Employees Concerned

LindaS

We have a supervisor who has filed an age discrimination complaint against us. Among the reasons he cited for us discriminating against him is a poor performance review back in June 2004 wherein one of the issues we had with him was his failure to follow-up on issues, plan schedules accordingly and follow directives from his supervisor. We are following due course with both his performance issues as well as the complaint.

The problem now is that several of his employees have come to me expressing concern about him. They state that he forgets things that he should know, forgets things that people tell him and seems very confused. I asked the employees if this is a one-time thing and their response was that it has been getting worse over the past couple of months. They are unaware of the complaint he has lodged against the company and are not looking to get him into trouble but rather are genuinely concerned.

My quandry at this time is whether to talk to him about the employees' concerns or leave things alone and deal only with the performance problems. In spite of the complaint I do not want to see this person lose his job if there is something wrong with him but I don't want to open us up to some type of retaliation claim either.

Any thoughts?

Don D

I would thank them for their concerns and make complete notes of each comment. I would NOT discuss this with the supervisor. It would only serve to further antagonize him and nothing producive could possibly come from being told that coworkers think you are forgetful.

Deal with the performance issues. BTW, I don't see anything possibly discriminatory in the earlier issue he raised about the performance review. Forget the age of the employee. Deal with performance and expected results.

Rockie

I agree. Just focus on the performance issues. If you start addressing these type concerns, it will add fuel to the fire and will appear to the employee that you are trying to build a case against him.

LindaS

Thanks for the responses and those were my thoughts as well but I questioned whether or not I had a responsibility to respond to the concerns from the employees.

BTW - I thought the same as you regarding the performance review as we had numerous concrete examples of the problems but the state of WI believes there is probable cause for age discrimination and a hostile work environment. The supervisor used two VERY disgruntled ex-employees as witnesses who supported his statements, etc. and, despite all our supporting documentation, etc. we will be going in front of an ALJ to address this issue.

SMace

He filed an age complaint and now you want to "harass" him about your second hand knowledge of him forgetting things? I know that is not what you are doing, but it can easily be spun that way. I say continue to deal with his performance related behavior just as you would anyone else.

pork1

LINDA: As I read your post and the responses above, I was agreeing and still do, but then I put my self in this man's shoes and wondered: just how safe is this supervisor's "world of work"? Are there lots of dangerous machines, fast moving forklifts coming from hidden spaces,is there room for the individuals and his ees to function safely when his behavior (as indicated by several of his team) is showing signs of lost mental capacity due to some medical condition, to which, we have no previous signs of deminished capacity to supervise. Safety may in fact be an issue that I would not want the company to be proven to be neglectful in the companies' required responsibility to provide a safe working environment.

Is the rumor of "deminished mental capacity" a fact and a safety concern for the company? I can picture myself forgetting to lock out/tag out a down machine. At 64 I too have found myself to becoming less able to remember, I am taking a lot of notes these days to help me remember. Is he or anyone else under his supervision in danger from "unsafe working environment", due to lost capacity to supervise, which is also a performance issue?

If he supervises an administrative portion of the company with little environmental safety issues, then I vote, as the others.

A little balance pressured me to post on this thread!

PORK

TN HR

Pork raises a very valid point. To what extent is this supervisor still able to safely function AND direct the work of others.

I agree with the rest that you need to separate the issues. Deal with the performance review on its own merit.

Now, as far as the complaint itself, you didn't indicate in your post if you will be represented by counsel, but I would think now may be a good time. I don't know about your state, but in mine, the term ALJ can sometimes amount to nothing more than a glorified referee and they tend to be very ee friendly.

Good luck.

Gene

LindaS

In response to the concerns about safety, this supervisor isn't directly involved with machinery, etc. as we have trained set-up people to do that. The biggest problem comes in from a performance standpoint, not scheduling jobs appropriately, not following through, not remembering instructions - that kind of thing.

As far as the age discrimination complaint, we have had our attorney involved from square one but thanks for the concern.

Don D

One other thought. I would not under any circumstances give any feedback to the employees who 'expressed concerns' and I certainly would not solicit further comments like those. Those may be the very ones who show up as his witnesses. However, I would give the lawyer the notes regarding their comments and be sure to cover that with a written statement that they fall under the attorney-client privelege so they are not discoverable and twisted against the company.

njjel

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 03-21-05 AT 09:39AM (CST)[/font][br][br]I would keep an eye on his performance issues and see if his forgetfulness affects it. Also I would interact w/him to see first hand if he is in fact experiencing some difficulty in the memory department as it could affect his management capabilities.

Crout

Where is the tangible loss for him to justify a charge of discrimination? It doesn't sound like he was fired. Was he demoted? Did he lose money or status of any kind? If he did not lose anything I don't see how the charge can be sustained.

LindaS

There hasn't been any "tangible loss" at this point. He is claiming "hostile work environment" and the investigator apparently feels there is "probably cause". He is still working for us, although he has been placed on a PIP plan due to performance.

BTW - We suspended this EE back in Oct. for not following instructions that resulted in additional OT costs, etc. and have won the UI battle with the State of WI twice. He, along with his attorney, have appealed this decision to LIRC for review. We'll see what happens.

Thanks for the help.