A powerful executive made a crude joke in a company meeting with hundreds of employees present. I was offended, and upset that neither the CEO or head of HR who were in the meeting said anything. Is it safe for me to complain, or should I let it go?
Safety is psychological, and the best company cultures empower employees to speak up to whomever, whenever, about whatever. I can’t speak for your culture, but if something happened at work that bothered you then you should say something. Go to your boss or HR. Just because no one said anything in the moment, don’t assume the remark was condoned. It could be that it was addressed privately. If the conduct continues, then one can assume there is a culture or awareness problem that should be addressed.
If I send an employee on a business trip and the company has booked their return flight, but they extend their stay for vacation and leave on a different day from a different location, is that return flight a personal expense or is the company still on the hook for it?
With business travel on the rise again and pent-up demand for leisure travel growing, employees are combining business and personal travel more regularly now — at least if business is taking them to destinations that aren’t, lets say, Minnesota in February. Mixing business with pleasure can be fine if it’s done in strict compliance with your company’s travel policy, and expenses are recorded diligently and will pass a forensic expense review — know what I’m saying? Now, on to your question. The safest route is to ask whoever is in charge of the travel what the company policy is. In the absence of a policy, or if this is after the fact, the employer has the responsibility to pay for the employee to return from business travel. The cost of that return is still on the company, even if the employee takes vacation and comes back on a different day or from a different location. But, the company doesn’t have to pay a penny more. So if the cost of the change and new flight is greater than the original cost of the flight home, then the employee is responsible for the excess.
Gregory Giangrande has over 25 years of experience as a chief human resources executive. Hear Greg Weds. at 9:35 a.m. on iHeartRadio 710 WOR with Len Berman and Michael Riedel. E-mail: GoToGreg@NYPost.com. Follow: GoToGreg.com and on
Twitter: @GregGiangrande
