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While evaluating Merediths argument in this case I do not believe her claims to be valid. With her excessive tardiness and being late to work at least 20 times each year since she started her employment, I do believe that management took the proper and necessary action of terminating her employment. She was given several verbal cautions before even receiving her verbal warning. I wouldve hoped that after the written warning she would receive, she would realize that management has been lenient with her tardiness in the past since they gave her many warnings before deciding to terminate her employment. Since the employee handbook clearly states that employment is at-will, management did what they thought was best under these circumstances. Meredith didnt dispute the number of times she had been late, but she filed the grievance thinking the company did her wrong by terminating her employment without her final warning. I think with the amount of verbal cautions she received, followed by the verbal and written warning, her behavior would change, but she still continued to be late to work. I dont think her behavior wouldve changed even if she did receive the final warning, management gave her multiple instances to where she could change this behavior if she wanted, and she chose not to.

While evaluating the argument of the supervisor and manager in this case, I believe their claims are valid and they took the necessary steps in the termination of Merediths employment. Since they had given Meredith multiple verbal cautions before a verbal or written warning, I believe they were more than fair in Merediths case and gave her various instances for her to change her behavior and she was still late coming to work. Management didnt have to give her multiple verbal cautions before moving on with the progressive disciplinary process, but I feel they were in hopes that they wouldnt have to and Meredith would change her behavior before taking the disciplinary actions further.

As the Human Resource Manager of the company, I would definitely not reinstate Merediths employment and would uphold her termination. I do understand there are instances where an employee, who is also a mother, could be late to work due to her children and school or weather-related situations, but I think it is unacceptable for any worker to be more than 20 times late each year and continue to do so after receiving cautions and warnings due to this behavior. The facts that lead me to respond this way are that Meredith had received several cautions and warnings before the decision was made to terminate her employment. The employee handbook clearly states that employment is at-will and management chose to use that policy in this situation since it was an action that was necessary. I also used the fact that Meredith received a written warning that stated Continued instances of tardiness may result in suspension without pay or termination. With this being stated on her written warning, I do not believe that a final warning would have changed anything in terms of Meredith being late to work since it had happened as often as it had already.