Practical HR Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
Litigation Value: No liability (or sales leads) “per se.” However, the seeds of workplace discord have been planted, leaving open the possibility that they will take root and blossom into future legal problems. Sales personnel are lording it over their non-sales counterparts; protégés are maligning their once-valued mentors; and even the simple act of borrowing […]
Q:I have a couple of employees who just started using religious expressions (e.g., “God bless” and “Your friend in God”) in their e-mails. Another employee is offended by the e-mails and wants me to make them stop. Any words of wisdom? A: In addition to prohibiting religious discrimination in the workplace, Title VII of the […]
According to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), sexual harassment charges by men have doubled since 1992, accounting for 16 percent of the 12,696 sexual harassment charges filed in the 2009 fiscal year. And while female-male sexual harassment certainly makes up some portion of those claims, it’s evident that male-male harassment claims are also on […]
We are beyond the day when an employer could evaluate employees by assuming or insisting that they matched the stereotypes associated with their group. — U.S. Supreme Court Price Waterhouse Facts Brenna Lewis started working for Heartland Inns, a small hotel chain, in July 2005. She mainly worked as a night-shift auditor, and in the […]
Litigation Value: Probably neglible, seeing as no one seemed to be offended by Michael’s Irish jokes, and Michael himself looked slightly flattered by the long hug with Todd “PacMan” Packer and Meredith. Who knew that St. Patrick’s Day was such an important holiday at Dunder Mifflin? This week on The Office, we saw our favorite regional […]
HR Hero Line editor Wendi Watts reviews the book Trust Agents: Using the Web to Build Influence, Improve Reputation, and Earn Trust by Chris Brogran and Julien Smith. She says that the book is not a how-to book on social networking or social media, but rather an insightful look at the concept of trust and […]
Sarah Hulsey, PHR, reviews the book Gung Ho! Turn On the People in Any Organization by Ken Blanchard and Sheldon Bowles, finding it easy to read but more appropriate for a novice HR practitioner than the seasoned professional. I just finished reading Gung Ho! Turn On the People in Any Organization by Ken Blanchard and […]
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has announced that Outback Steakhouse has agreed to pay $19 million and furnish significant remedial relief to settle a major class-action lawsuit alleging sex discrimination against thousands of women at hundreds of its corporately owned restaurants nationwide. According to the EEOC, Outback discriminated against female employees with respect to […]
Litigation Value: Approximately $5,000 – 10,000; Oscar’s Dunder Mifflin vacation time … and the replacement cost of Stanley’s busted windshield. Employment law issues often get overlooked in a merger while the parties focus on stock price, transition planning, public relations, and other big-ticket concerns. When Gabe announced to the Scranton employees that Sabre offered two weeks of vacation, […]
Employment law attorney Michael P. Maslanka reviews the book The Cost of Bad Behavior: How Incivility Is Damaging Your Business and What to Do About It by Christine Pearson and Christine Porath. I’ve been reading an interesting book, The Cost of Bad Behavior: How Incivility Is Damaging Your Business and What to Do About It […]