Three highlights of my weekend:
One of the great things about having my own blog is the ability to share and engage with my readers in a number of relatable ways. Mostly, it’s through a casual — some may say snarky — discussion of trending legal issues affecting the workplace.
But, every once in while, I like that we can take a different path together and share personal stories. Whether fueled with joy or sorrow, these “off-topic” posts are what make this forum special.
Today, I want to share with you an update on a special little boy: Shane Metzgar.
One week ago today, a Germanwings plane carrying 150 people crashed and killed everyone on board. Since then, there is mounting evidence that the co-pilot, who was in great physical shape, was also suffering from mental illness which caused him to deliberately steer Flight 9525 into the French Alps.
Why didn’t Germanwings taken preventative steps? Apparently, the co-pilot hid his mental illness from his employer.
Three days after the Germanwings catastrophe, a former JetBlue airline pilot, who was locked out of the cockpit and had to be subdued by passengers, filed this lawsuit in federal court against his former employer. He claims that the airline was negligent because it knew or should have known that he was “physically and mentally unfit to fly.” Continue reading
Got a busted bracket in your HR Department’s NCAA Men’s Tournament bracket pool?
Oh, riiiiiiiiiight. What bracket pool? I must be talking about that other company, the one with low-flow poop-stained toilets and the non-conforming employee handbook. #realtalk
Well, according to this CareerBuilder.com survey, 1 in 7 US workers planned to fill out a bracket in an NCAA Tourney office pool. Most likely to participate would be the folks in IT (40%), with senior management 50% more likely to participate than entry-level employees. Continue reading
Welcome, everyone, to the February 2015 edition of the Employment Law Blog Carnival. For those who don’t know, the ELBC, as we like to call it, is a monthly installment of the latest and greatest from the employment-law blogosphere. Each month, a different host and a different theme.
In January, Doug Hass at Wage & Hour Insights brought you the Employment Law Blog Carnival: Awards Season Edition (here). Given the shaft The Expendables III took both from the Academy and the ELBC, after the jump, I’m ready to unleash the thunder…
“They drew first blood, not me.” [John Rambo; First Blood]
On the heels of the excuses we’ve been hearing this week from meteorologists on the east coast about the transformation of Snowmageddon to #Snowperbole…
— well, at least one weatherperson owned it —
…What better way to end the week than with a list of creative excuses; namely, CareerBuilder.com’s top 10 from its recent Most Bizarre Late-to-Work Excuses survey. While “I got jammed up at a pajama-jammy-jam” didn’t make the list, here’s what did:
Over the past few days, there’s been a lot of buzz going around the HR-interwebz a/k/a the hella-best part of the ‘net. The buzz was that The Employer Handbook went back-to-back and claimed the 2014 ABA Blawg100 honors by getting the most readers votes as top labor and employment law blog. For example…
Congratulations to @eric_b_meyer: And The ABA 2014 LawBlawg Employment Category Winner Is….. http://t.co/s1ADIKNajq
— Donna Ballman (@EmployeeAtty) January 8, 2015
Translation: Three days left in 2014 and Meyer doesn’t have it in him to put together an original post for you.
Fortunately, you guys continue to dig the other bazillion days of original content. As The Employer Handbook approaches its 4th birthday — if you’re thinking of a proper gift, find the one that blogs for me too and I’ll dedicate a week’s worth of posts to you — our 2014 numbers were staggering! The site had almost 150,000 users (up 30% from 2013). Those folks viewed 289,560 pages.
Here were the most clicked posts of 2014:
Take it from the employment lawyers. Maybe, not the best idea…
The Employer Handbook Blog
Man rushed to hospital, put in ICU after winning office holiday party eggnog-chugging contest: http://t.co/mnEJ8IZHQ7 pic.twitter.com/RdtauVglFv
— ABC News (@ABC) December 23, 2014
After two days of organized-labor-themed oxygen-sucking blog posts, I’m gonna lighten it up today, with some holiday co-worker gift-giving ideas for you.
Taking my cue from CareerBuilder’s 2014 list of the most unusual holiday gifts exchanged in the workplace, please consider nixing these from your list:
- A box of Hot Pockets®.