Business/Economy

Don't write a positive reference for a fired employee. Here's what to do instead

Q: After an investigation, we fired one of our employees for threatening and stalking two co-workers. He's now demanding a positive letter of reference, which I'm writing. I earlier tried to appease him with an innocuous letter giving simply the dates on which he'd worked here along with what his job duties were.  He refused to accept this, and frankly he scares me.

Can you give me any pointers for writing a reference letter that sounds positive but not too positive?

A: Yes: Don't.

If you write a falsely positive or even neutral reference, you can be sued for "negligent referral," defined as "the failure of an employer to disclose complete and factual information about a former or current employee to another employer."

When Allstate Insurance Co. learned one of their employees, Paul Calden, made death threats to co-workers and carried a gun to work in a briefcase, they fired him. Allstate then gave Calden a neutral reference letter stating he'd voluntarily resigned because restructuring eliminated his position.

Based on that reference and Calden's relevant work experience, Fireman's Fund hired him. When Fireman's Fund later fired Calden, he shot the five supervisors, killing three of them, and the victims' family members sued Allstate for not disclosing Calden's true work history. Allstate ultimately settled the case for an undisclosed amount of money.

Second and even more important, make sure you've installed protection for your employees and yourself. Your former employee threatened two of his co-workers and now makes demands. He may not be done with you, your company or his former co-workers. If you fear violence, you may need to hire security personnel, install security measures and train your staff to handle a violent intruder. I'd urge you also to contact the police department and find out what help they can offer your company.

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Third, in several cases we've helped our clients terminate problem employees when the firing manager feared potential violence. In all cases, we've negotiated a severance package in exchange for a waiver. The benefit of this is that money allowed the terminated employee to leave with dignity, so that he or she didn't have continuing animus over the firing. Have you considered letting a neutral third party explain why you can't give a reference but can provide a financial "cushion" while he finds a new job?

Finally, if you do receive a reference call, you may find it helpful to know that Alaska law gives employers immunity against claims for defamation, libel and slander if they act in good faith and stick to the facts when giving a reference.

Q: As we're not large enough to have a human resources manager, our office manager handles HR paperwork. She's "hard line" and says we need to overhaul our personnel policies because the current ones allow too much variance in how each manager handles problems. She insists we need to implement strict zero-tolerance policies related to drug abuse, workplace violence and guns in the workplace, all areas in which we've had recent problems. Although several of us on the management team are hesitant, she insists it would make everything easier, streamline discipline, and, in the long run, improve our organization. Is she right?

A: Yes and no. Your managers do need to treat employees consistently. If one of your managers terminates an employee for repeatedly arriving late to work, and other managers allow that behavior without consequences, you risk losing a wrongful termination lawsuit. This risk escalates if the employee terminated is a member of a legally protected group, due to his or her sex, race, disability or other characteristic.

Zero-tolerance policies, however, can lock you as an employer into making a wrong decision. In 2013, I wrote about Devin McLean, a 23 year-old AutoZone employee who saved his manager's life. He did this by escaping out the back door, retrieving a legally registered pistol from his car and returning to yell "freeze" at a robber pointing a gun at his manager's head as his manager kneeled in front of the safe. AutoZone fired McLean for bringing his gun into the workplace and I thought they made the wrong call.

Employers also falsely assume zero-tolerance policies give them the right to immediately and without risk fire employees who breach the policies. Not true. When an employee sues for wrongful termination, juries, courts and regulatory agencies conduct their own assessment for whether summary dismissal was fair. The zero-tolerance policy is a factor, but not the only one.

Lynne Curry | Alaska Workplace

Lynne Curry writes a weekly column on workplace issues. She is author of “Navigating Conflict,” “Managing for Accountability,” “Beating the Workplace Bully" and “Solutions,” and workplacecoachblog.com. Submit questions at workplacecoachblog.com/ask-a-coach/ or follow her on workplacecoachblog.com, lynnecurryauthor.com or @lynnecurry10 on X/Twitter.

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