Practical HR Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
We have some fairly rigid discipline rules. Sometimes we want to bend them for a special employee. But then we’re not being “consistent,” and consistency has been drilled into us by every expert. Can we bend the rules and still maintain integrity in our system?
I thought we had an “at-will” relationship with our employees, but recently, we got sued and the court found that the employee had an “implied contract” with us. Now we want to be sure that we’re not creating contracts we don’t want and that we do have contracts we need. How should we move forward? […]
We’ve just had a reshuffling of responsibilities, and I ended up with safety. We’re a mid-sized manufacturer. Can you give me some guidelines to help me out as I take over this important new role? — Bill C., HR (and Safety) Manager in Palo Alto
If you have an employer-sponsored health plan, it is important to stay up-to-date on the latest information about the Health Insurance Portability & Accountability Act, or HIPAA—which imposes requirements regarding the security of medical information, nondiscrimination in health plans, and much more. We’ll take a look at HIPAA developments that are new for 2007.
Last night’s five episode marathon of The Office was an HR executive’s nightmare! Below, I’ve blogged about the litigation value of each of the five episodes separately — four of which are entirely new entries as the episodes were from previous seasons. While they aired as individual episodes, if these incidents were to occur in […]
Litigation Value $450,000 Overall, I’d say that Oscar has a good (read expensive) claim for sexual orientation discrimination and retaliation. Not only does Michael admittedly refer to employees as “faggy” when he means “lame,” but he specifically refers to Oscar, a gay employee, as “faggy.” Then, after Toby confidentially tells Michael that Oscar is gay, […]
Litigation Value $ 30,000 (or if Dwight’s injuries are permanent, then $500,000) I don’t know whether a concussion suffered when rushing off to “save” your boss after he burns his foot on a George Foreman grill would be considered a workers’ compensation injury, but if it is, Dunder Mifflin (or, more accurately, their insurance carrier) […]
LITIGATION VALUE: Over $700,000 It would be pretty safe to say that any time a company’s regional manager asks a female employee to act out a lesbian love scene during its anti-harassment training you have problems. Expensive problems. Not only does the company face liability for Michael’s actions in contributing to the hostile working environment […]
Litigation Value: $500,000 If I were Kevin, I would start daydreaming about how to spend the windfall I will receive from the litigation lottery. Off the cuff, I’d guess that he has a great claim for damages after being forced to publicly disclose that he has anal fissures – especially if Dunder Mifflin later takes […]
LITIGATION VALUE: $800,000 If I represented Kelly, I think my opening statement would say something like this: Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, we are here today because Kelly Kapoor’s right to work in an environment free of discrimination was violated when her boss, Michael Scott, repeatedly made negative comments about her heritage culminating in an […]