Flamethrower messages torpedo an ADA claim in this no-nonsense ruling from a federal appellate court. TL;DR: An adjunct professor accused her college of ADA discrimination after it declined to renew her contract. But the Second Circuit quickly dismissed her claims—thanks in no small part to her own emails, which read like…
This isn’t a story about a rogue employee—it’s about the person running the show. TL;DR: The EEOC has filed a Title VII lawsuit against the owner of a hospitality group in Hawaii, alleging he subjected teenage and adult female employees to years of sexual harassment—much of it in front…
Fired Over $15. Or Was It the HR Complaints? A laundromat worker reimbursed herself $15 from the register for a taxi fare—something she claimed was standard practice with a receipt. Three days later, she was fired. But because she had just complained about racial harassment, disability discrimination, and unpaid wages,…
You’d expect a company to listen when its Chief People Officer—especially one with nearly three decades of labor and employment law experience—raises concerns about compliance. Instead, this employer—a law firm—reassigned her shortly thereafter and fired her within the week of returning from bereavement leave. A jury just awarded her $3.27…
Denying a reasonable accommodation request can be risky—particularly if the employer provides little explanation or fails to meaningfully engage in the interactive process. But what’s even riskier? Terminating the employee just a few weeks later. Cue the lawsuit. TL;DR: An associate general counsel at a public university alleged she was fired…
Employees might think pressing record is harmless—especially when trying to document what’s said in a heated meeting. But one Director of Social Services found out the hard way that secret recordings—even legal ones—can land employees on the unemployment line. TL;DR: A federal appeals court sided with an employer that fired…
Title VII, the federal antidiscrimination law prohibiting race discrimination, is not a general civility code. An aggrieved employee must establish that they were subjected to behavior based on their race that was severe or pervasive enough to interfere with their working conditions. As we learned yesterday, no rational person would…
Some people seem to think the workplace is their personal soapbox, where they can broadcast whatever pops into their heads—no matter how offensive, misguided, or just plain dumb. One former employee learned this the hard way when he posted an anti-LGBTQ+ comment on the company intranet, mistakenly thinking it was…
In a recent employment discrimination case, the plaintiff, a Black employee, claimed his termination following a workplace investigation into complaints about his conduct at work, was racially motivated. The employer tried to dismiss the case, but failed. Find out why and I’ll throw in a few takeaways about the importance…
I just had to write about a federal court decision from earlier in 2024 that I finally got around to reading. It serves as a critical reminder for employers: All complaints about a hostile work environment must be taken seriously—even when they involve a comedian hired to entertain at a…