Common Sense and Compassion in the Workplace Replaced by Litigation

Ordinarily, human resource professionals across the world spend most of their time trying to understand how best to handle employee relationships in order to protect both the employer and the employees (EEOC, n.d.).Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Common Sense and Compassion in the Workplace Replaced by Litigation specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Considering that there have been numerous incidences at the workplace requiring the intervention of a legal process, I am strongly convinced that common sense and compassion have slowly given way to litigation. Unlike in the past, where employers and employees dealt with each other through common sense and compassion, the present-day work environment is generally characterized by so much conflict and misunderstandings that have compelled organizations to turn to legal action so as to address workplace problems and protect their public image. For most organizations, confl icts are created by poor communication and failure to tolerate differences that are often noticeable when people with varying ideologies work together. Other conflicts may stem from the challenges that are often faced by employees when it comes to balancing between work and social life. This is especially true in organizations where management has not fully embraced the use of technology and consequently, employees are always required to be physically present at their workstations. For many employees, this is very stressful and creates an imbalanced lifestyle. Unfortunately, this stress spills over to the workplace affecting employees output as well as quality of relationships at work. If not handled well, disagreements between management and other staff may lead to legal action. Generally, great business relations are initially created between employers and employees through the operations of the human resource department.Advertising Looking for essay on business corporate la w? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More In most cases, expectations are very high that individuals who join the organization as staff will do their work diligently guided by common sense and showing compassion to other employees as much as possible. Over the years, however, the use of common sense and compassion at the workplace fails to prevail and employment laws and regulations begin to take center stage. As a result, most organizations in the United States, as well as other places in the world, are today forced to get familiar with legal, safety, and regulatory requirements that are related to employee rights and privileges at the workplace. In doing all these, human resource professionals are always seeking to protect their organizations (DOL, n.d.). To a great extent, legal action is critical in ensuring that the U.S. is able to protect its workers from any form of discrimination or maltreatment. The various regulatory bodies that exist in the U.S. thus have a common agenda of providing guidelines to be followed by employers in order to safeguard the interests of the U.S. workers and to ensure that no worker is treated unfairly by any employer. Among others, regulatory organizations concerning themselves with employment issues include the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the United States Department of Labor, the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990. Generally, EEOC plays a major role in ensuring that laws and regulations meant to protect employees against different forms of discrimination are enforced by human resource professionals (EEOC, n.d.). According to EEOC, it is inappropriate to discriminate employees based on their religious backgrounds.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Common Sense and Compassion in the Workplace Replaced by Litigation specifically for you for only $1 6.05 $11/page Learn More All employers in the United States are therefore expected to accommodate employees without paying attention to religious affiliations. To comply with the requirement outlined by EEOC, all human resource professionals must do everything possible to ensure that no single employee in the United States is subjected to discrimination at any level. It is, therefore, obvious that all individuals tasked with the responsibility of looking into the needs of other employees in organizations must be fully aware of all the laws and regulations in the United States that concern the treatment of workers (EEOC, n.d.). Above all else, human resource professionals must follow keenly, rules and regulations as set by the government of the United States. The U.S. Department of Law, on the other hand, provides guidelines to be followed by employers when making decisions regarding wages and working hours, safety and health matters, and employee compensation among ot hers (DOL, n.d.). The Americans with Disabilities Act effectively requires employers to justify job requirements and criteria for every employee regardless of their physical ability or disability (Perritt, 2003). For most organizations, once a contract between an employer and an employee is signed, they both have an obligation towards each other. The onus, therefore, is on the human resource department to ensure that everyone in the organization faithfully follows existing laws and regulations so as to ensure that the organization does not get sucked into lawsuits in the future.Advertising Looking for essay on business corporate law? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More In case of any laxity in implementing rules and regulations as set by the government and other regulatory bodies, an organization may end up with a very unhealthy work environment coupled with costly legal processes that may plunge the organization into huge loses (Perritt, 2003). In view of the arguments presented in this paper, it is quite obvious that common sense and compassion in the work place has been replaced by litigation. References Department of Labor (DOL). Summary of the Major Laws of the Department of Labor. Web. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). (n.d). Religious Discrimination. Web. Perritt, H. H. (2003). Americans with Disabilities Act Handbook, Volume 1. New York, NY: Aspen Publishers Online. This essay on Common Sense and Compassion in the Workplace Replaced by Litigation was written and submitted by user Jace Baldwin to help you with your own studies. You are free to use it for research and reference purposes in order to write your own paper; however, you must cite it accordingly. You can donate your paper here.