Terminated ee

judy matt

Good Morning All!

We recently terminated an ee due to downsizing, that had an outstanding eval (due Nov) that was never given to ee. She obviously was angry at the situation, and threatened to sue b/c of the eval. OUr policy book does have a clause that states employees will receive annual evals, but we do not discriminate with being late! We are late on all of our ees. Do you think there is a chance of any problem?

tks!

Judy

Balloonman

Judy,
The question that needs to be asked is if this review was done on time, would it have impacted who was let go and who was retained in the downsizing?
If there would have been no change, then in my mind it should not matter.
My $0.02 worth.
DJ The Balloonman

marc

How did you select those EEs to be down-sized? If it was on the basis of performance and you had no current performance measures, you might have an issue, but if the EEs were selected in another fashion, the lack of a performance evaluation would be moot.

That said, there is a lawyer for everyone so you may not find the comfort you are seeking. It seems like your company culture does not make evaluations a priority and therefore they are not important.

AJ SPHR

I can't imagine being sued because an employee didn't receive a performance evaluation, unless, as others have asked - would the performance evaluation served as the basis to make the termination decision? Or, is she upset because the performance eval would have been linked to a pay increase that she didn't receive?

Don D

Others may be saying the same thing I will say. If the rationale for including this employee in your reduction in force is, ultimately, performance, and she feels her review would have, and still might, show that reason to be hollow, she indeed will have a good case in my opinion. Your immediate concern is probably with an EEOC charge of discrimination rather than a lawsuit.

Rockie

I imagine on her final pay that you will go back and retro to November when you cut her a check.

Also, you may want to change your handbook phraseology(?) on evaluations to something like "employee performance will be evaluated from time to time, usually on an annual basis." Your company sounds like mine....evals are often done late.

Jaded

Your post says that she was terminated due to "downsizing" - does that mean her position was eliminated? If on the other hand her position will be filled by another person, she may have success with an EEOC charge against your company. Just my thoughts....