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Hot List: New York Times Bestselling Hardcover Business Books

The following is a list of the bestselling hardcover business books as ranked by the New York Times on May 10. 1. The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine by Michael Lewis. The people who saw the real estate crash coming and made billions from their foresight. 2. 13 Bankers: The Wall Street Takeover and […]

Harvard Law Grad Reflects on Employers’ Prospects If Kagan on Court

by Joanna R. Vilos President Barack Obama today nominated Elena Kagan to replace Justice John Paul Stevens on the U.S. Supreme Court. Stevens has a reputation for making employee-friendly decisions in cases that have reached the high court, but most employers don’t have much familiarity with Kagan or her views on employment-related issues. So how […]

FMLA: The ‘Simple’ Three-Prong Test Isn’t

There’s supposed to be a simple three-prong test for FMLA eligibility, but it’s not simple—and there are four prongs. The first prong, which isn’t usually mentioned, is that the person has to be on the payroll. The person can be part-time or full-time, but he or she has to be on the payroll. Once that […]

Blowing the Whistle

Litigation Value: $50,000 for the office meeting Michael called to discuss his sex life with his employees. In this week’s episode of The Office, we saw two storylines, both of which provide interesting employment law issues: Michael’s quest to find out if Donna is cheating on him and Darryl’s attempt to play a prank on […]

Employee Performance Reviews and Pretext

by Paul Ross As veterans of employment litigation can tell you, employment discrimination claims are rarely supported by direct evidence of discriminatory decision making. In the overwhelming majority of cases, employees support their entire case with circumstantial evidence. In short, they attempt to cast as much doubt as possible on the reasons offered by the […]

Practical Tips for Enforcing Arbitration Agreements

by Mark Wiletsky Organizations sometimes require employees to arbitrate claims or disputes that might arise during or after the employment relationship. Workers typically sign arbitration agreements when they’re hired but don’t always want to comply with them when there’s a dispute, and employees’ attorneys often want to present their case to a jury, not an […]

Disaster and Recovery in Tennessee

Last weekend, we experienced one of the worst disasters ever to hit Middle Tennessee as historic floods ravaged the state. M. Lee Smith Publishers, the company that produces HR Hero and other HR products including the state Employment Law Letters, is headquartered in Brentwood, Tennessee, just south of Nashville. On May 1 and 2, record […]

Amnesty for Aliens: Good for the Country (and Your Company) or Bad?

By HRDA Editor Stephen D. Bruce, PHR Just My E-Pinion A recent question to the BLR® HR Forum about amnesty for illegal aliens generated an interesting set of responses, all well-reasoned, although not all agreeing. The question was: Just wondering what my HR colleagues think of granting mass amnesty to illegal aliens currently residing in […]