Have this conversation
The most important legal conversation supervisors should have is with their human resources department on the subject of proper documentation. This is an area where supervisors cannot afford to do the wrong thing. When you are ordered to appear in court to respond and defend against a lawsuit filed by an employee, your documentation cannot have holes. The number one reason companies and their supervisors lose employee lawsuits is poor documentation and poor-quality record keeping.
And this won’t change anytime soon, because managers and supervisors just won’t take the time to (1) understand the importance of properly documenting incidents and events at work as they occur, and then (2) documenting those incidents. and events. . Once managers and the supervisor enter the courtroom to answer the charges against them, they are set a much higher standard than if they were just another employee.
Play offense, not defense
Your documentation of the event in question, be it sexual harassment, age discrimination, gender discrimination, or any other incident, looms large in that courtroom. The attorney for the employee who is suing will systematically try to dismantle what the supervisor says, which is why your documentation is the best offense you have in a lawsuit and it is the only defense you have in a court of law. What this means is that managers and supervisors must take the time to document every incident that occurs under their supervision. Remind; Every document you handle as a supervisor can and will be used against you in a court of law.
Taking the documentation approach, when you go to court, ensures that enough time is allowed to preserve dates, deadlines, people involved, and what was said and done, before, during, and after the incident in question. This is an effective offensive strategy. On the contrary, a documentation approach, if we go to court, places little importance on the preservation of this important documentation. With this approach, managers believe that if it ever makes it to court, they will be able to recall events and moments, and just explain things. Of course, you can imagine that these are managers who have never been in a court of law.
Not the place to go to school
Come to court without solid documentation and you will fight an uphill battle to win your case against that employee. There are three laws when it comes to documenting; (1) document everything, (2) document everything, and (3) document everything. Follow the three laws of documentation to the letter and you will be one of the rarest managers and supervisors to go to court to answer charges brought by an employee; a manager who wins his case.
conclusion
The most important legal conversation supervisors should have is with their human resources department on the subject of proper and correct documentation. This is an area where supervisors simply cannot afford to be wrong. Your documentation of the incidents and events in question will feature prominently in the courtroom.
© 2014 Cubie Davis King. All rights reserved internationally.