Practical HR Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
Employment law attorney Michael Maslanka discusses Robert Sutton’s book The No Asshole Rule: Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One that Isn’t. General counsel are tagged as custodians of their companies’ most crucial, yet most sensitive and volatile asset: its employees. Henry Ford saw them as one big headache, immune from any analgesic’s curative powers: […]
Employment law attorney Michael Maslanka comments on the book Send: Why People Email so Badly and How to Do It Better by David Shipley and Will Schwalbe, highlighting the book’s advice on making business e-mail more personal. I just finished an interesting book, Send: Why People Email So Badly and How to Do It Better, […]
M. Lee Smith Web Editor Wendi Watts reviews the book The Truth about Profiting from Social Networking by Patrice-Anne Rutledge. How to use Facebook and other social media websites to communicate with employees, customers, and coworkers. Regardless of whether you are a Facebook addict or are challenged to add an attachment to an email, if […]
by Barbara A. McIsaac, Helen Gray, and Daniel Pugen McCarthy Tetrault An employee’s expectation of privacy in the workplace is a big issue these days, especially with respect to the use of company computers. Employers are often faced with questions like these: Is an employee entitled to privacy over e-mail and other data created and […]
In “The Deposition” episode of “The Office,” Michael Scott tries to testify against his employer, Dundler Mifflin, after his girlfriend Jan Levinson sues the company for wrongful termination. While Michael is being deposed, his e-mail, personal diary, and performance reviews are used. Employment law attorney Troy Foster reminds us that “that nothing at work should […]
The capabilities of the devices the average employee brings to the workplace these days are amazing. At any given moment, every one of your employees probably has the ability to make a phone call from anywhere in the building, record a conversation, and take pictures of your most sensitive work secrets — and that’s just […]
Employment law attorney Michael Maslanka reviews the book Death To All Sacred Cows: How Successful Business People Put the Old Rules Out to Pasture by Bill Schwab. Review highlights book theory about how email does not always save and tips for effective use of email. I just finished reading a really funny book, Death to […]
The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has ruled that employers can prohibit employees from using company e-mail to send union-related messages while allowing some personal use of e-mail. In a 3-2 decision dated December 16 but released December 21, the NLRB majority ruled that the e-mail policy of Eugene, Oregon, newspaper The Register-Guard wasn’t a […]
Resources for Humans Managing Editor Celeste Blackburn reviews the book Woe Is I: A Grammarphobe’s Guide to Better English in Plain English by Patricia T. O’Conner. Review highlights book’s tips for writing e-mails and avoiding cliches. The pen is mightier than the sword. We’ve all heard it, and since we are meeting on a blog […]
LITIGATION VALUE: $150,000 I empathize with Michael. There is nothing worse than the sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach when you realize that you just accidentally forwarded that witty e-mail (which you worked on all morning) mocking your boss’s bad suits and strange habits to your boss, herself, rather than to your clever […]