Practical HR Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
Q: Our Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA) policy is administered differently for employees ordered into military service or leave and those who volunteer for military leave. The policy states that for ordered military leave shorter than 31 days, the company will pay the employee’s normal rate of pay. For voluntary military leaves, […]
Throwing a virtual rave in a company-sponsored hotel room complete with black lights and a full assortment of hard liquor, while at the same time seeking to secure business opportunities, is a recipe for disaster. Luckily for Dunder Mifflin, Michael was miserably unsuccessful in creating the bacchanalian setting he so desperately longed for. But other […]
Total Litigation Value: $6,635,500+ There is no doubt that the crew from Dunder Mifflin (primarily Michael) had some expensive snafus this season. In approximately 20 weeks, Michael managed to out a gay employee; announce his affair with a Vice President at the CFO’s party; invite a pervert dressed as Ben Franklin to an office party; […]
by Mark I. Schickman I’ve received lots of e-mails recently about the major conflict still waging over the recent firing of eight U.S. attorneys. You wrote that the U.S. government, as an employer, should be able to fire any employee, so what was wrong if the Attorney General or the President had them fired? That […]
by Tara Eberline The full Tenth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has overturned an earlier ruling by a three-member panel of the same court by ruling that an employee didn’t have enough evidence of national origin discrimination to submit his claims to a jury. The case, which has received national attention, arose after the employer […]
LITIGATION VALUE: $50,000 (with the potential for a whole lot more) So Creed has joined the millions of people blogging at (and about) work. I’d say that this could definitely cause trouble for Dunder Mifflin when Creed eventually learns how to post his musings on something more than a Microsoft Word document. Believe it or […]
Consider the following two scenarios: A male employee requests extended leave to provide at-home care to a sick child. Instead of evaluating the request based on his eligibility for leave, the employer questions why the child’s mother can’t care for her. A qualified female employee with two preschool children is considered a “poor fit” for […]
LITIGATION VALUE: $300,000+ Holding a Survivor-like contest to determine who will be recommended for a promotion to regional manager is not going to end well for Dunder Mifflin. At all. If the decision is challenged (which it almost certainly will be) then the company is going to be asked to articulate a legitimate nondiscriminatory reason […]
LITIGATION VALUE: 1,000,000 + The “women’s appreciation” meeting was a bad idea that was poorly executed. I’m not saying that Dunder Mifflin cannot or should not recognize the achievements of its female employees. It should. I just think that the meeting shouldn’t be announced by saying “I know the crap out of women” and should […]
LITIGATION VALUE: $45,000 Creed’s actions in setting up Debbie Brown to be fired for his mistake were not, in and of themselves, illegal. And, if Dunder Mifflin acted in good faith when it fired Debbie, then it probably didn’t do anything illegal either. At least not on the facts in this episode. Employees can be […]