perceived retalliation
lwl
11 Posts
I am a new subscriber from a public agency and would like to test the waters with a question. Our administrative manager left the first week of February for six weeks for medical reasons. He has Parkinsons Disease and his medical excuse listed his leave time as stress-related. He will possibly be returning in mid-March after he receives a medical re-evaluation. The problem is that while he was out, we found several things that he had not been doing, or had not been doing satisfactorily and these things needs to be rectified. The director is not sure how far she can push him to fix these problems, if he returns, out of concern that he will cry retalliation and use his medical condition as an excuse. (His relationship with the director has been a tenuous one and his departure in February was rather heated.) We know that a disability is not an excuse for not performing one's duties if the disability is not a contributing factor. We would like some feedback from someone that could help shed some light on an appropriate plan of action if and when this manager returns. (It is our belief that he will seek disability.)
Thanks!
lwl
Thanks!
lwl
Comments
A lot of questions to answer before I think you can make any determination. You are correct, being on an approved leaveand/or having a disability does not give you a "get out of jail free" card. You can address performance and behavior, just make sure you stay away from those grey areas.
Also, make sure that the director's involvement was minimal. Did the director find the problems? With there being a heated exchange before the ee left, I would be concerned about a retaliation claim piggy backing the discrimination claim, or whatever the ee complains about. It would be a stronger argument for your company if someone other than the director found the problems and someone other than the director looked into those issues. The argument will damage the director's credibility, and trust me, the agency will know about it.
BTW, post this under the employment tab or the FMLA/ADA tab and you will get more responses. This area is not used as regularly.
HRinFL has given some excellent feedback. You may also need to examine FML for possible application. On top of the observations and questions laid out by HRinFL, I would add the following:
How important were the things he was not doing satisfactorily? If they were such a big deal, why were they not discovered in normal course of job evaluation and assessment by his immediate supervisor?
Looks to be some room for improvement in this person's supervisor. As HRinFL observed, having medical and ADA issues is not a free pass for poor performance, however, the documentation must be tight before terminating. The simple fact is, you may be right, but having to prove it can be very expensive. Still, you have indicated a worry in that regard and since the relationship with the Director is not great - an honest assessment of your reasoning should be made.
This sounds like a good time to bring in outside counsel to assess. It will be easier for this person to ask the difficult questions of the director and others involved, while keeping litigation posture in mind. And when the investigation is over, less embarrassment with coworkers, subordinates and other staff to deal with. Just a suggestion.
This seems simple enough to me when you dissect it, sift the irrelevant stuff from it and then lay the stuff with substance on the table.
When he returns to work, lay-out his performance expectations and then hold him accountable to them. Also hold him accountable for failing to perform his job in the first place.
Handle this as a performance issue and keep the medical mumbo jumbo out of it. As long as you keep the two separate you will be fine.
Gene