Employees and minors

Library HR · July 2012

I work in a public institution where customers of all ages are welcome. Sometimes our employees conduct programs with children and/or teens and often conduct these programs by themselves. Sometimes an employee can develop a true rapport with a customer, but in dealing with minors, the employee needs to know what the limits of that rapport can be.

That having been said does anyone have wording for policies or guidelines that deal with: 1) not giving personal information, such as your phone number, e-mail address or physical address, to minors, and 2: not discussing sexual or other sensitive matters with minors, with the exception of showing them where resources are located?

Thank you for your help with this matter.

Still Need Coffee · July 2012

I don't have anything specific to give you, but I think this subject should be addressed as part as your code of conduct/business ethics. In the interest of not creating too much red tape, would it be appropriate to just address this during employee training, rather than creating a policy around it?

Library HR · July 2012

Thanks Still Needs Coffee. I agree that we need to cover this in training, but I guess that ex-paralegal in me just wants a piece of paper that an employee has signed that states, "Yes, you did explain that policy to me."

sonny · July 2012

and I agree with yor thinking library. If you have it in writing it stops the "no one ever told me "syndrome. I recently had someone tell me just that re: sex harrassment policy. I totally enjoyed showing him not one but two pieces of paper that said he had training and had read and understood the policy!

khayes · July 2012

I don't have any wording where I work now - but at a previous employer, we had an emergency youth shelter and a foster care program and had to have pretty strict guidelines. The state (CPS) provided their guidelines and we used that as a starting place to develop our policy.

Library HR · July 2012

Thanks to everyone for their comments. I will work on the wording so that we will have the paperwork that backs up the training.

Employees and minors

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