Employment and Labor Law

Contact: Marc R. Engel; Lerch Early & Brewer (Maryland, USA)

I recently read an interview that a national publication conducted with an entrepreneurial owner of a growing service company. The owner shared his business philosophies and, in particular, his views about empowering employees and fostering creativity. He also described his methods of developing personal accountability among employees. He proudly described a staff meeting when he ceremoniously took the company’s employee handbook and ripped it in two, and then tossed it in the nearest wastebasket – all to prove his point that personal accountability was a trait that transcended something as mundane as an employee handbook. Not surprisingly, the owner’s theatrics were met with thunderous applause by his staff.

Generally, I am someone who welcomes bold thinking, and I am a fan of most efforts to foster creativity. However, in this case, the owner’s theatrics went too far. Popular myths to the contrary notwithstanding, employee handbooks are actually both necessary and useful.

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