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Paid Administrative Leave; the what and why
If you have ever been placed on Paid Administrative Leave it can be an emotional experience, to some it feels similar to being suspended by the principal. Thoughts and feelings swirling around in your head can shake your confidence. Who made this fraudulent claim about me? What does it mean? Am I going to be fired? What will people think? You can easily lose your cool if you don’t understand this type of leave. Usually, Paid Administrative Leave is used to give the organization space to conduct a fair investigation into misconduct where you could be the perpetrator or the victim. Further, it can be used to give employees time to take a sabbatical or go back to school to earn a degree or certification. During this time, the employee will continue to be paid, earning benefits and will maintain seniority as is usually explained at the time they are put on leave.
Many people dispute whether or not Paid Administrative Leave is an adverse action, it has been taken to court and decided on many times. To the employee put on PAL, it sure feels like it, to the Courts and the Federal Office of Personnel Management, PAL is seen as an ‘excused absence’ and not seen as a negative action. Now, most judges agree on this and their decisions weigh heavily in that direction but there are a few cases where strong arguments have been made that being put on PAL was adverse to the employee. For instance, when you are on administrative leave employees are not able to take advantage of overtime or promotion opportunities. There are judges who have decided that although an employee doesn’t have property rights to overtime, the loss of the opportunity can be considered, especially by that employee, adverse. Because there is no guarantee of the employee getting the promotion, the courts have decided there are no property rights violation and, although the employee feels differently, no adverse action.
During the meeting know this, PAL is at the discretion of management, being placed on leave isn’t something you can easily contest unless you can prove that it was done arbitrarily or with malice. The best move is to comply, and be open, if you haven’t done anything wrong, the investigation will reveal that truth. Wrapping up the conversation, make sure you have a follow up meeting calendared if at all possible. Here are a couple rules to remember.
1. Management will tell employees what is going on. “We are conducting an investigation into… and need space to protect all parties involved”. Listen and ask questions, if you are uncomfortable, ask for representation. Do not argue or make claims about other employees or supervisors conspiring against you, it will compromise your believability and rarely helps.
2. Management will give employees direction in writing, read it. Understand the rules and follow them closely. Your representation has lawyers who can explain what it means to you.
3. Be straight with your representative. Tell the truth, it is their job to be an unbiased third party who will help make sure processes are followed and that you are treated fairly. If your representation is surprised by facts revealed by an investigation, it will make them look uninformed and can compromise your defense.
4. Do not contact friends at work asking for updates or try to bring people to your line of thinking. Your efforts and your conversations will get out and make it appear that you are covering something up. Usually, this type of contact is explicitly laid out in the letter and will be considered tampering.
5. Do not reach out to your perceived accusers or conspirators. Contacting them, threatening them, or trying to influence them will definitely get out and it will appear that you are trying to manipulate the investigation. This type of contact can easily bias the investigation against you and will create a difficult hurdle for you to clear.
It’s equally important that management understands the traumatizing effect of the experience of being put on Administrative leave and use it judiciously. I have also seen people be put on leave over rumors, gossip, or because the boss didn’t like them. Those investigations are usually short, don’t reveal anything and do nothing more than create additional animus between employees and superiors. When a claim of improper conduct is made, gather as much information about it as possible and analyze it. Consider the claim, the claimant, and the employee before making this decision. Some situations call for employees to be placed on leave immediately, in those cases do not hesitate. In most situations, managers find that most information is inconclusive and needs to be substantiated. This process takes time and can be frustrating giving all the demands normal to a management position. To that I say, suck it up, this is part of management. Your employees are entitled to your best work so pull out the pad, ask questions, ask for the names of others who might be able to help and start gathering information.
The purpose of Paid Administrative Leave is to protect the organization and its employees. If managers are efficient, these leaves can be shortened and fair conclusions and resolutions can be achieved while limiting the impact of the stress. When you bring people together, conflict is bound to happen at one time or another, when it comes, welcome it as an opportunity to get better. Most employees follow the rules and want to do a good job, so do most managers. There are growing pains during the process of becoming a team, conflict is only one of them. Look at it as an opportunity to grow, be fair and you will SOAR!
William A. Brown
September 22, 2019
https://bizfluent.com/info-8240123-employee-administrative-leave-pending-investigation.html
