The Employer Handbook Blog

Maybe Facebook can’t tell you if a candidate is worth hiring, after all

January 10, 2014 | by Eric B. Meyer

According to a recent study soon to appear in the Journal of Management, not only is Facebook a horrible predictor of how younger recruits will perform for your business — there is absolutely zero correlation between Facebook activity and job performance — but those who rely upon Facebook to help judge potential younger recruits, are more likely to disqualify African-American and Hispanic candidates, in favor of Caucasian Facebook users.

Kashmir Hill details the study here in a recent article on Forbes.

So, if failing to meaningfully distinguish between younger job candidates, while increasing your odds of being sued for disparate-impact discrimination appeals to you, well then, have at it hoss!

ADA leave requests may be verbal or written, just not telepathic

January 9, 2014 | by Eric B. Meyer

Sorry, Aquaman. You’re SOL, son.

But Aquaman does love to get down to MGMT, I’m told. So here you go…

Same goes for the plaintiff in this case — the telepathy part, not MGMT — in which the employer had a leave policy which dictated that employees may take up to six months of leave if unable to perform his/her job with or without reasonable accommodation. After that, it’s sayonara, unless prohibited by law, or if the employee requests a leave extension.

GUEST POST: Flexible Work Location for FLSA-Exempt Employees

January 8, 2014 | by Eric B. Meyer

Today, we have a guest blogger at The Employer Handbook. It’s Johanna Harris. Johanna has been a trial attorney with the U.S. Department of Labor and in-house labor counsel for two multinational corporations. She is currently the CEO of Hire Fire and Retire LLC. Her new book, USE PROTECTION: An Employee’s Guide to Advancement in the Workplace, is a basic primer on HR law and personnel policies.

Flexible work arrangements take many forms. Arranging flexible hours and schedules can be fairly straightforward and is often dictated by business needs. Flexibility of work location, however, is more difficult to manage. After the jump, this guest post addresses the issues raised by allowing employees to work at locations other than their assigned offices.

(Want to guest blog on an employment-law topic at The Employer Handbook? Email me).

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Judge slashes jury award for black plaintiff called the “N”-word — by her black boss

January 7, 2014 | by Eric B. Meyer

Back in September, 2013, I blogged here about a NY jury finding that a black plaintiff called the n-word — by her black boss — had been subjected to race discrimination.

Actually, her boss called her the n-word eight times!

“Well, ladies and gentlemen of the jury, that’s 103 fewer times than the ‘N’-word was used in Django Unchained,” is what the defense’s closing argument sounded like, I imagine.

EEOC thrashes Scientologist employer that allegedly made workers scream at ashtrays

January 6, 2014 | by Eric B. Meyer

I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t know much about Scientology.

Why, my Scientology acumen could fill a thimble. Basically, I know that Tom Cruise is a Scientologist and Katie Holmes was a Scientologist; but, not anymore. Anything else comes from my favorite gossip blog, The Superficial, which is barely, if at all, safe for work.

(Although, I can guarantee you that if you search that blog for the word “Scientology,” the results will be anything but).

“Rise before The Employer Handbook; kneel before The Employer Handbook!”

January 3, 2014 | by Eric B. Meyer

And I say this with the fervor of 100 General Zods, such that Zod himself (especially, the crappy one from Man Of Steel, I’m a Terence Stamp man) would have no choice but to rise and kneel.

But I put down the moonshine funnel digress.

Today, The Employer Handbook celebrates its 3rd birthday. And what did The Employer Handbook get for its 3rd birthday? I mean, in addition to the strawberry edible underwear that one of my readers sent me anonymously. (Next year, go large. Medium, is a bit snug). Well, you guys voted The Employer Handbook ABA Journal’s 2013 Top Labor & Employment Law Blog!

New Year’s Resolution: Social media training for your workforce

January 2, 2014 | by Eric B. Meyer

The king is dead. Long live the king!

Teens are beginning to drop Facebook like a bad habit; instead, taking advantage of messaging apps like What’sApp, Snapchat, and Instagram to social network.

According to a GlobalWebIndex study highlighted in this Forbes article from Haydn Shaughnessy, “from Q2 2012 to Q3 2013 the percentage of active users among 16 – 19 year olds fell from 62% to 52% (these are active users in the sense of having contributed content), and among 20 – 24 year olds fell from 63% to 52%.”

The most clicked, hella-best HR-compliance updates from 2013!!!

December 30, 2013 | by Eric B. Meyer

Ah, it was a good year at the ole Handbook.

Total web traffic was up over fifty percent from 2012. And average time per visit was down over 20%, which is fine by me. I pad my important stats, while discouraging loitering.

And we got our first visitor from Uzbekistan. And the fifth most common search phrase that brought visitors to the site was “Kenny Powers.”

A general manager may have to pay his employer’s wage-and-hour debts

December 27, 2013 | by Eric B. Meyer

Earlier this month, in this post, I highlighted a Pennsylvania federal court opinion recognizing that the Fair Labor Standards Act definition of “employer” is broad enough to bestow personal liability for a company’s wage-and-hour debts upon its President/CEO.

Well, how about a general manager that has zero ownership interest in the company? Could he too be personally responsible if his company fails to pay minimum wage or overtime?

According to a recent decision from an Illinois federal court, there answer is yes:

Teacher fired over Facebook groping photo could get her job back

December 26, 2013 | by Eric B. Meyer

Back in October, I blogged here about Ms. Cook, an Idaho school teacher who lost her job after her employer learned about a photo on her Facebook page that showed her boyfriend touching her chest.

(Oh, fine, here’s the pic)

What made this story unique — yeah, I know, teacher getting in trouble on Facebook is fast approaching “death and taxes” status — is that the female teacher’s boyfriend, also taught at the same school. He was not fired; merely disciplined.

Well, according to this story from Jimmy Hancock at the Idaho State Journal, Ms. Cook should be getting her job back soon:

A grievance panel has determined that former Pocatello High School girls’ basketball coach Laraine Cook should again be allowed to work as a teacher and that she should be rehired as the girls’ basketball coach for the 2014-2015 season….Addressing the firing, the panel said it should be rescinded and considered a suspension without pay from the time of the termination until the time of the panel’s decision.

The panel further noted that the lack of a social media policy afforded Ms. Cook little guidance as to what the school considered online behavior that could cost her her job.

So, use Ms. Cook’s situation as a wake-up call to implement/revise your social media policy. Remind your employees that certain online conduct — even on their own time — could cost ’em their jobs.