Discriminating against the employee
Claudia recently became the HR manager at a small sized private company. One of the things she has been tasked with by the CEO is addressing employee tardiness. The CEO is a stickler for punctuality and there are a few employees who continuously arrive to work late.
First step for Claudia is to review all the employee’s timecards and determine who the serious violators are. Upon completion of the timecard review Claudia identified a handful of employees that were violating the company’s policy on tardiness, however; one employee had a more serious tardiness issue than the others.
Claudia decides the best way to approach this issue is to send a companywide email reminding all employees of the company’s operating hours and schedule and to please make there everyone adheres to this policy. Within a week of the email all but 1 employee were arriving to work on time.
Claudia next sent 2 emails on separate occasions directly to the employee who was still not arriving on time and reminded the employee of her work schedule as well as the company’s operating hours and to refer to the employee handbook for any questions or concerns regarding the matter of her tardiness.
Another week passed and the employee continued arriving tardy to work. This time Claudia sent the employee an email and copied her immediate supervisor. Two days later the employee continued with the tardiness and Claudia again sent an email to the employee and copied her immediate supervisor. This time the employee replied to Claudia’s email. Her email stated that she felt she was being discriminated upon by being asked to arrive to work on time when other employees arrive late, and nothing was done about their tardiness. She also stated she was being harassed and singled out because of her “age, gender, and/or sexual orientation.” She is a 52-year-old female, we know nothing of her sexual orientation.
Case Questions:
Is the company in fact discriminating against the employee by requesting she arrive to workon time and adhere to the company’s operating hours and/or schedule?
Is the employee being harassed if emails had been sent out to the entire organization earlyon reminding everyone of the company’s policy on tardiness as well as their schedules?
What should be Claudia’s next step?
What process or policies should Claudia implement to avoid this type of situation occurringagain? (Make recommendations based on what you have learned)
Sample Solution
Based on the provided information, it does not appear that the company is discriminating against this employee by asking her to adhere to their operating hours and schedule. While there may be other employees who arrive late, it appears that this particular employee had been identified as having “more serious tardiness issue” than the others (Fletcher & Iyer 2016). As a result, they were taking appropriate steps to ensure she was compliant with their policy which included sending emails reminding her of their operating hours and any applicable laws or regulations.
It also seems clear from her response that she was feeling targeted due to her age and gender – however these would not be considered valid grounds for discrimination by employers under most labor laws (EEOC n.d.). Similarly there is no evidence in the case study suggesting sexual orientation could be in play here so this should also be discounted.
Overall then, while it is possible discrimination has occurred in some form at some point within this organization it cannot be concluded based off the provided details. Instead further investigation needs to take place into how equitable all policies are being applied across different departments or individuals since unequal treatment could potentially undermine an employer’s defense if a suit were brought forward.