The 4th nominee for the “worst employer of 2018” is … the (in)humane harasser

The 4th nominee for the worst employer of 2018 is the Humane Society of the United States, which last month voted to retain its CEO despite an internal investigation that identified and corroborated three complains of sexual harassment against him.

Happy 25th FMLA … and happy #SuperSickMonday

Last night, my Philadelphia Eagles won the Super Bowl.

Today, the FMLA turns 25.

Over the past 25 years, it is estimated that employees have used the FMLA over 200 million times to take job-protected, unpaid time off work to address their own serious medical condition or care for a family member.

WIRTW #492 (the “step up” edition)

As a dad of a woman (girl) who may someday live in the music industry, I read with great interest the comments of Recording Academy President Neil Portnow, responding to why women were so under-represented as winners at this year’s Grammys.

It has to begin with … women who have the creativity in their hearts and souls, who want to be musicians, who want to be engineers, producers, and want to be part of the industry on the executive level… [They need] to step up because I think they would be welcome. I don’t have personal experience of those kinds of brick walls that you face but I think it’s upon us—us as an industry—to make the welcome mat very obvious, breeding opportunities for all people who want to be creative and paying it forward and creating that next generation of artists.

“Can I bring my peacock to work? It’s for emotional support”

United Airlines has blocked a customer from bringing her “emotional support peacock” on a recent flight.

Truth be told, whether it was a large peacock, or a small parakeet, or a dog, or any other animal labeled “emotional support,” the airline acted well within its rights, whether dealing with a customer or an employee.

The ADA makes no reasonable accommodation allowance for “emotional support animals” of any species and of any size. Period.

Why I’m a management-side lawyer

Every now and again it’s worth pulling a post out of the archives for a rerun.

Today, I look all the way back to April 15, 2008, for one of these reruns, to answer the question—

Why am I a management-side attorney?

Is employee copying of documents protected activity or unlawful stealing?

It’s a situation that plays out all too often. An employee emails a slew of documents to a personal email address, or drags them into a personal Dropbox, or copies them to a stick drive.

Your first instinct is to assume that the employee is engaged in something nefarious, fire the employee, and even sue for misappropriation of trade secrets/confidential information.

But might there be something else going on? What if, instead of competing against you, the employee is preparing to go to battle against you in a discrimination lawsuit?

Does an employee have a right to copy your documents to prepare a discrimination lawsuit?

SNL tackles #MeToo, but what should you do when employees discuss #MeToo at work?

How do you discuss sexual harassment and other sexual misconduct with your friends and colleagues?

Saturday Night Live, in one of its most brilliant sketches in a long time, offers a suggestion.


Or, rather, a suggestion not to have the conversation at all.