Suspension is paid or unpaid time away from the workplace as ordered by the employer in order for a workplace investigation to take place, or as a disciplinary measure for infractions of company policy. It is also a temporary exclusion from school.

Workplace

Suspension is a common practice in the

workplace A workplace is a location where someone works, for their employer or themselves, a place of employment. Such a place can range from a home office to a large office building or factory. For industrialized societies, the workplace is one of ...

for being in violation of an organization's

policy Policy is a deliberate system of guidelines to guide decisions and achieve rational outcomes. A policy is a statement of intent and is implemented as a procedure or protocol. Policies are generally adopted by a governance body within an orga ...

, or major breaches of policy. Work suspensions occur when a business manager or supervisor deems an action of an employee, whether intentional or unintentional, to be a violation of policy that should result in a course of punishment, and when the employee's absence during the suspension period does not affect the company. This form of action hurts the employee because s/he will have no hours of work during the suspended period and therefore will not get paid, unless the suspension is with pay, or is challenged and subsequently overturned. Some jobs, which pay on

salary A salary is a form of periodic payment from an employer to an employee, which may be specified in an employment contract. It is contrasted with piece wages, where each job, hour or other unit is paid separately, rather than on a periodic basis. F ...

, may have paid suspensions, in which the affected worker will be prevented from coming to work but will still receive pay. Generally, suspensions are deemed most effective if the affected worker remains unpaid. Suspensions are usually given after other means of counseling statements have been exhausted, but some violations may result in immediate suspension. Suspensions are tracked, and any number of them, even one may prevent one from receiving raises, bonuses or promotions, or could cause dismissal from the company. Suspension clauses are common components of

collective bargaining Collective bargaining is a process of negotiation between employers and a group of employees aimed at agreements to regulate working salaries, working conditions, benefits, and other aspects of workers' compensation and rights for workers. The ...

agreements Agreement may refer to: Agreements between people and organizations * Gentlemen's agreement, not enforceable by law * Trade agreement, between countries * Consensus, a decision-making process * Contract, enforceable in a court of law ** Meeting of ...

. Suspensions may be challenged by employees in

unionized A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits ( ...

organizations through the filing of a grievance. Suspension on full pay can also be used when an employee needs to be removed from the workplace to avoid prejudicing an investigation. This is used not as a punishment, but in the employer's best interest. For example, a

police officer A police officer (also called a policeman and, less commonly, a policewoman) is a warranted law employee of a police force. In most countries, "police officer" is a generic term not specifying a particular rank. In some, the use of the ...

who shoots a person while on duty will be given a suspension with pay during the investigation, not to punish, but to enable the department to carry out its investigation.

Sport

Suspension is a punishment in

sport Sport pertains to any form of competitive physical activity or game that aims to use, maintain, or improve physical ability and skills while providing enjoyment to participants and, in some cases, entertainment to spectators. Sports can, ...

where players are banned from playing a certain number of future games. These suspensions may be issued for severe infractions of the rules of play (such as personal fouls), excessive technical, or flagrant fouls for the duration of a season, fights during the course of the game in which the player was a part of the wrongdoing, or misconduct off the field (such as illegal or banned substance use). Generally, an athlete who is suspended must forfeit his pay during the course of the suspension, and depending on the team's or league's rules, may not be permitted to don his uniform or be present with the team during the course of play, which often includes attending games in the stands as a typical spectator would.

School discipline

In academia, suspension (also known as temporary exclusion) is a form of school punishment in which a

student A student is a person enrolled in a school or other educational institution. In the United Kingdom and most commonwealth countries, a "student" attends a secondary school or higher (e.g., college or university); those in primary or elementa ...

is excluded from

school A school is an educational institution designed to provide learning spaces and learning environments for the teaching of students under the direction of teachers. Most countries have systems of formal education, which is sometimes co ...

lessons for a period of time. Suspension is one form of exclusionary discipline; the other form is expulsion.Sheryl A. Hemphill, Stephanie M. Plenty, Todd I.Herrenkohl, John W. Toumbourou & Richard F. Catalanoh
Student and school factors associated with school suspension: A multilevel analysis of students in Victoria, Australia and Washington State, United States
''Children and Youth Services Review'', vol. 36 (January 2014), pp. 187-194. A student's parents, and sometimes social workers if the student is in special education, are notified about the reason for the out of school suspension, such as the student being involved in a physical or verbal altercation, directing foul language at a school staff member, or throwing a temper tantrum on campus, and the length of the out of school suspension, which is typically between 3-5 days. Sometimes schools will have a meeting involving the student's parents, social worker if the student is in special education, and the student following an out-of-school suspension to discuss and evaluate the matter. Sometimes suspended students are required to complete assignments during their suspensions for which they receive no credit for some of the time, but are expected to do regardless. This could include a written essay stating that they will not engage in the behavior that led to their out of school suspension, which they could be required to hand in to a school administrator after returning to school from their suspension. Research shows that suspensions predict a range of negative social outcomes, including crime, involvement in the criminal justice system,

juvenile delinquency Juvenile delinquency, also known as juvenile offending, is the act of participating in unlawful behavior as a minor or individual younger than the statutory age of majority. In the United States of America, a juvenile delinquent is a perso ...

, and drug use,Janet Rosenbaum
Educational and Criminal Justice Outcomes 12 Years After School Suspension
Vol. 52, issue 4 (January 17, 2018). as well as school absenteeism, dropout rates, and weaker performance on standardized tests. A 2014 study of students in the Australian state of Victoria and the U.S. state of

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

found that suspension rates were similar in both states and that both student-level factors and school-level factors were associated with suspension. Student-level factors included "student behavior, rebelliousness, and academic failure" and the school-level factors included "socioeconomic status of the school" and low aggregate school commitment. About one-third of students in the United States are suspended at some point during grades

K-12 K-1 is a professional kickboxing promotion established in 1993, well known worldwide mainly for its heavyweight division fights and Grand Prix tournaments. In January 2012, K-1 Global Holdings Limited, a company registered in Hong Kong, acqui ...

. In-school suspension (ISS) (also called by other names) is a form of suspension that, in contrast to out-of-school suspension, keeps students out of class, but places them in an alternate location away from other students within a school environment.

Roman Catholic canon law

In Roman Catholic canon law, the censure of suspension prohibits certain acts by a cleric, whether the acts are of a religious character deriving from his

ordination Ordination is the process by which individuals are consecrated, that is, set apart and elevated from the laity class to the clergy, who are thus then authorized (usually by the denominational hierarchy composed of other clergy) to perform ...

("acts of the power of orders") or are exercises of his power of governance or of rights and functions attached to the office he holds. This censure is automatically applied to a cleric who uses physical violence against a bishop, a deacon who attempts to celebrate the sacrifice of the

Mass Mass is an intrinsic property of a body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the quantity of matter in a physical body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physics. It was found that different atoms and different ele ...

or a priest who, though not empowered to grant sacramental absolution attempts to do so or who hears sacramental confession, a cleric who celebrates a sacrament through

simony Simony () is the act of selling church offices and roles or sacred things. It is named after Simon Magus, who is described in the Acts of the Apostles as having offered two disciples of Jesus payment in exchange for their empowering him to i ...

, and on a person who receives ordination illicitly. The censure of suspension (along with other punishments) is to be inflicted also on a cleric who openly lives in violation of chastity and on any priest who "in the act, on the occasion, or under the pretext of confession" solicits a penitent to a sexual sin. Suspension is incurred automatically by any cleric who falsely denounces a priest of having committed this delict.Code of Canon Law, canon 1390
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References

{{employment Employee relations Punishments School punishments

Workplace

Sport

School discipline

Roman Catholic canon law

See also

References