Marital Woes in Manufacturing

Missy

We have a night shift supervisor who is married to the sister of one of our male employees. Apparently, the supervisor has been having marital problems & has admitted to having an affair with a former female employee to his wife. She is understandably upset & is currently staying with her brother (our employee).

To add to the situation, we are selling our manufacturing equipment to an overseas company and are phasing out our manufacturing employees over the next 6 months. The male employee will be impacted by the RIF, the supervisor is slated to be transferred to an internal department. Due to decreased productivity, manufacturing management has asked all of the supervisors to work one extra day a week to help out. As a result of this directive, the supervisor in question will be spending one night a week working on his brother-in-law's shift. The brother-in-law has indicated that he doesn't want the supervisor on his shift & would like nothing better than to beat him to a pulp. He has been advised that violence on his part will result in termination on our part.

The production manager is not aware of this situation, as the male employee brought it directly to HR last night. Any thoughts on how to handle this one?

ray a

How serious is this brother-in-law? Is he capable of violence or was he just blowing off steam? You were right to warn him that if he does anything he will be subject to disciplinary action including termination. That is the first thing I would do.

Balloonman

I would bring the employee back in, say I have been thinking about his comments, and I am concerned. I would then explain the fact of the matter is he will have to be working with him, and that he can decide how important his job is. I would put him on notice that any insubordination on his part will result in termination. Not a warning, not suspension, termination. I would also reiterate that if anything remotely physical happens the police will be involved.
I would also probably let him know that you can empathize with him and how he feels but the personal issues must stay at home. All of this goes out the window if you think he is prone to violence and is one of your wack jobs.
My $0.02 worth.
DJ The Balloonman

System

That is the question. What is this ee's history?
In any event I agree with ballonman. The ee doesn't get to dictate who works where and when.