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‘Helicopter parents’ of young employees soaring into the workplace

Not so many decades ago, a vocal segment of the youngest members of the adult population warned their peers to never trust anyone over 30. They were eager to leave the nest and make the world their own. But today, not so much — at least among a noticeable group. Human resources professionals are noting […]

Reviews: ‘Revenge Tool’ or ‘Extremely Defeating’

Dan Oswald’s recent epinion, “Bell Curve, or Everyone’s Excellent?” garnered a wide variety of interesting responses from our readers. One reader found that performance appraisals are a “revenge tool,” while others agreed that managers have to be tougher in grading performance. Oswald, who is CEO of BLR, blogs on business and leadership in the The […]

HHS Auditions Benchmark Plans to Define Essential Health Benefits

How the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services will identify benchmark plans that would set the standard for essential health benefits under health reform was described in a final rule issued July 23. This is important because policies sold on health insurance exchanges — for individuals and for small groups — must cover the […]

Court: Accommodation That Eliminates Essential Functions Is “Per Se” Unreasonable

Allowing an employee to sit for half of her shift, thereby eliminating several job duties, is “per se” unreasonable, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia has found. The case, EEOC v. Eckerd Corp. (d/b/a Rite Aid) (No. 1:10-CV-2816-JEC (N.D. Ga., July 9, 2012)), involved Fern Strickland, a drugstore cashier with osteoarthritis […]

Employer ‘Mistake’ Leads to FMLA Retaliation Claim

A nursing assistant who requested intermittent leave because of her son’s serious health condition says that her employer fired her for taking the leave after it had mistakenly told her that she could take it — and a Pennsylvania district court judge has permitted the retaliation claim to move forward. The case is Medley v. […]

CMV Drivers and Their Daily Logs

The real core of the daily log is the grid. The grid is divided into 15-minute increments, with midnight, noon, and each hour labeled. Make sure that your CMV drivers know that they must note: Each change of duty status on the grid. The name of the town and state for each change of duty […]

Cocktail Waitresses Fired for Being Pregnant

By: Kyle Emshwiller Two women are suing their former employer, Parx Casino, for being demoted after they revealed they were pregnant. The women filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) in 2009 and are now taking their case to federal court, according to Philly.com. The Philadelphia casino has a strict weight policy. […]

EEOC Claim Sounds Like Sitcom Episode

By: Elaine Quayle You don’t want some employees falling asleep on the job—a truck driver, pilot, heart surgeon—or the utility boiler operator in charge of keeping the workplace from blowing up! In reality mirroring a sitcom, when a hospital facilities supervisor arrived at work at 9 a.m. one Saturday morning, he found the “utility systems […]

Sales Compensation—Pay Level and Pay Mix

Yesterday’s Advisor posed many of the tricky questions surrounding sales incentive compensation. Today, options for sales comp, plus an introduction to the program specially directed at smaller HR departments. The most important design features in a sales compensation program are the pay level (how much) and pay mix (proportion of incentive pay to base pay). […]

‘Paid, Paid Vacation’ Policy Gives Employees $7,500

By: Kyle Emshwiller As we reported in a previous HRSBT article, a recent CareerBuilder survey reported that 65 percent of full-time employees have taken or plan to take a vacation this year, down from 80 percent in 2007. As we reported in a previous HRSBT article, a recent CareerBuilder survey reported that 65 percent of […]