best practices - California Employment Law Report http://www.californiaemploymentlawreport.com/articles/best-practices/ en-us Copyright 2010 Tue, 23 Feb 2010 07:34:04 -0800 Wed, 19 May 2010 08:35:39 -0800 http://www.movabletype.org/?v=3.34 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss "It didn't happen if you didn't write it down" I came across an article recently by Design by Gravity (via Lifehacker) - Methods of Work: It Didn't Happen If You Didn't Write It Down - reminding designers and programmers to record their thoughts in some manner, or else lose it forever.  The lesson does not apply just to designers and programmers, but also to HR professionals or anyone else involved in managing employees. 

I have yet to complain about a client involved in an employment lawsuit that the client took too many notes.  The employment lawyer's mantra is document, document, document.  Why?  Just as the article suggests, if you have a conversation, but do not record the conversation in some manner, it never happened. 

The author suggests a lot different technologies that can help with recording events.  However, I prefer the pen and paper - but I force myself to PDF my notes as soon as possible so that I will never misplace them.  Just had a conversation while you are driving and have another 30 minutes of rush hour traffic to contend with?  In this case, I've been using Dragon, a free iPhone app, that transcribes your speech into text that you can either text or email to yourself.  This is a great way to create a time stamped document reflecting what was said.  

Photo by e walk. 

]]> http://www.californiaemploymentlawreport.com/2010/02/articles/best-practices/it-didnt-happen-if-you-didnt-write-it-down/ http://www.californiaemploymentlawreport.com/2010/02/articles/best-practices/it-didnt-happen-if-you-didnt-write-it-down/ Best Practices For California EmployersTechnology & Lawbest practices Tue, 23 Feb 2010 07:34:04 -0800 Anthony Zaller