Suspending an exempt employee

nohr4u1yr · November 2005

Good morning!

We have an exempt employee that we would like to suspend for 2 days without pay to think about her actions. We can do this, right?

Down_the_Middle · November 2005

Depends........ Changes to the FLSA last year permit disciplinary suspensions w/o pay for violations of workplace conduct rules, sexual harasment , workplace violence, etc..... You must have a written policy in place b/4 administering this discipline or risk an exempt pay issue.
While I'm not a fan of this type of discipline for exempt staff, I'll limit my response to your specific question.

LarryC · November 2005

The written policy, of which Down-the-Middle speaks, pertains to workplace rules, codes of conduct, and the like.

atrimble · November 2005

We would do this only for an egregious action of a very valuable employee (almost a "key" employee, to use an FMLA definition). We have actually done this for verbal assault and extremely unprofessional behavior, after the employee had been warned two times before about swearing in the workplace and jumping someone's case. The employee surely didn't like the unpaid suspension, and within two months tendered her resignation. Be prepared for backlash, is all I'm saying.

Suspending an exempt employee

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