N
nightowl007
Guest
I have a situation that I have come up against.
I am a manager for a company and have several supervisors and employees that work for me. One of my employees has been verbally cautioned about their professional conduct because they have a history of being overly loud, combative and, at times, rude to fellow coworkers.
For background info, the employee rates well on their yearly evaluation and is considered a good worker. The employee recently has filed a workman's comp claim after a back injury moving some equipment. Although this has no bearing on the following issue, it has a bearing on the overall advice I am seeking.
An incident happened last week that warrranted a written warning as per our company policy. I called the employee into a meeting with HR and told the employee I understood there was an incident. The employee refuted the claim. When I advised I felt the claim was true and knew there were people who claimed to have heard the outburst against the fellow employee. I told the employee that given the previous history of outbursts I felt a written warning was deserved.
The employee refused to accept the written reprimand for the misconduct on their record and gave a verbal resignation. I followed the employee back to their cubicle and the employee told me to expect a call from their lawyer as the employee had decided to pursue legal action against their direct supervisor and myself. The employee felt that the resulting written reprimand was in retaliation for them filing a workman's comp claim. While this has absolutely no bearing whatsoever on the employee's reprimand, they feel their direct supervisor and myself were targeting them and they feel seeking litigation against us would be the thing to do.
I have sufficient evidence to show that the reprimand is directly related to the employee's conduct and attitude. There has never been a question of the employee's performance and none of the previous verbal reprimands or this written reprimand were in any way related to the workman's comp claim. I made sure that after the employee injured their back that a back belt was purchased and the employee and their coworkers were reminded that the employee was not to lift anything that would create further injury to the employees back as long as they were under a doctors care.
My question is, does the employee have grounds to pursue a suit against myself even though I was acting in the best interests of the company and performing the duties of my job. The action that resulted in the employees resignation did not directly relate to the workmans comp claim nor was any performance increase or decrease taken into account when the decision to issue a written reprimand to the employee for their conduct was made.
I am a manager for a company and have several supervisors and employees that work for me. One of my employees has been verbally cautioned about their professional conduct because they have a history of being overly loud, combative and, at times, rude to fellow coworkers.
For background info, the employee rates well on their yearly evaluation and is considered a good worker. The employee recently has filed a workman's comp claim after a back injury moving some equipment. Although this has no bearing on the following issue, it has a bearing on the overall advice I am seeking.
An incident happened last week that warrranted a written warning as per our company policy. I called the employee into a meeting with HR and told the employee I understood there was an incident. The employee refuted the claim. When I advised I felt the claim was true and knew there were people who claimed to have heard the outburst against the fellow employee. I told the employee that given the previous history of outbursts I felt a written warning was deserved.
The employee refused to accept the written reprimand for the misconduct on their record and gave a verbal resignation. I followed the employee back to their cubicle and the employee told me to expect a call from their lawyer as the employee had decided to pursue legal action against their direct supervisor and myself. The employee felt that the resulting written reprimand was in retaliation for them filing a workman's comp claim. While this has absolutely no bearing whatsoever on the employee's reprimand, they feel their direct supervisor and myself were targeting them and they feel seeking litigation against us would be the thing to do.
I have sufficient evidence to show that the reprimand is directly related to the employee's conduct and attitude. There has never been a question of the employee's performance and none of the previous verbal reprimands or this written reprimand were in any way related to the workman's comp claim. I made sure that after the employee injured their back that a back belt was purchased and the employee and their coworkers were reminded that the employee was not to lift anything that would create further injury to the employees back as long as they were under a doctors care.
My question is, does the employee have grounds to pursue a suit against myself even though I was acting in the best interests of the company and performing the duties of my job. The action that resulted in the employees resignation did not directly relate to the workmans comp claim nor was any performance increase or decrease taken into account when the decision to issue a written reprimand to the employee for their conduct was made.