#HRBP #DiscriminationIssue #EmployeeAccommodation
Hey HR community! 👋 Have you ever dealt with a situation where an employee threatens to walk if they’re not promoted? 🤔 Here’s a scenario: an employee, who is on an accommodation for stress, sent a letter demanding a promotion due to feeling overwhelmed and claiming discrimination based on protected classes. Legal is calling for an investigation, but is that really necessary?
Here are some points to consider:
– Management believes the employee’s scope is appropriate for their level
– The employee’s workload may not be as overwhelming as they claim
– The mention of protected classes could be a strategy to pressure the company
What are your thoughts on this? How would you handle the situation? Let’s brainstorm some solutions together to ensure fair treatment for all employees. Share your insights below! 💬 #HRCommunity #EmployeeRelations #ConflictResolution
It could be an attempt to scare you, yes, but it’s worth a deeper conversation. Have you spoken to the employee? That would be my first move, just to get a better idea of what’s going on and to get a lot more specific information and follow up on the allegations. If they are saying that they are being discriminated against, you should look into it and document that effort. It doesn’t have to be a huge investigation but there is obviously a disconnect between what management thinks and what the employee is experiencing. If they walk, they walk, but you want to be able to say you looked into it and have that documentation.
Pragmatically:
If the employee is right and you’ve not looked into it, you’re fucked.
If you look into it and they’re right, problem averted. If they’re wrong, you’ve prepped your defense for when they talk to the EEOC.
Anytime someone hints at discrimination or harassment, I look into it, just to make sure we’re clean.
It’s also a useful tip to not blindly trust management – it’s not like they’re about to fess up that they’re screwing the employee, are they?
It’s better to detach from the issue sometimes, consider your information sources, and look at it through it a risk/reward lens.
I’m actually UK based, but our discrimination laws are generally a bit tougher than the US, so I think my input is still moderately relevant:
>promo me or I walk
“Bye, then.”
First of all, we shouldn’t reward threats on principle. Someone who’s at this place, legitimately or not, is unlikely to stick around regardless of the outcome, and if they do stick around, they’re going to continue to be an issue.
>their scope being above their level, others not pulling their weight, feeling overwhelmed, and accusations that all of this is because they fall in certain protected groups.
None of those things is related to a protected category. They would have to argue that they were being obstructed from completing their work by factors relating to their category, but the things cited here aren’t relevant to any such category. They’re just generic gripes.
I agree with others that an investigation would be a safe thing to do, but *you’ve already done the investigation*. You just need to write up and record the findings and share them with the employee. If I wanted to really drive it home, I would, at the same time, regretfully acknowledge their resignation and confirm their final date of employment. But that might be too on the nose for most practitioners.
Not an HR person but I wouldn’t blindly accept what this person’s manager(s) say.
Better to investigate & confirm there’s no problem. If you don’t, and the employee proceeds to an employment tribunal, that’s going to look BAD for the company.