A small electrical contractor that had never had an HR department before hired me as their first HR manager. He says he sincerely appreciates his employees but needs someone to focus on them. My first endeavor is to find out what they are currently happy with working there
I need to encourage a manager to accept a religious accommodation request, as it is reasonable, in my opinion. The employee, who is Balinese Hindu, has requested a 10-minute prayer break at noon as part of her religion. The manager says no, as this is during a lunch
I am considering stepping back from a managerial role to an individual contributor role. I am burned out, frankly, and about six months ago, my boss gave me responsibility for some groups that I hated dealing with — they are not my strength, and I did not want
After working in HR for 30 years, I was told today that I was “too aggressive” and that I came across as if I had an agenda. I have never had someone say this to me before — I have been told to speak up more and be
My boss, Rudolph, is micromanaging me. Rudolph wants to read emails before I send them out, view my schedule, sit in on meetings and send him a list of what I do each day. I can hardly function like this. How do I handle a micromanaging boss? To
t’s usually easy to respond to requests for references or to verify employment from companies that former employees are applying to. But sometimes it’s not so simple. Here are some of the situations I’m dealing with: An ex-employee said he’d worked for us for seven years. It was
The CEO decided to have an open-concept workspace, with hoteling tables (that is, no one has their own dedicated workspace) and conference rooms for confidential meetings. He says all the data shows it is great for collaboration, and because we are a hybrid office, it makes sense to
We just discovered that one of our full-time employees (9 a.m.-5 p.m., Monday-Friday) has been working another full-time job. The job isn’t for a competitor, but we are concerned that working 80 hours a week will reduce the employee’s ability to do his job. Can we require employees
A toxic employee, “Bob,” engaged in unethical behavior; we wrote him up, and then he ran his mouth about it to the whole department. He is not speaking with his boss and is now resorting to name-calling. We have a good policy handbook to back us up to
I’m concerned with California’s new Fair Chance Act regarding how we evaluate people with criminal histories. I have a lot of vulnerable employees, and the last thing I want is to bring a violent criminal into work! How can I protect my employees and follow the law? To
