Posted: Monday, February 23, 2009 12:00 am
Being the bad guy
If you're the one doing the firing this layoff season, don't let your emotions get you in a legal bind.
Personal remarks or ambiguous statements made while handing out pink slips could be the basis for a wrongful termination lawsuit or discrimination complaint, according to The Alternative Board International Inc., a peer advisory board for small and mid-sized businesses. The same goes if comments seem insensitive.
"This economy is turning some good people into desperate people," said the board's president, Jason Zickerman. "With terminations and layoffs, employers need to understand that if isn't done the right way, people will see opportunity and dollar signs. In their minds, they have no other choice."
Don't underestimate the intensity of the situation for both the manager and the employee. These meetings can be tempestuous, and if not prepared for and executed properly, are a potential path to litigation. The Alternative Board offers these tips to avoid creating legal loopholes for ex-employees:
• Avoid vague messages like, "If it were up to me, you'd still be working here," or "It looks as though we most likely won't be able to keep you on."
• Comments or documents with inappropriate exaggerations and emotionally-laden rhetoric will sabotage your defense in a wrongful-termination case.
• If charged with discrimination, your business will have to prove that the termination was business-related. Managers who neglect to document policy violations and inadequate performance make it challenging to support the company's defense.
• Prepare what you'll say, how you'll say it, and even how long the meeting will take. It sometimes helps to rehearse or practice speaking points.
• Respond kindly but firmly to emotional outbursts, threats and accusations.
Before the pink Corvette
One of the greatest misconceptions about the Barbie doll, according to one author, is that her flawless features and perfect figure were the creation of a man.
In fact, it was a woman who dreamt up the voluptuous international icon who turns 50 this year. Ruth Handler's rise and fall as co-founder of toy maker Mattel Inc. is documented in the new biography "Barbie & Ruth," written by Robin Gerber and published by HarperCollins.
"Behind Barbie is this very important and inspiring woman who isn't a household name the way Walt Disney is," Gerber said. "She created one of the world's most successful toy companies, and the most successful toy. She knew that little girls fantasized about being women, and at the time there was no other doll like this for them to play with."
The book details Handler's early years as the 10th child of Polish-Jewish immigrants; how she and her husband turned her small toy business into a multi-million dollar company; the scandal that forced her out of Mattel; and her experience as a breast cancer survivor.
Handler died in 2002 at age 85.
- Erin Conroy, Associated Press