Vigilant Blog

A: Updating the emergency contacts is a good start. While you don’t want to pry into employees’ personal lives, changes in marital status should trigger a review of employee benefits. A remarriage may also involve new dependents. An employee may want to add a new spouse, or new dependents, to the health insurance provided by…

A: Yes, if the Facebook postings are a violation of your harassment policy. You are responsible for addressing harassment and discrimination that occurs online—even if it’s outside of working hours—where it bears a connection to the workplace, as in this situation. What is trickier is how you conduct your investigation. Most employers want to jump…

A: Bullying can be hard to spot and even harder to stop because it can take many different forms: excluding or ignoring co-workers, embarrassing others, shouting, cursing or making negative comments. Often the conduct doesn’t violate an employer’s anti-harassment policy because it is not based on a coworker’s race, gender, religion, or other protected status,…

A: That would be an extremely risky move, especially if you haven’t addressed any performance issues with the employee prior to his or her leave. When you first notice an employee’s “performance” issues while they’re on a protected leave (such as the federal Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA)), you will have an uphill battle…