Employee Relations: $95,000,000 of Incompetency

In disputes by employees about Managers, it is very important for the company to fill the role of employee advocate in addition to impartial investigator. Clearly the Manager has more authority than the line employee and if they don't feel someone is considering their interests they will find someone like a plaintiff's attorney, government agency or a labor union. No need to put yourself through that.

In the Aaron Rents case, a Supervisor and the Company Hotline apparently ignored her reports of illegal harassment. So she found an attorney who plead her case in front of a jury, who gave her $95,000,000.

In a better scenario, the Supervisor informs HR immediately upon receiving the complaint and HR contacts her immediately to launch an investigation. And the Hotline personnel immediately inform HR Management of the call so they can contact the employee.

Did I say "immediately?"  When I have received claims of harassment, I make notes, set up my documentation and make initial contact with the employee, a process that takes about 60 seconds. You can call helpdeskHR. Doing this is the best possible launch of a resolving investigation.

Gee, could have saved Aaron $95,000,000.

I know the award could be capped at $40,000,000. But that's still a lot of frappuccinos.

Lance