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Vegas Trip with Terminally Ill Mother Excuses Absence, Per FMLA

Absences to care for a family member with a serious health condition do not need to be connected to medical treatment — nor do they depend on a particular location — to qualify as leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act, the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed in Ballard v. Chicago Park […]

Let Me Introduce You to Your New ‘Personnel Assistant’ …

By BLR Founder and CEO Bob Brady Join BLR’s Founder and CEO on a guided tour through the newly upgraded and redesigned HR website, HR.BLR.com I tend to use this space to write about management challenges and HR issues, but let me assure you, I’m no ivory-tower CEO. As my people will tell you, I’m […]

Politics, negative ads, and business

Politics, negative ads, and losing trust

I’m always intrigued with presidential politics. Specifically, I like to watch how politicians — often with track records in a governor’s mansion, Congress, or even the White House — go about getting elected or re-elected. Maybe it’s the marketer in me, but I’m fascinated by the way the candidates position themselves to win an election. […]

I Love My iPod® … But there’s this thing called Work!

By BLR Founder and CEO Bob Brady BLR’s founder ponders whether workers can really give full attention to their jobs when they are listening to talk radio or music. The iPod has changed my life. Well, maybe that’s overstating it, but it is certainly one of the best toys of recent years. For example, regular […]

Maine passes gay marriage initiative

by Peter D. Lowe On Tuesday, 53 percent of Mainers voted to allow same-sex marriage. Question 1, which asked “Do you want to allow the State of Maine to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples,” was an indirect initiative. That means that because supporters collected the required number of signatures by January 2012 and the […]

Critical Success Factors in Building a Better Workplace

By Rob Goffee and Gareth Jones Building better workplaces is not an alternative to, but rather a means for, responding to the new challenges of capitalism, for building productivity, unleashing creativity, and winning. Why Should Anyone Work Here? What it takes to Create and Authentic Organization provides the tools to help assess how your own […]

Same-Sex Marriages Legally Recognized: How Do Healthcare Benefits Change?

With the DOMA ban on same-sex marriage being ruled unconstitutional, what does this mean for healthcare benefits—will a same-sex marriage be recognized in the same way as other marriages, thus allowing the same-sex partner to receive spousal healthcare benefits paid for at the pre-tax rate? This is just one of the many questions employers are […]

Wage Claims: Messenger Service Agrees To $9.75 Million Settlement

Corporate Express Delivery Systems Inc. will pay a total of $9.75 million to 4,300 former and current messengers in Hayward, Los Angeles and San Diego who claimed they were underpaid. The messengers, who were compensated on commission, charged that the company failed to pay them minimum wage or overtime and violated rules on expense reimbursement. […]

Working Out …at Work

By Kyle Emshwiller Looking for a way to keep workers engaged during work? Motivate them to fit in exercise during working hours. As we reported in last week’s column, sitting for a long period of time each day can lead to serious health effects. In addition to improving the health and wellness of employees, having […]