Right or wrong, an honest belief may be all it takes to proffer a nondiscriminatory reason for an adverse employment action. Do you remember that employer that terminated 65 employees seeking FMLA simultaneously with the same doctor’s notes? The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals concluded that the company suspected shenanigans,…
Recently, I read a recent federal appellate court decision involving an employee with a rare form of Tourette Syndrome that caused him to use obscenities and racial slurs. While that could be dicey around coworkers, this employee’s job required excellent customer service skills while making deliveries and interacting with said customers.…
Also, it is a bad idea to give that same employee a “retire-or-be-fired” ultimatum shortly after they return from bypass heart surgery. Am I making this stuff up? When have you known me to do that? No, these allegations come from a recent U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) press…
Historically, federal courts have determined that the Americans with Disabilities Act does not protect individuals with disabilities with valid medical marijuana prescriptions who lose their jobs for testing positive. But, in 2024, most states have recognized the medical benefits of cannabis and have legalized it for medical use by their…
Earlier in the week, I shared four ways to BOTCH a sexual harassment investigation. My “muse” was an Employee Relations Department that caught the attention of the EEOC for its alleged poor handling of an employee’s complaints of sexual harassment. But I appreciate a good comeback story, don’t you? And…
This sounds like something that might interest the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Oh, wait. Would you look at this EEOC press release? It seems her employer may have engaged in age and disability discrimination. Let’s see why the EEOC believes this: (I mean, other than “duh!”) According to the lawsuit, the…
Hopefully, your business never has to address a situation where an employee is suffering from progressive memory loss and cognitive decline. But, suppose one of your employees informs you that they have early-onset Alzheimer’s disease. How should the company respond? Last night, I read a court opinion involving this fact…
Before discussing the jury verdict, I’ll tell you a little about how we got here. Let’s go back to New Year’s Eve 2020 when the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission announced (here) that it had sued a distribution company for violating the Americans with Disabilities Act by refusing to interview…
Last night, I went shopping on Amazon for a new stool. At $48.90, this one came recommended as excellent value for money. And I almost bought it. But then the stool snob in me made me want to splash some of that blogging cash, $6,837.02, to be precise. And Voilà!…
I won’t bury the lede, which I’ll quote from the Fourth Circuit decision I read last night. The [Americans with Disabilities Act] requires reasonableness, not perfection. Reasonableness does not demand that an accommodation have an airtight solution to every contingency conceivable. Its dictates are tethered to the practical realities of…