Where do I take this investigation next?

debbiek

I have a female employee who was having attendance problems. She requested a shift change to accommodate some problems with babysitters. After a lengthy discussion on whether a shift change would truely solve her attendance problems (because the shift to which she wished to move had no back up if absenteeism continued), we agreed to the shift change. The first day she was scheduled to start her new shift, she was 3 hours late and left early because of behavior problems with her child at the babysitter. I had her time card pulled and told her supervisor she couldn't return until she talked with me. When we talked over the phone, she said that her previous supervisor was saying things to her that he shouldn't have. I told her that I wanted her to come in to talk with me, that we had two issues, her absenteeism (she was informed that she was close to termination) and possible sexual harassment involving her previous supervisor. Although it took her several days to come in to meet with me, she finally did and myself and another member of our harassment investigation "team" met with her and took her complaint. We began an investigation and talked with her previous supervisor, who denied saying anything to her. He said that he was very careful with how he spoke around her because he'd been warned about her. The allegations were all verbal and the supervisor indicated that she had made the comments to him, not him to her. The supervisor requested that we talk with another dept supervisor as part of our investigation (the other supervisor happens to be related by marriage to the employee making the allegations). The other supervisor related her knowledge and experience with the female concerning her "highs and lows" that she is suppose to be on medication for. The other supervisor(a female) had noticed a change in the employee and had warned her previous supervisor because from past experience when she is in her "high" state, she "asks out anybody and everybody". The employee had no direct witnesses and the one co-worker(a female)we talked with only verified 1 small, fairly insignificant piece and said she had seen no evidence of sexual harassment. We had planned to talk again with the employee to get her response to the supervisor's version of events. The employee was scheduled to work Fri., came in on-time, but left early again after working only 3 hrs, with a babysitting problem. Her attendance problems had her up for possible termination and before she left early, I informed her of that. Technically according to our attendance program she could be terminated for absenteeism, but we still haven't totally concluded our investigation. What do we do next?

Rockie

It appears to me that you really have finished your investigation and have concluded that it had no merit. The only thing you have not done is to advise the employee of your findings.

It also appears that this employee knew she was going to be terminated and is pulling out all the stops to prevent this. It is clear that you cannot operate your business when you have an employee that you can't depend upon to be at work.

If it was me, I think I would bring her in (if she will come in) and tell her that she is being terminated for excessive absenteeism according to your policy. I would also advise her that you have thoroughly investigated the alleged harassment claims that she brought before you and that you have found them to have no merit.

If you do have a claim brought up against you, the documentation should clearly show the chain of events insofar as the timing of the absences, the disciplinary and then the alleged harassment. It does not appear that she can substantiate any claims of harassment and no one else that has worked with her can substantiate them. Indeed, it appears that it may be the opposite - that she is the pursuer.

If you are truly concerned about a lawsuit, the other option you can take is to call her in and tell her that your investigation has yielded no evidence of harassment. You can then let her report back to work, and if her history is any indication, she will be absent again within a few days.

But...if she is going to claim retaliation, she is just as apt to claim it in the second scenario as the first. I think I'd just go ahead and bite the bullet and terminate her.

I'd be interested in hearing others' opinions.

Don D

Rockie has answered perfectly in my opinion. Very well put. You should go ahead and cut your losses now, not later. Well documented discipline that will likely lead to termination that is already well in place prior to the filing of any charge (or the claiming of FMLA rights for that matter) won't likely be shown later to be retaliatory. Sounds like your ducks were all in a row and she had one foot and both arms already out the door when she made what seems to be an unsupported, convenient claim of harassment. (p.s. People tell me that years ago whenever I was high, I also used to ask everybody out, so cut her some slack on that.)x:-)

Gillian

Agreed