Tweets, honest beliefs, and terminations

@realDonaldTrump I am the VP of HR in a comp outside of philly an informal survey of our employees shows 100% AA employees voting Trump!

On July 24, 2016, Kathleen Jungclaus — the 55-year-old then-VP of HR for Waverly Heights Ltd. — tweeted the above. A couple of months later, someone anonymously notified Jungclaus's superiors of the tweet. When confronted, Jungclaus initially provided shifting explanations of the tweet's origins but ultimately admitted posting it. As a result, Waverly fired her for violating its social media policy (which she had drafted). After Waverly replaced her with someone 12 years her junior, Jungclaus sued for sex discrimination, age discrimination, retaliation, and hostile work environment.

Do your business’s philosophy, values, and vision match your mission statement

On this week's episode of The Start A Brewery Podcast, I join hosts Laura Lodge and Candace Moon, along with guests Ren Navarro (the owner/operator of Beer. Diversity., and my co-presenter at the upcoming Craft Brewers Conference) and Jason Gladfelter (of Vombuds, LLC) to discuss how a business's mission statement should align with and reflect its philosophy, values, and vision. 

We discuss the important questions of "Who are you?" and "What do you collectively as a team and a business represent?" While we answer these questions in the context of starting a brewery, the issues we discuss and the lessons we teach are applicable to any business of any size, startup or established, small or big.

The 2nd nominee for the “Worst Employer of 2023” is … the child labor abuser

According to the Department of Labor, Packers Sanitation Services, the country's largest food safety sanitation services, employed at least 102 children — ranging in age from 13 to 17 — in hazardous occupations in meat processing facilities across eight states.

The hazardous conditions to which Packer required the children to be exposed included working with hazardous chemicals and cleaning meat processing equipment including back saws, brisket saws and head splitters. At least three of the children suffered injuries while illegally working for Packer.

WIRTW #662: the “platform” edition

Platform Beer Co. shook up the local beer industry Wednesday afternoon when its owner, Anheuser-Busch, confirmed that it had permanently closed the Cleveland brewery (along with its taproom and other related businesses) that it had acquired less than four years ago. All of its employees have lost their jobs as a result. 

Some backstory. Platform was a Cleveland craft beer success story. It opened its doors in 2014, and within five years had grown large enough to attract A-B as a buyer. Now, it no longer exists (except for the three IPAs that A-B says it will keep making).

While I have no inside knowledge as to what happened at Platform, I can offer an educated guess. Craft beer consumers are passionate about drinking craft beer. One of the key components to any craft brewery is its independence. Once A-B acquired Platform, it ceased being independent; it instead became part of A-B's $54 billion corporate behemoth. As a result, and no matter the quality of its beers, Platform lost its allure to the craft beer consumer. Without that attraction, sales dipped, making it ripe for the its tragic fate.

What's unfortunate is that a lot of good people lost their jobs as a result. Thankfully, our local beer community is collegial and collaborative. For example, Saucy Brew Works is offering any former Platform employee a daily free meal and pint, along with a job application, through the end of March. That's how you pay it forward. If you're a brewery looking to hire, there are lot of people in N.E. Ohio looking for work.

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

NLRB bans non-disparagement and confidentiality covenants in severance agreements. What now?

Is it time to rip up your stock severance agreement? Consider the following two clauses, which I bet your standard agreement contains in some form.

Do you know what to do if employees strike?

Labor strikes by employees were up a shocking 52 percent in 2022 as compared to 2021. That's according to Cornell-ILR Labor Action Tracker Annual Report. Employee collective work stoppages are on the rise, and there is no indication of them abating any time soon.

Do you know what to do if your employees walk off the job? Here are 10 dos and don'ts.

The 1st nominee for the “Worst Employer of 2023” is … the foul-mouthed retaliator

"I'm going to fire all the motherf---ers!" 

That's the threat Department of Labor accused Tamesha Porter, the sole owner and operator of Safe Haven Assisted Living of Haslett, of making to her employees after the Department of Labor started investigating its wage and hour practices.