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Articles Posted in Hiring & Firing

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It may not be legal now to fire an at-will employee who misses work with a fever.

Chris Potter / CC BY An employer may find itself in hot water for firing an employee absent with COVID-19 symptoms — even a low-grade fever — regardless of whether s/he is eligible for leave under the Families First Coronavirus Response Act. How do I know this? Well, the other…

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Court: Free speech may protect city employee’s Facebook post about wanting to kill Tamir Rice

Image Credit: https://www.publicdomainpictures.net License: CC0 Public Domain I’ve said many times before on this blog that employees always have the right to freedom of speech — even on social media. But, words have consequences. And no law guarantees the right to continued employment. But, there are limited exceptions to that…

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Did I ever tell you about the employee that called the owner a “f***ing crook”?

ts that ould notImage by kdbcms from Pixabay He called him an “***hole” and “stupid” too. Then, he told the owner that nobody liked him, everyone talked about him behind his back, and even threatened that the owner would regret firing him if he did. Sure enough, the company violated…

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Where do you draw the line on employee social media content? How about violent threats?

Image by Thomas Ulrich from Pixabay Both a Harvard graduate and a police detective who supported the recent Black Lives Matter protests appear to be finding out the hard way that posting violent threats on social media, even if in jest, can end up costing a job. “The next person…

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My employee doesn’t feel safe at work and wants to know if s/he can collect unemployment instead.

Image by Arek Socha from Pixabay If you haven’t had this conversation yet with one of your current or furloughed employees, you inevitably will. So, what do you say? Well, I can’t begin to give you the rules for all 50 states and the District of Columbia. But, I can…

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How would you deal with an employee caught on camera mocking George Floyd’s death?

Image credit: J_avant81 on Instagram NBC10 Philadelphia reports here that a corrections officer in  New Jersey mocked George Floyd’s death as protesters marched past. Jason Avant, a former wide receiver for the Philadelphia Eagles, shared a video of it on Instagram (NSFW). Although there is political propaganda in the video,…