human resources – Page 30

December 4, 2018June 29, 2023

Forced Hugs at Work Sound Like a REALLY Bad Idea

Ray Kelvin, CEO of UK fashion retailer Ted Baker, is a hugger.

According to an online petition seeking to end his practice, “he greets many people he meets with a hug, be it a shareholder, investor, supplier, partner, customer or colleague.”

And, it doesn’t stop with hugs. He asks young female employees “to sit on his knee, cuddle him, or let him massage their ears.” He strokes employees’ ears. He takes off his shirt in the workplace and talks about his sex life. Even worse, when employees go to HR to complain, they are told, “That’s just what Ray’s like.”

Well, they’ve had enough “of what Ray’s like.” More than 2,600 people, including over 300 current or former employees, have signed the online petition calling on Ted Baker to “scrap the forced ‘hugs’ and end harassment.”

Let’s deal with low-hanging fruit first. Stroking employees’ ears, talking about your sex life and walking around work shirtless are all creepy and wrong. Period. And, no, HR cannot pass it off as, “Well, you know Ray… 😉”

The employer has an absolute duty to investigate and take corrective action to ensure that the harassment stops. And the fact that the alleged harasser is the CEO is not a justification to do nothing. In fact, if #MeToo has taught us anything, it’s reason to do more, not less.

As for the hugs, they are a symptom of the larger problem. In a vacuum they might be innocuous, but in this case they are a symptom of a deeper culture of harassment.

Indeed, one person’s hug is another’s creepy gesture or, worse, inappropriate advance. Where is the workplace line?

In the words of one court:

There are some forms of physical contact which, although unwelcome and uncomfortable for the person touched, are relatively minor. Cumulatively or in conjunction with other harassment, such acts might become sufficiently pervasive to support a hostile environment claim, but if few and far between they typically will not be severe enough to be actionable in and of themselves. A hand on the shoulder, a brief hug, or a peck on the cheek lie at this end of the spectrum. Even more intimate or more crude physical acts—a hand on the thigh, a kiss on the lips, a pinch of the buttocks—may be considered insufficiently abusive to be described as “severe” when they occur in isolation.

On one extreme you have this case, in which an employee was sexually caressed and hugged, and even had fingers poked in his anus through his clothing. Yet, on the other extreme, you have this case, in which a manager hugged a subordinate to lift his spirits during a rough work day.

So, employers, what’s the answer? How about some good old-fashioned common sense. If you have a close enough relationship with someone to greet with a hug, then hug it out. If someone complains about your hugs, stop. It’s just that simple.

December 4, 2018June 29, 2023

3 Behaviors for Leadership Skills for the Digital Age

It’s not enough for business leaders to merely be “the man (or woman) behind the curtain” anymore.

In a world that’s rapidly becoming more technology driven, managers and executives must put in extra effort to create human relationships with their people — connections that are necessary for any organization to thrive in a complex and competitive marketplace.

The more your business is centered around artificial intelligence, robotics or other digital technologies, the more effort you have to make to be human and to create human relationships, to pry people away from their smartphones, to have face-to-face conversations, to appreciate people and to be honest.

Sure, digital awareness skills and abilities are important, but the more tech-focused we get, the more human leadership there has to be. Otherwise you’re just “behind the curtain.” Plenty of executives lead that way anyway, but in this environment you have to take greater steps to be more real — and effective — than the Wizard of Oz.

These are three behaviors that will help leaders make more meaningful connections with their people.

Be trustworthy and fair. Whether your people see you regularly in person or you stay “behind the curtain,” your team has to be able to trust that what you say is the truth. That doesn’t necessarily mean you always share everything you know, but everything you do say has to be true. If you can’t share an answer to a question or some other information for a legal or strategic reason, then be upfront about that. Don’t make something else up, dance around it or shade the truth. You could say something like: “Because of FCC rules, because of a board vote, because of competitive pressures, I can’t go into this right now, but rest assured we are working on it and at the appropriate time we’ll share everything you need to know and everything you want to know.” When you speak you should tell the truth, and if the truth changes you should go back to your people and explain why.
Be personal and approachable. The second vital behavior for leaders is that even if you stay “behind the curtain” and all anybody sees is the smoke and the floating face of the “wizard,” you still have to figure out how to be personable and approachable. Your people still need to feel that you’re a human being — and that they’re being treated as human beings. That means if you bump into each other in the hallway, you stop, look him or her in the eye and talk directly to that person. Don’t look down at your mobile device, mumble something and keep going. Don’t be that leader who’s going to the penthouse 40 floors up but doesn’t say anything in an elevator full of employees. If you struggle to make human connections with your team, consider holding office hours in the cafeteria two times a month for a few hours and announcing it to your team by offering to chat or answer questions. Maybe just two people will show up the first time. But the next time four people will attend, then eight. Before long you will have made real strides in changing the vibe in your organization.
Provide and acknowledge meaning. This can be a hard one for baby boomers, who, broadly speaking, are often happy just to have a job. But today’s reality is that there are younger generations in the workforce who, while certainly happy to have a job, care more about the values that they hold and the meaning they derive from their work than previous generations have. In this case, the CEO will rarely be the person who regularly acknowledges meaning for low-level employees, but they can still do it periodically. Managers, however, can absolutely help in this regard by building this behavior into their regular interactions with direct reports. These acknowledgments of meaning can take place in performance conversations, weekly catch-ups or conference calls. They could be as simple as saying “Here’s how the work that you’re doing ties to our mission. Here’s how the work that you are doing is enabling our customers to do X, Y and Z. Here’s how what you’re doing, Bob, is moving this project forward exponentially.” Everybody wants to know that what they’re doing is not only important and appreciated, but fits in with the values and the mission of the company.

Increasingly complex times demand dynamic leadership, which calls upon business leaders to step out from behind the curtain and connect with their people on a genuine human level.

December 3, 2018June 29, 2023

What Can the Holiday Movie ‘Elf’ Teach Us About the ADA?

The Hyman clan carried out our annual holiday tradition of watching “Elf.”

Since much of the story took place in and around various workplaces, this year I decided to watch with an eye toward shareable employment law lessons.

Early in the story, Buddy learns the harsh reality that he is not actually an elf but a human. He learns this lesson after falling 985 Etch A Sketches short of his production expectations and being transferred to Jack-in-the-Box testing (the job reserved for “special” elves).

Assuming that Buddy’s height is a disability in the North Pole (and if the ADA protects dwarfs down south, it’s safe to assume the North Pole’s disability discrimination laws would similarly protect Buddy’s heightened height up north), what ADA lessons does this parable teach us?

1. Reasonable production standards.

The ADA does not require an employer to lower production standards — whether qualitative or quantitative — that it applies uniformly to employees with and without disabilities. An employer may, however, have to provide reasonable accommodation to enable an employee with a disability to meet the production standard.

Thus, if Santa requires 1,000 Etch A Sketches per day, then Buddy is required to make 1,000 Etch A Sketches per day, disability or no disability. Santa may, however, have to offer Buddy a reasonable accommodation (if available) to meet that quota. Santa may also choose to lower or waive the production standard, but he is not required to do so. Keep in mind, however, that if one waives or lowers the requirement for one employee, it makes it difficult to argue for future employees that the production requirement is truly essential, or that altering it is not a reasonable accommodation.

2. Transfer as reasonable accommodation.

The ADA specifically lists “reassignment to a vacant position” as a form of reasonable accommodation. An employer must consider this type of reasonable accommodation for an employee who, because of a disability, can no longer perform the essential functions of their current position, with or without reasonable accommodation. Reassignment is the reasonable accommodation of last resort and is required only after it has been determined that: (1) there are no effective accommodations that will enable the employee to perform the essential functions of his/her current position, or (2) all other reasonable accommodations would impose an undue hardship.

There are, however, several caveats.

The employee must be “qualified” for the new position, both by satisfying the requisite skill, experience, education, and other job-related requirements of the position, and by being able to perform the essential functions of the new position, with or without reasonable accommodation. An employer is under no obligation to assist the employee is becoming qualified, such as by providing training to enable the employee to obtain necessary skills for the job.

“Vacant” means that the position is available when the employee asks for reasonable accommodation, or that the employer knows that it will become available within a reasonable amount of time.

The reassignment must be to a position equal in pay, status, or other relevant factors (such as benefits or geographical location). If there is no vacant equivalent position, the employer should reassign to a vacant lower level position for which the individual is qualified and which is closest to the employee’s current position in terms of pay, status, etc.

For Buddy, that position was Jack-in-the-Box tester, an open position for which he was qualified.

There you have it. ADA lessons from “Elf.” Happy holidays.

December 1, 2018June 29, 2023

Taking Office Gossip Off the Lunch Menu

With millions of American workers eating lunch at their desks, in a car or not taking a lunch break at all, one startup is going all in to make lunchtime more engaging for its staff.

Nikki Sucevic, head of recruiting and training at online children’s clothier Mac & Mia, said the company provides lunch for four randomly chosen employees from different departments. There’s just one request of the staffers selected to go to lunch together: Do not talk about work at all; instead get to know each other.

“When you start to create bonds beyond work, you feel more empathy for your co-workers, and want to work harder for them,” Sucevic said.

Sucevic said her office hasn’t collected formal feedback on the program, which was implemented this fall. Anecdotally she noticed a more positive atmosphere in her workplace of 30 employees. Sucevic thinks lunching with colleagues can work for other companies as well.

“A lot of times, companies have happy hours or one-day events, and this is a quick Band-Aid,” Sucevic said. “Instead of doing one big thing now and then, we want to create a culture of this and start to make little adjustments every day. [Our] lunch lottery plan is one of our cultural shift plans to build relationships, empathy and cross-functional respect.”

Also read: A Desk for One for Lunch

According to a May 2018 survey conducted by workplace hygiene brand Tork, employees can have multiple reasons for not taking their lunch break. Nearly 20 percent of North American workers worry their bosses won’t think they are hardworking if they take regular lunch breaks, while 13 percent worry their co-workers will judge them. Some 38 percent of employees in the study also said they don’t feel encouraged to take a lunch break.

Making a lunch program with co-workers or even just eating with someone voluntarily can go a long way, said Laura Hamill, chief people officer at employee engagement company Limeade.

Also read: Give ’Em a Break: Employees Want Their Lunch Break Back

The Bellevue, Washington-based company, aside from sharing a similar program with Mac & Mia, has another program where they have new hires start their first day at lunch time and have a meal with their new co-workers. Hamill said this program has received exceptional feedback.

“I had someone who just started on my team and she wrote an email to me sometime this week and she said she felt like a welcomed part of the team and felt like she had another family now,” Hamill said.

Limeade’s marketing team wrote an article last year about the benefits that come from having lunch with co-workers. Those benefits include boosting productivity, building better relationships, making leaders more accessible and improving well-being.

“It’s about being a human being, not talking about work and learning what your co-workers are up to and what their lives are outside of work,” Hamill said. “It has to do with the idea of relationships. The more I think we get to know each other as human beings, we begin to trust each other more and understand the perspective people are bringing to work.”

David Chasanov is a Workforce editorial associate. Comment below or email editors@workforce.com.

November 23, 2018June 29, 2023

Kronos CEO Aron Ain Urges Companies to Inspire Employees With a Strong Workplace Culture

Aron Ain, the CEO of workforce management software company Kronos Inc., released his debut book, “WorkInspired: How to Build an Organization Where Everyone Loves to Work,” in October.

Ain discusses how prioritizing employees is beneficial for an entire company. Workforce Editorial Associate David Chasanov spoke with Ain and found out what workplace elements are most important to him as a leader.

Workforce: Where does building a workplace culture begin? Is it at the top, or is it employee-centric?

Aron Ain: At the top. If the CEO and leadership don’t believe, encourage or support [workplace culture], it’s not effective. [At Kronos], if people know it’s important to me, people take it seriously. There’s safety in making sure employees are looked after and encouraged to have the right balance in their life. There’s safety in giving active feedback about how we can do better. I can’t imagine you would have great engagement in your company if people at the top don’t believe in that deeply.

WF: The old saying about employee turnover is that “employees don’t leave companies, they leave managers,” do you believe that to be true and how do you prevent that from happening at Kronos?

Ain: Absolutely true. People join companies because of the company. They leave because of who they work for. At Kronos we’re deeply focused on making sure all managers know their impact. Twice a year, our managers are rated by people on their team and how effective they are. It’s a manager effectiveness index (MEI). MEI holds managers accountable and improves their leadership, so we don’t have situations where great people leave because they’re not happy about who they work for.

WF: What’s your philosophy on performance reviews and how do they play into employee engagement?

Ain: I deeply believe in it. At Kronos, managers with the highest effectiveness index scores have the lowest turnover and highest engagement and [vice versa]. We make sure we do what’s necessary to create an environment where people are engaged. We try to hire above-average people. We want people who will make a difference. If you hire great people you need an environment where people are engaged, or else they will leave because they are great people.

WF: Is employee engagement all about the money?

Ain: Absolutely not. What’s most important to us is that the workplace should be a place where people have a great career opportunity, where they feel they have a great manager who respects them and helps them grow. It’s a place where they have confidence in the future, where they’re learning and growing, they enjoy their co-workers, people are making a difference with customers. If a place is a fun place to work but they’re working for a miserable manager, they’re out of here.

WF: What’s the difference between an established company and a startup?

Ain: An established company has various processes and functions in place to do a lot of the work. At a startup … you’re learning as you go. You don’t have time and resources to have a dedicated HR group, a group focused on legal aspects, financial services or marketing. You don’t have resources for training programs or creating a good environment. Not that you can’t, but it’s difficult.

WF: Are you a rah-rah leader or lead-by-example type of leader?

Ain: Both. I’m very communicative. I do video blogs all the time with employees, I talk to people all the time, I make sure when I’m walking through the halls or on the elevator that I don’t have my nose in my cellphone and I have my head up and I’m saying hello and talking to people. I visit Kronos offices around the world, and the first thing I do is go and say hello to everyone in the office. In India, where there’s about 1,000 people, it takes me a whole morning to go shake hands and say hello.

WF: What’s your favorite element to implement in making the workplace culture a fun community?

Ain: Having a great place where great people can come to work and enjoy what they’re doing. A place where they can also have balance in their lives. I love when I tell people that if the most important thing in their life is working for Kronos, they have their priorities mixed up. People get uncomfortable at first when they hear that, but then they end up believing in it because I keep repeating it to them.

WF: Kronos is located in the Boston area. Talk about major sports franchises in Boston and how they’ve built a culture in their organizations. What can people learn from them in terms of building a successful franchise?

Ain: I’m not super familiar with the inner workings of Boston franchises. But look at what the Patriots have done. From everything I can tell from a distance, they appear to have a focus on the end game. I appreciate most how they deal with difficult decisions actively. If they need to make personnel decisions, they do it. They don’t sit on things. I think we’re similar in that way.

WF: What is a common misconception in the business world right now?

Ain: The whole thing about what makes a company successful or what impact people have on making a company successful. People think having the magic product will make all the difference. The problem is you can’t deliver great products without great people. People say what comes first, the chicken or the egg, and in my world, what comes first is great people. It’s crystal clear. Once you have great people, you must work hard to do all the components to motivate people to want to stay.

November 15, 2018June 29, 2023

Do You Know? Pre-employment Medical Exams

A mayor in Ohio has gotten himself in some hot water for his selective use of pre-employment medical examinations for hirees.

How selective? According to WKYC, one woman claims that the mayor required her and other women, but not men, to be examined by his personal doctor. For his part, the mayor denies the allegations as an act of a “fertile imagination” and claims that he sends all city workers, male and female, to the same doctor for pre-employment exams.

Why would her allegations rise to the level of unlawful activity?

Aside from the obvious sex discrimination (an employer cannot apply one set of policies to male employees a different set to female employees), it also violates the ADA’s requirements for pre-employment medical examinations.

The ADA applies a traffic-light approach to employer-mandated medical exams.

- Red light (prior to an offer of employment): the ADA prohibits all disability-related inquiries and medical examinations, even those that are job related.
- Yellow light (after employment begins): an employer only may make disability-related inquiries and require medical examinations that are job-related and consistent with business necessity.
- Green Light (after an applicant is given a conditional job offer, but before s/he starts work): an employer may make any disability-related inquiries and conduct medical examinations, regardless of whether they are related to the job, as long as it does so for all entering employees in the same job category.

Because these exams fall in the “Green Light” category, the city is in the clear, right? Wrong. Pre-employment medical exams are permitted as long as the employer does so for all entering employees in the same job category. This employee alleges the females were singled out. Thus, unless she worked with all women in her job category (another legal red flag), the city violated the ADA by sending some, but not all, employees for pre-employment medical exams.

Also, pay attention to state laws when conducting medical exams. For example, Ohio prohibits an employer from shifting the cost of any pre-employment medical exam to an employee: “No employer shall require any prospective employee or applicant for employment to pay the cost of a medical examination required by the employer as a condition of employment.”

As for this mayor, these allegations are just the tip of his legal iceberg. It’s also alleged that he uses the n-word to refer to African American residents, and sexually harasses female employees by talking about his private parts and how pistachios contribute to his sexual prowess. Sounds like a great place to work.

November 15, 2018June 29, 2023

Handling the Workplace Holiday Rush

For some businesses beyond retail, the holiday season — November through February — is the busy season.

This means heavy workloads, tight deadlines and the need for collaborative teamwork more than ever as many companies are winding down. Research from my company’s research arm, the Limeade Institute, shows that burnout happens when employees have high stress but low well-being. So we’ve come together as a company to keep our people balanced, productive and healthy during this time.

Here’s what we found works best:

Reorganize annual events to alleviate employees’ schedules: Like most companies, we launched annual employee reviews at year-end. Now we’ve moved our annual reviews to February, so employees can approach them thoughtfully and reflect on all they’ve accomplished. We also pushed our holiday party to midyear so our employees can spend their time with family and friends. And while most companies send customers holiday gifts in December, we send gratitude gifts just before Thanksgiving.

Push for real PTO: We encourage employees to use their vacation time by year-end. In fact, our research shows those who take all of their vacation days are more engaged. Some employees prefer to take a long break just after the busy season. Because of this, we roll over up to 160 hours of PTO per year.

Support employee well-being: Throughout the busy season, we developed a Refresh Yourself campaign that promotes employee well-being — something often neglected when the pressure is on. We’ve offered chair massages, fruit-infused water, smoothies, yoga and meditation sessions, stretching stations, brain games and had the leadership team cook breakfast for employees. An optional office decorating contest and ugly sweater competition brings spirit to the office. In the meantime, remote employees receive care packages so they feel included and supported.

Help employees manage stress: Stress is inevitable during the busy season, so we help employees feel energized and motivated versus run-down or overwhelmed. We coach managers on how to help their team deal with stress and bring in guest speakers on how to stay positive in stressful times.

Our advice to those whose holiday rush ramps up during the holidays? Test new ideas, measure success and improve every year.

— Laura Hamill is chief people officer at Limeade and chief science officer of the Limeade Institute.

November 14, 2018June 29, 2023

How HR Benefits By Getting Political

This month, I spent a long weekend before the midterm election supporting my brother-in-law’s campaign for a state Assembly seat in rural Wisconsin.

We traveled to several campaign offices and spent the days knocking on doors in small towns. Approaching strangers’ houses to ask them about their political affiliations or their plans to vote can be an uncomfortable experience at first. But it quickly becomes energizing as you encounter incredibly interesting people and witness their reactions.

For me, being part of the boots-on-the-ground effort to motivate voters was deeply inspiring, and it renewed my appreciation for the tireless work that happens outside the cable news cycle.

I was struck by the varied examples of people stepping up and stepping into an opportunity to do something for their community. Whether actually running for office, as my brother-in-law did, or staffing a field office, managing a campaign, hosting an event or attending a town hall meeting, there are countless ways to engage in local issues. And it got me thinking about all the other ways I — and our industry — could be adding to important local and national dialogues.

Given the big challenges facing our country, I can think of no group more qualified or capable of influencing our political climate than HR and benefits leaders, who all have expertise in many of the areas being debated at the national level. HR leaders know all about balancing competing interests, creating equal opportunities and managing complex health and financial programs.

We know how to create policies and programs that can scale. We also know that a solid safety net benefits not only those who need it but also the community around them.

Katherine Eyster, deputy director of workplace programs at the National Partnership for Women & Families, agrees that HR leaders have valuable insights: “HR professionals have a key role to play in sharing their experiences with policymakers and advocates to ensure that legislation is thoughtfully and effectively designed with real companies and workers in mind.” Through her organization’s work, more than 75 companies and business leaders recently endorsed the need for a strong national paid family and medical leave policy.

“For too long the false narrative has endured that what is good for workers is bad for business, when evidence shows time and again that when workers thrive, businesses and the economy grow,” she said.

Adding our voices to the national debate is an idea gaining momentum among HR leaders. Rosemarie Day, founder and CEO of Day Health Strategies, has a forthcoming book about engaging in politics to protect access to health care. In it, she presents a “continuum of involvement” that shows the various ways to get involved.

She shares ways you can speak as a private citizen or spokesperson for your organization. The first step is getting (and staying) informed, followed by sharing information, supporting a cause, speaking up, showing up (at events, rallies and more), organizing people and even running for office.

“As a society, we need safeguards and safety nets,” she said. “Benefits managers can represent the human side of capitalism, and they know the limitations of what private companies can do and the gaps that are very critical for the government to fill.”

Renee Lutzen, director of health care product management at UMB Healthcare Services (one of our clients), is a member of the Employers Council for Flexible Compensation. In that capacity, she has been able to visit legislators and regulators and educate them about the issues we face every day.

“Legislative offices are interested in and very receptive to hearing real stories from real people — those of us who are working in the industry of health care, HR and benefits administration. We’re not just sitting at a desk crunching numbers against theoretical concepts. We have real-life examples we can share on how current health care policies are impacting individuals along with insights on the potential effects proposed policies will have,” she said.

This year, I’m vowing to get more involved and helping others do the same. As for my brother-in-law, he lost by a tiny margin, but I have no doubt he’ll have a fantastic career in public life. His efforts and the integrity and vision that guided his campaign inspired thousands of people in his district and beyond. I hope our efforts will do the same.

November 13, 2018June 29, 2023

Do You Know? English-only Workplace Policies

White Americans, what?
Nothing better to do?
Why don’t you kick yourself out?
You’re an immigrant too!

– White Stripes, Icky Thump (2007).

Estefany Martinez-Gonzalez and Imelda Lucio Lopez, both crew members at a McDonald’s restaurant in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and both Hispanic, claimed that their employer discriminated against them by requiring them to speak English at work (as opposed to their native Spanish).

In Martinez-Gonzalez v. Lakeshore Staffing (6th Cir. 11/9/18) [pdf], the appellate court disagreed.

Taking the record as a whole, no reasonable finder of fact could find that Lakeshore had a policy and culture of requiring its employees to speak only English. Lakeshore … filed seven declarations demonstrating that the so-called English-only policy could not exist because employees attested that they speak Spanish in the workplace or know of employees who openly speak Spanish in the workplace without reprimand. Martinez and Lopez do not contest either the factual veracity or the legal significance of the declarations. Instead, in support of their argument, Martinez and Lopez cite to two instances where Martinez stated she was told to speak English and one instance where Lopez testified she was told to speak English. Martinez and Lopez cite no disciplinary records in which they were reprimanded because they were speaking Spanish.

Thus, there was no evidence to support the existence of an English-only policy. That said, English-only policies certainly raise legal red flags.

As immigration and immigration reform continue to be hot-button political issues, employers take a big risk when they require all of their employees to speak only English at work.

The EEOC’s position is that a “rule requiring employees to speak only English at all times in the workplace is a burdensome term and condition of employment” and presumptively “violates Title VII.” According to the EEOC, an “employer may have a rule requiring that employees speak only in English at certain times where the employer can show that the rule is justified by business necessity.”

The majority of federal courts, however, have shown slightly more tolerance of “English-only” rules. Generally, courts will uphold an English-only rule if the employer can show a legitimate business justification for the requirement. Examples of legitimate business justifications that have been found to justify an English-only requirement are:

Stemming hostility among employees.
Fostering politeness to customers.
Promoting communication with customers, coworkers, or supervisors who only speak English.
Enabling employees to speak a common language to promote safety or enable cooperative work assignments.
Facilitating a supervisor’s ability monitor the performance of an employee.
Furthering interpersonal relations among employees.

Thus, employers should be careful to limit the reach of an English-only requirement only as far as is necessary to reach the articulated business rationale for the policy. For example, English-only requirements have been struck down as discriminatory where the policy included lunch hours, breaks and even private telephone conversations.

If you are considering an English-only requirement for your business, you should not do so without consulting with employment counsel to ensure that the policy is not discriminatory as written or as applied.

November 8, 2018June 29, 2023

Jeff Sessions’ Resignation in Lieu of Termination Is (More or Less) Still a Termination

“At your request, I am submitting my resignation.”

So wrote now-former Attorney General Jeff Sessions in his resignation letter to President Trump.

Yet, no one reasonably believes that Sessions resigned. “At your request, I am submitting my resignation” is a termination, period.

Clients ask me all the time, about an at-risk termination. “Jon, what if we just have him resign? He can’t sue us for discrimination, then, right?”

Wrong. Of course they can.

Compelling someone to resign in lieu of terminating them is no different than terminating them. They are leaving your employment through your choice, not theirs. So, no, you can’t avoid a discrimination or other wrongful termination lawsuit merely by forcing an employee to resign instead of firing them.

That said, there are a couple of advantages to couching a separation as a resignation instead of termination.

First, it might make it easier for employee to find a new job. (Mr. Sessions, meet Fox News.) A prospective employer is more likely to hire someone who resigned than someone who was fired, and the employee is not lying on their resume if they list “resignation” as the reason for separation (a fact you’ll support if the new employer calls).

Secondly, an employee who resigns might not be eligible for unemployment. Or at least you can reach an agreement with the employee that he or she won’t file for unemployment.

So, there you have it. No, there is no functional difference between a termination and a compelled resignation, yet there are some strategic reasons why you, and the employee, still might want a signature on the resignation letter.