Articles Posted in Hiring & Firing

When an Ultimatum Turns a “Resignation” Into a Jury Question

February 11, 2026 | by Eric B. Meyer

Constructive discharge is a high bar. But an ultimatum, delivered the wrong way and on the wrong timeline, can be enough to clear it.

That was the lesson from a recent federal court decision involving a pregnant employee who was told she could either keep working under at-will conditions or take six weeks of pay and leave immediately. The employer framed it as a choice. The court said a jury could see it as no choice at all. Continue reading

How Not to Handle Suspected FMLA Abuse

February 9, 2026 | by Eric B. Meyer

Stop me if you’ve heard this before: it’s the Monday after the Super Bowl, an employee with approved intermittent FMLA leave asks for a personal day, gets denied, switches to FMLA, and later finds himself terminated for “abuse.”

That is not a hypothetical. It is essentially what happened in a recent decision out of the Southern District of West Virginia, where a federal court refused to throw out an employee’s FMLA retaliation claim and sent the case to a jury. Continue reading

How a Drug Test Exposed an ADA Compliance Gap

January 29, 2026 | by Eric B. Meyer

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Hiring can feel like a checklist: background check, drug test, start date. But when an applicant raises a disability-related issue, those boxes stop being routine, and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) starts asking questions. Continue reading

When an employee says “I need to get home,” you may already be in FMLA territory

November 17, 2025 | by Eric B. Meyer

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Sometimes a routine overtime dispute turns into an FMLA problem because no one stops to ask the right questions. A new Eleventh Circuit decision shows how easily that can happen.
Continue reading

Congress Wants Employers to Report How Many Jobs AI Is Creating… and Killing

November 14, 2025 | by Eric B. Meyer

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Artificial intelligence is changing everything from hiring to customer service, and now Congress wants to know exactly how many American jobs it’s creating… and killing. Continue reading

Back to Basics: The FMLA Doesn’t Protect Poor Performance

November 12, 2025 | by Eric B. Meyer

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When an employee on FMLA leave also happens to be a problem employee, HR can feel trapped. A recent federal appellate decision is a reminder that the FMLA is not a shield against legitimate discipline. If the company can show it would have taken the same action regardless of leave, it is on solid legal ground. Continue reading

No posting, no application, still a lawsuit: Age bias and quiet promotions

November 3, 2025 | by Eric B. Meyer

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Sometimes promotions move quietly through the ranks.
No job posting, no formal applications, just a quiet internal decision.

A recent Ninth Circuit decision reminds employers that even those informal moves can create risk under the age-discrimination laws. Continue reading

What happens when “He harassed me” turns into “You defamed me”?

October 27, 2025 | by Eric B. Meyer

A recent federal case shows how a workplace investigation can flip fast—from harassment complaint to defamation claim. The employer followed the playbook and won. The accuser did not. Continue reading

Coming Soon: New Jersey’s Pay Transparency Rules Get Specific

October 24, 2025 | by Eric B. Meyer

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If you read my earlier post, you already know New Jersey’s new pay transparency law is here. Now the Department of Labor has proposed regulations that explain exactly how to comply. Continue reading

Do employees have a right to use slurs about their own group at work? A court called that absurd.

October 22, 2025 | by Eric B. Meyer

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What if a Black employee uses the N-word in the workplace, directed at no one in particular, and gets fired? Can that employee claim race discrimination under Title VII? A federal judge in Pennsylvania just called that argument “an absurdity.” Continue reading

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