Articles Posted in Miscellaneous

We interrupt this labor & employment law blog for an important announcement…

It’s got a nice ring to it…

The July edition of the Employment Law Blog Carnival is now up and running. You can view it here. Thank you to all who contributed. And a special thank you to Heather Bussing and HRExaminer.com for hosting.

If you would like to participate in future carnivals, email me and I will add you to the distribution list. Participants must be bloggers (so we can link to your blog) and Carnival posts must be HR/employment-law-related. And you must like dill pickles.

Dill, damnit!

I’m a fairly easy-going guy. My buttons don’t get easily pushed, I’m not easily riled, and I rarely get angry.

But, when I get fired up….look out, sucka!

One thing that really gets me going is when others fail to accept accountability for their mistakes and do nothing to fix them. As I punch out this blog post on my flight back from Atlanta following the SHRM Annual Conference and Expo — a truly first-class event that both HR professionals and employment lawyers should make it a point to attend at least once — all I can think about is an incident that occurred at my hotel, of all places.

It’s an unexpected reminder, one that separates the truly great from the good, that I’d like to share with you, after the jump…

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From the blog that previously brought you “Smoke pot + grizzly bear bite (in the butt) = collect workers’ comp,” comes the story of the boozing builder who, well, I’ll let the Court of Appeals of Utah explain:

Mr. Wood was engaged in work activities on behalf of Karr during the morning and early afternoon of May 1, 2007. He began drinking alcohol at the work site at about 2 p.m. and continued until he had consumed a small bottle of whiskey and more than half a fifth of vodka. By 4 p.m. he had stopped performing any work duties for Karr and removed himself to a 1st floor closet where he slept for two hours. When he awoke, he made his way up to the 2nd floor but did not resume any work on behalf of Karr. He fell into the elevator shaft and suffered the injuries for which he now claims workers’ compensation benefits.

Amazingly, the court was less than blown away by such arguments as:

It was either the Mr. Rogers approach or the Seinfeld approach. In the end, I chose Jerry to add some levity to what is otherwise going to be a very boring blog post.

You’ve been warned.

According this report released last month from the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the complexion of the federal workforce really isn’t changing all the much. In FY 2010, there were over 2.8 million people employed by the federal government, of whom 56% were men and 44% were women. Of that total:

Will office pools be legal in Pennsylvania this year? One State Senator is trying to make it so.

Jealous, New Mexico? Yeah, you’re jealous.

Details after the jump…

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I usually save my best posts for Monday, but what the heck…

We are expecting our third child in August.

The Associated Press reports here that ESPN, the Worldwide Leader in Sports, has taken action against three employees for offensive comments made about NY Knicks point guard, Jeremy Lin.

The headline “Chink in the Armor” was used Friday on ESPN’s mobile website after Lin had nine turnovers in New York’s loss to New Orleans.

In a statement Sunday, ESPN apologizes for that headline and also says it is also aware of two other “offensive and inappropriate” comments on ESPN outlets.