The Employer’s Legal Advisor

Maintaining a Presence with Your Employees

You cannot afford to stay in your office concerned only with the core business. Instead, you must have a “presence” among the workforce. If you can’t be out there listening to workers for yourself, then you must condition your managers and supervisors to relay unusual and suspicious activities to you. It may even be worthwhile to meet regularly with your employees to review nonbusiness-related events, such as rumors and gossip, that are happening in the workplace. In these litigious times, employers should pay close attention to the grapevine.

Conditioning first-line supervisors to be alert to potential problems, not to mention communicating their concerns to their supervisors, is no easy task. After ...