Gifts, Baby Showers, Going-Away, Flowers, Etc
Rockie
2,136 Posts
I'd like some feedback from you guys concerning the above. I am most concerned with employees "hosting" going away parties for individuals after work hours where drinking, etc. is involved. If it was just employees I probably would not be concerned but we have physicians from our practice who also attend these functions and also imbibe.
We do not sanction these "parties" as a practice, but I maintain our physicians could still have some type of liability in dealing/socializing with employees, etc. away from the workplace. We have already had one such incident a couple of years ago at a going away party, where an employee (who was not even attending the going away party) happened to stop by the bar where the party was being held and a physician acted inappropriately towards her (after drinking). She mentioned it to her supervisor, but maintained she didn't want to make a big deal out of it. Despite this, I made an investigation and the physician was sanctioned for this type fo behavior. Fortunately, I made copious notes of the investigation, the outcome, etc. Because....guess what? The employee who "didn't want to make a big deal out of this was terminated for cause and then turned around and sued our practice and the physician for sexual harassment!" The "charges" were dismissed fortunately because of the swiftness in which we acted on her "complaint". So....you can see where my concern lies.
The same thing with gifts, etc. The only gift I give is for my assistant at Xmas time and I do this very discreetly. I maintain that members of management should not buy gifts, attend baby showers, etc. for employees. It's very unfortunate, but it appears that the "family" work atmosphere is a very rare thing nowdays due to our litigous society.
Any comments from you guys would be helpful.
We do not sanction these "parties" as a practice, but I maintain our physicians could still have some type of liability in dealing/socializing with employees, etc. away from the workplace. We have already had one such incident a couple of years ago at a going away party, where an employee (who was not even attending the going away party) happened to stop by the bar where the party was being held and a physician acted inappropriately towards her (after drinking). She mentioned it to her supervisor, but maintained she didn't want to make a big deal out of it. Despite this, I made an investigation and the physician was sanctioned for this type fo behavior. Fortunately, I made copious notes of the investigation, the outcome, etc. Because....guess what? The employee who "didn't want to make a big deal out of this was terminated for cause and then turned around and sued our practice and the physician for sexual harassment!" The "charges" were dismissed fortunately because of the swiftness in which we acted on her "complaint". So....you can see where my concern lies.
The same thing with gifts, etc. The only gift I give is for my assistant at Xmas time and I do this very discreetly. I maintain that members of management should not buy gifts, attend baby showers, etc. for employees. It's very unfortunate, but it appears that the "family" work atmosphere is a very rare thing nowdays due to our litigous society.
Any comments from you guys would be helpful.
Comments
>"family" work atmosphere is a very rare thing nowdays due to our
>litigous society.
>
>Rockie: I think your final comment (above) says it all! Sounds like you have a runaway train for sure. The days of company sponsored drinkers are long gone or should be. However, there's some salvation, I think, in the fact that these events find their way down to the corner tavern and are not really company functions per se. Be careful not to publicize them on company bulletin boards or with solicitations and gift suggestions passed around in memos. Upper management at your organization will definitely have to 'buy into' a serious culture change if it is to change at all. Otherwise, without leadership and mandates from that level, you'll just be the bad guy down the hall in HR who doesn't want anyone to have fun. But, Hey, surely you are not implying that the most respected of all professions, Doctors, do not know how to behave!
In a former life, I worked in banking and I thought working with a Board of Directors was a challenge. Working with 22 different docs is like a Board of Directors on steroids! Anyway...it's never dull around here!