Don’t Be Your Employee’s
Banker/Counselor/Doctor!
by Rebecca Boartfield and Tim Twigg
Employers are regularly characterized poorly in various
blooded individual and completely disregard your
employee’s needs. We are simply suggesting that you
carefully manage your actions to ensure you’re not
inadvertently creating problems for yourself or your
business. Let’s look at some ways this can play out at
your business and how you can handle them
to minimize potential problems.
Unfortunately, sometimes the “nice” employers take
this desire to do right too far--to a level that is not
recommended. This can result in employers crossing
boundaries that they shouldn’t and put their business
at risk for liability.
Pay Advances
media outlets. While there are those who deserve
it, most don’t. Throughout the years, we have met,
and worked with, some of the nicest employers, who
genuinely want to do right by their employees. This is
to be commended, no doubt. The world needs many
more good employers to outweigh the bad.
Ensuring that employees are paid properly and are
given every right due them under the law is a must.
To be a good employer, you must be focused on this
part of managing employees. You also need to create
a good environment with good working conditions,
which should certainly include having a solid team
that provides support and who generally treat each
other well. To retain your employees and compete
with your colleagues for good employees, employers
must be competitive with providing good benefits,
paid time off and so on. This includes mentoring,
coaching, teaching and training.
What you shouldn’t do is go beyond these essentials
and become the employee’s counselor, psychologist,
medical doctor, act like a parent, or anything else
beyond being a good, solid employer. While it can be
instinctual to want to lend a helping hand, provide
emotional support, or in some other way “be there”
for an employee, it can wreak havoc on you and your
business in the real world if you go too far.
We’re not suggesting you suddenly become a cold-
This article appeared in the Fall 2015 edition of the
BOP “Bent-on-Personnel” Quarterly HR Newsletter
published quarterly by Bent Ericksen & Associates.
Copyright © 2015, all rights reserved.
Your long-term employee,
who you love, has just come
to you and asked for a pay
advance. She has provided a
very compelling story about why
she’s short financially and needs income fast to help her
through this hard time. She’s a good employee, and you
have no reason to doubt her. Besides, it’s only two weeks’
worth of salary – can’t be that bad, right? You decide
to give it to her. Unfortunately, before she can pay it all
back, she quits. You’re mad because she quit and owes
you money. How dare she after how good you’ve been
to her?
This started off okay – good and trusting employee,
not much money, long-term individual – you thought
you were doing a good thing. But then, you get burned
because the employee is leaving even while owing you
money. This is where the nice aspect becomes a problem
for you – how do you get the outstanding balance
returned to you? Are you just out this money?
All too often, we find that employers believe the
outstanding balance can be deducted from the employee’s
final paycheck. This is a mistake. While there is no
federal law prohibiting this type of deduction, it does put
limitations on how much can be taken at any one time.
Bent Ericksen & Associates
PO Box 10542, Eugene, OR, 97440
(800) 679-2760
www.bentericksen.com
The employee must always earn minimum wage
for all hours worked, without exception, and so,
even if you can deduct it, you may not get much,
depending on how big the outstanding balance is.
alcoholism and would instinctively want
to get that individual help. Sadly, only the
person in that situation can make the choice
to get help. No one else can do that for him.
State laws do impose restrictions on deductions
that can prevent any amount being recovered.
Some states simply do not allow this deduction at
all (looking at you California). Some states require
written authorization that must be signed by the
employee at the time the advance was provided
before a deduction can be taken. While other states
require employers to obtain permission from the
state Department of Labor before being able
to manage outstanding balances through
paycheck deductions.
Two things can happen in these situations
if the employer decides to get involved with
“fixing” the employee: One, the employee
can react badly. If s/he doesn’t think there is
a problem, the individual can get defensive,
angry, feel insulted, or feel as though
their privacy has been invaded and so on.
Ultimately, this can create more problems
than is intended by the employer who is
just trying to be nice.
While it’s nice to help someone out like
this, you may find it’s not worth it in the
long run. This money may simply be a
loss to you depending on the state you’re
in and how your employee decides to
treat you.
Suspected/Known
Alcohol Abuse
Your employee is coming in late,
missing work, looks disheveled, and has
been seen over indulging at a local bar
on weeknights. You suspect, or maybe
even truly know, that he does have an
alcohol problem. While this is affecting
work and needs to be corrected, you
are more concerned with his wellbeing.
If it weren’t for the problems that have
been occurring, you otherwise like this
person, feel like a friend to this person
and only want him to get better. You
know that firing him will not help his
situation. Wouldn’t it be better to give
him support to get treatment? Wouldn’t
it be better to help him correct the
problem and remain employed?
Unequivocally, I think everyone
would answer “yes” to those questions.
Understandably, no one wants to
see someone battling the problem of
p.2 Don’t Be Your Employee’s Banker/Counselor/Doctor! by Rebecca Boartf ield and Tim Twigg
Second, employers can put
themselves at risk for liability
because alcoholism can be
considered a disability. In fact,
even just coming to the conclusion
that someone is an alcoholic can
be a “perceived disability.” Either
way, this means the employee is
now protected by certain laws,
which, if not handled properly,
could become problematic for
the employer in terms of liability.
It is best, and we recommend,
handling only the job-related
issues with the employee. Is the
employee having attendance
issues? Address that. Is the
employee’s
appearance
suffering? Address that. Manage
the employee’s performance
and how it is affecting their job
and your business – not why
the performance is below your
standards. Why performance is
poor is not your concern and,
in some cases, can create more
problems for you. Until, or unless,
you are forced to deal with issues
like alcoholism, focus your efforts
on job-related and objective
issues and nothing more. You’re
not a trained counselor – don’t
try to be one.
Suspected/Known Mental Illness
Directly or indirectly employees can make it known
that they have depression, anxiety, or other mental
illnesses. In some cases, this kind of information cannot
be ignored by the employer. In other cases, it doesn’t
have to become part of the employment relationship or
managed by the employer. It really depends on the facts
of the situation at hand.
Mental illnesses become the employer’s responsibility
when the employee, either directly or indirectly,
indicates that his/her performance is hindered by what
is probably a disability (i.e. the mental illness). For
example, the employee states that s/he cannot handle
a certain job duty because of his/her anxiety. In this
situation, it is best to get professional guidance on how to
manage this appropriately and legally because certain
laws exist in this area.
If performance is otherwise okay and there is no
indication that the mental illness is impacting the
employee’s job, then employers should leave it be and
not get involved further. Do not ask questions. Do not
inquire about prescription drug use (unless there is a
job-related reason or safety concern). Do not talk to the
employee about problems in his/her personal life that
can be impacting the mental illness. Do not probe the
employee to know more about the illness s/he is dealing
with. And so on.
Much like alcoholism, blurring the lines between
employer and counselor can create liability. There are
laws in place that protect employees from having to
share this information. There are laws in place that must
be followed if someone has a true mental illness, which
results in a disability, and needs an accommodation.
If not properly followed, you can experience serious
consequences if the employee chooses to make this an
issue with proper government officials.
Knowing this kind of detail about your employees can
always be used against you, even though you may be
attempting to be nice. Let’s say you probe your employee
about her anxiety. What is it? What is she doing about it?
Does she need drugs? Is she taking those drugs? Then,
after getting this information, somewhere down the line
you decide to terminate this employee. Although the
reason has nothing to do with the mental illness you
talked to her about, the employee (and her attorney) can
certainly make it appear as though it is. Unless you have the
documentation to prove otherwise, this may be a losing (and
costly) battle.
Don’t put yourself in this situation. Keep things professional.
Be cognizant of the employer/employee boundary and don’t
cross over it unless you have to and, when you’re forced to
manage this situation, reach out to professionals to handle
it properly.
Conclusion
Being an employer can be challenging. Sometimes it seems
cruel because doing what’s right for your business may
interfere with your ability to be someone’s friend, confidant,
support person, etc. Sometimes following the laws means you
have to keep your distance. While this is not a call for you to
be mean, callous or completely disregard your employees and
the situations that may impact them, it is important that you
recognize what it means to do that, and what it means to cross
those boundaries.
We wholeheartedly believe that keeping the employment
relationship job-related, objective and professional is the best
and safest approach for managing your employees as a whole.
It’s hard for things to go wrong when you do that.
p.3 Don’t Be Your Employee’s Banker/Counselor/Doctor! by Rebecca Boartf ield and Tim Twigg