With the calendar flipping to December, managers gearing up for a fresh round of performance evaluations can avoid setting the stage for legal trouble by taking some simple precautions, like making sure not to paint an overly rosy picture of employees’ work and offering clear examples to illustrate the rationale behind their conclusions.
“The two buzzwords are consistency and honesty,” said Craig Bonnist, a Stamford, Connecticut-based partner at McCarter & English LLP.