Thursday, November 4, 2021

BREAKING NEWS: OSHA publishes its vaccine-mandate emergency temporary standard


Write down November 4, 2021, as the Employment Lawyer Superbowl. At 8:45 am this morning, OSHA published its Covid-19 Vaccination and Testing Emergency Temporary Standard in the Federal Register. You can download and read all 490(!) pages of it here.

Most importantly, this rule takes effect immediately upon its publication in the Federal Register — i.e., today — but employers have 30 days, or until December 5, 2021, to comply with all requirements except testing for employees who are not fully vaccinated (which has a January 4, 2022, compliance date). 

This means that by no later than January 4, 2022, employers will need to ensure that their employees have received their final vaccination dose, with weekly testing required for unvaccinated employees thereafter.

I lost on Jeopardy! A cybersecurity lesson on phishing scams


It started innocently enough, with a tweet: "Please share your best strategies for finding a PS5 before Christmas that do not involve me sleeping outside of a store or paying through the nose on eBay. Thanks."

Almost too coincidentally, a few minutes later I saw this tweet from Sarah Whitcomb Foss, a member of the Jeopardy! Clue Crew and one of the show's assistant directors: "Hello Twitter family! I am proud to announce that I have partnered with #Sony to supply you guys with some brand new #PS5 consoles for retail pricing! Just RT and like this and send me a DM if you need help!"

With my curiosity piqued (and her Twitter account blue-checkmark verified and looking legitimate), I followed her instructions by retweeting and liking her tweet, and sending her this DM: "Looking to purchase a PS5. Is this legit?"

Wednesday, November 3, 2021

The customer isn’t always right, especially when the customer wants you to discriminate


"I'm afraid we can't hire you because you won't mix well with our customers."

That's what the EEOC alleges a northern Minnesota furniture retailer told a transgender job applicant. It's also the reason that company has agreed to pay a $60,000 settlement. "Title VII does not permit discriminatory employment decisions based on customer preference," says the EEOC.

Tuesday, November 2, 2021

Politics and work don’t mix: Southwest Airlines investigating pilot for “Let’s go Brandon” in-flight announcement


Southwest Airlines is investigating one of its pilots for saying "Let's go Bradon" during an in-flight announcement.  

What is "Let's go Brandon," you ask? It's a euphemism many conservatives are using in place of saying "F**k Joe Biden." The origin of the phrase stems from an Oct. 2 NASCAR race won by Brandon Brown. During his post-race interview with NBC reporter Kelli Stavast, the crowd started chanting "F**k Joe Biden." Stavast, however, said, "You can hear the chants from the crowd, 'Let's go, Brandon!'" 

While it's unclear whether Stavast misheard the crowd or was merely covering up its audible on-air obscenity, the phrase "Let's go, Brandon" stuck and quickly spread among conservative groups and continues to be used in place of a direct expletive toward President Biden, even among members of Congress.

Monday, November 1, 2021

The 13th nominee for the “Worst Employer of 2021” is … the Abortion Forcer



I literally have no words for this, the 13th nominee for the Worst Employer of 2021. Here's the headline, from NBC News:

D.C. assistant police chief says she was told to
'have an abortion or be fired'

Friday, October 29, 2021

WIRTW #602: the “Where’s the beef?” edition


How'd your Wednesday go? Me? I got into a beef on Twitter with a fictional character, which ended with him telling me to go wax my head. Fun fact — I saw that last tweet come through while I was sitting in a board meeting and snort-laughed out loud.


I applaud the Ted Lasso team for running such fun accounts. I can't wait to see how Nate's character plays out in Season 3, as the stress of his new job is clearly getting to him.

Here are the best things I read online this past week that I think you should be reading, too.

Thursday, October 28, 2021

Coronavirus Update 10-28-2021: EEOC publishes its own internal Religious Accommodation Request form


"Jon, we have so many employees asking us for religious accommodations from our workplace Covid rules, including our vaccine mandate. Do you have a form we can use to document the request?" 

I certainly do. But it's not mine. It's the EEOC's. The Agency just published the internal form it uses for its own employees' religious accommodation requests.