Hello everyone,

I am posting this on behalf of my wife, who works in a hotel chain in Utah.

She has worked at this hotel for about 1 year now as head housekeeper and since her first day of employment has never been given any type of employee handbook / company policy statements.

There have been a few new managers in this hotel during the last year, and the latest one has now approached my wife and has stated that "as per company policy" there are rules that now must be followed:

1: Every employee must take a 30 minute lunch break, failure to do so can result in that employee being terminated.

2: "as per company policy" employees will be required to perform thier duties as outlined in the job expectations related to thier positions in the hotel.

3: All employees are now required to wear certain color pant / shirts/ shoes etc, etc "as per company policy"

My wife has pointed out to the manager that she can understand policies, but, she has also requested that an employee handbook that outlines / shows the company policies that the manager is now trying to enforce be handed out to all the current employees so everyone has a clear understanding of all the rules (since they were never made aware of them before).

My wife was then told that there is nothing in writing that can be shown to employees, other than a partially completed section of a company website that employees are not allowed to access (management only).

The manager went so far as to say that the company is not required to supply a employee handbook / policy listing, and that all current employees must just take the managers word as company law.

So my first question is...can a company "enforce" policies without actually allowing employees access to them so that they can be followed?

And my second question is...How can a employee of a company be expected to perform thier duties if there is no clear definition of duties?

Thank you ahead of time for your assistance
sbrownsprint

So my first question is...can a company "enforce" policies without actually allowing employees access to them so that they can be followed? Yes. It's a foolish and confusing way to manage but no laws require employers to have employee handbooks or to provide copies of work rules or policies to anyone.

And my second question is...How can a employee of a company be expected to perform thier duties if there is no clear definition of duties? I guess the boss can be expected to be pestered with a lot of questions.

The manager went so far as to say that the company is not required to supply a employee handbook / policy listing, and that all current employees must just take the managers word as company law. The manager is correct.