Page 106 - An Indispensible Resource for Being a Credible Activist

CHAPTER 7

DEALING WITH INCONSISTENT APPLICATION

OF POLICIES AND DISPARATE TREATMENT

HR professionals have a professional and ethical responsibility to speak up if they believe
their company is not following relevant labor laws and if employees’ rights are being vio-
lated. HR professionals are also encouraged to follow SHRM’s Code of Ethics.
Many employees incorrectly assume that either HR cannot be trusted or is only on the
side of management. Although this is unfortunately true in some companies, a more com-
mon problem is that many HR professionals are ignored or overruled by their leadership
and/or their corporate legal counsel when they raise concerns. In addition, these HR profes-
sionals need and want to keep their jobs. So, what is an ethical HR professional to do? At
the end of this chapter is a sample memo that an HR professional can customize to his or
her situation and send to leadership if necessary.
Many HR professionals forget that they and other executives can be personally named in
lawsuits brought by employees if the employee believes that the HR professional allowed harass-
ment or discrimination to occur and did not respond to it as is required. This is only one impor-
tant reason why an HR professional might want to remind his or her leadership of their shared
liabilities and of the HR professional’s responsibilities under the SHRM Code of Conduct.
This kind of memo serves more than one purpose. It asks the company to change how
they are doing things, it creates evidence that the sender attempted to address these issues,
and it theoretically (remember the disclaimer!) protects the sender from being retaliated
against for having raised these issues. There is risk involved in sending a memo. An employer
may just not care if you sue them for retaliating against you; the employer may be unaware
that they aren’t permitted to retaliate against you for writing such a memo; they may make
up some other reason to fire you and say it has nothing to do with this memo; they may elim-
inate your position and say it has nothing to do with this memo; or they may not care if they
are dragged into court for retaliating against you—as long as they have gotten rid of you. Only
you can estimate the likelihood of any of these outcomes knowing your company.
The HR Tool “Sample Memo Addressing Inconsistent Policy Application,” on pages
95–99, is the longest sample memo in this book only because it addresses multiple (and
sadly typical) issues of having to educate one’s leadership around shared liability. It is best
to keep memos as short as possible, but when multiple issues are being raised and exam-
ples are given, length can be a challenge. It is not recommended that you use the memo on
pages 95–99 unless you are an HR professional. All memos (even resignation memos)
should be written in a diplomatic manner that will allow a positive relationship to continue,
even if the subject matter is difficult.
It is always important to think carefully through all of the possible outcomes before
sending memos such as these, including any of the sample memos in this book. The possi-

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