New York State...at it again

New York State is at it again, or should I say still.....

I have a client who has multiple locations across New York State, with a couple hundred employees.  They have their own HR Director, but retained me to do a compliance audit.  As a result of that audit, even more controls were implemented than they previously had in place.  They really do try to do everything by the book, in addition to "doing the right thing". 

Recently they had an employee declare they were going to "go postal".  Yikes...pretty scary considering al the mass shootings that have taken place.  My client did the right thing and fired the employee immediately for misconduct.  Would anyone in their right mind think it was ok to go postal?  and threaten to?  There was a witness to the event, so it wasn't even as if somebody misunderstood them....they clearly said they were going to go postal.  And I don't think that means mailing a letter or a package.....

Of course the terminated employee thought they would file for unemployment.  Let's take a paid vacation here.  Our very intelligent business savvy unemployment folks granted him unemployment benefits.  What?  you have got to be kidding me.  Let's threaten to harm people, and have NYS pay us to sit home and watch the Today Show and Oprah.

So my client went to a hearing and lo and behold, the employee didn't show up.  Guess what?  Yup, you got it, they got unemployment anyway.  The ALJ (administrative law judge) ruled that the employee was terminated for reasons other than misconduct.  If threatening to go postal isn't misconduct, I don't know what is!! 

This person's co-workers, and customers, were somebody's family...mother, father, sister, brother...related to somebody, and the ALJ thought it was ok to threaten them? 

Perhaps the ex-employee should have shown up at the hearing, threatened to go postal in front of the ALJ, and then we could have seen how the ALJ reacted. Would he have thought it was ok if his life could have bee on the line? 

Where IS the common sense in this world?

Oh wait....the ALJ doesn't have to use common sense...he gets paid a salary anyway, and great benefits, including health insurance and retirement.  Why should he rule any differently?

Why, because it would have been the "right thing" to deny that idiot employee unemployment.  Let him learn a lesson.

Kathy

Next blog....let's talk about the Onondaga County Civil Service and how easy it is to get a job just because you pass a test.  Common sense gone again.....

Technical boring HR compliance, or is it?

I think sometimes people outside of the human resources arena look at HR people and say they are black and white boring people because they are the HR police, and how easy it must be.... just read the law and comply.

Some days that is true.  It's pretty boring having to post a gazillion posters just to comply.  However, that is not what true compliance is all about.  True compliance deals with making sure your actions, during every employee and management interaction, doesn't put the organization in jeopardy.  To really be compliant is not black and white in most cases.  It is about taking actions, as part of a process  and doing it in a fashion that you are protecting, not policing.

I get calls or emails frequently from clients who have a "situation" that they need help with.  Almost all of the time, it is not a simple answer.  We have to work through the process, probe and get more information, so we can come up with the best solution.

For example, a recent email I received said "I have a problem with an employee.  This employee was out on maternity leave and has been released to return to work on March 4, 2013.   She now wants to stipulate time she can work, which location she wants to work at, wants guaranteed overtime due to increased daycare. How is this possible? Am I within my rights to tell her to look for a job?"

Most of the above email can't be answered without probing further.  We need to determine the employee's history, what the employer has told/promised her (if anything), what the employer's policy says, and make sure we look at the demographics (age, race, etc.) to determine if there is potential discrimination.

The part that can be answered is "wants guaranteed overtime due to increased daycare".  The answer to that is no, we don't have to guarantee anything due to the employee incurring personal expenses.  That's the easy part.  The rest isn't so easy, so please don't ever think HR is a boring job because if we don't give the correct advice in this situation, the ramifications to the employer could adversely affect their bottom line by creating fines and other penalties for not considering all the laws our decision could be violating (or complying with).

Human resources IS fun and can be complex.  I love my "job"!!