Archives
From the Experts: Demystifying the Motor Carrier Exemption, Part 1; When Does an Employee Drive in ‘Interstate Commerce’?
Administrative Exemption: Exemption for High-Level IT Employee Upheld; Simple Tips for Staying Out of Court
Short Takes: School Functions
BusinessWeek’s Paperback Bestseller List
BusinessWeek ranks paperback business books that are the most recent bestsellers. 1. Blink By Malcolm Gladwell (Back Bay Books $15.99) 2. J.K. Lasser’s Your Income Tax2008 By The J.K. Lasser Institute (Wiley $17.95) 3. What Color Is Your Parachute? By Richard Nelson Bolles (Ten Speed Press $18.95) 4. A Guide to the Project Management Body […]
Employee Leaves: What Should I Do When Managers Don’t Want to Reinstate Employees Who Went Out on FMLA/CFRA Leave?
We’re having problems with people coming back from FMLA/CFRA leave. Two particular situations worry us. In one case, the manager says, “I’ve redistributed the work and there’s no job anymore.” And in the other, the manager says, “We’ve hired a temp who is much better—we don’t want the person back.” Don’t we still have to […]
Health and Safety: Are There First-Aid Standards That Apply to Our Workplace?
We had an accident in the office last week, and we didn’t have a trained person around to attend to the injured employee. It looks like there might be a lawsuit attacking our accident and injury preparedness. In any event, the incident brought up the issue of how much first-aid skill we need to have […]
Employment Contracts: Could I Be Entering into ‘Implied Contracts’ Without Knowing It?
We fired an employee, thinking he was “at will,” but now he claims we made an oral promise that he could be fired only for cause. We’ll fight this one in court, but how do we keep from having misunderstandings like these? —Martin B., HR Manager in San Francisco
FLSA Class Action Overtime Suits—Are You Next?
If you don’t do an FLSA wage and hour audit, someone else will, says attorney Tom Makris. And it won’t be just the government. These days, it could be a potential business partner … or even your banker. It started with mergers and acquisitions, says attorney Tom Makris. Now it’s spread to far more routine […]
Workplace Lessons from the Campaign Trail
by Margaret DiBianca Politics isn’t a career for the thin-skinned. “Getting the goods” on one’s opponent often seems like a strategic tactic. Candidates who engage in that “strategy” look for harmful information, and then, when the time is right, maybe at a rally or mid-debate, the goods are slung like mud in the general direction […]