Documentation

AS A PROMINENT LABOR ATTORNEY once told me, no documentation is sometimes better than poor documentation. His point: poorly worded discussions can get you in trouble. Even if you verbally discuss the issue in clear detail, serious problems can develop if the employee takes legal action and your record of that discussion is vague, incomplete, or worse—contains erroneous information or harmful statements. The approach in this chapter therefore emphasizes the language and content of documentation as well as the format.

Specifically, we will take a close look at:

•   Your primary goal in documenting discipline

•   Document validation

•   Your documentation options: letter format or disciplinary action form

•   The letter format, including outlines for verbal and written discussion

•   Final discussion and its special needs

•   The disciplinary action form

•   The effective use of language: impact words

As termination is the final, more troublesome step of the process, its documentation (as well as its procedure) will be detailed in Chapter 6. It is a step that, if you discipline and document effectively, should lessen your concerns.