Unlimited Liability
Pray that an employee doesn't drag you into court for a
discrimination lawsuit. Should you lose, the recent Supreme Court
ruling in Pollard v. E.I. Dupont means you'll be paying
more.
In the case, an E.I. Dupont employee sued the company for
discrimination after it fired her. She had refused to rejoin the
company after taking medical leave for psychological help after
suffering sexual harassment on the job. The jury awarded her the
legal maximum amount of compensation for lost wages: $300,000.
Pollard's attorneys argued that the cap on lost wages did not
cover "front pay"-income lost from the time she
didn't rejoin Dupont until she found a comparable job. The
Supreme Court agreed with Pollard.
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"This case sends an unfortunate message to employees that
the sky's the limit," says Manesh K. Rath, an employment
law attorney at Keller and Heckman LLP in Washington, DC. Although
he maintains aggrieved employees won't receive much extra
compensation, you still need a thorough anti-discrimination policy.
You won't pay front pay, after all, if you don't get sued
upfront.
Fond Farewells
Uneasiness can paralyze your remaining staff after a layoff.
Experts recommend the following to rally the troops and move
on.
Respect the doomed. Be compassionate with those you
ax, and don't speak ill of them afterward, says Richard C.
Whiteley, author of Love the Work You're With (Henry Holt). Other
employees will gauge you by how you treated their former
colleagues-and question how you feel about them if you trash-talk
others.
Be frank. Explain why the company ran into
difficulties, says Dennis LaRosee, senior vice president of
Praendex Inc., which provides employee behavioral testing. "If
there's a dirty veil to hide a mistake that was made, these
people will see through it," he says.
Paint your vision. "People need a track to the
future," says Charles H. Bishop Jr., author of Making
Change Happen One Person at a Time (Amacom). "What
management has done [with a layoff] is interrupt it." Now you
must reveal a new vision that addresses the problems that put your
firm in its current state.
Feel their pain. After a group meeting announcing the
layoff, says Whiteley, meet with individuals so they can voice
concerns that they might not express in front of the group.
Build on accomplishments. "What's important
in a recovery program is early wins," says Whiteley. Meeting
tough milestones in the first weeks after the layoff gives people a
sense of accomplishment again.
Business writer Chris Sandlund (csandlund@entrepreneur.com)
works out of Cold Spring, New York.
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