Discrimination???
hrgeneral
3 Posts
I have an employee who for the past 5 years was the decision maker for the
company since the three owners could not work together. There are approx.
350 employees total at this company. This employee is an officer of the
company (for 10 yrs) and an employee for 25 years total. This employee
was put in the middle by the owners who all respect this employee's ability
to make decisions without taking sides. The employee was involved in every
area of the business. One of the owners is not active in the company's day
to day operations. About 6 months ago, one owner was fired by the other
owners because they could not get along. Since day one, the one owner who
is left to run the business, has restricted this employee's duties to
reviewing inventory reports once a quarter and monitoring plant employee's disciplinary problems.
Though the owner says this employee is the HR Manager now, there is a
tremendous amount of HR work that this employee is not allowed to perform,
such as, monitoring office employee's disciplinary problems because the
owner does not want the young girls written up for their attendance problems. Also, on day one, a younger employee was promoted to the same level as this employee and has been given more responsibility than can be handled by one person effectively.
This owner is not easy to talk to, holds grudges, does not listen. I am concerned this employee is going to become totally frustrated and go see a lawyer for discrimination. The employee is in high 40's. The younger
employee is around in the low to mid 30's. It appears this employee was
great to all of the owners until one left, then the other one decided this employee was threatening their ability to lead. This owner has told this employee that they resent them because the employee was so involved in all
the daily goings on in the business and knew so much. Do you feel this
is a potential lawsuit and if so, how should I handle this situation?
I know the owner will be difficult to talk to about this since the younger employee is always right in the owner's eyes.
company since the three owners could not work together. There are approx.
350 employees total at this company. This employee is an officer of the
company (for 10 yrs) and an employee for 25 years total. This employee
was put in the middle by the owners who all respect this employee's ability
to make decisions without taking sides. The employee was involved in every
area of the business. One of the owners is not active in the company's day
to day operations. About 6 months ago, one owner was fired by the other
owners because they could not get along. Since day one, the one owner who
is left to run the business, has restricted this employee's duties to
reviewing inventory reports once a quarter and monitoring plant employee's disciplinary problems.
Though the owner says this employee is the HR Manager now, there is a
tremendous amount of HR work that this employee is not allowed to perform,
such as, monitoring office employee's disciplinary problems because the
owner does not want the young girls written up for their attendance problems. Also, on day one, a younger employee was promoted to the same level as this employee and has been given more responsibility than can be handled by one person effectively.
This owner is not easy to talk to, holds grudges, does not listen. I am concerned this employee is going to become totally frustrated and go see a lawyer for discrimination. The employee is in high 40's. The younger
employee is around in the low to mid 30's. It appears this employee was
great to all of the owners until one left, then the other one decided this employee was threatening their ability to lead. This owner has told this employee that they resent them because the employee was so involved in all
the daily goings on in the business and knew so much. Do you feel this
is a potential lawsuit and if so, how should I handle this situation?
I know the owner will be difficult to talk to about this since the younger employee is always right in the owner's eyes.
Comments
HRgeneral: I'd say, tell your friend to RUN! He or she might want to take a lesson from my personal HR Hero - Paula_AZ. See [url]http://www.hrhero.com/employersforum/DCForumID14/1008.html[/url]
Christy Reeder
Website Managing Editor
[url]www.HRhero.com[/url]
I am getting the vibes that this employee will be
taking my position when I retire in a year. Also,
yes, this male owner does call the young girls "his
young girls".Not only that, but he has also been
heard to say "I'll spank you" among other things!!
With all due respect, a male supervisor/manager/CEO referring to female employees as "his young girls," as well as saying "I'll spank you" (to those same employees???) -- if it is regular behavior from him and not just an isolated incident -- could indeed be grounds for a hostile environment sexual harassment charge. The other allegations, if true, are indeed hostile (and yes, dysfunctional) behavior but not necessarily against the law. Courts have ruled, unfortunately, that being a big jerk is not illegal.
So. [b]hrgeneral[/b], is there anyone in your company to whom the owner [i]will[/i] listen? Can that person suggest that such behavior could be very [b]expensive and embarrassing[/b] if an employee were to take offense and sue, even if the company wound up winning? Sometimes explaining the potentially disastrous results of such behavior will get an executive's attention when nothing else can.
I have to warn you it was not an easy process, it took me approximately 3 months to negotiate a deal that worked for both of us. Just as a side note this younger hotshot that took my place is now gone and they have gone through three more HR directors since and it's only been two years. That has to tell you something about how dsyfunctional that place was too.