Hidden cameras, horrific conduct, and a critical Legal Distinction: Employers aren't automatically liable for every workplace bad act

The allegations against a former engineering executive at The Pokémon Company International are horrifying.

According to a newly filed class-action lawsuit, the executive allegedly hid cameras in employee restrooms at the company's Bellevue headquarters for years, secretly recording women, children, and others using the facilities. Criminal charges already pending against him allege an even broader pattern of voyeurism, including recordings made at a Starbucks, a Safeway, and his own home, along with charges involving child sexual abuse material.

If the allegations are true, the conduct is monstrous.

But here's the legal point that's easy to miss amid the outrage: an employer is not automatically responsible simply because something terrible happens at work. That's not how negligence works.

Temporary accommodations don't rewrite the job description

One of the more persistent myths in ADA litigation that if an employer temporarily accommodates an employee in a certain way, it has forever admitted that the accommodation is reasonable.

The 8th Circuit just reminded everyone that's not how the ADA works.

In Kendall v. Zoltek Corp., an employee at a carbon-fiber manufacturing facility injured her back and developed sciatica. Initially, her doctor cleared her to return to work without restrictions. Later, however, she requested an accommodation allowing her to sit periodically during her shifts. The company granted that request for several months while it evaluated her condition.

Eventually, though, the medical restrictions became permanent—and much more limiting. By the time her employment ended, she couldn't stand for more than 20 to 30 minutes, couldn't bend, stoop, kneel, crawl under machinery, or lift more than 10 pounds. Her employer's production operator position required employees to stand throughout 12-hour shifts while performing physically demanding work. After she exhausted her leave, the company terminated her employment.

Can you fire an employee for criticizing your DEI program on LinkedIn?

"The company has allowed outright hate to proliferate."

That's one of the statements that got John Richardson fired.

Richardson, a data engineer at Apex Fintech Solutions, published a series of LinkedIn articles criticizing what he viewed as the company's DEI culture. He accused Apex of tolerating anti-male discrimination, fostering a hostile work environment, and allowing managers to engage in discriminatory conduct without consequence.

Apex demanded he remove what it called "false, derogatory, disparaging, and/or defamatory" statements. When Richardson asked the company to identify what, specifically, was false, it didn't. Instead, it fired him—and then sued him for defamation.

Last week, an NLRB administrative law judge concluded Apex violated the National Labor Relations Act.

WIRTW #805 (the 'travel' edition)

"You and mom need to take a trip."

That's what our kids told us in mid-June. Our son was headed to London for a three-week summer program. Our daughter was off to New York City to get her visa for an upcoming semester abroad in France. And my wife and I realized that we hadn't taken a just-the-two-of-us vacation in eight years.

So, we fixed that.

Within 48 hours, I'd booked flights, Airbnbs, ferries between our three stops, winery tours, restaurant reservations, and just enough activities to keep us busy without feeling overplanned. Two weeks later, we were on a plane to Croatia.

If you've never been, go.

Seriously. Ten out of ten. Five stars. No notes.

We loved Croatia so much that we're already planning to go back next summer—this time with the kids.

And as for the "no notes" part? I actually have plenty. If you're planning a trip, I'm more than happy to share them.

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Here's what I read this week that you should read, too.

The 7th nominee for the Worst Employer of 2026 is … The Fatal Failure

Some stories don't need a legal analysis. They need an indictment of management.

This indictment places the City of Las Vegas as a nominee on my list of the Worst Employers of 2026.

Not because a workplace homicide occurred. Employers can't stop every act of violence.

But because, according to public records obtained by FOX5, maintenance worker Joey McLean repeatedly begged management for help, warned that he feared for his life, and was allegedly murdered by the very co-worker he warned about.

If paid medical leave is good enough for Mitch McConnell, it's good enough for every American worker

Mitch McConnell has been absent from the Senate for more than six weeks following a serious fall. According to his office, he's recovering in a rehab facility, undergoing multiple physical therapy sessions each day, and isn't medically cleared to return to work.

This isn't about McConnell's health, however. It's about everyone else's.

McConnell is receiving something tens of millions of American workers don't: the ability to focus on getting well without worrying about losing his job or his paycheck. That's exactly how it should be. When you're sick or injured, your job is to recover, not to decide whether you can afford to.

The workplace is not a pulpit

When employees come to work, they should never have to wonder whether the next email from the boss will contain a work assignment or a sermon.

That's the issue at the heart of a new lawsuit against USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins.

A group of federal employees and their union have asked a federal court to block Rollins from sending agency-wide emails that preach her personal Christian beliefs to roughly 100,000 Department of Agriculture employees. The plaintiffs allege that despite already being sued over the practice, Rollins has continued using official USDA communications to quote Scripture and deliver explicitly evangelical messages—not just on Easter and Christmas, but now on Memorial Day and Independence Day as well. They are asking the court to stop the messages before the next major Christian holiday arrives.