When Your Employee is Facing Divorce
I have often written about the impact of divorce on a business. These articles have been from the point of view of the employee. But what do you do if you are the employer of someone getting a divorce?
While ultimately a personal matter, divorce affects business in time, money, and lost productivity. An employee going through an emotionally troubling time may be less productive, miss work and may involve other employees in the drama. Many businesses also are concerned about revealing private or sensitive information.
If a couple is engaged in a contentious divorce, the attorneys have a right to subpoena payroll records, employee files, customer lists, review employment contracts. I know of a recent case in which the attorney subpoenaed share holder agreements and board minutes. This is time consuming and intrusive. Your “custodian of records” will have to respond to the requests. If you are concerned about private information that may affect your business, you may have your corporate attorney request a protection order to keep the information private or perhaps allow you to redact certain sensitive information.
Sometimes an employee will ask you to change a pay structure or withhold pay until the divorce is over or worse yet, alter payroll records. Don’t. You may be providing documents “under oath” in which case you are committing perjury. You may even be called upon to testify in court regarding an employee’s status or salary.
Is there a better way?
You didn’t expect me to just provide a problem without offering a solution, did you? I am a passionate proponent of the “respectful cooperative” divorce. Couples engaged in this process do not go to court, generally do not engage in formal discovery, and everything is done in private. While all assets and salary information must be disclosed, it is done so in a far less antagonistic manner. The private information never leaves the room.
Often allied professionals are brought in early in the process including “divorce coaches” – mental health professionals who help the parties communicate and help keep the process on track. This saves the couple time and money but it is beneficial to you the employer because you will probably find that your employee can be more productive while still engaging in the divorce process. I recently talked to a salesman who told me that he had really been stressed and unproductive until he met with he divorce coach. He felt relieved and found the process was not as fearful as he originally thought and his production resumed to his previous level.
Collaborative law is gaining wide recognition in the Puget Sound Area. I have received requests for information from business people as far away as Virginian. One call was from a Chamber of Commerce executive who wanted to reprint my article because he believed it was important to his business members.
For more information on Collaborative Divorce, I suggest the web site of King County Collaborative Law, www.respectfuldivorce.org.
Karin E. Quirk