Tips on Documenting

Here are a few tried-and-true tips for preparing written correspondence to an employee for the purpose of correcting his/her behavior. These apply whether you are issuing an informal warning, or proposal removal. Note: Let your Human Resource Specialist review any potentially adversarial letters to ensure that the basis is sound and clearly stated, and that the employee has been advised of any rights to respond or to contest the action. Your HR Specialist may also be able to help you by providing standardized wording; such as leave for restrictions.

Assume that the letter will also be read by a third party (such as an MSPB or EEOC judge), who is not familiar with the situation. This will help ensure that any and all relevant information (i.e. history of the problem, previous counseling, referral to Employee Assistance Program, acronyms, physical and emotional environment, context of an incident, etc...) is included.
Begin by stating the purpose for the letter. Think of a newspaper article which stars with the headline, then provides supporting information. For example, a warning for poor attendance could begin with the sentence, "I am giving you notice with this memorandum that your frequent unscheduled absences will no longer be tolerated, and that in the future you must follow the leave restrictions described below."
Follow the introduction with a "Background" section. It should provide relevant facts such as the employee's history of absences, previous supervisory counseling (oral and/or written), continued absenteeism despite counseling, and then the requirements for approval of future absences (generally it is useful to provide this information in chronological order). The background provides a context for the most recent matters that you will be discussing and is particularly helpful to a third party reader, who will not know the history in the case.
Use the active rather than the passive voice. For example, "For the next six, months you must provide medical documentation as described below before I will approve any unscheduled sick leave." NOT "For the next six months, medical information as described below must be provided before any unscheduled sick leave will be approved." The active voice illustrates more clearly WHO is responsible for WHAT.
Make the letter easy to read. Use numbering, bullets, or some other logical means to break up and identify discrete incidents in a long history or a series of charges. Identify requirements separately to make each one more distinct.
Whenever possible, use direct quotes. Don't just characterize a statement with adjectives that may be subject to interpretation. This is particularly important if the employee is being charged with using obscene or otherwise inappropriate language, or if you believe the language was threatening. For example, don't just say, "You cursed at me in a threatening manner." Say, "You stood in front of my desk in a loud and angry tone and said, 'You are full of bullshit!' Your face was red and you were clenching your fists while you glared at me." Let the reader see for him/herself how bad the language was, rather than having to rely on your adjectives to understand the severity of the incident. Whenever possible, obtain signed statements from witnesses. If the situation involves a criminal matter, make sure that you investigation does not interfere with the criminal investigation (consult your Human Resource Specialist).
Draw your conclusion after describing each charge of misconduct. Don't leave it to the imagination of the reader to guess why you think it's serious even if you think the conclusion to draw from the described misconduct is obvious. For example, an employee has created a disruption by angrily and loudly arguing with his supervisor about how an assignment should be done. In preparing a disciplinary letter the supervisor should describe the event (using quotations, employees' reactions to the disturbance, etc.), and then describe why the outburst is serious: "The disruptive nature of your outburst was demonstrated to me when I saw the other employees in the office looking in your direction with startled expressions, and when several of them came to me later to comment that your behavior caused them fear for their safety. Your outburst clearly disrupted the work of the office by distracting employees from their work." (In such a situation, the case file should contain the signed statements of the employees, as noted above.)
If you are charging an employee with intentional misconduct, you must ensure that you have a preponderance of evidence confirming the subject in question's intent to commit the misconduct. For example, if you direct the employee to perform a task, then you find that the task was not performed, you may believe that the employee was insubordinate. However, to support a disciplinary action for insubordination you must show not only that the task was not performed, but that the employee deliberately refused to perform it. That's very hard to do unless you have a quote from the employee saying, "I will not [do the task]." Absent strong evidence that the employee intentionally chose not to perform the task, you may only be able to prove a failure to perform rather than insubordination. Failure to perform may be a basis for discipline, but it is more commonly handled through the performance appraisal process (consult your Human Resource Specialist).
Talk to your specialist about any union requirements and about referring the employee to the Employee Assistance Program.