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In a recent decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit—which covers Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, and Tennessee—held that an employer’s week-to-week, commission-only pay system was generally valid. However, it was illegal for the company’s policy to state that employees had to repay immediately upon termination draws that had been given during employment.
Companies spend considerable amounts of money on training their employees. According to one expert, large companies with 10,000 or more employees spend $13 million per year on employee training on average; companies between 1,000 and 9,999 employees spend $3.7 million per year on average; and small companies with fewer than 1,000 employees spend $290,000.
A Cautionary Tale—How Many Zeros? One juror explained the simple system his jury had used to determine the amount of punitive damages they would award: they started with one dollar, and added a zero for each thing they thought the employer had done wrong. The total added up pretty fast. How do employers get into […]
Companies of all sizes have struggled with corporate training efforts. With often limited resources, it’s hard to come up with engaging and relevant training material in the first place, let alone keep that material current in a dynamic economic, competitive, and regulatory climate. However, there are a number of low-cost options for training material created […]
Parents, coaches, and managers all generally tend to keep their charges occupied one way or another. But when there isn’t much necessary, productive work to do, they’re typically tasked with busywork, or tasks that are designed just to keep people busy and that don’t necessarily have a useful end result. What is Busywork? Examples of […]
The NFL season is back, and with it comes personnel news. Are the Steelers and Antonio Brown going to smooth things over? Is Tom Brady getting along with his boss? Will Dez Bryant find work? For me, though, the most interesting move to date was New England’s trade with Cleveland to acquire the services of […]
Amazon’s hit show, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, follows the life and struggles of Miriam “Midge” Maisel (played by Rachel Brosnahan), a Jewish housewife living in the Big Apple in the 1950s. As the show begins, Midge seems to be leading a charmed life with a beautiful home, adorable children, and a successful husband (Joel, played […]
On Monday, November 19, emergency room doctor Tamara O’Neal was shot outside her workplace, Mercy Hospital & Medical Center on Chicago’s south side. According to sources, the shooter, Juan Lopez, was angry with her over a broken engagement, leading to yet another workplace active shooter situation. While coworkers can be the perpetrators of workplace violence, […]
February brings with it a number of holidays and observances, from Groundhog Day and President’s Day in the U.S. to Valentine’s Day throughout the world. But as we celebrate love, Washington’s birthday, and everyone’s favorite groundhog, Punxsutawney Phil, a national health observance goes unnoticed by most.
Most employers know they cannot retaliate against someone for requesting or using Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) leave. One way to defeat an FMLA retaliation claim is to provide evidence that the adverse employment decision was made, but not yet relayed to the employee, before she requested FMLA leave.