Archives

What Can You Learn About Training from the World of Warcraft?

Professional gaming—that’s not an oxymoron—is gaining legitimacy in the United States. Even U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services is on board. Just last year, a professional South Korean Starcraft player received a 5-year U.S. visa reserved for internationally recognized athletes in professional sports—only the second visa of its type to be awarded to a professional gamer. […]

Avoiding the 10 Most Costly Management Mistakes

“It’s a case of perception vs. reality. The plaintiff perceives he (she) was disciplined, retaliated against, and harassed.  The reality is different. He (she) was terminated for a legitimate, non-discriminatory, non-retaliatory reason by a professional, well-trained manager with supportive documentation.”

Verbal COBRA Notice Is Sufficient, Says Court in Ruling for Employer

In a decision that overlooked key COBRA guidance, a federal district court ruled that an employer/plan administrator fulfilled its notice obligation by verbally providing a notice of COBRA rights and accepting premium payments — which apparently the qualified beneficiary had to pay a few days after her employment termination. In dismissing a COBRA notice claim, […]

My Name Is Sam Sung; I Work for Apple

It may seem like a joke, but believe it or not Apple® hired a man named Sam Sung. It’s no secret that Apple and Samsung (the company) are bitter enemies; they’ve been fighting over copyrighted designs for the last 3 years.  But ironically, Sam Sung is the one getting the last laugh.

Learning from tragedy–depression and mental health in the workplace

This past week, the entertainment world lost one of its best and brightest to an apparent suicide. Robin Williams, who brought laughter to so many for so long, took his own life at the age of 63. So much has been written about his talent over the past week that it’s difficult to understand or […]

Employers must have a reasonable basis for engaging in employee surveillance

By Clayton Jones When confronted with information that an employee may be abusing paid sick leave, it is only natural for an employer to want to investigate further. One way in which employers may do this is through the surreptitious surveillance of the employee. However, such surveillance is of limited value unless the employer will […]

How friendly is your workplace to working moms?

The story of how parents juggle work and family is a familiar tale. Parents strive to be attentive to their children’s needs while getting to work on time, focusing on productivity, and staying late at least occasionally. They do all that while working out child care and making school and children’s activities mesh with work […]

The good, the bad, and the ‘feo’ of the American workplace’s Latinization

by Glianny Fagundo The American workplace is becoming more diverse. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) calculated that 14.8 percent of the U.S. labor force was Hispanic in 2010. That number is expected to jump to 18.6 percent by 2020—which translates to roughly one in five workers. While many see such diversification as a […]

EEOC issues updated enforcement guidance on pregnancy discrimination

by Kevin McCormick On July 14, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) issued its “Enforcement Guidance on Pregnancy Discrimination and Related Issues.” This is the first comprehensive update the EEOC has provided on the subject since 1983. The guidance supersedes the earlier EEOC publication and incorporates significant developments in the law during the past 30 […]

Top 10 tips for dealing with substance abuse in the workplace

by Michelle Lee Flores There is clear agreement that substance abuse—whether it’s alcohol, prescription drugs, or illegal drugs—adversely affects employers and their businesses. Some estimate the loss of productivity for U.S. employers has been as much as $200 billion annually! General concerns for safety at work, injuries on the job, theft, loss of employee morale, […]