Posted on February 26th, 2019
Below find a complete transcription of the video.
Hey, everybody. It’s John Fagerholm from DefendMyBiz.com.
Today’s not going to be really a law-based video.
It’s going to be practical advice for business type video.
It just struck me today speaking to a client about a new lawsuit that was filed and thinking back when I consult business owners about these employment lawsuits that they have, anybody can sue for anything.
Certainly, the way the employment laws are in California, there’s lots of room for employees to sue for things that are either real or not real.
But what I found in my experience and the length of time I’ve been doing this, which is nearly two decades, when I depose these employees,
Those two things are not what you think. It’s not anything in law specifically.
What it is, is the two types that are more likely to sue are employees that were treated badly.
For example, a supervisor or an owner that was overly harsh, or treated this particular employee different than he treats other employees.
That group tends to sue more often.
Then the other group that tends to sue quite often is those that were treated well, which sounds odd, but follow me here.
They’re treated well. Then once you can’t keep doing something for them, then they get upset about that.
For example, an employee that you lend money to all the time or an employee that you allow to have extra smoke breaks or whatever it is.
Then, suddenly when it’s not conducive to the business anymore for whatever reason, and you say, “Hey, we’re not going to allow these smoke breaks anymore.”
It doesn’t even matter that giving smoke breaks is not something that they can sue for.
They find something else to sue for.
Then when you question them, it turns out that what they’re really angry about is some privilege that they had that you’re now taking away from them.
My advice and what I use here in my business, because I have quite a few employees too, is I don’t do any extra favors for anybody.
I don’t give anyone any extra privileges.
I stick to just what I’m required to provide in law. Then I treat everyone fairly and I treat them consistently and treat them exactly the same.
That’s the way I think you avoid these two groups of people that are more likely to sue.
Obviously, you should still comply with the law because you could get sued for it. But these two groups are the ones that are more likely to sue.
I don’t know if it’s just something they’re using to justify a lawsuit or some other reason, but those are the two things I think you should avoid.
That’s number one, treating people badly, and number two, giving people extra privileges.
Thanks, everybody. Until next time.
