I am so stoked for today’s edition of The Employer Handbook Zoom Office Happy Hour. I’ll tell you why. I’ve convinced my friends, Meyling “Mey” Ly Ortiz and Edward Fronczkiewicz, to share their in-house counsel perspectives on employee relations. In her role as Managing Counsel of Employment & Labor at…
Your tax dollars at work, folks. Well, technically, just those of us in New Jersey. Before I tell you about this recent decision, I’ll offer a brief history lesson. In July 2021, the Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act of 2021 was introduced in the U.S.…
It depends. If an employee signs a severance agreement, you want them to provide a general release in exchange for whatever consideration the company is providing. If the employee is at least 40 years old, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act requires that the employee receive at least 21 days…
Tell me what you think of this. An employee is having behavioral issues at work, which leads to an official warning from the employer. The following month, a dispute between the employee and his supervisor leads the supervisor to email Human Resources that the employee’s behavior “is consistent with his…
Under the Family and Medical Leave Act, employers may require an employee to comply with the employer’s usual and customary notice and procedural requirements for requesting leave, absent unusual circumstances. But unless you fancy defending FMLA interference claims, the call-in procedures shouldn’t require an advanced degree. Nobody’s fault but mine?…
During Thanksgiving week, I blogged about a Seventh Circuit decision and what makes a plaintiff alleging discrimination “similarly situated” to another employee outside of the plaintiff’s protected class whom the employer allegedly treated more favorably. The Seventh Circuit concluded that a white man who was fired for effectively stealing from…
Yesterday’s parting shot advised employers — not legal advice, mind you — that well-documented termination decisions are much better than “take my word on it, we should just fire him.” Let’s test that theory today. Honest to a fault. The plaintiff in this case worked for a credit union. The…
As I read this summary judgment opinion last night, I fully expected the judge to send the plaintiff’s retaliation claim to trial. But plot twist! He didn’t. “I feel like you are racially discriminatory towards me.” The plaintiff, a black man, worked daily with the defendant’s President and Owner. One…
I read a survey last night that blew my mind 🤯 In November, ResumeBuilder.com surveyed 1,131 U.S. hiring managers and recruiters about their views of Jewish individuals and their perception of antisemitism in the workplace. Of those surveyed – remember these are the people making the hiring decisions — 29%…
This may come as a surprise to some of you, but the in-house company lawyers don’t always see eye-to-eye with the HR professionals, supervisors, and employees whom they counsel. And vice versa. I’d swap stories with you, but the attorney-client privilege (and my better judgment) cautions against doing so. So,…