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Over the weekend, I read this opinion in a race-discrimination with facts so egregious, they’d make David Duke blush.

Let me set the scene for you. This is a workplace where, allegedly, several of the white employees displayed Confederate flag paraphernalia. I’ll spare you a verbatim review of the racial graffiti and epithets — you can view it here — but, it was pretty darn bad. And what about multiple nooses in the workplace — eight in total.

[Sidebar: I once attended a deposition of an Ivy League-educated HR Manager who testified that there was a time when she did not understand how a hangman’s noose in the workplace would offend a black employee. Hubba-what?!? Folks, just so we’re clear here, a hangman’s noose is the single worst symbol of racial hate. Period. So eight of ’em is hella-bad!]

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Folks, I get the feeling you may be inundated with extra blog posts over the next few days.

That is, I’m punching this post out from the airport, as I await my flight to Orlando, where I’ll be attending the Gathering of the Juggalos 2014 SHRM Annual Conference and Expo.

Two speaking gigs for me and lot of other conference time to listen, learn, and blog.

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shrm.jpgAnd by coffee, I mean turkey legs and frozen blueberry-mango rum lemonade.

Whoa, whoa, whoa, slow down…

You see that badge over there? You know what I had to do to get that badge?
Buy the full version of Photoshop
Spike the Kool-Aid of everyone on the SHRM Annual Conference Speaker Selection Committee
I beat out thousands (trillions?) of other speaker submissions to be selected as a SHRM 2014 Annual Conference & Exposition speaker.

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Now, before I get to the FMLA, let me talk about another recent decision from the New Jersey Supreme Court. On Monday, the high court ruled (here) that:

    1. Claims asserted under the “improper quality of patient care” provision of New Jersey’s Conscientious Employee Protection Act “must be premised upon a reasonable belief that the employer has violated a law, rule, regulation, declaratory ruling adopted pursuant to law, or a professional code of ethics that governs the employer and differentiates between acceptable and unacceptable conduct in the employer’s delivery of patient care.”
  1. A plaintiff asserting that his or her employer’s conduct is incompatible with a “clear mandate of public policy concerning the public health” must, at a minimum, identify authority that applies to the “activity, policy or practice” of the employer.
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So much for that case of Monday writer’s block…

From a recent EEOC press release:

According to the EEOC’s suit, Disability Network denied a deaf independent living specialist reasonable accommodations and then fired him. For example, the nonprofit refused the employee his requests for TTY equipment, a video phone and the ability to use text messaging, and refused to provide him with alternate accommodations.

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What with me gabbing on about firefighters afraid of fighting fires, butt grabs, and some Delaware lawyer starving himself over social media, I missed this National Labor Relations Board decision, in which the Board basically held that, as long as you don’t go too far and pull a Latrell Sprewell, you can curse out your boss with impunity.

Literally, you can call your boss a “f*%king crook,” an “a$$hole,” and “stupid” on a Friday, and still have a job to come back to on Monday.

God bless America.

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Thumbnail image for weknownext.pngIn two weeks, at the SHRM Annual Conference, I’ll be presenting “Meeting the Challenges That Leaves of Absence and Attendance Issues Present Under the FMLA and ADA.” 

The good news is that I have 75 minutes of HR greatness planned for my SHRM sesh. The bad news is that my presentation is at 7:00 AM on the day after the #SHRM14 Social Bash at the Hard Rock Cafe.

So, let’s just say “Hey, thanks a lot, SHRM!” that I anticipate an intimate gathering of HR hardcore FMLA/ADAthletes for my spiel.

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If I could drink up your collective skepticism when it comes to these Americans with Disabilities Act cases…

…I’d need my stomach pumped.

Let’s see. There’s the one about the utilityman who couldn’t climb utility poles, but had an ADA claim against a utility company. And then who can forget the bridge worker with the fear of heights who presented a viable ADA claim? And what about the stripper who feared climbing the stripper pole?

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