Why Employees Sue Employers

Understanding what motivates employees to file a lawsuit against their employer may help employers avoid being sued. Remembering the Golden Rule goes a long way.

• Feeling Helpless. Arises from a feeling that one's work life is no longer in one's control - the more this loss of control appears to come from wrongful action, the more likely the employee will sue.
• Not understanding why they were fired/disciplined. Don't confuse telling an employee they're fired with telling them why they're fired. When a person feels like they've been blindsided, they tend to feel that they've been treated unfairly and will be more likely to seek justice.
• Financial Security is Upended. Seems obvious that getting fired is not helping your financial situation - employers make this worse when they vigorously oppose unemployment comp applications from a terminated employee. Rubbing salt in the wound improves your chances of being sued.
• Treating the Employee Poorly when Firing. Bad treatment creates bad feelings and bad feelings lead to lawsuits. Public displays that humiliate/embarass the employee, strong-arm tactics like walking them to the door with security, and changing locks immediately after the employee is gone are a few examples.
• Not treating the employee as a team member. Employees like to think of themselves as team members, part of the family, someone not expendable. Being dropped at a moment's notice doesn't help.
• Being treated differently from others or by a new supervisor. Inconsistent treatment is often viewed as unfair and unfairness begs for justice. In the same vein, new supervisors often take over their responsibilites with an assumption that all relationships are a blank slate. There is never a blank slate - employees expect newbies to know their past contributions and they expect to be treated the way they were told they would be. Promises made in the past aren't forgotten by the employee.
• Selective listening. When an employee feel like the employer doesn't want to hear their side of the story, they are more likely to seek a forum which forces the employer to listen = a courtroom. Exit interviews, performance reviews and responses to EEOC charges are all after-the-fact communciations.
• Inadquate investigations. No one likes to report a problem and receive little to no feedback on it. Worse still is not having the facts straight before investigating accusations of employee wrongdoing and then, not apologizing when the accusations turn out to be wrong.
• Any type of harassment followed by firing. No matter how an employer tries to spin it, employees who are fired after complaining of harassment will believe they have been retaliated against.

Prevention Tips:

1. Give feedback about performance early and often. An open-door communication policy that makes employees feel like they are listened to is optimal. Open communciation will make your workplace better and help avoid an employment-related lawsuit. If your communication is limited to annual reviews and exit interviews, you've missed the boat.
2. Frequent performance evaluations that set performance goals and address problems directly help employees understand why they were fired if that becomes necessary. A system of progressive discipline also has its merits. Unless absolutely necessary, don't fire an employee without warning.
3. Don't fight an unemployment comp application without a really good reason; know your facts well before opposing the employee; use severance packages is possible to assist an employee with transition.
4. Prepare for termination - if you've been using strong communication systems, termination shouldn't come as a surprise and thus doesn't need to be done at a moment's notice; conduct terminations privately. Show the employee dignity and respect in the process-let the employee leave outside the presence of others.
5. Don't sit non-peformers on the bench - give extra coaching/practice until the employee must be cut.
6. Don't allow inconsistent treatment without justification and don't forget about past promises, practices and history.
7. Listen to and take seriously all complaints.
8. Take investigations seriously and provide feeback.
9. Lookout for harassment.