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Question In January we let go our Administrative Assistant. We gave her 2 week’s severance and a month of healthcare in exchange for a release of future claims. We told her the truth that the position was not needed. She is a minority female over age 52 and we parted on good terms. No one has been in that position since. The Administrative Assistant job mostly did clerical work and answered the phones. We had hoped it would progress to more but it did not. While we were happy to have a person on the phones, without feeling we could expand that person’s role we eliminated the position and switched to a call tree (instead of live answer), then divided the clerical work among existing staff. We would now like to hire a newly created position of "Services Coordinator" that will not answer phones and will do tasks that are clerical in nature but of a higher level and more closely related to property management tasks than were being done by the AA. The position will also pay more than the AA was paid. Some tasks will overlap from the AA job. Is the company opening itself up to any issues by: Hiring for a job that while different has some of the same tasks as the AA position Hiring someone who is younger and not minority (this is not the intention on purpose -- just asking whether this is an issue if it occurs) Denying her an interview as a past employee I would hope being an at-will state and the fact that she signed a release the company would be okay, but just want to check? The Answer
In January we let go our Administrative Assistant. We gave her 2 week’s severance and a month of healthcare in exchange for a release of future claims. We told her the truth that the position was not needed. She is a minority female over age 52 and we parted on good terms. No one has been in that position since.
The Administrative Assistant job mostly did clerical work and answered the phones. We had hoped it would progress to more but it did not. While we were happy to have a person on the phones, without feeling we could expand that person’s role we eliminated the position and switched to a call tree (instead of live answer), then divided the clerical work among existing staff.
We would now like to hire a newly created position of "Services Coordinator" that will not answer phones and will do tasks that are clerical in nature but of a higher level and more closely related to property management tasks than were being done by the AA. The position will also pay more than the AA was paid. Some tasks will overlap from the AA job.
Is the company opening itself up to any issues by:
I would hope being an at-will state and the fact that she signed a release the company would be okay, but just want to check? The Answer