It’s amazing what one finds while packing

Yesterday afternoon, I received the following email from a co-worker:

To: Office All
Subject: Pardon the office all email 

I am sure you all have found interesting things that you had completely forgotten as you cleaned up your workspaces. I have no idea where I obtained this, but I hope you find it as funny as I did.

Announcing “The Employment Law Year in Review” Webinar

Do you enjoy webinars?

Do you have an affinity for six of the internet’s top labor and employment law and HR bloggers coming together to present said webinar?

Do you desire SHRM and HRCI credits?

Before you answer, what if told you all of the above is FREE.

Then what are you waiting for? Click here, now.

How do we start to STOP sexual harassment?

www.pinterest.com/pin/202802789447314070

Harvey Weinstein, Kevin Spacey, Louis CK, Mark Halperin, Bill O’Reilly, Roger Ailes … the list of men accused of sexual harassment and other sexual misconduct seems to know no end.

I very much hope that we have reached the beginning of a cultural watershed against sexual harassment in America. Which is undoubtedly a good thing, especially when you consider a recent Washington Post survey reporting that nearly one-third of women have received an unwanted sexual advance from a co-worker.

All of which begs the question … if sexual harassment is so prevalent in the American workplace, how do we start having a conversation about how to stop it?

WIRTW #484 (the “happy place” edition)

What’s your happy place?

Where do you take your mind when you’re just having a bad day, when you have to deal with that employee, when a client chews you out (I know, that never happens), or when you otherwise need a mental breather from the world and all of its evil and other craziness?

Mine is watching my kids play music.

9.8 million reasons to consider transferring a disabled employee to a vacant position

Photo by Taber Andrew Bain
Licensed via Creative Commons 

Earlier this month, American Airlines agreed to pay $9.8 million to settle a disability discrimination lawsuit brought by the EEOC.

The agency claimed that the employer’s return-to-work policy—which allegedly refused to consider transfers to open positions for disabled employees, but instead required the employees to apply for and compete for vacant position upon their return to work—violated the ADA.

What’s the worst employee exit you’ve ever seen?

There is a right way to quit a job, and a wrong way to quit a job.

Last week, a Twitter employee demonstrated the worst of the latter.

Some lessons from the employee fired for middle-fingering Trump’s motorcade

Have your heard about Juli Briskman, the biker that flipped the finger to Trump’s passing motorcade?

https://twitter.com/julibriskman

Parental status discrimination is NOT a thing. But should it be?

I received some great feedback on LinkedIn on last week’s post on New York’s new paid family leave law.

That law grants paid leave for the same general reasons one can take unpaid leave under the FMLA. What it does not do, though, is create a new protected class.

Indeed, discrimination based on one’s status as a parent is, in and of itself, NOT illegal.

WIRTW #483 (the “tardy” edition)

I HATE being late. It’s my number one pet peeve.

It drives my family completely nuts. If I’m even one minute late for anything, I am a mess. For that reason, we are usually five minutes early for everything (which is perfectly okay by me).

I view tardiness as an issue of respect. When you are late, it tells others that you view your time as more valuable than theirs. To me, lateness equal selfishness, and I have little tolerance for the selfish.

Is New York the beginning of the end for America’s poor family leave laws?

My two working-parent family

It is freakin’ hard to be a working parent in America. It is even more difficult when both mom and dad work.

It’s not just childcare, but also doctors’ appointments, kids’ sick days, summer vacations, winter and spring breaks, Labor Days, Memorial Days, and all the other “Days” (and don’t get me started on “teacher in-service days”).

Beginning January 1, 2018, New York is implementing the start of solution for any employees that work in that state.

VOTE for the ‘Worst Employer of 2017’ — polls are open

The day for which you’ve waited all year has finally arrived.

It’s your opportunity to help pick the Worst Employer of 2017.

Apple employee gaffe illustrates risk posed by YouTube videos in protection of trade secrets

An Apple employee lost his job this week after his daughter, Brooke Amelia Peterson, posted a YouTube video of her dad’s brand new, unreleased iPhone X.

ReCode has the details:

Peterson posted a five-minute video of a September day in Silicon Valley, which mostly included shopping for makeup and clothing. Harmless, and not unlike other YouTube videos posted by teenagers. 

But then, in the video, she visits her father on Apple’s campus in Cupertino for what seems like dinner. As they munch on pizzas in the company’s cafeteria, Peterson’s dad hands her his iPhone X to test. That’s when YouTube viewers got about 45 seconds of footage of Peterson scrolling through various screens on the new design and showing off its camera.

Ohio lawmakers consider safe harbor for cybersecurity compliance

If the Equifax data breach hasn’t scared your company into cybersecurity compliance, Ohio lawmakers are considering dangling you a compliance carrot.

Senate Bill 220 [pdf], introduced earlier this month, would provide business a cybersecurity ‘safe harbor’ in exchange for compliance with the NIST Cybersecurity Framework (or other similar standard).

WIRTW #482 (the “a bet is a bet” edition)

It’s been a couple of weeks since baseball’s evil empire, otherwise known as the New York Yankees, knocked my beloved Cleveland Indians out of the playoffs.

I can’t say the pain has gone away, but seeing the Astros as the American League’s representative in the World Series helps an ever-so-small small bit.

With no risk of Yankees winning it all this year, it’s time I paid off a little bet I made with Dan Schwartz over the outcome of the Division Series.

God, this hurts. But, a bet is a bet.

Here’s what I read this week.

When should HR call its lawyer?

Yesterday, I read When is an Employee Issue a Legal Issue (and When Is it HR)?, written by Dan Schwartz on his always excellent Connecticut Employment Law Blog. Dan posits that there are some instances when a business almost always should get legal involved with an employee issue, such as when it receives a “lawyer letter”, receives service of an agency charge or lawsuit, needs to conduct a privileged investigation, or confronts a complex or novel legal issue.

I’d like to address this same question from a more macro level.

Not all swearing at work is created equal

According to a recent survey, 57% of American employees admit to swearing at work. (To me, that seems low. Also, count me in the “yes” column.)

Where is the line between swearing as harmless workplace banter and swearing as harmful unlawful harassment?

Consider these two examples.

Bill O’Reilly claiming victim status is WHY we have a harassment problem

Over the weekend, the New York Times reported that Bill O’Reilly paid $32 million to settle a claim of sexual harassment brought against him by a former co-worker.

Yesterday, in an interview with the New York Times, O’Reilly let his accusers have it:

It’s horrible what I went through, horrible what my family went through. This is crap. It’s politically and financially motivated. We can prove it with shocking information. We have physical proof that this is bullshit.

The 23rd nominee for the “worst employer of 2017” is … the cake boss

As we wind down the year toward voting to name the first annual “Worst Employer of the Year,” I thought I had all bases covered. Then I read this story on Buzzfeed:

This Teen Says Her Chili’s Manager Sexually Harassed Her, And Her Coworkers Threw A Party To Shame Her

WIRTW #481 (the “proof of concept” edition)

When a commenter starts his thoughts with “Hey faggot,” you know you have one for the internet-troll hall of fame.

A couple of months ago I wrote a post entitled, When You Discover That You Employ a Nazi. This post generated the above-referenced comment on Workforce.com (which cross-posts my blog daily).

The rest of this winning comment?

Thank you, Mr. Bryson, for proving my point. Let me also suggest (if you can stomach it) that you check out his account on Disqus.com, which exposes his views on a range of topics, including LGBTQ people, the Jews, and school shootings as false flags. For the record, he is con, con, and WTF?!

Here’s what else I read this week:

When is a break not a break under the FLSA?

The FLSA draws a pretty clear line as to when breaks must be paid, and when they can be unpaid.

If a break 20 minutes or less in duration, it must be paid. Any longer, and an employer can make it an unpaid break.

What if, however, instead of providing employees paid breaks, an employer installs a system of flex time—the employer only pays employees for the time they are logged onto its system, which maximizes employees’ ability to take breaks from work at any time, for any reason, and for any duration.

Does this “flex time” system of unlimited unpaid breaks pass muster under the FLSA?