Booze, Sex and HR: maintain perspective; accept corporate responsibility
In the spirit of the holiday party season, Mike VanDervort made the following challenge on his blog, The Human Race Horses: On November 30,...
Archive: November 2011
RIP Patrice O'Neal
By Jon Hyman
Earlier today, it was announced that comedian Patrice O'Neal passed away. He succumbed to complications from a stroke he suffered last m...
Supreme Court to hear case on scope of outside sales exemption (and hopefully scope of DOL’s power)
By Jon Hyman
Do you employ outside salespeople (pharmaceutical reps, for instance)? If so, then you are going to want to pay attention to what will trans...
“SAY IT! SAY IT!” Yelling as an essential function
By Jon Hyman
Did you know that the ability to yell at one’s students is an essential function of a teacher? According to Johnson v. Cleveland City School...
WIRTW #202 (the “thankful” edition)
By Jon Hyman
I learned something new yesterday. I learned, from my kindergartener, that the first Thanksgiving feast lasted three days. I am thankful t...
Sympathy for the Devil (as religious discrimination)
By Jon Hyman
I haven’t always been a lawyer. During a previous life (high school and college), I spent weekends and summers as a bar mitzvah DJ, a nursin...
A new era dawns—my first post at Fistful of Talent
By Jon Hyman
Today’s post is a little different. It's the first I’ve ever written that is not being debuted on my own blog. Today is my first endeavo...
WIRTW #201 (the “Mickey Mouse” edition)
By Jon Hyman
The news has been pretty somber this week, with the sexual abuse of children dominating the headlines. So, I thought we needed a light-heart...
I’m begging you … have a social media policy
By Jon Hyman
Last week, SHRM released the results of its 3rd survey on Social Media in the Workplace [pdf] . SHRM polled 532 randomly selected HR profes...
Who owns social media accounts? (part 2)
By Jon Hyman
Last Monday, I asked the following question: “What happens to an employee’s social media account when the employee leaves a company?” The v...
Don’t ignore common sense when conducting workplace investigations
By Jon Hyman
Light night, I tuned in with curiosity for Bob Costas’s interview with Jerry Sandusky . That curiosity turned to stunned outrage when Sandus...
Tell them to their face: firing employees (a lesson from State College, PA)
By Jon Hyman
Frank Roche, writing at his KnowHR blog , made the following observation the morning after Penn State announced that it had fired Joe Patern...
WIRTW #200 (the “bicentennial” edition)
By Jon Hyman
This week offered a lot of potential themes from which I could pick for today’s “WIRTW”: Joe Paterno (come back Monday for my thoughts on th...
Regulating workplace photography? Think again, says one federal court
By Jon Hyman
This time next week, I’ll be in San Diego presenting on workplace social media issues at the 2011 Human Resources & Employer Compliance ...
Progressive discipline might not be mandatory, but it makes sense
By Jon Hyman
In Fulton v. ODJFS (11/3/11) [pdf] , the employee argued that he was entitled to recover unemployment compensation because his employer fai...
Employers cannot “ostrich” harassment allegations
By Jon Hyman
By now, you’ve likely read or heard about the disturbing sexual abuse scandal involving Jerry Sandusky, Penn State’s former defensive coordi...
Who owns social media accounts—the employer or employee?
By Jon Hyman
What happens to an employee’s social media account when the employee leaves a company? One British court has answered this question by orde...
WIRTW #199 (the “Occupy” edition)
By Jon Hyman
I spent the first half of last week in Denver. I took the opportunity of a free Monday morning to walk the city. In front of the Colorado St...
Unsubstantiated allegations cannot create protected activity (at least according to one Ohio court)
By Jon Hyman
In Veal v. Upreach LLC (10/20/11) , an employee claimed that her employer terminated her in retaliation for her contacting the EEOC. The co...
Do you know what an employment lawsuit costs?
By Jon Hyman
My manifesto—the Employer’s Bill of Rights—continues to generate links (thanks Kris Dunn and Walter Olson ) and comments . One commenter as...
NLRB says a “f**ktard” is different than a “d*ck” under Section 7
By Jon Hyman
A employee responded to a supervisor’s LinkedIn request with the following joke: “f**ktard.” More than a year later, the company discovered ...