Practical HR Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
Employment law attorney Michael Maslanka reviews the book The Set-Up-to-Fail Syndrome: How Good Managers Cause Great People to Fail by J.ean-Francois Manzoni and Jean-Louis Barsouxtalks. Review offers tips for helping supervisors talk to and communicate with employees. Practicing law has taught me a lot, and here’s something that proves true again and again: Real influence […]
by Jeremy R. Lange Veteran unemployment has been an issue of concern over the past several years. The availability of good jobs for returning veterans has become especially important as the nation has come to better understand the difficulty of transitioning from active duty to life at home. Employment takes on even greater importance when […]
You have several employees you’ve caught red-handed violating a company rule that your employee manual says may justify termination for a first offense. When questioned, one admits to the wrongdoing; the others deny it. Can you fire the employees who lied but retain the other employee with a lesser disciplinary measure? According to a recent […]
How do you train reluctant line managers in HR without their bolting from the room? Keep it short and need-to-know, using a training program built that way. Yesterday’s Daily Advisor went on at length on what your managers need to know to discipline problem employees in ways that keep your company out of legal trouble. […]
by David L. Johnson Recently, a Pennsylvania YMCA stopped showing cable news shows on the TVs in its gym because they were prompting political squabbles among its members. When filtered into the diverse workplace, passionate opposing political viewpoints can harm productivity and morale and even create liability issues for employers. Sometimes political discussions can morph […]
By Kevin C. McCormick The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit—which covers Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, and West Virginia—recently held that a group of exotic dancers are employees under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), not independent contractors. Consequently, the dancers are entitled to minimum wage for all hours they work […]
[Go here for sins 1 to 6.] Sin #7. Gaming the system “John’s work is just OK, to be sure, but I need to give him a big raise to keep him, so he gets an ‘excellent.’” “I can’t stand Sandy, but I can’t transfer him unless he has a high rating; let his next […]
A federal judge had granted conditional approval to a $226.5 million settlement that would resolve claims that FedEx misclassified its drivers as independent contractors. U.S. District Judge Edward M. Chen said his approval was only conditional because only about 77 percent of the 2,016 class members have filed claim forms, and because of disagreements about how […]
The United States won its freedom in the Revolutionary War when a ragtag army made up of state militias from the colonies defeated the mighty British Empire. How could this have happened?
In two related cases, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6-3 on June 29 that using race as a factor in university admissions violates both the 14th Amendment of the Constitution and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. At the root of the Court’s decision is a profound questioning of whether “diversity” and […]