Have you ever had a day when two employees came into your office complaining about a coworker?  Or a day when a customer complained about the service they received?  Have you ever received an email that carried a certain “tone” of frustration?  If you answered “yes” to any of these questions, do you know where the source of the conflict came from?

Conflict arises for a variety of reasons, including:

Incomplete Information
When information is not fully shared with people who have a need-to-know, conflict can arise.  A sense of secrecy or territorialism can develop creating an “us” versus “them” approach to working.

 Effective July 21, 2011, a Dodd-Frank amendment to the Fair Credit Reporting Act will affect employers who use a consumer report that includes a credit score. 

 Under the amendment, if an employer uses a consumer report that includes a credit score in order to determine employment eligibility, the employer will be required to disclose that a credit score was used.  The employer must also disclose the credit score itself, up to four key adverse factors in the score, and the name of the agency that provided the score.  This information allows the individual to contact the agency to correct any error that may be in the consumer report. 

Once upon a time, employers were able to terminate nonunion employees with or without cause.  This “employment-at-will” practice has been eroded over time as a result of court decisions and legislation.  As a result, employers must now carefully evaluate all decisions to terminate an employee in order to avoid claims of wrongful termination.

Employees may bring wrongful termination claims based on discrimination, express or implied employment contracts, retaliation and under common law.

Wrongful termination claims may involve discrimination based on one or more federal or state “protected classes”, including, race, color, religion, military (veteran) status, marital status, union activity, sex, age, national origin and disability.

It’s undeniable that today’s business environment is heavily reliant on e-mail systems to conduct business.  E-mail is used to communicate with customers, vendors, clients and employees.  It’s used to ask and answer questions, share contact information, distribute attachments and make announcements.  However, e-mail does not allow the recipient to see or interpret facial expressions or tone of voice.  Once sent, the e-mail may be saved indefinitely, shared with any number of individuals, or copied and pasted into other documents.  There is also a high risk that the e-mail message may not be read or read completely by the recipient or that the e-mail message may be misinterpreted by the recipient.  For these reasons, it’s important for employees to follow e-mail etiquette guidelines, including:

Credit Checks – Update 

 Given the state of the economy, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that many states are proposing legislation that will greatly impact how employers use pre-employment credit checks on applicants and current employees. 

Under proposed legislation, the use of pre-employment credit reports and credit checks of current employees would be prohibited under any circumstances. Proponents of the law argue that reform is needed given that credit ratings have fallen dramatically over the years as a result of increased foreclosures and bankruptcies.  They also argue that there is no evidence proving that a person’s credit rating is a predictor of job performance.  Others argue that credit reports are necessary to determining a person’s fiscal responsibility, stability and trustworthiness, particularly if the job requires the handling of money.