Today, I will tell you about an employee caught sleeping on the job. Several times. The first was when three coworkers observed him sleeping at his desk while not on a break, which violated the company’s conduct policy. So, with HR’s approval, the employee’s manager decided to issue him a…
Yesterday, I wrote about how the DEA’s move to ease restrictions on marijuana would change the ADA landscape for employers by requiring accommodations for employees with disabilities who use medical cannabis to treat. For now, however, marijuana remains a Schedule One drug. So, the Americans with Disabilities Act does not…
Last week, the Associated Press reported that the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration would move to reclassify marijuana (cannabis), moving it from Schedule I, where it’s currently listed with heroin and LSD, to Schedule III, with as less dangerous doctor-prescribed drugs like (Tylenol with codeine) and testosterone. The AP notes that this shift comes “as marijuana…
In 2013, a healthcare provider hired a white man—let’s call him plaintiff—as its Senior Vice President of Marketing and Communications. And he crushed it, receiving strong performance reviews and gaining national recognition for himself and the marketing program he developed. And then, seemingly out of nowhere, he was fired. As…
I want to tell you about an Army reservist whose employer investigated him for taking fraudulent leave. That investigation spawned a grand jury indictment for theft. The employee was booked, detained in jail, suspended from his job, and eventually fired. Yada, yada, yada, a federal jury awarded the employee $1,500,000.…
A white man filed a lawsuit against a company claiming that it denied him a high-six-figure executive position because of his race, age, and sex so that the company could search for more diverse candidates. Among the causes of action he asserted was one for race discrimination under 42 U.S.C.…
The words “cisgender” or “non-transgender” employee appear nowhere in Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the federal workplace law that outlaws gender discrimination. But, according to a Pennsylvania federal judge, “that does not preclude the possibility that discrimination against both a cisgender male and cisgender female may…
Suppose an employee gets fired after complaining about sexual harassment at work. If that person later claims retaliation, they will have to establish a nexus between the two events, and the complaint also arises to the level of what we call a “protected activity.” For an internal sexual harassment complaint…
Suppose one of your employees, a widget maker, takes leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act. As a widget maker, the employee has a monthly quota of 100 widgets. The FMLA does not require an employer to adjust its performance standards for when an employee is on the job.…
Earlier this week, I wrote about a judge calling out an employee for trying to cast a personal choice to remain unvaccinated against COVID-19 as some deeply religious decision. Last night, I read another recent opinion from a federal judge who called an employee trying to avoid a mandatory vaccination requirement…