Devoted to Corporate Attorneys, Corporate Lawyers, and Corporate Counsel

The following is not meant to be legal advice.

On November 10, 2007, a human resource professional specializing in employee relations spoke in San Francisco about performance management.

Usually it is rare for human resources to retract a review, but if a manager does not have documentation for what he/she puts on a review, the statement should usually come off.  All notes by human resources are discoverable, unless there is attorney-client privilege.  Notes should be objective, not subjectively written.  There should be enough written to refresh memory, but a person should not take notes that he/she does not want discovered.  People should destroy previous drafts of documents once the final version is completed.

Misrepresentation comes into play when a person says things that are not accurate.  People should say things as they are, but make sure there is documentation before saying them.  Employees should not be hearing negatives for the first time at the end of year review.  It is not fair to the employee if the employer commits up front feedback and then does not give the feedback when it occurs.