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McDonald’s Fails to Accommodate Employee Unable to Wash Hands

by Daniel Pugen and Earl G. Phillips McCarthy Tetrault In Canada, human rights legislation provides that employers have a duty to accommodate disabled workers unless such accommodation would cause “undue hardship” on the employer. A recent case involving McDonald’s Restaurants before the British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal illustrates the high standard of accommodation expected of […]

Desperate Housewife Felicity Huffman’s Off to Prison—What to Do if Your Employee Is Thrown in the Slammer for Off-Duty Activity?

Former Desperate Housewives star Felicity Huffman is currently serving a 14-day sentence in federal prison for her involvement in a college admissions cheating scandal. In addition to her brief prison stay, Huffman was sentenced to 1 year of supervised release and 250 hours of community service. Of course, Huffman is a famous and wealthy celebrity, […]

How to Set Profit-Sharing Based on Goals, Not $

In yesterday’s Advisor we discussed straight and hurdle-rate profit-sharing; today, goal-driven profit-sharing plans. [Go here for 1. Straight and 2. Hurdle-Rate Profit Sharing] 3. Goal-Driven Profit-Sharing Plans In a goal-driven profit-sharing plan, profits are used to establish an incentive opportunity, but employees also must earn that opportunity, based on achieving other goals. These other goals […]

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The Toll of Video Fatigue: How HR Professionals Can Help

Among the many legacies of COVID-19 will be the test of our endurance for spending time in front of screens. Remote workers are spending 29% more time in team meetings and 24% more time in one-on-one meetings than they were before the pandemic, according to a study from the calendar-assistant company Clockwise.

Probationary Period? Get Rid of It!

Yesterday’s Advisor featured legal tips about probationary periods. Today, Hunter “Please Sue Me” Lott says, “Get rid of your probationary period.” Otherwise you risk negating your employees’ at-will status. Lott says that any “probationary period” or “introductory period” (or as one company calls it, “comfort time”) is a threat to the employer’s at-will status because […]

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Liability for Employer Who Can’t ‘Have a Big Fat Pregnant Woman Working’ at His Restaurant

Employers must take care to create and implement neutral policies that don’t discriminate against women on the basis of pregnancy. Could you differentiate between a neutral policy and a policy that appears neutral but actually has a disparate impact on pregnant employees? And is a facially discriminatory policy against a pregnant woman—i.e., a policy that’s explicitly discriminatory—ever permissible?

HRDA Frankly Speaking: Don’t Let Yesterday’s Wins Sink Tomorrow’s Success

Are you leading on autopilot? It’s easy to get comfortable when things are going well, but in the world of HR, “good enough” is the first step toward falling behind. As Nicholas Lawrence, Executive Director of People and Culture at Chick-fil-A and speaker at SPARK HR 2026, explains, a winning culture isn’t a trophy you keep […]

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The Problem When Incentives Aren’t Aligned

Often, companies observe that they have difficulty driving new initiatives or long-standing company objectives, missions, or cultures. It seems like the company is going in one direction and the employees—or at least a subset of the employees—are going in another direction or, perhaps, standing still. Frequently, the issue isn’t one of willful disobedience but rather […]