The Employer Handbook Blog

Today we have a guest blogger at The Employer Handbook. It's Pam Johnson. Pam is an HR professional who obtained her degree from what she tells me is one of the Top 10 Best Online Masters in HR Degree Programs.

(Want to guest blog at The Employer Handbook? Email me).

Continue reading "GUEST POST: How To Deal With Workplace Bullying As An Employer" »

photo © 2010 Paul Newtron | more info (via: Wylio)

Just another Friday here at the ole Handbook. Oh, get your head out of the gutter! This is a family blog.

(Y'all have families, right?)

For serious, today's lede isn't just gratuitous, there is an employment-law connection here.

*** searching ... searching ... searching ***

Ok, got it!

1. Back in 2012, the Iowa Supreme Court held that it's legal to fire a female employee because of her "irresistible attraction". Leave it to Staci Zaretsky at Above the Law to track down the plaintiff. She filmed a hilarious segment on Tosh.0. More from Above The Law here.


2. Take one supervisor, add in a consensual relationship (complete with texting, sexting, and you know, I don't know the exact pronunciation, but I believe its ménage à trois) gone bad, a sexual harassment complaint, and what do you have? Why a race-discrimination complaint, of course! Guh?!?!


3. And last, we have this month's edition of the Employment Law Blog Carnival: Tips for HR Spring Cleaning. Make sure to check it out. Lorene Schafer at Win-Win HR did a fantastic job with it!

Yesterday, CareerBuilder.com released its list of 15 of the most unusual things that bosses have asked employees to do. I've had a lot of rough, odd jobs in my lifetime --

*** Hey silver spoon! Quit giving me the stink eye over there. If I write it, my readers believe it. Sheep... ***

I consider myself lucky, requests made of me only made the list twice.

Ok. Seven.

*** Re-checks list for "Quick! Flush the yeyo*." ***

Yep, seven. Here they are:

1. Boss asked employee to be prepared to delete all emails and computer files at a moment's notice
2. Boss asked employee to be a surrogate mother for her - more than once
3. Boss asked employee to spy on senior management
4. Boss asked employee to buy a rifle for him, and he would reimburse the employee
5. Boss asked employee if she knew of anyone who could "hook him up" with illegal substances
6. Boss asked employee to go online and post false good comments about him
7. Boss asked employee to come up with a science fair project for her daughter
8. Boss asked employee to fire his (the boss's) brother
9. Boss asked employee to lend him $400 for a down payment on a car
10. Boss asked employee to remove her stitches
11. Boss asked employee to be better friends with him
12. Boss asked employee to scour an abandoned office building for furniture and supplies they could use
13. Boss asked employee to bail another coworker out of jail
14. Boss asked employee to clip her dog's nails
15. Boss asked employee to help plan her wedding

What's the weirdest thing that your boss has asked you to do? Let me know in the comments below.

* That never happened and The Employer Handbook does not condone drug use in the workplace. Scarface-esque references to "yeyo"; however, are ok if cleverly executed. Swish!

After yesterday's super-serious Animal House post -- Toga! Toga! Toga! -- let's lighten things up a bit with a list of the most memorable tardiness excuses employers shared in a recent CareerBuilder Annual Survey.

• Employee dropped her purse into a coin-operated newspaper box and couldn't retrieve it without change (which was in the purse)


• Employee accidentally left the apartment with his roommate's girlfriend's shoes on and had to go back to change


• Employee's angry wife had frozen his truck keys in a glass of water in the freezer


• Employee got a late start because she was putting a rain coat on her cement duck in her front yard (because rain was expected later that day)


• Employee's car wouldn't start because the breathalyzer showed he was intoxicated


• Employee attempted to cut his own hair before work and the clippers stopped working, so he had to wait until the barber shop opened to fix his hair


• Employee's car was attacked by a bear (had photographic evidence)


• Employee drove to her previous employer by mistake


• Employee claimed to have delivered a stranger's baby on the side of the highway

As someone who delivered his second child on the sidewalk in front of the Pennsylvania Hospital on a freezing February night in 2011 -- no, I'm not a ob-gyn, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express the previous night -- I take umbrage with the last "excuse" having any sort of pejorative connotation associated with it.

But, I'm sure you good folks have heard your share of good employee-lateness excuses. Let me hear 'em in the comments below.

Have a nice weekend.

photo © 2010 Paul Newtron | more info (via: Wylio)

Why just last week, I was hanging out with the ghost of John Houseman, who was blabbering on and on about making money the old-fashioned way. And while all this reminiscing of the old Smith Barney days was giving me the vapors, he just wouldn't let me get a word in edge-wise.

That was until, someone pulled along side of us and asked for our Grey Poupon, which seemed strange at the time because we were driving around in the '93 Ford Probe I drove in high school.

*** hears familiar sound of restraining orders being taken out ***

But it gave me just enough time to tell Hou$eman -- he was Ke$ha before Kesha was Ke$ha, you know -- about the March edition of the Employment Law Blog Carnival, which is now up and running. You can view it here

As always, it's jam packed with all the current, topical information an employment lawyer or HR-compliance dork maven would need to rule the roost at the next SHRM event. And a special thank you to Stephanie Thomas for hosting.  

If you would like to participate in future carnivals, email me and I will add you to the distribution list. Participants must be bloggers (so we can link to your blog) and Carnival posts must be HR/employment-law-related. But if you put ketchup on your hot dog, go jump in a lake. 

Otherwise, ride the lightning.

I know. I know. Seems more like a "Tuesday" post.

Earlier in the week, I read this article on The Smoking Gun about a man who got busted giving wedgies to movie patrons outside of a Florida theater.

So, it got me thinking. 

Let's say that Chris from Accounting comes to you in HR, underwear flapping in the breeze, still red faced from a Pat-administered wedgie.

{What a day for Chris to forget to don the Rip Away 1000s, eh?}

To date, Pat's wedgie ways have not surfaced in the workplace. In fact, Pat has a clean disciplinary record.

So, what do you do? (And does it matter if Pat & Chris are male or female?)

Yeah, I'd like to know. 

Mark Toth and ManpowerGroups's The Employment Blawg is hosting this month's Employment Law Blog Carnival: Special Holiday Edition, a collection of 18 blog posts from some of the best employment lawyers on the interwebz. Got questions? They have answers. So be sure to check that out. That's my gift (regifted, I suppose) to you.

Now the pay-it-forward part.

Daniel Schwartz at the Connecticut Employment Law Blog has a series of posts (here, here, and here) on the Newtown shooting tragedy. If any of my readers would like to help out with the relief efforts in CT, Dan has several links in his most recent Newtown post.

Monty Brewster may be telling your co-workers to vote "None of the Above", but, chances are, you have no clue who they are voting for tomorrow in the Presidential election.

According to this CareerBuilder.com survey released today, although four out of five employees intend to vote on Tuesday, only one-third share their political affiliation at work. That number drops to one in five Gen-Y employees.

Nearly three in ten employees said they feel like they need to keep their affiliation secret around the office. Indeed, for every 100 employees, only 2 will display U.S. Presidential campaign items or decorations on display in their office. I refuse to hang out with either of them.

Who will I be voting for tomorrow? I'm going to vote early and often for

This.

We're just a few months away from the Presidential election. That means that the debates are right around the corner.

Monday, started a week-long series of hypothetical debate question for the 2012 candidates for President and Vice President. Here are the questions I asked President Obama and Mitt Romney.

And here's my question for Vice President Biden:

The White House (here) touts the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Restoration Act as the first piece of legislation -- employment-law or otherwise -- signed into law during President Obama's first term. The President touts fair pay and equal rights, but there hasn't been a second significant employment law passed yet.

Why hasn't there been a second? (Negative points if you blame the Republicans).

To see what my fellow bloggers would ask Mr. Biden, check out:

• Donna Ballman - Screw You Guys I'm Going Home
• Jon Hyman - Ohio Employer's Law Blog
• Daniel Schwartz - Connecticut Employment Law Blog
• Robin Shea - Employment and Labor Insider

What would you ask Vice President Biden at the '12 debates? Let me know in the comments below. And be sure to come back tomorrow for a question to Paul Ryan.

We're just a few months away from the Presidential election. That means that the debates are right around the corner.

Back in 2008, around this time, employment-law blogger Daniel Schwartz at the Connecticut Employment Law Blog rounded up some other bloggers to pose hypothetical debate questions to the '08 candidates for President and Vice President.

Four years later, Dan has resurrected this successful series and asked yours truly to join in. Today, the question goes to President Obama:

Protection of women's rights in the workplace seems to have been a priority for you since taking office. In 2009, you signed the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which effects the statute of limitations for filing an equal-pay lawsuit, into law. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, signed into law in 2010, includes workplace breastfeeding protections. 

Should you win reelection, what further changes would you make to workplace laws?

To see what my fellow bloggers would ask President Obama, check out:

• Donna Ballman - Screw You Guys I'm Going Home
• Jon Hyman - Ohio Employer's Law Blog
• Daniel Schwartz - Connecticut Employment Law Blog
• Robin Shea - Employment and Labor Insider

What would you ask President Obama at the '12 debates? Let me know in the comments below. And be sure to come back tomorrow for a question to Mitt Romney.

True story: In the wake of last year's stupid turtle ploy to elicit votes for The Employer Handbook in the ABA Blawg 100 Amici, I spent over an hour in a Harrisburg hotel room on Tuesday night trying to one-up (one-down?) myself by programming a talking computer avatar with an Irish brogue to encourage you to vote for The Employer Handbook in this year's ABA Blawg 100 Amici.

Now, I have done some stupid stuff in my life (see; e.g., the turtle; rubbing poison ivy on my face in the fourth grade because I didn't believe that the shiny green leaves of three that the kid with the baggie on his hand was holding was actually poison ivy) . Heck, while my wife was laboring in the delivery room last month, I was on the couch Googling for turkey crockpot recipes. (Perhaps, I should have kept that one to myself). But the talking avatar thing tops this week's list -- so far (I still have a few more days to go).

But seriously, here is the link, take a few seconds, vote Handbook. Tomorrow is the voting deadline. So, cast your vote today and then cackle with me as I mercilessly crush the competition. WHAT!

Then listen to me try to one-up my avatar idiocy this afternoon on this week's episode of The Proactive Employer. Stephanie Thomas will be hosting me, Jon Hyman, Phil Miles, Robin Shea as we answer your HR and workplace law questions. 

The show will air live today at 3 PM Eastern / 12 Noon Pacific on BlogTalkRadio. During the show, you can Tweet your questions using the hashtag #TPESHOW or call in at 1-888-553-6673.

And there's a twist.

According to the Stephanie's show promotion, "No issue is out of bounds, no question is too challenging, no situation is too bizarre for our panel of labor and employment attorneys! " She has further requested that we provide "candid advice" to such workplace conundrums as: "One of my employees posed for a Playboy spread. That's not the image our company wants to portray - can I legally fire her?"

[Editor's note: That sound you just heard was my malpractice carrier's head exploding]

Hopefully, the carrier voted Handbook first.

We interrupt this labor & employment law blog for an important announcement...

It's got a nice ring to it...

photo © 2010 Paul Newtron | more info (via: Wylio)

The July edition of the Employment Law Blog Carnival is now up and running. You can view it here. Thank you to all who contributed. And a special thank you to Heather Bussing and HRExaminer.com for hosting.

If you would like to participate in future carnivals, email me and I will add you to the distribution list. Participants must be bloggers (so we can link to your blog) and Carnival posts must be HR/employment-law-related. And you must like dill pickles.

Dill, damnit!

K-thx-bai...