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Hot List: Wall Street Journal’s Bestselling Hardcover Business Books
The following is a list of the bestselling hardcover business books as ranked by the Wall Street Journal with data from Nielsen BookScan. 1. StrengthsFinder 2.0: A New and Upgraded Edition of the Online Test from Gallup’s Now, Discover Your Strengths by Tom Rath. Are you unsure where your true talents lie? Do you feel […]
Employee Leaves: How Do We Get Control of Our PTO Program?
We’ve got a situation around our PTO (Paid Time Off) program. When we first initiated it, people liked it, and we thought that the very clear policy—exceed your accrued PTO days and you won’t get paid for any additional time off—would work well. We figured employees would hoard their days, and that we’d only have […]
My wife made me do it
by Mark I. Schickman People often complain that California employment law is bizarre. My colleagues around the country call our judges “fruits and nuts.” To the contrary, however, while our legislature is farther left than most states’ legislatures and our juries are more profligate than most, our appellate courts are relatively centrist. The award for […]
Wage and Hour Concerns for Employees Who Telecommute
By Stefanie Renaud, Esq., of Skoler, Abbott & Presser, P.C. Telecommuting is one of the fastest growing employment trends in the United States, up 103% since 2005. Today, over 3.7 million employees telecommute at least half the time. Undoubtedly, that number will continue to grow, because 85% of Millennials, who compose the largest generation in […]
Social media in the workplace: Does California prohibit online background searches?
Legislation surrounding the use of social media in the workplace is a growing concern for California employers. “There are probably more questions than answers at this point. We predict that the rise in litigation – particularly in California – around these social media rules and regulations is really going to take off in the next […]
Exempt Employees: Court Clarifies That Employers Have No Recourse To Correct Errors If They Have An Actual Practice Of Pay Docking
Docking an exempt employee’s salary is fraught with risk. If your policy is to dock for disciplinary infractions or you improperly dock on a consistent basis, you lose the opportunity to correct illegal deductions—and run the risk of forfeiting exempt status for all workers covered by the policy. A new Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals […]
Rework
Employment law attorney Michael Maslanka reviews Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson’s book Rework, finding that the authors offer valuable lessons for changing the way your organization works. Rework by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson is a fascinating book. It consists of around 100 chapters, each two or three pages long, with some cool […]
Employers face uncertainty over ‘less disruptive’ new travel ban, H-1B delay
The Trump administration recently implemented two major changes to its immigration policies, and the full effect for employers remains to be seen. Between a replacement Executive Order (EO) on immigration and the suspension of the fast-track process for H-1B (highly skilled) worker visas, employers and foreign employees may soon face new hurdles, albeit fewer than […]
News Notes: Microsoft Loses Independent Contractor Class Action Lawsuit
Reaffirming its decision from last fall, the federal Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal covering California has ruled that employees who were misclassified as independent contractors by Microsoft are eligible to participate retroactively in the company’s lucrative stock purchase program and possibly its pension plan as well. Part of Microsoft’s problem was that its forms and […]