What should I have done?
lhill
334 Posts
An employee was terminated because he could not/would not come to work on time. He was told repeatedly that this better be corrected. We followed our disiplinary procedure and finally terminated. He came back a while later to have lunch with some of his former co-workers and told them that we (management) should have offered him help because we knew he was having personal problems. He said we should have offered him counseling. We do not have an EAP, but I did furnish information to him several times per his request so he could get help through our health insurance. He was not happy with the drs. and never went back. He would not go to a dr. who was going to prescribe any drugs. I went as far as I felt I could without incurring the wrath of HIPAA. This ee has blamed everyone in the company but himself for being fired. How far would you feel comfortable in going to assist someone?
Comments
My first step would be to order the employee off the property. You should make it a policy if you haven't already done so. It is never good practice to allow former employees on the premises for any reason. The potential for bad stuff happening is far too great.
Make it clear that you (or whomever you designate in your HR staff) are his point of contact for all matters realted to his term of employment. Give him an outlet in the form of a name and phone number, but make it patently clear that the premises are off limits.
Gene
Once all legal compliance requirements are met, I would only go as far as the person is willing to go for help. It's a two-way street as far as I'm concerned. In a perfect world we would work through all these isuues and then sit around holding hands and sing kumbaya. Mine is not a perfect world.
Gene
His personal problems are exacty that, personal. You are his employer not his therapist. There has got be a employee/employer relationship. The buddy system does not work in the HR world.
Gee, Ihill, I would like to answer you, however, the correct response was already contained in your question:
"We followed our disiplinary procedure and finally terminated."
Now, forget about it and go forth . . .
Of course, that last bit lets them know you did not just sit on your duff, and the first bit tells them that this stuff is confidential ... and will be for any and all EEs.
Discipline is not something that can be discussed. However, what you do have a responsibility to address are the rumors. Most of the time, this is due to the ee talking to other ees, but there are times when this is not the case. There is some liability depending on what the rumors are about. You could be help liable for defamation or slander depending on the comments. I recommend whenever you hear ees discussing a former ee's employment (i.e. "You know why Timmy got fired don't ya?") tell them they do not know the entire story, stop the conversation and remind the ees that talking about other people is not appropriate. Let the ees know that next time disciplinary action will occur. First time you discipline someone for this type of behavior, it will stop the majority of it from taking place.