Early in my legal career, a colleague taught me the expression: pigs get fed; hogs get slaughtered. Essentially, be agressive. But push too hard, and you may lose it all. Some PA companies require their new hires to sign an agreement requiring them to arbitrate any claims that arise out…
Over the weekend, I read this story by Laura Hibbard at the Huffington Post about a phony job flyer handed out by two men in red blazers posing as Chick-Fil-A employees [link to video] on the campus of New York University. The phony flyer states: Remember Chick-Fil-A is a Christian…
Because it’ll cost you your job. Dale Gibson of The Triangle Business Journal reports here that a waiter at The Angus Barn in Raleigh, NC posted on the internet a copy of Peyton Manning’s credit card receipt from a recent dinner there. Manning may not have a job, but he…
In Pennsylvania, as in most states, an employee without a contract for a specific term of employment is deemed an at-will employee. Subject to certain exceptions (e.g., discrimination, violations of public policy), an at-will employee can be terminated for any reason or no reason at all. How hard is it…
Recently, Glassdoor.com poured through thousands of interview questions and posted 50 that come up more often than not. Here are the Top 10: 1. What are your strengths? 2. What are your weaknesses? 3. Why are you interested in working for [insert company name here]? 4. Where do you see…
According to this recent SHRM survey, only 18% of companies have used social media to screen job candidates. Most cite the legal risks of screening candidates as the reason for not implementing a social-media background check. While a social-media background check may not be useful in certain instances, I can…
I’m in Las Vegas. So, for today, Jane Smith has control of the The Employer handbook. Jane is a freelance writer and blogger. She writes about free background checks for Backgroundcheck.org. After the jump, check out her top 5 reasons employers give employees the boot. Questions and comments can be…
I read this on ZDnet yesterday: Administrative Law Judge Ellen Bass has ruled Jennifer O’Brien, a first-grade teacher at School 21 in Paterson, New Jersey, should lose her tenured job, because of a Facebook comment she made about her students. O’Brien has been on administrative leave since March, which is…
This has been an intense week here at The Employer Handbook. What, with Monday’s post on taking the “sex” out of sexual harassment, followed up on Tuesday with the 15 craziest excuses employees have for missing work. You guys seemed to like that one a lot. Then there was the post…
I get 15 16 minutes of fame. Earlier this week, one of my readers forwarded an email to me reminding me about the young woman above who, last year, in a series of 34 pictures, told her employer to take her job and shove it. Nice! Although I’m not…