Tag: political affiliation discrimination

Grudge Match: Long-Simmering Resentment Stokes Age Bias, Retaliation Claims

People can hold grudges for a long time. But when a manager is holding a grudge against an employee, how long can that grudge continue? Well, in one case, a manager held a grudge against an employee for 11 years. The case comes to us out of Utah, where a former sheriff’s department firearms instructor […]

Alt-right protests: Protected off-duty activity or cause for termination?

It’s an employer’s nightmare. An employee shows up in a video making the rounds on social media taking part in a protest that includes violent clashes and racist insults. The employer wants no association with such actions and decides to cut ties. Will there be legal trouble if the employee is fired? Possibly, according to […]

Muppets, Lannisters, and wrongful termination—which one isn’t like the others?

by Mark I. Schickman Kermit the Frog has been fired! From his birth in 1955 until 1990, Kermit was performed by his creator, Jim Henson. Since 1990, veteran Muppet performer Steve Whitmire donned the green felt. During Whitmire’s tenure, Kermit appeared in over 20 movies, got a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, was […]

Political discrimination: when politics and the workplace meet

by Luke Draisey It’s likely that 2016 was a year that most people won’t soon forget. It was a year marked by international turmoil, celebrity deaths, and unprecedented political disunity. We saw Great Britain’s decision to withdraw from the European Union, the genesis of the Zika virus, and the deaths of several cultural icons, including […]

Cooling hot political buttons

During every political campaign, I am reminded of the notion that if we speak about our co-workers or subordinates in the manner in which the American voter speaks about political candidates, we should expect some remediation by our superiors or human resources. For example, if we question the legitimacy of an employee’s birth certificate, criticize […]

Political speech in the workplace

by Thomas J. Lloyd III This election season has already proven to be, in certain respects, more animated than any that has ever come before. An ever-changing political landscape, fueled in large part by social media activism, has brought once-foreign political issues directly into the homes and workplaces of nearly every American. As the primaries […]

Office politics: why you shouldn’t care who likes Ike

by Timothy M. Barber With another round of contentious elections upon us, employers should brush up on federal, state, and local laws related to political affiliation discrimination.  The political season Fall in America: football, brightly colored leaves falling, and another cycle of contentious elections. Recent elections have involved important issues affecting businesses and employees—issues that […]