Author: Celeste Blackburn

Hot List: Amazon Editors’ Picks for Best Business & Investing Books of 2009

Here are the Amazon’s “Editors’ Picks” of the best business and investing books of 2009. 1. The Myth of the Rational Market: A History of Risk, Reward, and Delusion on Wall Street by Justin Fox. Time magazine’s editor-at-large leads readers on a chronological journey of modern economic theory, featuring the cast of scholars who constructed […]

What to Do When Government Officials Unexpectedly Show Up

by James P. Gillece, Jr. As an employer, you may have already experienced the discomfort of having the “Men in Black” — i.e., agents or investigators from a government agency — appear on your doorstep. With increased enforcement efforts by various federal and state agencies, the likelihood that you’ll be visited by regulators isn’t an […]

Management and Employees Shouldn’t Be Enemies

The other day a colleague brought a recent New York Times article to my attention. The headline read, “A Once-Defiant U.A.W. Local Now Focuses on G.M.’s Success.” Excuse my naivete, but why wouldn’t the employees of a company always have been focused on the company’s success? Is there ever an excuse for an employee not […]

Pending Federal Legislation Would Create New Leave Mandates for Employers

The Supporting Military Families Act of 2009 was introduced in both houses of Congress in late July 2009. A mere three months later — on October 28 — it was signed into law as part of the defense funding bill for 2010. The legislation expands the circumstances in which employees may take both qualifying exigency […]

Old Wine in New Skins

Happy new year, faithful readers! Those of you who surfed away from the BCS national championship college football game — apparently sponsored by some company other than Dunder Mifflin — may have noticed that the most recent episode of The Office was another repeat. An erudite colleague and fellow blogger has already posted on that […]

EEOC Discrimination Charges Set Records in 2009

According to an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) announcement yesterday, 93,277 workplace discrimination charges, the second highest level of charges ever filed with the agency, were filed in 2009. Additionally, the EEOC obtained over $376 million in monetary relief for discrimination victims in 2009. The EEOC received a record high number of private-sector charges alleging […]

Checklist for Drafting Executives’ Contracts

by Peter M. Panken Drafting executive employment contracts requires attention to myriad details. The higher up the executive, the more likely there will be detailed negotiation of the terms. And when negotiating with an incoming CEO, CIO, or CFO, an HR executive is faced with tough negotiations with a future boss. Keep up with the […]

Obtaining a Work Permit in Canada: The Labour Market Opinion Process

By Ingrid Anton and Isabelle Dongier As we mentioned in a November article, most foreign workers require a work permit to legally work in Canada. And to get a work permit for a foreign worker, the prospective Canadian employer must first obtain a Labour Market Opinion (LMO) from the Department of Human Resources and Skills […]

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 January 4. 1. SuperFreakonomics: Global Cooling, Patriotic Prostitutes, and Why Suicide Bombers Should Buy Life Insurance by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner. A scholar and a journalist apply economic thinking to everything: the sequel. 2. […]

It’s a New Day!

“Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; begin it well and serenely and with too high a spirit to be cumbered with your old nonsense.” – Ralph Waldo […]