Stand behind a bad manager, and you may get what he or she deserves …
More than once I have heard from an employee who was unfairly fired, yet the employer chose to stand behind the manager's decision. Whenever an employee is fired, there should be a paper trail of the reasons why and the steps taken to make the decision.
We all know this, yet many employers fail to follow through. When a manager lets someone go, the employer doesn't want to undermine the manager's authority by reversing the decision.
Sometimes the manager has made a bad decision, and by ratifying it the employer is just asking to be sued.
One example is the bullying manager. You know, the equal opportunity jerk who treats everyone badly without regard to race, gender, age, etc.
Usually a male, but not always, this manager is overbearing, short-tempered and puts down subordinates while often kissing up to superiors. He claims to have high standards, but seems to generate a lot of employee turnover.
Workplace bullying has gotten more attention in the last few years, and pressure is mounting to curtail bullies at work. Even though some have escaped legal liability in the past, it's expensive to defend a lawsuit, and most are settled out of court at some cost to the employer.
More importantly, bullies don't deserve the boss' backing. They damage morale in your company and whatever they gain in the short-term, you lose down the road.
My recommendation is to avoid them at all costs.
Public safety versus workplace privacy
You may remember a recent case where the California Supreme Court said employers have a right to use video monitors in the workplace if they have a legitimate reason and warn employees.
Well, Metrolink seems to have a good reason, to prevent another accident caused by a text-sending engineer. Metrolink plans to install cameras in all of its train cabs.
This prompted the engineers' union to sue, claiming the cameras invade privacy and won't make trains safer. They point to research showing that employees perform better without someone looking over their shoulders.
My money's on Metrolink in this contest, public safety trumps a lot of other considerations. This is why some forms of discrimination have been upheld for firefighters and airline pilots.
Outsourcing may not be worth the savings
Speaking of research, the annual corporate fraud survey of Kroll Inc. suggests that outsourcing certain functions may be more risky than the savings are worth. Many businesses have found it cheaper to have companies in India, China and elsewhere handle IT functions, customer service and even legal research.
But the report cites the case of Satyam Computing Services, at one time the fourth largest outsourcing company in the world. It admitted to inflating its profit figures for some years, demonstrating a lack of internal integrity, which could also have led to leaking of confidential records and other shenanigans.
Another case involved Bank of New York Mellon. Its outsource company lost a data tape with 12 million customers' personal information on it.
No fraud was found, but the company had to notify customers and spend a lot of money protecting them from possible fraud.
The lesson? Kroll says to choose outsource companies carefully, protect your data and processes and even split up information so you don't risk putting all your eggs in one basket.
I'll add another caution: Some other countries simply don't match the United States when it comes to legal protection and enforcement.
More than once I have heard from an employee who was unfairly fired, yet the employer chose to stand behind the manager's decision. Whenever an employee is fired, there should be a paper trail of the reasons why and the steps taken to make the decision.
We all know this, yet many employers fail to follow through. When a manager lets someone go, the employer doesn't want to undermine the manager's authority by reversing the decision.
Sometimes the manager has made a bad decision, and by ratifying it the employer is just asking to be sued.
One example is the bullying manager. You know, the equal opportunity jerk who treats everyone badly without regard to race, gender, age, etc.
Usually a male, but not always, this manager is overbearing, short-tempered and puts down subordinates while often kissing up to superiors. He claims to have high standards, but seems to generate a lot of employee turnover.
Workplace bullying has gotten more attention in the last few years, and pressure is mounting to curtail bullies at work. Even though some have escaped legal liability in the past, it's expensive to defend a lawsuit, and most are settled out of court at some cost to the employer.
More importantly, bullies don't deserve the boss' backing. They damage morale in your company and whatever they gain in the short-term, you lose down the road.
My recommendation is to avoid them at all costs.
Public safety versus workplace privacy
You may remember a recent case where the California Supreme Court said employers have a right to use video monitors in the workplace if they have a legitimate reason and warn employees.
Well, Metrolink seems to have a good reason, to prevent another accident caused by a text-sending engineer. Metrolink plans to install cameras in all of its train cabs.
This prompted the engineers' union to sue, claiming the cameras invade privacy and won't make trains safer. They point to research showing that employees perform better without someone looking over their shoulders.
My money's on Metrolink in this contest, public safety trumps a lot of other considerations. This is why some forms of discrimination have been upheld for firefighters and airline pilots.
Outsourcing may not be worth the savings
Speaking of research, the annual corporate fraud survey of Kroll Inc. suggests that outsourcing certain functions may be more risky than the savings are worth. Many businesses have found it cheaper to have companies in India, China and elsewhere handle IT functions, customer service and even legal research.
But the report cites the case of Satyam Computing Services, at one time the fourth largest outsourcing company in the world. It admitted to inflating its profit figures for some years, demonstrating a lack of internal integrity, which could also have led to leaking of confidential records and other shenanigans.
Another case involved Bank of New York Mellon. Its outsource company lost a data tape with 12 million customers' personal information on it.
No fraud was found, but the company had to notify customers and spend a lot of money protecting them from possible fraud.
The lesson? Kroll says to choose outsource companies carefully, protect your data and processes and even split up information so you don't risk putting all your eggs in one basket.
I'll add another caution: Some other countries simply don't match the United States when it comes to legal protection and enforcement.