Reference no: EM133042039

Problem: Claudia recently became the HR manager at a small sized private company. One of the things she has been tasked with by the CEO is addressing employee tardiness. The CEO is a stickler for punctuality and there are a few employees who continuously arrive to work late. First step for Claudia is to review all the employee's timecards and determine who the serious violators are. Upon completion of the timecard review Claudia identified a handful of employees that were violating the company's policy on tardiness, however; one employee had a more serious tardiness issue than the others. Claudia decides the best way to approach this issue is to send a companywide email reminding all employees of the company's operating hours and schedule and to please make there everyone adheres to this policy. Within a week of the email all but 1 employee were arriving to work on time. Claudia next sent 2 emails on separate occasions directly to the employee who was still not arriving on time and reminded the employee of her work schedule as well as the company's operating hours and to refer to the employee handbook for any questions or concerns regarding the matter of her tardiness. Another week passed and the employee continued arriving tardy to work. This time Claudia sent the employee an email and copied her immediate supervisor. Two days later the employee continued with the tardiness and Claudia again sent an email to the employee and copied her immediate supervisor. This time the employee replied to Claudia's email. Her email stated that she felt she was being discriminated upon by being asked to arrive to work on time when other employees arrive late, and nothing was done about their tardiness. She also stated she was being harassed and singled out because of her "age, gender, and/or sexual orientation." She is a 52-year-old female, we know nothing of her sexual orientation

Questions: 

1. Is the company in fact discriminating against the employee by requesting she arrive to work on time and adhere to the company's operating hours and/or schedule?

2. Is the employee being harassed if emails had been sent out to the entire organization early on reminding everyone of the company's policy on tardiness as well as their schedules?

3. What should be Claudia's next step?

4. What process or policies should Claudia implement to avoid this type of situation occurring again?