The Psychology and Law of Workplace Misconduct: From the Manipulative to the Mentally ill

Why Should You Attend:

As employees’ legal rights expand, so does the opportunity for abuse. On the one hand, employers often feel paralyzed to investigate – or discipline – employee misconduct for fear of potential litigation; on the other, managers may jump in the gun and fail to recognize the legal issues involved before taking corrective action.

Managers spend 57% of their time putting out fires started by problem employees. And yet, these are not the employees who contribute to the bottom line, enhance workplace morale, or facilitate good work relationships. Human resource professionals can play a vital role in shifting this balance, by preventing, and correcting, potential leave abuse, teaching managers how to deal with threatening, insubordinate, or mentally ill employees, and serving as a consultant in difficult disciplinary or termination decisions.

This course will teach you legal and interpersonal strategies to deal with your worst employee relations nightmare.

Areas Covered in the Webinar:

• How to prevent, identify, and remedy FMLA abuse
• How to respond to verbal threats and insubordination
• Strategies for dealing with an employee's arrest
• Recognizing, and responding to, personality disorders in the workplace
• How to terminate a potentially dangerous employee
• When, and how, to conduct a morale investigation
• Tackling psychiatric disabilities and substance abuse in the workplace
• How to handle the workplace bully

Who Will Benefit:

• Small business owners
• HR professionals
• Team managers
• Risk managers
• Internal investigators

Instructor Profile:

Dr. Joni E. Johnston, is the founder and CEO of Work Relationships, a corporate training and consulting company specializing in workplace mental health problems as well as employee conduct issues including workplace harassment, workplace violence, and effective discipline/termination. Dr. Johnston has been performing human resource seminars for professional groups and industry associations since she founded her HR/employee relations consulting and training firm in 1991, and has personally trained over 50,000 managers and supervisors. She has worked extensively in the biotech and life sciences industry.

A forensic psychologist, Dr. Johnston has written monthly columns for LexisNexis, HR.Com and HRGateway. She is an adjunct professor in Tiffin University's criminal justice program and has authored three books, including The Complete Idiot's Guide to Psychology. She has also served as an expert witness in numerous employment-related lawsuits.

Topic Background:

When an employee behaves inappropriately in the work place, he/ she may be charged by the employer depending upon the severity of the misconduct. Minor misconduct often involves a lesser punishments while the gross misconduct may result in termination of the employee contract with the employer. Minor misconduct is the actions that are unacceptable but not criminal such as poor task performance, excessive absence and safety violations. Gross misconduct in the work place is the serious actions that can lead to employee’s dismissal.

Misconduct has a negative effect on the organization and the employee involved. Discipline at the work place is the means by which you can correct the behavioral deficiencies. The purpose of the discipline should be to correct the behavior rather than punishing the employee.

An employer must set appropriate disciplinary rules and procedures which explain the standards of conduct at work. The HR department has a responsibility to ensure that the employees maintain high standards of conduct and performance. All employees with unsatisfactory performance or misconduct should be observing confidentially and proper steps should be taken in every stage to secure documentation. There should be a written disciplinary procedure and good disciplinary actions will help the employer to take appropriate steps in the event of misconduct of an employee.

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