Company Picnic and employees on Lay-Off

March22Collector

I'm interested to see if anyone else has come across this situation. Would you invite employees who are on Lay-Off to the annual company picnic? Are there any laws about this sort of situation? Any input would be appreciated. Thanks. Eric

bsa

If the company didn't have the resources to keep them working, where are they getting the resources to have a company picnic? How are these ex-employees going to view this event from the ranks of the unemployed?

Don D

Excellent questions from BSA. Might have been more prudent to 'postpone' the picnic until recall. We have an annual picnic and always do invite retirees and people off on comp/fmla/other (who don't see the notices posted). One one hand, your laid off guys are still 'part of the company family' and should be viewed as such....but, on the other hand, it will send some mixed signals to have the picnic. But, if it is a done deal that the picnic will be held, I vote to invite those on layoff. If you don't you're sending them a worse message.

njjel

I'm surprises that employees on FMLA and other disability leaves are invited to the company picnic! If they are too ill to come to work, they should be too ill to attend a picnic I would think. Where I've worked in the past, only those working and retirees were included in the picnic. I agree with the opinion that the company should not be having a picnic if they have had to lay off employees. Not a good morale move. There are other smaller ways to boost the morale of those not on layoff. Bagels, light lunch at work, ice cream sundae breaks, etc. When business improves, THEN hold the picnic or other social function outside of work time.

moneyman

Depending on your definition of a company picnic, I could see that it would be okay to have one now and invite everyone. Sometime you might have people off on maternity leave, they are not "too sick" to attend, or someone off on disability may not be able to perform their "lifting" duties but can certainly come and enjoy the outdoors and socialize with other.

Regarding having the picnic now, is the whole thing company funded? We have company events where very little is sponsored by the company, perhaps it is just having the building open later in the evening to we can have a potluck, or meet at the park and they provide sodas/water only and we provide food. A picnic can be sponsored for very little money (we are a smaller employer 75) and still give the employees a sense of team and good welfare.

Don D

>I'm surprises that employees on FMLA and other disability leaves are
>invited to the company picnic! If they are too ill to come to work,
>they should be too ill to attend a picnic I would think.

At this year's picnic, attendees included: employee on 2nd week of FMLA caring for child recovering from surgery (brought her child too); employee on comp from accident caused by company safety hazard and an employee who is caring for his wife who has end stage renal failure (she came too). Surprisingly enough, they were all able to operate a plastic fork and participate in our fishing rodeo from the bank. They're just excused from work, not life.