Top 11 HR Articles of 2012 from HR Daily Advisor

Does a serious cold qualify as a serious health condition under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA)? How about the flu? Leave of absence laws were established to protect employees with serious health conditions; do colds and the flu measure up?

Ridiculous as it sounds, “they never told me” is a standard defense in employment lawsuits. It plays to the jury’s sense of fairness, and it plays pretty well.

FMLA has special rules for unmarried parents, and also for married parents working for the same employers. Today’s Advisor clarifies the sometimes tricky rules, rules that in one case actually favor unmarried parents.

GINA is, of course, the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act, says attorney Peter Lowe, and you do care about GINA and Facebook, because Facebook pages are likely to reveal prohibited genetic information.

PTO plans, which eliminate distinctions between types of leave, do relieve HR of an administrative burden and the dreaded role of “absence police,” but there are some drawbacks, says attorney John Hagan.

Special from the Advanced Employment Issues Symposium, Las Vegas: If you are a designated key employee, you may not be able to return to work after FMLA leave, but your leave can’t be denied, says attorney Stacie Caraway, who covered key FMLA topics at BLR’s Advanced Employment Issues Symposium, held recently in Las Vegas.

Special from SHRM Employment Law and Legislative Conference, Washington, DC: Almost all lawsuits are preventable, says attorney Jody Katz Pritikin, and retaliation lawsuits are among the easiest to prevent. Pritikin, offered her tips at SHRM’s Employment Law and Legislative Conference, held recently in Washington, DC.

What are the two major challenges for HR that aren’t required but are necessary? Policies and job descriptions? True, no law requires them, but you’re begging for lawsuits if you try to get along without them.

Special from the Advanced Employment Issues Symposium, Las Vegas: If the EEOC suggests that you mediate with your complaining employee, you should accept, says attorney Mark Schickman. He and his clients have had good experiences with it, he adds.

A job description need not account for every task that might ever be done, says the California Employment Law Letter (CELL). Here are the most critical components of a good job description.?

In the book Bear Bryant on Leadership: Life Lessons from a Six-Time National Championship Coach , one of the legendary football coach’s former players says, “The best thing Coach Bryant did for me was kick me off the team.”