HR 101: Tees and tats causing a stir

Her latest dye job is pink and green. She’s now sporting a large circular ring in her nose, a bar in her eyebrow, sleeve tattoos wind their way up both forearms and the letters J-A-M-E-S are now tattooed on her knuckles.

Dr. D. is about to drop dead. His practice is in Manhattan … Manhattan, Kansas, that is, in the heart of the Midwest. Even in this college town, it’s fair to say that there is a somewhat conservative view of individual style. Dr. D has been in practice for 25 years and has many aging boomers who’ve long since forgotten the concept of free spirit and the psychedelic revolution.

The dentist is hoping appropriate dress is covered in the employee policies and procedures manual. There’s just one problem: He never actually got around to finishing and distributing the manual. There is no policy on appropriate dress or anything else. Truth be told, the dentist never really thought he would need the manual until, of course, he needed it.

Too often dentists look at human resources polices as an expense rather than a necessary investment in protecting the practice from potentially costly litigation. In other cases, a dentist may purchase a practice that has an existing manual and then simply assume that it is OK, that everything that should be addressed is … until the dentist discovers otherwise.

Lawsuits on the rise

When the economy tanked in 2008, the number of discrimination and wrongful termination lawsuits skyrocketed. When the economy is good and people can find jobs quickly, they don’t bother pursuing litigation. In this environment, it is much more likely that an unhappy employee will sue or file a complaint than it was five years ago. It’s essential that employers have policies and procedures in place.

Certainly, dress and appearance are big issues in today’s workplace. Dentists need a dress code and a policy. You can say that everyone is going to wear scrubs. You can say no jeans are allowed. You don’t have to tolerate offensive or off-color attire, T-shirts with inappropriate sayings, crazy hair, etc., but it’s essential to have policies in place. However, dentists do need to be aware that if the clothing, such as a head scarf, is worn because of the employee’s religious practice, it is protected.

McKenzie Management’s HR Solutions division encourages dentists to work with a professional to create a “policies and procedures manual” that is specific to the individual needs of the practice. The manual may cover as many or as few issues as the dentist chooses, but would probably serve its purpose most effectively if it included key practice policies, including those listed below:

• Equal opportunity statement: This states that the employee’s religion, age, sex or race will not influence hiring, promotion, pay or benefits in any way.
• Definition of the work schedule: This indicates that all employees are to be at assigned work areas and ready to provide care for patients at a certain time.
• Salary/payment policies: This details when the employee can expect to be paid, how wage increases are handled, overtime, etc.
• Professional code of conduct: This section clarifies the practice’s expectations regarding employee dress, punctuality, use of tobacco, alcohol and drugs, as well as policies regarding personal phone calls, Internet usage and personal visits.
• Time-off policies: This section explains policies on vacation, parental/maternity leave, illness, military, funeral, personal, jury duty, holidays, personal days, etc.
• Performance review policy: This section explains exactly how and when employee performance is evaluated, including samples of performance evaluation forms. It may also spell out the practice’s policy on progressive discipline and unsatisfactory performance. And it may list those infractions that could result in termination of employment.

Terminating an employee is something that many dentists will go to great lengths to avoid — at great harm to the practice. Consider this all too familiar scenario. The new employee, “Rita,” comes on board. She is bright and enthusiastic. Her responsibilities increase over the years. She has her way of doing things, which is fine with the dentist because he doesn’t have to worry about things getting done. Before you know it, she’s been with the office 15 years and knows the practice better than the dentist does.

The problem: That once bright, young, enthusiastic employee has become stubborn and controlling. She challenges the dentist and staff regularly. She’s negative, difficult, and regularly refuses to comply with routine requests. She has become the proverbial “employee from Hell.”

The dentist has finally had enough. He spent the better part of the last two years — yes, two years — making excuses for her to the remaining staff who actually didn’t quit in disgust. “She’s going through a difficult time.” “She really is a good employee; you just have to look past her shortcomings.” “You have to admit, she’s very good with the schedule.”

As McKenzie Management HR Solutions division has found, this situation is a common scenario in dental practices.

The dentist hands over so much responsibility to a key employee that the individual becomes central to the continued operation of the practice. This person changes over the course of weeks, months or years and issues surface.

In the case above, the dentist wanted to dismiss the employee. Somehow Rita learned of the dentist’s desire to terminate her and threatened to sue him for 15 years of back pay and overtime.

The dentist was terrified. Sadly, he spent months paralyzed from fear and trying to convince himself he could just live with her disruptive behavior. He couldn’t. This one employee was running his practice into the ground.

Eventually, he sought legal counsel and learned that he lived in a state where an individual had only one year to sue for back wages. But even at that, it was still far more than the dentist wanted to pay. Moreover, the entire ugly situation could have been avoided if the dentist had established office policies and procedures in place. He didn’t think he needed them until he needed them.

When faced with situations in which an employee must be terminated, first and foremost, practices must have established policies and procedures. Second is to seriously consider offering severance agreements. Severance agreements in which employees give up all rights to sue are valid in every state. Offer a severance agreement with a modest amount of money to put the issue to bed and send the employee on his/her way.

The amount of severance awarded will vary based on the employee’s position in the practice and how long he/she has been there. It could be three-five months salary, but when you’ve been dealing with a seriously poisonous staff member, most dentists will do just about anything to be rid of this person. And most agree that a few months’ salary is well worth it. Rita was eventually sent on her way with six months’ pay.

Additionally, the agreement should assure that the employee will not disclose confidential practice information or trade secrets. This can be taken care of up front when the employee is hired.

There should be a confidentiality provision in the handbook and the employee must be required to sign off that he/she is aware of it and agrees to follow it.

The key is preparation. Waiting until employee behaviors are so problematic that they are damaging the practice make the dentist and practice highly vulnerable to litigation.

Note: This article was published in Dental Tribune U.S. Edition, Vol. 7 No. 1, January 2012.

About the author

Sally McKenzie is CEO of McKenzie Management, which provides success-proven management solutions to dental practitioners nationwide. She is editor of The Dentist’s Network Newsletter, the e-Management Newsletter and The New Dentist magazine. She can be reached at sallymck@mckenziemgmt.com.