Happy Thanksgiving. What are you #thankful for?

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday, hands down. And it's not just the turkey, stuffing, and pies (especially the pies). It's the people with whom I spend the holiday. And this year, I'm especially thankful that I am again able to share my favorite day with some of my favorite people. 

Thus, today, as I start my Thanksgiving break, I am sharing what I am thankful for this year.

1. My family (always tops on any list).
2. My health, and that of those I hold close to my heart.
3. Science, which is allowing my family to gather together this holiday season.
4. My new(ish) law firm, which has rejuvenated and reenergized me and my practice.
5. My community of half-witted employment law friends for helping to keep me sane over the past several years.
6. My readers and followers, many of whom have become friends and clients over the years.

Please enjoy your holiday. Be safe. And don't eat too much. I'll see everyone next week. 

It’s a bad idea — and age discrimination — to badger an older employee about retirement

A new manager takes away a pet project from a long-term 60-year-old employee, repeatedly asks him when he's "going to retire," calls him "Uncle," and criticizes his "old skills." Those are the basic facts that caused the 6th Circuit to reverse a grant of summary judgment to the employer in Sloat v. Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Co.

WIRTW #605: the “Norah and Dad show” edition

I'm starting a podcast. Correction. We are starting a podcast. The other half of the "we" in question is my 15-year-old daughter, Norah. It was 100 percent her idea, and who am I to say no to quality Norah/Dad time behind two microphones, recording it for all to hear. Stay tuned. We are getting ready to start recording and we will have episodes to share in the coming weeks.

Please look for episodes in your podcast app of choice, or at norahanddadshow.buzzsprout.com. You should also follow us on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. I still need Norah to explain the whole TikTok thing to me, but I'm guessing we'll be there, too.

Here are the best things I read online this past week that I think you should be reading, too.

John Oliver’s exposé on "union busting” missed one key fact — the unions are actually WINNING

This past Sunday night, John Oliver closed his 2021 season with a long-form exposé on labor unions. More specifically, he focused on the efforts employers take to combat union organizing drives: anti-union messaging and videos, captive-audience speeches, threats of job loss and plant closures, and more pointed retaliation against union organizers and other pro-union employees.

His story, however, left out one key fact — the labor unions are actually winning. And they are winning a lot.

Coronavirus Update 11-17-2021: OSHA’s vax-or-test emergency standard is on life support

Yesterday brought two huge developments in the battle over OSHA's vaccine-or-test emergency temporary standard.  

First, the conservative 6th Circuit won the lottery to determine which circuit court of appeals will hear one consolidated challenge to OSHA's vax-or-test emergency temporary standard. 

Secondly, OSHA announced that it had suspended activities related to the implementation and enforcement of the ETS pending future developments in the litigation.

All in all a bad day for the pro-mandate crowd. 

I break down what it all means in this short video.

The 14th nominee for the “Worst Employer of 2021” is … the Singing Supervisor

You can tell by the smell that your girl's not doing well when the end of the month rolls along. You can tell by the stink that your girl's not in the pink when the end of the month rolls along.

That's the first verse of a song Brian Mamott, an employee in the Village of Lancaster, New York's, Department of Public Works, sang to his co-workers during a July 15, 2021, workplace meeting. And that's the least offensive part of the song. According to WGRZ (which obtained a video recording of the performance), the remainder of the two-minute ditty included verses, "about women being 'bitchy' during their period and about sex acts with women while they're menstruating."

Coronavirus Update 11-15-2021: Employers, DO NOT allow a law firm to charge you for their OSHA ETS compliant vaccine policy

The following headline in my feed reader recently caught my attention: NOW AVAILABLE: Model Employment Policy for Compliance with OSHA’s Emergency Temporary Standard. Always curious about the competition, I clicked, thinking I'd find a breakdown and analysis of the free-to-download policies OSHA has made available on its website (one sample for Vaccination or Testing and Face Covering and one for Mandatory Vaccination only).

Instead, this is what I discovered:

Our US Labor and Employment team has developed a model policy that complies with OSHA's recently announced Emergency Temporary Standards (ETS) requirements regarding vaccination and employee testing, which also includes sample forms for employees to request reasonable accommodations. This policy can be very helpful to employers as they navigate these challenges.