Hiring & Firing

I’m gonna throw a little employment law at this Matt Patricia – Detroit Lions Sexual Assault saga

May 11, 2018 | by Eric B. Meyer

By Governor Tom Wolf from Harrisburg, PA [CC BY 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons

On February 5, 2018, the Detroit Lions named former New England Patriots Defensive Coordinator Matt Patricia as the team’s new Head Coach.

Maybe, Lions ownership missed Super Bowl LII and the 41 points that the Philadelphia Eagles dropped on Mr. Patricia’s garbage Patriots defense.

Oh, sorry.

The Philadelphia Eagles Super Bowl LII victory over the New England Patriots, which gave the Eagles one more Super Bowl win (1) than the Dallas Cowboys have total playoff wins in the last 20 years (0), is not the point of this post.

The point is that, on Wednesday, Robert Snell of the Detroit News reported (here) that Mr. Patricia was indicted for aggravated sexual assault in 1996, something missed in the Lions background check.

And the real question is… Continue reading

Can you legally fire an employee who butt-dials you while talking smack about the company…to a co-worker?

April 13, 2018 | by Eric B. Meyer

Image Credit: YouTube Screenshot

I have trained you well. We’re gonna cut the ropes to let you fight Tong Po.

(Maybe, going with a random Kickboxer reference wasn’t the best metaphor for this audience.)

Ok, let’s start over. Continue reading

Can you legally fire an employee who butt-dials you while talking smack about the company?

April 12, 2018 | by Eric B. Meyer

Taken with a selfie stick and way too much effort.

Easy there, folks. My servers can only handle so much traffic on a Thursday. Continue reading

Remember the woman fired for flipping off the Trump motorcade? Now, she’s suing.

April 9, 2018 | by Eric B. Meyer

Image Credit: Photofunia.com

Remember that time one of your employees:

rode her bike,
passed the President’s motorcade,
was photographed giving him the middle finger, and
became a national celebrity/spectacle (depending on your point of view)?

For an employee of a Virginia GOVERNMENT CONTRACTOR (oops!), it resulted in her termination of employment late last year. (More on that here.)

As I say a silent prayer to the blogging gods, read on as I discuss the lawsuit the cyclist just filed against her former employer and offer some practical advice for employers. Continue reading

Two more learn the hard way that off-the-clock social media use can be a job killer

April 4, 2018 | by Eric B. Meyer

By Dennis Hill from The OC, So. Cal. – misc 24, CC BY 2.0, Link

When will people learn?

(Although, if they do, I’ll have less about which to blog.)
Continue reading

These crazazy interview gaffes have nothing to do with pending NJ employment bills

March 30, 2018 | by Eric B. Meyer

Image Credit: Pixabay.com (https://pixabay.com/en/cartoon-interview-news-program-2897720/)

Ok, enough with New Jersey for this week.

Today, I blog on a lighter note. It’s Career Builder’s list of “The Most Unusual Things People Have Done in Job Interviews.” Continue reading

An employee’s bad tweets lead New York Times to fire her on the same day it announced her hiring.

February 16, 2018 | by Eric B. Meyer

By No machine-readable author provided. Moberg assumed (based on copyright claims). [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

At least she didn’t have too many personal belongings to pack up.

(Too soon?) Continue reading

Would you fire an employee for something she posted on Facebook … back in high school?

January 29, 2018 | by Eric B. Meyer

Lil-wayne-drake-future-love-me-music-video

Image Credit: By lil wayne (Youtube) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

I know of one employer that did (allegedly)

Grab your company’s job applications and ADA pearls. Now, click this post and clutch tightly.

December 4, 2017 | by Eric B. Meyer

A few years ago, one of my colleagues emailed me and asked if I would review a particular question on a client’s job application. Specifically, the client wanted to know whether a certain health-related inquiry was something the client could do before extending a conditional offer of employment.

Well, not only was this particular question unlawful, so were the other four I found on the job application. They all violated the Americans with Disabilities Act. Every. Damn. One.

But, was this an anomaly? If we drained the ADA-noncompliance swamp, would we only find this employer?

My bottles of Drakkar Noir and left arm adorned in shiny Rowleckses says, “No.” Continue reading

VP of HR fired for a Trump tweet still manages to collect unemployment benefits

November 14, 2017 | by Eric B. Meyer

Back in 2016, Kathleen M. Jungclaus was the full-time Vice President of Human Resources for a Pennsylvania continuing care retirement community. She had worked for the company since 2007.

On July 24, 2016, Ms. Junclaus went on her personal Twitter page and tweeted: “@realDonaldTrump I am the VP of HR in a comp outside of philly [sic] an informal survey of our employees shows 100% AA employees voting Trump!”

A little over two months later, Ms. Junclaus found herself unemployed and applying for benefits. Continue reading