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The Employer Handbook Blog

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“Surprise! There’s a Skeleton in Your Candidate’s Closet!”

Image by Paul Brennan from Pixabay A few weeks ago, the great folks at ERE Media invited me to speak at the ERE Recruiting Conference in Washington, DC about what happens when you learn that one of your recruits has done something on social media that doesn’t mesh well with…

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You’re worried that an obese applicant may later develop diabetes. Can you refuse to hire him?

Renée Gordon (FDA), Victovoi [Public domain], via Wikimedia CommonsLast night, I read this recent Seventh Circuit opinion about a man who applied for a job with a railroad. The job required some fairly physical work; namely, climbing and working on and around heavy equipment. The company’s policy was not to…

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Sexy Mister Rogers and the rest of your last-minute ‘what not to wear to work tomorrow’ checklist.

Petar Milošević [CC BY-SA 3.0], via Wikimedia CommonsA few years ago, my wife and I were able to convince my younger son (then five years old) that he should consider other costumes beyond his first choice: the “Adult Skeleboner One Piece Costume,” which didn’t glow in the dark like the…

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Pennsylvania, yes Pennsylvania, announces new overtime rules that are more generous than federal law

Image Credit: Photofunia.com About a year or so ago, Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf announced a plan to direct the Department of Labor & Industry (PA’s version of the DOL) to change the overtime rules in PA: The first step will raise the salary level to determine overtime eligibility for most workers…

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Yes, you can be fired for sharing Elmo poop memes. It’s another lesson on at-will employment.

Image Credit: Cody Hidalgo on Facebook A Michigan man claims he “legit got fired” for posting a Sesame Street Elmo ‘poop’ meme on Facebook on a Sunday when he wasn’t at work. (h/t The Daily Dot and Unilad) I suppose that’s kinda … wait for it … sh*tty. But, Michigan…

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PODCAST: How to Treat Employees Like Humans – Even When You’re Firing Them

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay About a month ago, I shared a podcast from my FisherBroyles, LLP  employment law partner, Jessica Brown Wilson, where she addressed how to create a sexual harassment policy. Now, she’s back. This time, she’s tackling a difficult issue: “How to Treat Employees Like Humans…

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This leaked deposition transcript from a race discrimination case is like a bizarro embassy scene from Lethal Weapon 2.

Image Credit: YouTube.com Do you know that scene from Lethal Weapon 2? The one where Joe Pesci (Leo Getz) tells the representative from the South African embassy to convince his friend Danny Glover (‘Alphonse’) not to move to South Africa because he’s black. I’ll pause for a sec while you…

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A first-of-its-kind nationwide ban on non-competition agreements is coming. Possibly.

Image by Clker-Free-Vector-Images from Pixabay In 2016, President Obama signed the Defend Trade Secrets Act into law. A bipartisan approach to creating a nationwide enforcement mechanism, the DTSA prohibits misappropriation of trade secrets in all 50 states. Fast forward to 2019, and the federal government is back at it again…

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Common sense prevails! School reinstates black man it fired for repeating a racial slur directed at him as he told the person to stop

Image Credit: Photofunia.com Yesterday, I blogged here about a black man who was fired for repeating a racial slur directed at him as he told the person to stop. According to multiple reports, his employer’s position was that it had a zero-tolerance policy on racial slurs in the workplace —…

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A black man was fired for repeating a racial slur directed at him as he told the person to stop

Image by Pexels from Pixabay Last week, I quizzed you on how to handle a request for a religious accommodation to be excused from attending a weekend company holiday party. That was easy. Today’s ‘what would you do’ is much more difficult. Here’s the setup: Edward Employee and Ernest Employee…