Why employees are quitting might also tell you why they are unionizing

Why are employees quitting their jobs? StandOutCV (as reported by TLNT) wanted to know the answer, so it analyzed 2,698 recent social media posts where someone revealed the specific reason(s) for their resignation.

Here are the top 10 results.

A court was not having it when lawyers tried to victim-blame a sexual harassment plaintiff

One of our primary roles as attorneys is to protect our clients from their worse instincts. 

"Can I fire the employee who just filed an EEOC complaint or who's trying to form a union?" That's a really bad idea. 

"How do I erase the server with the smoking gun emails?" You don't. 

"If I ignore the harassment it will go away, right?" Umm, wrong.

"Let's file a motion to require a sexual harassment plaintiff to submit to a psychosexual examination?" 

In Carbajal v. Hayes Management Services, a federal court recently decided the propriety of just such a motion (very much) in the employee's favor. 

WIRTW #645: the “coach” edition

Do you have a side hustle? I now do, albeit an unpaid one. I just started my gig as a volunteer legal advisor for my daughter's high school mock trial team.

This year's case is fascinating. It's a suppression hearing over the issue of whether a student should have been Mirandized prior to being questioned by a school administration and a school resource officer. For the record, the Ohio Center for Law-Related Education's production values are off the chain.

I'm not a criminal attorney, and I've handled exactly one criminal case in my career (which I won at trial). In fact, nearly everything I know about criminal procedure I learned from a law school class I took 27 years ago plus my Law & Order addiction. That said, trial skills are trial skills, and I'm looking forward to using mine to help Lake Ridge Academy's team return to states for the 2nd consecutive year (and the 17th time overall).

While I'm on the topic of my daughter, please do she and I a solid and check out the latest episode of The Norah and Dad Show, now streaming everywhere, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Amazon, Overcast, Stitcher, and on the web.

Here's what I read this past week that I think you should read, too.

Is a labor union liable for damages caused by its members during a strike

Suppose your employees walk off the job in protest of stalled negotiations over a new collective bargaining agreement. Further suppose that their union (allegedly) coordinates the strike with the precise time your concrete is being mixed and delivered for the day, causing the destruction of your product.

Can you hold the union liable under state law for their alleged tortious conduct?

According to the State of Washington's Supreme Court, the answer is "no."

Show this story to your employees who start clamoring for a union

When a labor union is engaged in organizing your employees, you are allowed to present facts to your employees to attempt to convince them to vote union "no." Here's a big ol' fact for you to file away if the need ever arises.

EEOC Sues Teamsters Local Union #455
for Sexual Harassment

What are you doing to address Bullying Prevention Month in your workplace?

October is Bullying Prevention Month.

Over 90% of employees say that they have been bullied by a co-worker or manager.

Yet, unless a bully is harassing someone because of a protected class (race, sex, age, disability, religion, national origin, age…) bullying is probably lawful.

As the Supreme Court has famously said, our workplace discrimination laws are not meant to be a "general civility code." In layman's terms, our laws allow people to be jerks to each other at work as long as it's not because of a protected reason.

The question, however, is not whether the law protects the bullied, but instead what you should be doing about it in your workplace.

The 12th nominee for the “Worst Employer of 2022” is … the hurricane haranguer

You might know Joy Gendusa, the CEO of PostcardMania, from her April 2020 video in which she called out employees who had reported her company to the local authorities for not following Covid-19 safety protocols. But that's so 2020 Worst Employer.

Gendusa is back in the news, this time for asking her employees to bring their families and pets into the office so that they could continue working during Hurricane Ian. 

In her words, communicated to employees during a Zoom call: "I honestly want to continue to deliver and I want to have a good end of quarter. And when [the hurricane] turns into nothing, I don't want it to be like, 'Great, we all stopped producing because of the media and the maybe that it was going to be terrible.'"