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Rita in HR is actually two HR attorneys in one: Ellen Aldridge and Pamela Fyfe, both of the Nonprofits Insurance Alliance Group. They advise nonprofits on wrongful termination, wage & hour, discrimination, harassment, and other employment issues—before they are sued—to help keep them out of court.A Blogging Policy for the Nonprofit Workplace
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Employee blogging, like the use of the internet itself, is only likely to grow. Many employers are taking proactive steps to protect themselves from harmful or embarrassing blogs by adopting an agency blogging policy. The blogging policies of many large technology policies can be found on the internet and you could modify those policies based on the culture and needs of your agency. Such a policy, at a minimum, should contain the following provisions:
- Clarification of whether blogging may be done on agency time or with the use of agency computers.
- Bloggers must comply with all of the agency’s policies and agreements, including any on ethics, code of conduct, confidentiality and discrimination/harassment.
- Bloggers are personally and legally responsible for the contents of their blogs. Blogs are individual, not agency communications, and employees must not represent or imply that they are expressing the opinion of the agency.
- Never disclose any confidential or proprietary information concerning the agency or its customers or clients.
- Act professional towards yourself, your coworkers and your agency. Do not put anything on your blog that will embarrass, insult, demean or damage the reputation of the agency, its services, customers or clients, or any of its employees.
Zero Cell Phone Use While Driving Policy
Your employer should enact a "Zero Cell Phone Use While Driving" policy. Such a policy should consider the following elements:
1. Require that employees pull over at the next available safe stop to return a work call.
2. Never initiate a call while the car is moving.
3. Never look up a number or dial information while driving.
4. Ban text messaging while driving.
Such a policy should state that any employee who, on work time, talks on a cell phone while driving will be subject to discipline, regardless of whether the employee has an accident.
If you employer feels that it must maintain instant connectivity with its employees, it could provide all employees with a "hands-free" cell phone device to facilitate safe driving. But the hands-free solution may only slightly diminish the risk of an accident while driving, since focusing on the conversation, especially a stressful one, diverts attention away from driving onto the subject at hand. So if hands-free phones are furnished, in addition to items 2, 3, and 4, the policy should consider:
5. Never use the cell phone in bad weather or heavy traffic.
6. Always keep your eyes on the road, and drop the call if you need to focus on your driving.
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Don't Drive, Chew Gum and Use the Phone at the Same Time
Dear Rita:
As a social worker for a nonprofit, I am required to carry a cell phone with me. Sometimes my supervisor calls me when I am
driving. If I don't answer the call, she might think I'm shopping
instead of working. However, I am concerned about whether I can be a
safe driver while talking on the cellphone. Can I refuse to answer
calls while driving without being reprimanded? -- Not Chatty Cathy
Dear Not Chatty Cathy:
> Read moreOvertime Pay for Nonprofit Preschool Teacher?
Dear Rita:
I'm a daycare worker for a nonprofit agency. My employer pays me a salary and refuses to pay overtime when I work more than 40 hours a week. The executive director says I'm not entitled to overtime pay because I am a "salaried teacher." I think the real issue is whether I am an exempt employee. I don't supervise other employees and I don't have a college degree or a license. What advice can you give me?
What Should We Do About an Employee's Outrageous Blog?
Dear Rita,
An employee googled our nonprofit's name and came across a coworker's blog. The blog contains some outrageous material, including some unflattering comments about working at our organization. What can our nonprofit do? -- Blog-Burned
Dear Blog-Burned:
> Read moreCan We Require An Employee To Take Her Meds?
Dear Rita,
Our nonprofit provides services to people with mental disabilities. As part of our mission, we employ former clients. Can we require an employee/former client to take her psychiatric medications as a condition of continued employment? --Worried and Wondering
Dear Worried and Wondering,
No, you can't require that. Once a client becomes an employee, your agency must take off its social service provider hat and wear only its employer hat. Your focus must be on employee performance rather than client health and well being. The tool you can use to ensure satisfactory performance is effective supervision.
Whether or not your agency is covered by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA, which covers places with 15 or more employees) or similar state laws, I recommend using the "interactive process" as a supervisory tool to address any concerns you have with this employee's ability to perform. The ADA requires covered employers to engage in this interactive process - in-person meetings and ongoing dialogue - with disabled employees to determine if any reasonable accommodations are necessary for the employee to do the essential functions of the job.
If you observed performance or behavior problems, you could use the interactive process to ask the employee for medical certification of any disability, including identification of any limitations she has that may need accommodation in the workplace.
Remember, it is inappropriate to use any of the medical information you had about the employee from her client records because privacy rules mandate confidentiality of clients' mental health treatment records!
If the employee was not forthcoming with medical certification of her disability, the agency could send her for a fitness-for-duty exam to obtain a current opinion about the employee's disability status and work limitations.
Once the interactive process is done, if performance is still deficient or there is a potential health and safety issue, counseling, disciplining or discharging her can be considered if she can't perform the essential functions of her position after implementation of any reasonable accommodations.
(More information on the interactive process and reasonable accommodations can be obtained from the EEOC at http://www.eeoc.gov/policy/docs/accommodation_procedures_eeoc.html)
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Ask Rita Disclaimer
Ask Rita in HR is provided as a forum for our readers to learn about and discuss current developments in human resource law. It is not intended to provide a legal opinion or specific legal advice. Please remember that Rita’s answers are fact-specific and may be affected by state laws. Information regarding state law can typically be found through your state’s Department of Labor or Chamber of Commerce website. Should issues arise involving a specific legal matter involving you or your nonprofit you are encouraged to contact legal counsel or your D & O insurance carrier which may provide employment advice as a service to its insured organizations.
