There is a great post at Gruntled Employees about The World’s Shortest Employee Handbook and it covers a large amount of ground in providing an understanding about how employee handbooks are often over-blown and create problems as a result.

If your company has an employee handbook, chances are it is far more complex than it needs to be. As an employer, it is usually best to keep the guidelines simple and to avoid enumerating every possible contingency. The fact is, you’re likely to create confusion and encourage abuse of your policies if you attempt to address every possible situation in writing. Granted, some companies actually require very detailed employee handbooks, but most simply do not.

Employees that are given a voluminous handbook to digest and refer to whenever an employment issue arises are likely to find holes in its language and its structure and exploit them to their advantage. And rightfully so. Most intelligent people don’t want to be told in great detail exactly how and why every workplace situation should be handled. If an employee handbook is unnecessarily detailed, it is likely that loopholes have been inadvertantly created through which savvy employees can take advantage of weak company policies.

In general, the employee handbook should be approached as a guideline for workplace expectations and policies. The more detailed the handbook becomes, the more likely it is to become a problem for employers and employees alike.

Tags: employee handbooks, employment law, management strategies, office politics

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