Document time of performance problems in case employee registers bogus complaints.

Employees who face discipline sometimes fight back with their own discrimination complaints as a way to muddy the waters. In fact, it's not unusual for a worker to raise harassment or discrimination complaints only after being called into a meeting to discuss her workplace deficiencies.

Terminating such an employee shortly afterward can look suspiciously like the complaint precipitated the discipline.

The best way to prevent that impression is to carefully document the reasons for the disciplinary meeting in the first place, complete with dates.

Recent case: Jessica managed a Converse store. Soon after a new district manager took over the region, he noted complaints received from Jessica's subordinates about her management, including her propensity to skip working weekends. He also received a customer complaint about a return that Jessica handled poorly.

He met with her to discuss problems at the store. That's...