July, 2016

Join me for a free webinar on 8/24: “How to Navigate Alcoholism and Substance Abuse under the FMLA/ADA”

July 29, 2016 | by Eric B. Meyer

Are you prepared to address drug- and alcohol-related disabilities and leave issues under the FMLA and ADA?

At some time in their lives, millions of Americans have abused drugs and alcohol. While many are in recovery, others continue their struggle. Inevitably, your workforce will feel the impact.

Join this new discussion to learn about the applicable employment laws, available accommodations and leave options under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and hear recent court cases and legislation and take away some best practices you/your organization can use.

What ADA protections exist for mental health episodes at work? Not many. Maybe none.

July 28, 2016 | by Eric B. Meyer

My skin crawls thinking about the Google search terms that will land some HR professionals on this post, which involves a failed suicide attempt. Hopefully, this is not a practice tip upon which you’ll need to draw in the course of your HR career.

But, just in case…

How will the new overtime rules affect workplace flexibility? Not well.

July 27, 2016 | by Eric B. Meyer

The slow death of the 9-5 workday, together with the arrival of the new FLSA overtime rules, which do into effect on December 1, could create one of the bigger wage-and-hour pitfalls for employers in 2017 and beyond.

Continue reading

Got young employees? They pray to different gods? Then, you need this EEOC fact sheet.

July 26, 2016 | by Eric B. Meyer

Less colloquially, last Friday, the EEOC released this one-page fact sheet “designed to help young workers better understand their rights and responsibilities under the federal employment anti-discrimination laws prohibiting religious discrimination.” You can read the EEOC press release here.

What HR can learn from those hella-dumb DNC leadership emails.

July 25, 2016 | by Eric B. Meyer

About a year ago, I had a post entitled, The “E” in E-Mail stands for Exhibit. As in Exhibit A. Here’s a snippet:

As part of my respect-in-the-workplace training, I tell employees and managers that bad e-mails are like dirty diapers: they stink and they never go away.

Yeah, about that…

Say, Eric. Where do you find all that fodder for your blog posts, anyway?

July 22, 2016 | by Eric B. Meyer

Fart stories, tea-bagging, and a grown man getting fired for Pokémon Go rants. Want to know where do I find these cases and stories?

Trailblazing federal court flatly rejects one free tea-bagging at work

July 21, 2016 | by Eric B. Meyer

No, not that tea-bagging. And just when you thought that Your Blogness couldn’t possibly raise his game (raise, right?) after yesterday’s fart post.

(Yes, the next 1000+ words will either be my G.O.A.T. or my Waterloo, which, I’m told, is bad.)

Remember that flatulence-cum-discrimination claim from last year? Well, it stinks too.

July 20, 2016 | by Eric B. Meyer

Look, cut me some slack here.

It’s 1:45 AM local time in New Orleans. This is my fourth major city in less than a week, having just arrived in town from San Francisco, where I spoke with EEOC General Counsel David Lopez on LGBT workplace rights at the EEOC EXCEL Conference. Instead of doing some last-minute preparing for tomorrow’s spiel at the 2016 DMEC Annual Conference — or, better yet, sleeping — I’m giving you a blog post about the discrimination implications of farting at work.

Please send my Pulitzer to Philadelphia.

HR sorta admitting retaliation is generally a bad defense to an employee’s retaliation lawsuit

July 19, 2016 | by Eric B. Meyer

That’s Employment Law 101.

Court says employee’s Facebook page on race stereotypes is fair game at trial

July 18, 2016 | by Eric B. Meyer

Many times — most recently last Friday — I’ve discussed instances in which the 24/7 world of social media has cost individuals their jobs.

But, here’s a little twist. Earlier this month, a Pennsylvania federal court ruled here that a plaintiff’s Facebook page called “Yo know yo ass is from the da hood,” could be used by a defendant-employer to impeach an African-American employee’s claims of race discrimination and retaliation at work.