Handbooks are not a Contract
All the big employers have them: employee handbooks. They love their handbooks. They spend so much time and money putting them together that they would have to love them. So, of course, many employees come see me and first thing they say is the Employer did not follow their own policy. The employee says it like that simple fact should answer all my questions. But, that fact answers few of my questions.
The fact is most of those employee handbooks are not even close to binding on the employer. This most often comes up when an employee is fired and they complain that they were not written up three times before they were fired. Sure, many employer policies state that an employee must be written up three times before being fired. *But* an employer's policy is usually not binding on the employer. I guess too many employees have sat through too many HR meetings when HR discusses their wonderful and well-thought out employee handbook and how managers are expected to follow these policies.
And, that makes sense. Most policies are designed to give someone a chance to improve. Often, if given the opportunity to improve, most employees do.
But, unfortunately, almost all employee handbooks now come with a proviso that these policies are not binding and do not form a contract. Due to some court decisions in the late 1980's and early 1990's, employers started putting a clause in the handbook that states the handbook is not a contract. So, of course, seeing that clause, the judges found handbooks to not constitute a contract. So, the the employer was not bound by its own handbook, ... that the employer used to love so much.
So, sure, now it is okay to fire an employee with only one written discipline. So, now, it is okay to not try to salvage an otherwise productive employee. But, so long as everyone knows this, there should be no surprises.....
