Young Harris College      Young Harris College Employee Handbook
Policy

Progressive Discipline

The College believes it is important to make sure that all Employees are treated fairly and that disciplinary actions are prompt, consistent, and impartial. The major purpose of a disciplinary action is to correct the problem, prevent it from happening again, and prepare the Employee for satisfactory performance in the future.

Although your employment is based on mutual consent and both you and the College have the right to terminate employment at will, with or without cause or advance notice, the College may use progressive discipline at its discretion.

Disciplinary action may involve any of the following steps: verbal warning, written warning, final warning, suspension with or without pay, or termination of employment. The College will look at how severe the problem is and how often it has happened when deciding which steps to take. There may be circumstances when one or more steps are bypassed, and circumstances in which no progressive discipline is administered before termination.

In most cases, disciplinary action will be taken in the following order: a first offense may call for a verbal warning; a next offense may be followed by a written warning; another offense a final warning and/or a suspension; and, still another offense may then lead to termination of employment.

Some types of serious Employee problems may justify either a suspension or termination of employment without the College going through the usual progressive discipline steps.

You should review the Employee Conduct and Work Rules Policy in this Handbook. That policy lists examples of unacceptable conduct that will result in disciplinary action, up to and including immediate suspension or termination of employment.

By using progressive discipline, we hope that most Employee problems can be corrected at an early stage, benefiting both the Employee and the College


Policy No.  716  Issued  3/1/2009    

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