Description

Every organization has one: the employee who gossips, intimidates coworkers or repeats the same behavior after every warning. Managers avoid the problem until a strong performer quits or a complaint reaches HR. By then the file is thin, and any termination looks like retaliation.

This webinar gives HR professionals and managers a legally defensible path from the first warning to the final decision. Learn to describe toxic behavior in objective terms, document it so it survives an EEOC charge, apply discipline consistently and terminate without handing the employee a claim.

Why now: year-end is when many organizations finally act on long-running conduct problems, before ratings, raises and the new year lock in another twelve months of the same behavior.

Webinar Objectives

• Describe toxic conduct in observable, job-related terms instead of labels like "bad attitude."
• Write documentation that is specific, timely and consistent enough to hold up before the EEOC or a jury.
• Apply progressive discipline consistently, and know when skipping steps is justified.
• Spot legal traps before you act: retaliation, protected leave, accommodation and protected concerted activity.
• Hold toxic managers and high performers to the same standard as everyone else.
• Carry out a lawful termination and check severance terms against the OWBPA and current NLRB rules.

Webinar Agenda

• The real cost of toxic behavior: common profiles, team impact and the toxic manager
• Defining and documenting conduct: objective language, the five elements of a strong record and policies you can enforce under Stericycle
• Progressive discipline done right: warning steps, when to skip them and treating similar cases alike after Ames
• Legal landmines: retaliation, FMLA, ADA and PWFA issues, protected concerted activity and adverse actions after Muldrow
• Termination and severance: pre-termination checklist, meeting script, final pay and OWBPA timing: 21 days to consider (45 for group layoffs), 7 to revoke

Webinar Highlights

• 2026 Update: How the Ames (2025) and Muldrow (2024) Supreme Court decisions raise the stakes on consistent, documented discipline.
• 2026 Update: What the NLRB's August 2026 push to overturn Stericycle and McLaren Macomb means for your handbook and severance agreements. Current standards still apply.
• 2026 Update: Using AI to flag or discipline employees? Illinois's amended Human Rights Act, in effect since January 1, 2026, requires notice to employees.
• Mid-discipline curveballs: what to do when the employee complains, requests leave or asks for an accommodation partway through.
• The "talented but toxic" employee: how to act on the case managers find hardest.
• Ready-to-use tools: documentation template, discipline matrix, termination checklist and manager scripts.

Who Should Attend?

• HR directors, managers and business partners
• HR generalists and employee relations specialists
• Managers, supervisors and team leads who handle discipline
• Executives and department heads who approve terminations
• Compliance officers, risk managers and in-house counsel
• Small-business owners and solo HR professionals