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Coercion isn't good strategy for laid-off worker
By Dr. Lynne Curry

Q. A large nonprofit in our state hired me three years ago as a contractor to help it grow from a small, financially stressed organization to a large, viable organization.They then offered me regular employment. Last October, the executive director RIF'd my position due to fiscal constraints, unfairly heaping all my duties onto another senior manager.

The employee handbook, which I wrote based on one borrowed from a previous employer, gives laid-off personnel first priority when vacancies open. Since October, I've applied for two jobs at this nonprofit. In my application letters, I reminded the selection committee of my previous work for the organization and the fact that I was laid off. I happen to know I was the only layoff.

Not only was I not hired for either of these positions, I was not even interviewed. Now, yet another position is available, and it's one for which I'm more than qualified. While I'm hopeful, I expect similar treatment and feel it is time to remind this clueless organization it needs to follow its personnel policies.

I plan to wait until they hire someone less qualified than I am and to send them a certified letter formalizing my objection and inviting them to offer a solution. Although I don't want to be forced to sue them for a sizeable amount of money, I do believe I'm owed some money for the heartache I've endured being passed over for positions to which I'm entitled.

How can I get a copy of the personnel manual without tipping off my strategy?

A. You might want to rethink your strategy.

If, as you suspect, the hiring committee board members don't realize that RIF'ed employees have preferential rights in the hiring process, let them know. Why wait? Send them a polite letter letting them know your qualifications, interest in being rehired and the policies. If you're afraid of having them rewrite the employee handbook, any revising of the manual they do after your call looks bad for them.

Rather than job-hopeful, you appear interested in hitting your former employer up for money. If you intend this, you have a weaker case than you suspect.

My guess is that your former employer has reasons for not hiring you. My clues: You were the only RIF, your organization didn't call you when it had an open position, and your attitude.

Former unemployment investigator Andy Brown says: "When only one person receives a layoff we always ask 'why you?' and we invariably hear the employee answer, 'I don't know, I was their best employee.' We joked that all these companies couldn't possibly stay afloat after letting their best employees go."

By your account, you greatly helped this organization. What leads them to not call you? Also, your RIF'd status doesn't guarantee you the right to be interviewed or selected for every position for which you apply; it simply requires your former employer to fully consider you for positions for which you qualify.

Can you successfully threaten your former employer for not re-hiring you?

Brown, now an attorney and an Alaska-based HR consultant, says that while you can pursue action, you have a weak case. If you allege termination rather than a RIF due to your former employer's reluctance to hire you back, you need to have a legal basis for your claim.

"While employers take a risk by not following their policies, lawsuits based on policies not backed by law face an uphill battle."

Finally, you made a classic mistake when you drafted the employee handbook if you primarily based it on another employer's manual without doing substantial research to update it. The original manual, created in 2005, didn't offer you information about legal changes occurring in the years 2006 and beyond and you might have created an out-of-date manual.

Your former employer made an equally classic mistake. Out of respect, they should have called you -- if only to prevent the situation they're now in.

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Lynne Curry is a local management trainer, consultant and syndicated columnist. Her advice and opinion column appears every other Monday. Questions for her column may be faxed to her at 258-2157 or mailed to her c/o Anchorage Daily News, P.O. Box 149001, Anchorage 99514-9001. Her e-mail is lynne@thegrowthcompany.com.

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