legitimate reasons for terminating his employment.

This is a movie that I feel is a strong tool for teaching managers the dangers of improperly documented disciplinary actions. It includes commentary by professionals and the themes presented translate well to several industries.

To find out more about Avoiding Litigation Landmines please click this link.

Documenting Discipline 2

An unfortunate reality of the workplace is the necessity for employee discipline. In most instances, poor behavior can be corrected with a brief discussion of the shortcoming and it's effect on productivity or morale. However, when ill performance becomes habitual stronger measures may be necessary. In those instances, termination needs to be backed up by a litany of documented offenses.

Documenting Discipline is a great tool for teaching the fundamentals of verbal and written warnings in the workplace. The focus of this movie is staying on message with your documentation. While it is tempting to fault an employee for a 'bad attitude' or 'laziness' those are characteristics grounded in perception rather than fact. This video will teach Supervisors to focus on what is observable and measurable. If an employee is consistently tardy you can observe how often and how late he is. If he is ill-prepared for work you can remark how and when. Both of these examples may speak to a generally lazy work ethos without using subjective language.

The strength of Documenting Discipline lies in it's realistic portrayal of an employee being misleading and fraudulent. It shows how discipline (and subsequent termination) is made easier when corrective action is taken through the appropriately documented channels.

To find out more about this video please click this link.