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The Employer Handbook BlogOutside law firm defending company in FMLA claim gets sued for FMLA interference
Wait! That’s not a thing now, is it? IS IT!!!
I’ll be right back. I need to find my special set of “clutching” pearls.
VP of HR fired for a Trump tweet still manages to collect unemployment benefits
Back in 2016, Kathleen M. Jungclaus was the full-time Vice President of Human Resources for a Pennsylvania continuing care retirement community. She had worked for the company since 2007.
On July 24, 2016, Ms. Junclaus went on her personal Twitter page and tweeted: “@realDonaldTrump I am the VP of HR in a comp outside of philly [sic] an informal survey of our employees shows 100% AA employees voting Trump!”
A little over two months later, Ms. Junclaus found herself unemployed and applying for benefits. Continue reading
JOIN US: “The Employment Law Year in Review,” a free webinar on Thu, Dec 7, 2017 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM EST
I had one date circled — one date between now and the end of the year.
Later this week, on November 17, Netflix releases Marvel’s The Punisher. If you’ve dorked out gotten culture with any of The Defenders series, then, like me, you’ve been chomping at the bit for this release. But, if you need some enticement, check out the official trailer for Marvel’s The Punisher. It opens with Frank Castle as an early contender for Father Of the Year, teaching his kid Metallica on an acoustic guitar. Seconds later, Castle’s entire family is dead and he’s talking about infiltrating a covert CIA operation. And, at the 1:22 mark of the trailer, we have this exchange between Frank Castle and a sidekick:
Sidekick: You and me, we want the same thing. So, work with me.
Frank Castle: On one condition. I’m gonna kill ’em all.
Sidekick: Yeah, I can live with that.
Dammit, Netflix! Stop twisting my arm! Cause, it hurts so good.
***blows smoke and starts chewing bubble gum cigarette***
Now, if you’re going to circle one other date on the calendar, may I suggest December 7? Yep, I’ve buried the lede long enough. Continue reading
And in other sexual harassment news….EVERYTHING!!!
And here I thought we’d be able to make it to the weekend without another above-the-fold allegation of sexual harassment.
Fortunately, I have some other helpful, related items… Continue reading
Would you require a new C-Suite hire to affirm no history of discrimination at work?
We’re still got about a month and a half to go, and the list of notable sexual harassers (allegedly) is growing faster than my youngest can eat her peas.
Often, when we hire high-level executives, we resort to employment agreements. And in those employment agreements, we include provisions requiring the new hire to affirm that working for the new company will not cause that person to violate any restrictive covenants or other pre-existing agreements.
So, I have a question for you. Continue reading
Take a page out of this employer’s playbook for dealing with FMLA and absenteeism.
When a company has an employee who is approved for leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act, sometimes that employer get nervous about parsing FMLA-qualifying absences from other sick days that have nothing whatsoever to do with the employee’s underlying serious health condition. The end result is an employee who gets not only FMLA leave but extra leave that exceeds his or her bank of time off.
Those employers, well, they’re shook!
Let’s see how one employer handled it the right way.
Continue reading
HR lessons from a cyclist fired for flipping off Trump’s motorcade
Image Credit: YouTube.com (screenshot)
Juli Briskman was out riding her bicycle when she was passed on the road by Donald Trump’s motorcade. So, she showed ’em the middle finger.
And, it was at that precise moment that a White House photographer traveling with the president as he left one of his golf courses happened to catch the one-finger salute on film. Ms. Briskman a viral star on social media.
Who knew that she would lose her job for it so quickly? Continue reading
A new SHRM-endorsed House bill promotes paid employee leave across the country
The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) is touting this bill, known as the “Workflex in the 21st Century Act” (you can view it here) as “a first-of-its-kind combination of guaranteed paid leave and increased options for flexible work arrangements.”
5 more reasons why your workplace anti-harassment training is ineffective
“There’s Little Evidence Sexual Harassment Trainings Work,” wrote Madison Pauly in this article at Mother Jones.
Ms. Pauly notes that the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission received over 162,000 EEOC Charges of Discrimination between 2010 and 2015. Plus, she cites a University of Oregon associate law professor’s study, which concluded that trainings are “too often ‘a hollow exercise in corporate compliance’ that tend to emphasize that harassment is bad for workplace productivity while glossing over the point that harassment is a kind of discrimination—which she believes could serve a ‘moral anchor’ to make the trainings more convincing.”
Is Ms. Pauly’s article on point? Maybe. Actually, before I commit, let me google “moral anchor.”
Ah, nuts to that. Here’s my hot take on five more reasons why your workplace anti-harassment training is ineffective. Continue reading
Could your business withstand a tsunami of individual wage and hour claims?
Image Credit: Pixabay.com (https://pixabay.com/en/wave-water-sea-tsunami-giant-wave-11061/)
And here you thought you were so smart by getting all of your employees to agree to class-action waivers and binding arbitration of all employment-related claims.
Maybe not so much. Continue reading