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Articles Posted in Hiring & Firing

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Can a company require new employees not to bash it on Glassdoor? Is that legal?

Glassdoor [Public domain], via Wikimedia CommonsLet’s find out. Last week, the National Labor Relations Board’s Office of General Counsel released this Advice Memorandum. It involves a Missouri law firm that required all newly-hired support staff and attorneys to sign an employment agreement containing the following non-disparagement provision: “[D]uring and after…

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Holocaust denials — especially in email — generally don’t provide job security

Image by macdeedle from Pixabay Here, I’ll prove it. Several news outlets have reported that a Florida high school principal is no longer employed at the school after he allegedly told a parent, he ‘can’t say the Holocaust is a factual, historical event’ Here’s more from Nicole Darrah reporting here…

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“Surprise! There’s a Skeleton in Your Candidate’s Closet!”

Image by Paul Brennan from Pixabay A few weeks ago, the great folks at ERE Media invited me to speak at the ERE Recruiting Conference in Washington, DC about what happens when you learn that one of your recruits has done something on social media that doesn’t mesh well with…

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Sexy Mister Rogers and the rest of your last-minute ‘what not to wear to work tomorrow’ checklist.

Petar Milošević [CC BY-SA 3.0], via Wikimedia CommonsA few years ago, my wife and I were able to convince my younger son (then five years old) that he should consider other costumes beyond his first choice: the “Adult Skeleboner One Piece Costume,” which didn’t glow in the dark like the…

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Yes, you can be fired for sharing Elmo poop memes. It’s another lesson on at-will employment.

Image Credit: Cody Hidalgo on Facebook A Michigan man claims he “legit got fired” for posting a Sesame Street Elmo ‘poop’ meme on Facebook on a Sunday when he wasn’t at work. (h/t The Daily Dot and Unilad) I suppose that’s kinda … wait for it … sh*tty. But, Michigan…

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PODCAST: How to Treat Employees Like Humans – Even When You’re Firing Them

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay About a month ago, I shared a podcast from my FisherBroyles, LLP  employment law partner, Jessica Brown Wilson, where she addressed how to create a sexual harassment policy. Now, she’s back. This time, she’s tackling a difficult issue: “How to Treat Employees Like Humans…

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Looking for HR information on conducting workplace investigations? You’ve hit the MOTHERLODE!

Image Credit: Photofunia.com (https://photofunia.com/results/5da05f89089f7acb5a8b4590) Back in the early Summer of 2017, most of the experts — the pundits, if you will — were predicting that American businesses were not going to spend as much in 2018 on advice from employment law attorneys. Then, in September 2017, along came a guy…

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An employer trolled a job candidate’s bikini photo on Instagram and it backfired HORRIBLY

Image by mohamed Hassan from Pixabay Many of you have Googled or otherwise searched for a job candidate online before extending an official offer. I imagine that there were times that you found something objectionable that caused you to reconsider the offer. But, how many of you have actually gone…

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If one of your employees wears this to work, tell that person to GTHO!

Image Credit: @bstroy.us on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/bstroy.us/) On Monday, I blogged (here) about a manager who commented on the hands of a female employee who had suffered severe nerve damages to them after a car accident. He called her hands “disgusting.” It didn’t end well for the employer. Over on LinkedIn,…

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Get your damn story straight if you’re going to fire someone who just returned from medical leave.

Image by DigitalShards from Pixabay I’ve talked a fair amount recently about retaliation claims (here and here), mostly focusing on timing as the possible link between a protected activity (such as a complaint of discrimination) and an adverse employment action (like a firing). The plaintiffs in those cases were unsuccessful…