101 Sample Write-Ups for Documenting Employee Performance Problems: A Guide to Progressive Discipline and Termination

by Paul Falcone

Overview

Whether you’re addressing an initial infraction or handling termination-worthy transgressions, you need to be 100 percent confident that every employee encounter is clear, fair, and most importantly, legal.

Thankfully, HR expert Paul Falcone has provided this wide-ranging resource that explains in detail the disciplinary process and provides ready-to-use documents that eliminate stress and second-guessing about what to do and say.

In 101 Sample Write-Ups for Documenting Employee Performance Problems, Falcone includes expertly crafted, easily customizable write-ups that address:

• sexual harassment,
• absenteeism,
• insubordination,
• drug or alcohol abuse,
• substandard work,
• email and phone misuse,
• teamwork issues,
• managerial misconduct,
• confidentiality breaches,
• social media abuse, and more!

With each sample document also including a performance improvement plan, outcomes and consequences, and a section of employee rebuttal, it’s easy to see why this guide makes life for managers and HR personnel significantly easier when it comes to addressing employee performance issues.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780814438558
Publisher:	AMACOM
Publication date:	07/06/2017
Edition description:	Third Edition
Pages:	480
Product dimensions:	8.40(w) x 10.90(h) x 1.10(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Paul Falcone is principal of Paul Falcone Workplace Leadership Consulting, LLC, specializing in management and leadership training, executive coaching, international keynote speaking, and facilitating corporate offsite retreats. He is the former CHRO of Nickelodeon Animation Studios and has held senior-level HR positions with Paramount Pictures, Time Warner, and City of Hope. He has extensive experience in entertainment, healthcare/biotech, and financial services, including in international, nonprofit, and union environments.

Paul is the author of seventeen books, many of which have been ranked as #1 Amazon bestsellers in the categories of human resources management, business and organizational learning, labor and employment law, business mentoring and coaching, business conflict resolution and mediation, communication in management, and business decision-making and problem-solving. His books have been translated into Chinese, Hindi, Russian, Korean, Vietnamese, Indonesian, and Turkish and have sold in excess of 750,000 copies worldwide.

Paul is a certified executive coach through the Marshall Goldsmith Stakeholder Centered Coaching program, a long-term columnist for SHRM.org and HR Magazine, an adjunct faculty member in UCLA Extension’s School of Business and Management, and a member of the board of directors of the American Management Association. He is an accomplished keynote presenter, in-house trainer, and webinar facilitator in the areas of hiring, talent and performance management, leadership development, workplace ethics, and effective leadership communication.

Read an Excerpt

Why Is It So Hard to Write Up Employees?

It’s simply a fact that in today’s legal system, companies that discharge employees will, if challenged, have an obligation to prove that they made affirmative efforts to rehabilitate those employees before reaching the ultimate decision to terminate. When confronted by an arbitrator or scrutinized by a jury, companies need to show that they had no alternative but to separate an individual who refused to accept the organization’s invitations to improve his or her performance. Without such proof, the company can find itself liable to the former employee for back pay, job reinstatement, and, potentially, punitive damages. To make matters worse, those punitive damages could in certain circumstances be levied against the manager personally (should that individual be deemed to be working “outside the course and scope of his employment”).

This book shows you how to construct documents that are both tough and fair. Traditionally a there are problems that managers face when they confront employees regarding their behavior: How will the employee take the news? Will confrontation make matters worse? What if the employee stays “clean” only long enough to get past the active time frame of the disciplinary write-up?

In addition, because the write-up is a legal document, there is a residual fear that what you put in writing can somehow come back to haunt you. For example, managers typically second-guess themselves when it comes to questions like: Can I write specifics? Am I violating this individual’s privacy? Is the employee’s problem somehow protected by one of the many worker protection laws like the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA), the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), or workers’ comp discrimination rulings? What if there are numerous problems that don’t seem to be related to one another—can I move forward in the progressive discipline process by somehow bundling those disparate infractions together?

Managers have come to fear addressing even minor performance shortcomings until they become major impediments. By that time, the problems typically get so out of control that managers reactively initiate the disciplinary process in order to build a “paper trail” for a case against an employee as rapidly as possible. What magnificent advantages lie ahead for managers armed with the tools to proactively address minor concerns before they become major ones!

As an HR practitioner and university instructor, I’ve seen firsthand how companies go through the agony of reinstating poor performers with back wages and reintegrating those individuals into departments that have long since “healed” from the original terminations. And although no system can guarantee that a company will win every wrongful termination challenge, a write-up template that invites employees to involve themselves in their own improvement game plan and that clearly outlines the company’s affirmative efforts to help those employees better themselves will go a long way toward fending off litigators’ attacks.

What Are the Benefits of Reading This Book?

This book provides a structured format that ensures that all the legal theory steps contained in other books on employee relations get carried out consistently in daily practice. That consistent application will build your confidence in the documentation process, save time, and minimize the liability inherent in one of the hottest topics in business today: employee performance management and termination.

It is important to build a foundation upon which communication can thrive. That constant focus on opening the lines of communication is what makes this approach different. So what will the employee warnings in our proposed format accomplish?

First, they will structure disciplinary meetings in a way that forces bilateral communication between you, the supervisor, and your subordinate. Discipline will no longer be a one-sided prejudgment in which the employee steps into the room, “takes his whacks” after having been determined guilty, and then returns to work disgruntled and disheartened. In addition, the language and tone of our samples are personal and concise, making it easier for you to deliver difficult news in a fair and direct way.

Second, they will prompt managers and supervisors to involve themselves in their employees’ rehabilitation by indicating positive (as well as the traditional negative) consequences and by providing training, resource materials, and a commitment to open communication.

Third, they will encourage employees to involve themselves in their own performance improvement. To this end, the write-up paradigm in our samples includes a personal improvement plan (PIP) so that employees can assume responsibility for their own actions; this shifts the responsibility for performance improvement to the employee and away from the company.

Could this proactive and optimistic approach of ours still end with employee termination? Of course. But only if the employees themselves willfully and repeatedly refuse to adhere to established and reasonable standards of performance and conduct. This disciplinary system has two equally important goals: to rehabilitate poor performers and to terminate problem employees legally.

How the Book Is Structured

This book has been designed for easy reference so that you can pull it from your shelf right before or immediately after a disciplinary meeting with one of your employees in order to construct a well-written disciplinary notice. The initial five chapters address the structure and format of the write-up template that’s used in all the samples. Consequently, you can refer back to Chapters 1 through 5 when you’re looking for that right word, expression, or phrase while composing one of your own disciplinary memos.

The online link contains the complete write-ups for all the examples in this book. To highlight for you the critical areas that differ from write-up to write-up, we’ve shortened the sections of the write-ups in the book that remain the same. You can view or print the full write-up at any time from the online resource. In addition, to save you the time of re-creating the template from scratch, Figure 6-1, a blank template, has been included in the online resource so you can download it to your computer immediately.

Excerpted from 101 SAMPLE WRITE-UPS FOR DOCUMENTING EMPLOYEE PERFORMANCE PROBLEMS, 3RD EDITION: A Guide to Progressive Discipline & Termination by Paul Falcone. Copyright © 2017 by Paul Falcone. Published by AMACOM Books, a division of American Management Association, New York, NY. Used with permission.

All rights reserved.

Table of Contents

Introduction 1

Part I: Mastering the Write-Up Tool 5

CHAPTER 1 Progressive Discipline and Its Legal Considerations 7

CHAPTER 2 Disciplinary Levels, Subjects, and Prior Notifications 17

CHAPTER 3 Incident Descriptions and Performance Improvement Plans 33

CHAPTER 4 Consequences, Rebuttals, and Employee Acknowledgments 43

CHAPTER 5 Commonly Asked Questions and Practical Answers to Tricky Employee Relations Issues 57

CHAPTER 6 About the 101 Sample Write-Ups 79

Part II: Disciplining the Probationary Employee 83

#1—3 Disciplining the Probationary Employee 85

#4—6 Disciplining the Probationary Employee: Extending the Length of Probation 95

#7—9 Performance Problems That Arise Right After the New Hire's Probationary Period Ends 104

Part III: Policy and Procedure Violations 113

#10 Inappropriate Interviewing Questions 115

#11, 12 Failure to Follow Departmental Policies and Procedures 118

#13 Excessive Personal Telephone Calls 124

#14 Software Piracy (Unauthorized Installation) 127

#15 Unauthorized Use of Company Equipment, Time, Materials, or Facilities 130

Bonus Sample—Lost Equipment 133

#16 Unauthorized Removal of Company Files 136

Bonus Sample—Employee Time Card Falsification 139

#17 Leaving the Work Site During a Regularly Scheduled Shift 143

#18 Working Unauthorized Overtime 146

#19 Disclosure of Confidential Information About the Company or Its Customers 149

#20 Failure to Follow Company Dress Code 152

#21 Smoking on Company Grounds 155

#22 Unauthorized Release of References to Prospective Employers 158

#23 Email Misuse (Nonwork-Related Usage) 161

Bonus Sample—Email Misuse (Racially Influenced and Distasteful Messaging) 165

Bonus Sample—Personal Cell Phone Use 168

#24 Off-Duty Conduct and "Moonlighting" 171

Part IV: Performance Transgressions 175

#25—31 Substandard Work Performance 177

#32 Substandard Customer Service 201

#33, 34 Safety Infractions 204

#35 Lack of Sales Production 210

Bonus Sample—Substandard Sales Performance (Extension of Final Written Warning) 213

#36, 37 Unwillingness to Perform Properly Assigned Work 217

#38 Recurring Negligence and Thoughtlessness 223

Bonus Sample: Improper Cash Handling (Dual Custody Violation) 226

#39, 40 Acts Resulting in Loss to the Employer 230

#41, 42 Slow or Inefficient Production 237

#43, 44 Failure to Observe Working Schedule, Including Rest and Lunch Periods 243

#45 Sleeping on the Job (Written Warning) 249

Bonus Sample—Sleeping on the Job (Final Written Warning) 252

#46 Failure to Learn New Material During Training 255

Bonus Sample—Failure to Retain Information After Training 259

#47 High Error Factor and Scrap Rate 263

#48 Falsification of Employer Records 266

#49, 50 Lack of Communication with Supervisor 269

Bonus Sample—VP-Level Substandard Performance and Conduct 275

Bonus Sample—Unacceptable Skip-Level Findings (Director Level) 279

Bonus Sample—Substandard Project Management (Director Level) 283

Part V: Behavior and Conduct Infractions 287

#51 Profane Language in the Workplace and Insubordination 289

#52 Poor Attitude 293

#53 Insubordination 296

#54, 55 Insubordination and Substandard Work Performance 299

#56, 57 Misconduct, Fighting, and Horseplay 305

58—61 Sexual Harassment 311

#62 Creating an Intimidating Work Environment 323

Bonus Sample—Social Media Cyberbullying 326

#63 Veiled or Direct Threats of Violence 329

#64—66 Antagonistic Behavior Toward a Coworker 332

#67 Managerial Retaliation 341

#68—70 Intoxication During Work Hours 345

#71 Drug-Related Impairment During Work Hours 356

Bonus Sample—Failure to Disclose Coworker Inebriation 360

#72 Misuse of Power and Office 363

#73 Union Steward Abuse 366

#74 Character Assassination and Defamation 369

Bonus Sample—"Locker Room" Banter 372

Part VI: Absenteeism and Tardiness 375

Caution Regarding Restrictions Related to Disciplining or Terminating Employees for Attendance and Tardiness 377

#75 Excessive, Unscheduled Absence: "No Fault" System 379

#76, 77 Excessive, Unscheduled Absence 382

#78, 79 Pattern of Excessive, Unscheduled Absence 388

#80 Excessive, Unscheduled Absence: "Excuse-Based" System 397

#81—83 Excessive Tardiness 400

Bonus Sample—FMLA Abuse: Failure to Provide Appropriate Medical Documentation 409

Bonus Sample—FMLA Abuse: Failure to Follow the Terms of the Medical Certification 413

Bonus Sample—FMLA Abuse: Failure to Consult HR Regarding Leave Request 418

Bonus Sample—Failure to Engage in the ADA Interactive Process 422

Part VII: Termination Notices 427

#84, 85 Discharge for Cause: Substandard Performance 429

#86 Employee Fails to Report to Work on First Day; Company Rescinds Its Employment Offer 431

#87 Summary Discharge: Falsification of Company Records 432

#88 Summary Discharge: Employee Time Card Fraud 433

Bonus Sample—Supervisory Time Card Manipulation 434

#89 Summary Discharge: Loss of Current Weapons License 435

#90 Summary Discharge: Possession, Sale, or Being Under the Influence of Alcohol or Illegal Substances 436

Bonus Sample—Medical Marijuana Misuse 437

#91 Summary Discharge: Failure to Pass Certification Exam 438

#92 Summary Discharge: Terminating an Employee Without Corporate Approval 439

#93 Summary Discharge: Misconduct at Company Holiday Party 440

#94 Summary Discharge: Threatening a Coworker with Bodily Harm 441

#95 Summary Discharge: Terminating the Probationary Employee 442

#96 Letter Confirming Acceptance of an Employee's Verbal Resignation 443

#97 Summary Discharge: Acceptance of Gratuities 444

#98 Summary Discharge: Insubordination (Inappropriate and Undermining Behavior) 445

Bonus Sample—Insubordination (Violent Employee Reaction) 446

Bonus Sample—Social Media Misuse 447

#99 Secretarial Layoff: No Severance 448

#100 Director-Level Layoff, Including Severance Package, Outplacement, and Appropriate Legal Release 449

#101 Job Abandonment 454

Index 455

Selected Additional Titles from the Society for Human Resources Management (SHRM®) 461

Editorial Reviews

"For nearly two decades, Paul Falcone's best-selling handbook has been an invaluable resource for business owners." --SHRM

"Paul Falcone's books are real and applicable to the everyday life of Human Resources. They are for the front-line managers on how to lead effectively." -PeopleG2

From the Publisher