The votes are in, the contests have been played – we are down to the Final Four Biggest Workplace Headaches for 2011! We received bracket entries from employers across the country telling us about their biggest frustrations, and after tallying all of the submissions, we can reveal the most annoying four situations that employers face every day. Here are the winners, along with some practical tips for dealing with them.
Documentation Region: Supervisors Forgetting to Document Warnings
This was a very close contest, as the #4 seed edged the #6 seed "Whiners" in a thrilling contest that came down to the wire. In the end, the frustration of having to deal with supervisors who forget to document warnings won out as one of the country's biggest workplace headaches. This is such a big problem for employers because as many have experienced first hand, juries often follow the "if it's not in writing, it didn't happen" line of thinking.
What you can try to do when you become aware of the problem is prepare a written statement supporting the discipline in a way that "captures" the past undocumented discipline – for example, "As you know, two weeks ago, your supervisor talked to you about your attendance problems. Last week, your supervisor issued you a verbal warning for coming to work late. This final warning is to notify you that .…" You may also want your supervisor to document the past discipline as best as possible at this point and take written statements from other witnesses if possible (file this under "better late than never").
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