It’s been just over 18 months since the NLRB decided Boeing Co., perhaps its most significant decision in decades. It rewrote more than a decade of precedent by overturning its Lutheran Heritage standard regarding when facially neutral employment policies violate the rights of employees to engage in concerted activity protected by section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act.
Tuesday, July 9, 2019
NLRB offers significant and important guidance on its new(ish) employee handbook rules
It’s been just over 18 months since the NLRB decided Boeing Co., perhaps its most significant decision in decades. It rewrote more than a decade of precedent by overturning its Lutheran Heritage standard regarding when facially neutral employment policies violate the rights of employees to engage in concerted activity protected by section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act.
For more information, contact Jon at (440) 695-8044 or JHyman@Wickenslaw.com.
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Tuesday, June 25, 2019
Employers are making new dog ownership a little less ruff by offering “pawternity” leave
In three days, my family grows by one. We’re adding a puppy.
My wife and kids have been clamoring for a new dog for a year. Loula (our current dog) is seven years old, and they don’t want to be in a position of not having a dog in our family. Plus, we don’t want to wait until Loula’s too old to tolerate the energy of a new puppy.
For more information, contact Jon at (440) 695-8044 or JHyman@Wickenslaw.com.
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Thursday, April 18, 2019
How to fire an employee
The Wall Street Journal recently asked this simple question:
What's the Best Way to Fire Someone?
I have some thoughts.
For more information, contact Jon at (440) 695-8044 or JHyman@Wickenslaw.com.
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Wednesday, April 17, 2019
Bathroom conversations aren't private conversations
Michael Woods, a mortgage banker at Quicken Loans, was having a bad day at work. A customer Woods had helped four years ago had been trying to get in touch with a Client Specialist; the company routed the call to Woods because of their prior relationship. He aired his grievance to a co-worker, Austin Laff, while they were in the bathroom together. "The client should get in touch with a fucking Client Care Specialist and quit wasting my fucking time."
Jorge Mendez, a supervisor, overheard this conversation from a stall. He responded with an all-employee email reminding everyone of proper conduct in public areas. "Never, EVER, should we be swearing in the bathroom especially about clients."
For more information, contact Jon at (440) 695-8044 or JHyman@Wickenslaw.com.
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Monday, March 11, 2019
What a lawful "civility" policy looks like under the NLRB's Boeing test
Consider and compare the following workplace civility policies:
Commitment to My Co-Workers
- I will accept responsibility for establishing and maintaining healthy interpersonal relationships with you and every member of this team.
- I will talk to your promptly if I am having a problem with you. The only time I will discuss it with another person is when I need advice or help in deciding how to communicate with you appropriately.
- I will not complain about another team member and ask you not to as well. If I hear you doing so, I will ask you to talk to that person.
- I will be committed to finding solutions to problems rather than complaining about them or blaming someone for them, and ask you to do the same.
For more information, contact Jon at (440) 695-8044 or JHyman@Wickenslaw.com.
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Monday, February 25, 2019
You're never too small to have an HR department
43 percent of American employees work for companies with 50 or fewer employees. I raise this statistic because it is almost a guarantee that many of these small businesses operate without a dedicated HR department or HR personnel.
Earlier this month, the EEOC settled a sexual harassment and retaliation lawsuit it had brought against several IHOP franchises operating in New York and Nevada. The allegations were truly awful, including misbehavior such as unwanted touching of female employees' buttocks and genitalia, graphic comments about sexual genitalia, invitations to engage in intercourse, and vulgar name calling, perpetrated by both managers and co-workers.
For more information, contact Jon at (440) 695-8044 or JHyman@Wickenslaw.com.
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Wednesday, January 30, 2019
Employment policies in the polar vortex
How frigid are the temperatures going to be in Northeast Ohio today? Just about everything is closed. Even the post office suspended mail delivery. Just because you remain open for business does not mean that your employees will be in a position to get to work. Pipes burst. Furnaces break. Cars die. And with schools closed, many parents need to remain home with their children.
In light of these historically low temperatures, here are five key considerations for workplace severe-weather policies, including including how to handle issues such as attendance, wage and hour, and telecommuting:
For more information, contact Jon at (440) 695-8044 or JHyman@Wickenslaw.com.
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Thursday, January 24, 2019
What's is the dumbest workplace policy you've ever encountered?
I spent my day yesterday mediating a case before the Ohio Civil Rights Commission. The mediation took place in a conference room on the 8th floor of the state office building in downtown Cleveland. The hardest part of my day? Believe it or not, it was simply getting to the mediation.
For more information, contact Jon at (440) 695-8044 or JHyman@Wickenslaw.com.
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Monday, January 7, 2019
Your 2019 Employment Law Compliance Checklist
Today is the start of the first full week of 2019. Which means it's a perfect time to take a step back and review your efforts at HR and employment-law compliance for the coming year.
This list is not mean to be complete or exhaustive, but should provide a high level look at the top 20 issues that you should be reviewing this year, and every year for your business.
For more information, contact Jon at (440) 695-8044 or JHyman@Wickenslaw.com.
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Thursday, September 20, 2018
What employment sins are you atoning for this year?
Yesterday was Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement.
For the uninitiated, it is the day on which we make peace with God for all of the sins we've committed over the past year. On Rosh Hashanah God writes each person's name in Book of Life. Over the next 10 days, Jews seek forgiveness for wrongs done against God and our fellow humans. During Yom Kippur, each individual makes their personal petitions to God, and hopes for forgiveness for the upcoming year. If all goes well, when God closes the Book of Life at the end of Yom Kippur, your name remains and your soul is safe for another year.
I explain it to my Catholic children like this. Catholics (are supposed to) confess their sins each week. Jews save them up one shot on Yom Kippur. We've yet to try the chicken swinging; they're not ready for it. (I'm not sure I am, or ever will be, either).
For more information, contact Jon at (440) 695-8044 or JHyman@Wickenslaw.com.
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Thursday, September 13, 2018
Do you have employee-theft insurance?
The Philadelphia Insectarium and Butterfly Pavilion, a science museum showcasing one of the largest living arthropod collections in the United States, recently suffered a catastrophic loss. Crooks heisted over 80% of its collection — 7,000 of its rare insects, lizards, and snakes, valued at over $40,000.
According to The New York Times, police believe this to have been an inside job. Three current or former museum employees are the suspects. The evidence? Security-camera footage, plus staff uniforms hung from knives that had been stabbed into a wall.
For more information, contact Jon at (440) 695-8044 or JHyman@Wickenslaw.com.
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Monday, September 10, 2018
Do you really want to be the employer that bans your employees from wearing Nike products?
Last week, Nike launched its new ad campaign featuring (former) NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick. He's most famous for being the first NFL player to kneel during the national anthem. As a result, he's become a lightning rod around our national conversation about race relations. He claims the NFL has blackballed him because of his outspokenness on the issue.
For more information, contact Jon at (440) 695-8044 or JHyman@Wickenslaw.com.
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Wednesday, August 29, 2018
I ❤️ my wife, and I ❤️ attendance policies
On August 29, 2003, I married my wife.
The ceremony was to start at 11 am, and by 10:55 I was nervous. Not your normal, "I'm about to get married" nervous, but the, "What the hell, we start in 5 minutes and my bride-to-be isn't here yet" nervous. With no cell phone on me, I just had to have faith that Colleen was on her way. Nevertheless, I was most definitely jittery.
For more information, contact Jon at (440) 695-8044 or JHyman@Wickenslaw.com.
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Monday, August 13, 2018
Protecting your business from an "Omarosa": workplace recordings and the law
Omarosa Manigault-Newman, formerly a contestant on Donald Trump's The Apprentice and also formerly an employee in President Trump's White House, secretly recorded Chief of Staff John Kelly firing her.
In 38 states plus the District of Columbia, this surreptitious recording would be perfectly legal.
For more information, contact Jon at (440) 695-8044 or JHyman@Wickenslaw.com.
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Monday, June 11, 2018
NLRB clarifies its new employee handbook rules
Late last year, in Boeing Co., the NLRB rewrote more than a decade of precedent by overturning its Lutheran Heritage standard regarding when facially neutral employment policies violate the rights of employees to engage in concerted activity protected by section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act.
For more information, contact Jon at (440) 695-8044 or JHyman@Wickenslaw.com.
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Tuesday, May 8, 2018
Should employers still test for marijuana?
Photo by Michael Fischer from Pexels |
Ohio’s medical marijuana law does not require that employers accommodate employees’ lawful use of medical marijuana. It also permits employers still to maintain drug testing policies, drug-free workplace policies, and zero-tolerance drug policies.
Yet, with the lawful use of marijuana spreading, employers are asking if it still makes sense to test for it as part of pre-employment drug screenings.
For more information, contact Jon at (440) 695-8044 or JHyman@Wickenslaw.com.
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Monday, April 30, 2018
Hair discrimination; not a thing
Give me a head with hair, long beautiful hair
Shining, gleaming, steaming, flaxen, waxen
Give me down to there hair, shoulder length or longer
Here, baby, there, momma, everywhere, daddy, daddy
Hair, hair, hair, hair, hair, hair, hair, hair
Flow it, show it, long as God can grow it, my hair
Friday’s tongue in check post about the beauty of baldness got me thinking about hair and employment law.– “Hair”
Or, more to the point, can an employer run afoul of discrimination laws by making an employment decision based on one’s hairstyle?
For more information, contact Jon at (440) 695-8044 or JHyman@Wickenslaw.com.
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Wednesday, March 28, 2018
What does it mean to have “work/life balance”?
What’s your definition of “work/life balance”?
- No school bus this morning? I’ll get to the office at 9 am instead of 7:15.
- Doctor’s appointment? No worries. I’ll leave the office at 3 and finish up what needs to be done tonight.
- Bad weather? It’s not productive to waste two hours in traffic. I’ll work from home.
- Early evening gig for the kids? I’ll pick them up from school.
For more information, contact Jon at (440) 695-8044 or JHyman@Wickenslaw.com.
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Thursday, January 11, 2018
An argument for a more reasonable bereavement leave policy
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about death.
These past few days have been the first time I’ve had to deal with it on a family level as an adult. And there’s a lot to think about.
And it’s not just the grieving, and the crying, and the mourning.
It’s also time.
For more information, contact Jon at (440) 695-8044 or JHyman@Wickenslaw.com.
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Tuesday, November 28, 2017
In the spirit of #GivingTuesday, here are 7 considerations for your charitable donations policy
Today is Giving Tuesday, a global day of charitable giving, which symbolically kicks off the season for those who choose to focus their holiday and year-end giving.
How does your company support employees’ charitable endeavors?
For more information, contact Jon at (440) 695-8044 or JHyman@Wickenslaw.com.
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