Articles Posted in Hiring & Firing

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Because, I’m pretty sure that I’ll get my employment-lawyer-blogger card revoked if I don’t offer a self-deprecating blog post about age discrimination on my 40th birthday. But, feel free to raise my spirits by pledging a pair of tickets to the Philly stop of the Guns N’ Roses reunion tour.

Oh, God! I really am old!

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Imagine arriving at work in the morning to the red light indicator on your desk phone. So, you pick up the handset, punch in a few numbers, and are greeted with a voicemail from your President. She’d like you to ask the employment lawyer whether it’s “legal” to pose an ultimatum to two company managers: Stop cohabitating with each other’s spouse, or find another job.  

Could something like that really happen? Of course, it could. Because, employment law.

Or maybe…

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Help Wanted?

On Monday, one of my favorite HR bloggers, Suzanne Lucas a/k/a The Evil HR Lady, addressed (here) a reader question about whether a company can legally prohibit an employee from seeking other employment while on leave covered under the Family and Medical Leave Act.

As part of her post, Her Evilness asked for others to weigh in on the subject. ABA Journal Blawg 100 Hall of Famer, Jon Hyman, answered the call on his blog post yesterday. Jon concluded that the legal answer depends upon the scope of the policy.

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Well, at least it was a phone interview.

Hey, one thing you guys know about me is that I’m all about the low hanging fruit and the cheap laugh. So, when I see that CareerBuilder has published it’s 2016 version of “Employers Share Strangest Interview Mishaps and Biggest Body Language Mistakes,” I’m bout it, bout it.

(Sorry, FMLA compliance nerds, you’ll have to wait for another post).

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I’ve blogged (here) that grilling a medical marijuana user about her disability, just before firing the employee, could give rise to a viable disability-discrimination claim. In other words, where the disability (as opposed to the medical marijuana use) motivates the employment action, that’s discrimination.

I’ve blogged before (here) that the Americans with Disabilities Act does not protect illegal drug use by employees. So, if the illegal drug use, and not the disability, motivates a company to fire an employee, that’s perfectly legal.

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Yesterday, I had one of those moments. You know the ones.

For me, it was when a client asked me when I was going to blog about the Muslim workers in Colorado who were denied prayer breaks and, then, allegedly fired for protesting.

So, I did what any self respecting employment-lawyer-blogger would do: I Googled “Muslim Prayer Employee Protest Colorado Fired,” and I promised a client-inspired Wednesday post.

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