Crisis Proof Your Life - Volume 2

The following is part of a six-part series designed to give you the tools you need to protect your life and assets while running a business (and hopefully living an epic life.)

There is a difference between crisis prevention and crisis proofing. You cannot prevent many crises, but you can make your life and business crisis-proof. After you get your legal ducks in a row, you need an employee handbook.

Even before your first hire, even years before, you need an employee handbook. If you live in an at-will state, meaning you can dismiss an employee for any (or no) reason, you still need a handbook that makes it clear you reserve the right to terminate at will.

Even before your first hire.

Having an employee handbook in place is meant to protect YOU, not the employee. It spells out the rights and responsibilities of both of you, and puts the employee on notice of the guardrails.

Having your employees acknowledge they have had a chance to review the handbook and understand its contents is crucial to protecting your business if the relationship goes south. It is more challenging, and looked at unfavorably by the courts, if you ask existing employees to agree to a new handbook that changes the terms of their employment with no added benefit.

This is why it is important to publish your handbook before your very first hire.

Already have employees? We can work to craft the handbook and the employee acceptance in a way that will hold up in court.

The best time to publish your employee handbook is before your first hire.

The second best time is now.

A Little AI fun

This week I posted about using Artificial Intelligence (AI) in professional practice.

In short: Grammarly is the new SpellCheck. Use it! ChatGPT is a helpful tool in getting started and/or list making, but should never ever ever be passed off as one’s own work (nor is it good enough for my readers). SummarAIze is a great tool to aggregate old content and spit out new suggestions.

I ended with two things. The first is a pledge:

“I will use AI as a resource to better serve my members but I will never pass off AI work as my own. My members pay for me and get me.”

The second was a game. Guess which one of these is NOT an AI-generated headshot. Reply with your answer. The first to get it right gets a contribution from me to the charity of your choice.