Most Popular

Starbucks/EEOC Consent Decree Includes $75k Payout and ADA Training to Remedy Dwarf’s Firing

One of America’s most visible corporations was taken to task for an Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) violation that stemmed from one branch’s poor management actions. Starbucks Coffee Co. last week agreed to pay $75,000 to settle a disability discrimination lawsuit brought by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). The EEOC had charged that […]

Please Sue Me? Teach Your Managers the YouTube Test

It used to be the “60 Minutes Rule,” but lawsuit avoidance expert Hunter Lott now encounters people who say 60 Minutes, what’s that? So he advocates the “YouTube Rule”—don’t do anything in the office, he says, that you wouldn’t want to see on YouTube. Lott, who is a popular speaker and consultant and owner of […]

Focus on Ten Mistakes, Eliminate 90% of Problems

Sometimes it seems that there are one thousand ways to go wrong managing people, but attorney Peter Janus suggests that 10 critical errors cause most of the problems Focusing on those ten instead of trying to train managers and supervisors on everything is the way to get the most bang for your buck. Janus is […]

Are Your Workers Trained to Prevent Falls in Construction This Spring?

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA) most cited violations list is never much of a surprise; reliably appearing in the top 10 are fall protection, scaffolding, and falls from ladders. Slips, trips, and falls constitute the majority of general industry accidents and cause 15 percent of all accidental deaths, according to OSHA. Falls consistently […]

So You Think You Can Dance?

Litigation Value:  $250,000 The “Café Disco” episode of The Office might as well have been called “The Hostile Work Environment.” Or “The No Work Environment.” Dunder Mifflin Scranton turned into a coffee house dance bar at the expense of any corporate productivity. A hostile work environment exists when an employee experiences workplace harassment and fears […]

‘Tis the season: resolutions for the new year

by Leslie Bakken Oliver It’s that time again, when many of us take inventory of the past year and make resolutions for the coming year—for example, to do better, work smarter, become more efficient, or waste less time. For some of you, focusing on aspirations for the coming year may be part of a formalized […]

Making restrictive covenants enforceable

by Ralph N. Nero and Keri L. Bennett Many of our recent articles have focused on decisions involving employees’ breaches or threatened breaches of restrictive covenants. Including restrictive covenants, such as nonsolicitation and noncompetition covenants, into employment contracts is important for employers to protect their business interests. In order to be enforceable, however, such covenants […]