Question

Ever since she was hired, Meredith had a problem with habitual tardiness. According to department attendance records, Meredith had been late to work at least 20 times each year since she joined the company in 2013. Most of the time, she was late less than 30 minutes, but occasionally she was an hour or more late to work.    

Meredith is the mother of 2 school-age children, and her husband traveled frequently for his job. Meredith claimed that many of the times she was late was because of weather-related school delays or a child’s illness and her inability to get a babysitter on short notice. Since Meredith was a salaried employee, she never lost wages for the working hours she missed.

On June 26, her supervisor, with concurrence from the department manager, terminated her employment. Meredith did not dispute the number of times that she had been late, but she filed a grievance with the Human Resource Department, alleging that management did not follow the company’s written progressive disciplinary process, which consisted of the following:

1. Verbal Caution. An employee will be given a verbal caution when s/he engages in a problematic behavior.

2. Verbal Warning. The immediate supervisor meets privately with the employee, discusses the problem, and indicates that the meeting is a verbal warning. The verbal warning is documented and placed in the employee’s personnel file for 90 days.

3. Written Warning. A written warning is issued when the employee engages in the unacceptable behavior during the period that the verbal warning is in effect. The warning details what the problem is, how the employee should change his/her behavior to fix the problem, and the consequences if s/he does not comply. The written warning is placed in the employee’s personnel file for 90 days and a copy is given to the employee.  

4. Final Warning. The supervisor meets with the employee, reviews instances when the unacceptable behavior occurred during the period that the written warning is in effect, and advises that termination will result if improvement does not occur.  

5. Termination. If the problem is not resolved, the supervisor must meet with the employee, review the documentation and terminate the employee.

Meredith acknowledged that she had been given several verbal cautions, a verbal warning and a written warning. However, she claims that she was never given a final warning before her termination.

Meredith’s supervisor and the department manager point to the fact that the employee handbook clearly states that employment is at-will, meaning that both the employer and the employee have the right to terminate the relationship at any time for any reason. They acknowledge that a final warning was not issued but point to the fact that the written warning to Meredith stated, “Continued instances of tardiness may result in suspension without pay or termination.” They claimed that a final warning would have served no purpose since she continued to come in late to work even after several verbal cautions, a verbal warning, and a written warning.

Questions:

1. Evaluate the argument of Meredith in this case. Are her claims valid? Was she treated fairly in this case? Why or why not?
2. Evaluate the argument of the supervisor and manager in this case. Are their claims valid? Was their firing of Meredith fair in this case? Why or why not?
3. As the Human Resource Manager of the company, will you uphold Meredith’s termination or reinstate her? What facts of the case caused you to respond this way?

Answer 1

1. The argument of Meredith in this case is valid. The fact is that the manager missed the final warning which is the set procedure for any disciplinary concern and it is wrong on the management's part to assume that she would have ignored the warning and the result would have been the same. So that is why she was not treated fairly. She was supposed to get the final meeting from her manager before the termination letter.

2. The claims of the manager is valid, he did follow the procedure and mentioned in the written communication that any further disciplinary concerns would result in termination, also the handbook did mention that the employment is at will but missing a process step did raise concerns and question the decision of the Manager. So the claims are fair but firing Meredith would also require a final warning so that we go by the accepted policy of the company.

3.I would give Meredith the final warning and reinstate her. The fact that the process was not followed thoroughly and we as an organization can not assume the actions of an employee. And if the concerns still continue then she would me terminated post that.