Employee on Employee Violence
HRHelpME
12 Posts
[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 02-28-04 AT 03:56PM (CST)[/font][br][br]I apologize in advance for the long post.
I recently took a position with a small company that is part of a much larger bank based out of ATL. Shortly after I started I became aware of a sticky situation that may have been handled badly and was about to rear it's ugly head.
It seems that an employee was feeling uncomfortable in her position and called HR to discuss. Her then supervisor had been verbally dressing her down to the point that other employees were commenting. This employee was, by all accounts, a good worker and received praise often by co-workers and clients. The HR person who handled this tried to calm the employee and said to keep her posted.
A week later, that same supervisor was in the employee's cubile when the supervisor assaulted the employee. She apparently was frustrated with a computer problem they were having and the employee was sitting in front of her. The supervisor grabbed the arm of this employee and shook her violently. The other employee who witnessed the act did go on record and verify this to HR.
The employee called HR immediately and told them of the incident. This resulted in a sitdown with a department manager> The EE wondered if she was going to be safe, the dept. manager promised she would and had the offender apologize and asked employee to stay.
However, within a week, the dept. manager called the employee into the office and said too much had happened and she would be found another job in the company.
This employee had a rather specific position and the likelyhood of finding something like it was pretty much zero. Resulting in the offer of a much lower position with slightly lower pay. The employee did work for a couple of weeks but really felt that she was demoted whereas the offender seems to have received no demotion and/or consequences for their actions.
The employee asked HR to look for another job but they said there was nothing available. HR offered a severence if she would sign an agreement not to pursue.
The situation could have been handled a lot better. I understand the ex EE will be seeking damages.
Please can anyone help me understand where we went wrong and thoughts on how to proceed?
I recently took a position with a small company that is part of a much larger bank based out of ATL. Shortly after I started I became aware of a sticky situation that may have been handled badly and was about to rear it's ugly head.
It seems that an employee was feeling uncomfortable in her position and called HR to discuss. Her then supervisor had been verbally dressing her down to the point that other employees were commenting. This employee was, by all accounts, a good worker and received praise often by co-workers and clients. The HR person who handled this tried to calm the employee and said to keep her posted.
A week later, that same supervisor was in the employee's cubile when the supervisor assaulted the employee. She apparently was frustrated with a computer problem they were having and the employee was sitting in front of her. The supervisor grabbed the arm of this employee and shook her violently. The other employee who witnessed the act did go on record and verify this to HR.
The employee called HR immediately and told them of the incident. This resulted in a sitdown with a department manager> The EE wondered if she was going to be safe, the dept. manager promised she would and had the offender apologize and asked employee to stay.
However, within a week, the dept. manager called the employee into the office and said too much had happened and she would be found another job in the company.
This employee had a rather specific position and the likelyhood of finding something like it was pretty much zero. Resulting in the offer of a much lower position with slightly lower pay. The employee did work for a couple of weeks but really felt that she was demoted whereas the offender seems to have received no demotion and/or consequences for their actions.
The employee asked HR to look for another job but they said there was nothing available. HR offered a severence if she would sign an agreement not to pursue.
The situation could have been handled a lot better. I understand the ex EE will be seeking damages.
Please can anyone help me understand where we went wrong and thoughts on how to proceed?
Comments
Point of fact this is not the first problem with the offending supervisor, but it is the first physical one. I believe severence was offered due to concern about a suit. I also understand from an HR source that she did not quit but after she initially tried the position that was found, went back the HR to find a new position. At which time, their response was that it was the only available position, and the only alternative was to be let go.
An employee chose to tell me and before I stir up trouble, I would like to get someone else's take on it. Such as, what damage we could possibly be looking at. I am part of the company, and therefore feel obligated to say something if we are at risk. If not, I would rather find out now, like this, than to stir the pot.
Your additional information about this supervisor having been implicated in related activities before even makes things look worse for the bank. If she has an attorney (I started to say a good one), any attorney, I think the bank will surely be writing one more check. I suggest you make good notes of the events and the timeline so that you are not personally accountable for any of this mess. In the interest of your employer, you might tell them, if they haven't already, to contact the lawyer downtown at the main bank. But, maybe he drafted the severence agreement. Good luck. x:-)
It seems that there is a good bit of evidence that this supervisor should be dealt with?
Question I have is, Why is the assaultive supervisor still in place and the employee (who from your details did nothing wrong) gone?
Never impact the victim unless they ask for the change. Plus, if you don't deal with the assaulting supervisor, you are putting yourself at more risk should the employee pursue action.
If I'm the lawyer that gets this case brought to me, I'm licking my chops when I see the supervisor still in place and that no action has been taken towards him/her.
Be aggressive in dealing with that supervisor.
You asked where your company went wrong...
Do you have a workplace violence policy...if not, get one. If you do, did the Supervisor's actions violate that policy? If not, revise the policy.
The offending supervisor offering an apology is not sufficient. We are now adults and should know that physically assulting another person is not the answer. If we don't know that, we do not belong in a professional environment.
What if he/she assults another ee??? Then you're really on the hook. You knew there was a risk and ignored it.
It also sounds like the company took advantage of its knowledge of this ee's personal situation, new to the city, no strong support network....an attorney could really spin this into a big corporate machine against a poor ee with almost no effort.
It's good that you're asking questions and trying to improve....good luck!
You should do some research on hostile work environment.
You guys are at high risk.
The language of hostile work environment indicates that if the employer is aware or should have been aware of such an environment, then you are in some trouble. Also, this supervisor seems to have been out of line more than once in the past, which also hangs you on a hook.
The supervisor who assaulted the employee should have been the one moved to another area or department.
The court is going to frown upon a company moving an employee (who has been assaulted by a superior) to a lesser paying job, forcing them under duress to sign an agreement to get severance pay and then doing nothing to the offending party. (This is the way the court will see it through their eyes).
More than likely, your attorney will advise that you settle this case in some manner rather than take it through the court system.
Your instincts appear to be on target with respect to asking the questions and thinking your company is at risk here. Plus, you have effectively endorsed the Supervisor and empowered her to propigate this behavior in the future.
Perhaps you want to get your ducks in a row with respect to some sort of disciplinary action with this supervisor and contact the victim EE to offer her the job that she was demoted from? This may not be palatable, but could save you the treble damages that are too often awarded when the juries get punitive toward the employer. Just a thought to consider.
It appears that you are being informed of history and not a current event. What has transpired with this supervisor over the past four years?
Are you, or anyone telling me that because of the time that the ex EE waited to address the issue that she may not have a claim?
This has to do with hostile work environment. I don't know how substantial the physical abuse was in this instance, which would impact the recourse for the events of that day. But beyond what happened that day, you must determine if anything else happened after that event that could constitute hostile work environment...by that supervisor or anyone else (which spells trouble)
Because hostile work environment typcially deals with a series of acts or situations in an environment, they are looked at cumulatively.
There has been a 300 day "deadline" for filing claims of this nature. However, if there has been additional instances that could constitute hostile work environment after those 300 days, then you string all those events together in aggregate...no matter how far back they go.
So, since this fine supervisor is still with your bank and in his leadership position, I would gather that subsequent events (mayber of lesser degree) have occurred up til now, which would certainly bring back to play the instance that occurred four years ago. Or, if anyone else contributed to a hostile work environment, the claimant could link all those events together. I wouldn't want to look down the barrell of that gun. If a hostile work environment claim was brought against you guys, I think you'd be in some big trouble.
The situation you described was handled horribly. I think that you guys would uncover a bunch of other crap in a full investigation if a claim over this came to be. So, in a very long and not very well worded explanation, that instance from four years ago could certainly come back to bite you.
If this ex-employee is unable to produce any incident following the one in question, that she will have no case, or at least very little?
Furthermore, since the 300 day "deadline" has passed, do you mean to say that ex EE wouldn't really have much?
"The situation could have been handle a lot better?"!! I'm now speachless.
I don't want it to appear that I'm attacking you - you had nothing to do with it. It's one thing to be loyal to your comapany, but you're not sure of which side you're on?
Can anyone say that the employee was not mistreated, retaliated against, bribed, given a raw deal? I'm really disgusted with the supervisor and the company.
(I was speachless for a while there).
I guess I didn't make myself clear in previous posts.
I have nothing to do with the gross mishandling of the affair. I have been trying to ascertain what position(s) the bank may have.
I highly doubt that the attorneys will rely or even want to know any information I learn in this chat room.
I think I have learned just about all I can on this subject. However, if anyone has something constructive to say, I would welcome your response.
If you'll go back and carefully read each and every one of your posts you will see that you painted the picture of someone who has no HR role doing a 'quiet' (as you called it) investigation and trying to decide what information to send up to the HR and Legal people. You were several times advised to get HR and Legal in the loop right away and let them handle this, however, you continued your own 'quiet inquiries' throughout the bank. You misinterpret my CONCERN for HR with venom. It just always raises the hair on the back of my neck when somebody who has no HR role inserts themselves into what should be an HR investigation and muddies up the water to the point where it takes HR or Legal months to untangle the mess. Good luck with your situation. Glad you visited the Chat Room.
If you've ever dealth with hostile work environment, you'll know that it's very easy to bring one of these claims forward...and it sounds like it would be very easy in your workplace.
If you really peel back the layers in even the best managed workplaces, you would probably be able to find some tiny little piece of info that would fit into a hostile work environment claim, no matter how small and ridiculous it may be.
My point is that someone could clearly make a case that the environment has been and CONTINUES to be hostile. If I were employed there, I guarantee I could manufacture some info to do this. You are not out of the woods on what happened in the past and you should be aggressive in dealing with the current environment that you have control over. It seems to me that that's where your focus is...good for you.
I certainly hope you didn't take the time to go back and re read all the crap posted in previous messages. I'm assuming that you are busy and don't have time to bicker over symantics. And finally, some HR folk have law degrees or have undertaken substantial personal development to be well equipped to handle these issues. Most HR folks would not be so proactive...they would waste their time behind their desks administering, or spending tremendous amounts of time on the web.
That's my non-ferrous view. If you'd like the caffeinated version, check with my buddy SteelBoy.
Thank you so much for your clear, informative, and encouraging posts.
You are correct that I am too busy to re-read all the posts. You are also correct in thinking that I have been trying to see all angles of the situation for future reference.
I agree that any office has it's "pieces of info" that could be valid or not depending on whom you ask. Thanks again for your input.