Human Resource Blog

Mississippi Written Warning

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If an employee is written up in Mississippi, do they have to receive a copy of the disciplinary warning?

There is no state or federal law that mandates written warnings. This policy is regarded as one of the Human Resources as “best practices.” Policies become best practices because they prove to be effective. Several companies adopt them and they become the industry standard.

Most of the United States employs a doctrine of “employment at will”, where employees can quit at any time for any reason and employers can fire a worker at any time for any reason. (California does not follow this policy). Mississippi uses the “employment at will” doctrine, but only in the absence of a written contract.

Generally, “written up” implies that a disciplinary problem has been discussed with an employee, and that the employee received written notification of that discussion. Written warnings serve two purposes, one to improve employee performance, the other to protect the employer.

For instance, an employee comes to work 10 minutes late. The supervisor talks to the employee, including a plan for improvement and the consequences of continuing the behavior. The supervisor makes a general note about the meeting, the employee signs it and the supervisor places the note in the worker’s personnel file. The employee continues to be tardy and is terminated.

If warnings were issued and signed by the worker each time he or she was late, the company has documentation of the termination. After at least 3 written notices, the employee may not qualify for unemployment compensation, thereby saving the company from increased premiums.

The written warnings also inform employees what is expected of them, and give the employees a chance to improve, lest the behavior cost his or her job.

Conversely, a company talks with the worker, puts a memo in the personnel file, but provides no written warnings. The employee could be led to think that tardiness isn’t a big deal, so continues to come in late, and is eventually fired. The worker is caught by surprise and the company may be caught paying the worker unemployment.

It is obvious then, that providing written warnings can be advantageous for the employer. JH