Spying on your sick employees is a recipe for disaster

Do you remember the episode of The Office where Dwight stakes out Oscar's house to see if he's faking a medical condition and committing insurance fraud?

Believe it or not, something similar is happening in real life at Tesla. The managing director and human resources director of one of its foreign gigafactories recently targeted 30 employees on sick leave for home visits. While the HR director claims the visits had "nothing to do with general suspicion," the managing director has a documented history of intolerance toward factory workers who "couldn't get out of bed."

Needless to say, the employees did not appreciate the visits. "You could just tell by the aggression," the HR director said. Employees slammed doors, threatened to call the police, and questioned why the visits weren't scheduled in advance.

Use caution when poaching competing employees

Here are 25 million reasons to be careful when poaching your competitor's key employees.

In a recent federal case, medical device company Cynosure snagged a $25M jury verdict after its rival, Reveal Lasers, and two former sales managers were found to have violated noncompete, nonsolicitation, and nondisclosure agreements.

The result? A hefty price tag for raiding Cynosure's sales and marketing teams.

WIRTW #732: the 'day in the life' edition

How does a college student spend her day these days? Tl;dl: sleep and classes. 

On this week's episode of The Norah and Dad Show, Norah gives us a peak into a day in her life as a college student. We also discuss our brief visit with her last weekend at her brother's victorious soccer game. You can listen via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, Amazon Music, Overcast, the web, and everywhere else you get your podcasts. While you're there, hit the "subscribe" button to make sure you get each new episode automatically delivered to you as soon as it drops.

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

A second Apple Store just ratified a union contract — via The Verge

Cleveland Institute of Music's Tumultuous Era Continues With Contentious Union Vote This Week — via Scene Magazine

How the Next Generation of Managers Is Using Gen AI — via Harvard Business Review

Growth and Impacts of AI Use in the Workplace — via EntertainHR

Why AI is Here to Stay in Legal Blogging — via Real Lawyers Have Blogs

No, not all companies are abandoning diversity, equity and inclusion. Here's why. — via HR Dive

Be Reasonable, People! AI's Impact on Legal Fees — via Attorney at Work 

Is it OK to have sex while working from home? — via Ask a Manager

Working from home is the great social experiment of our age – it's too soon for the state to wade in — via The Guardian

Why would an employee sue his employer for offering him 100% telework as a disability accommodation? — via Eric Meyer's Employer Handbook Blog

FMLA abuse: 5 things this employer did right — via Employment & Labor Insider

What's the Difference Between Internal and External Employee Investigations? — via Workology

Who Is Suing Elon Musk Today? Cards Against Humanity, COME ON DOWN! — via Above the Law

Johnny Cash Becomes First Musician to Receive Statue at US Capitol — via Consequence

BA Report: Midwest Records Production Declines Across All Classes — via Brewbound

Anti-Alcohol Activists Set to Cripple the Beer Industry in 2025 — via Beervana

The 10th nominee for the Worst Employer of 2024 is … the desecrated discriminator

"We were forced to work with 'Nazi sympathizers' who — despite their open and obvious beliefs and frequent racist, antisemitic, xenophobic, and anti-LGBTQ+ comments and discriminatory acts — were retained and even promoted to management."

Those are the claims of 7 current and former employees of a rehab center owned by Executive Recovery Group.

Harassing text messages doom employee's discrimination lawsuit

Derek Blockhus, a United Airlines flight attendant, was fired after sending threatening texts and voicemails to a coworker and former romantic partner. 

His messages included threats like, "You do realize, your dad and all his friends are going to get nudes of you?" and "The situation will get ugly" if she didn't respond. Blockhus sued, claiming his firing must have been because of his disability, age, and FMLA leave.

The 7th Circuit disagreed, affirming that United terminated him for violating its harassment policies, not discrimination or leave interference.

"100% healed" = 100% illegal

The EEOC has sued Navitas Systems for its "100% healed" return to work policy.

The case involves the company's former division controller, who suffered a severe rotator cuff injury and fractured wrist. His doctor cleared him to return to work with restrictions, limiting the use of his injured left arm. Confident that he could still handle all the essential functions of his job with his right arm, he asked to come back to work, despite Navitas's policy. The company, however denied his request and fired him.

"Policies that require an employee to be restriction-free before returning to work run afoul of the ADA," said Miles Uhlar, the local EEOC trial attorney handling the case. "This employee could have performed the essential functions of his position. By strictly applying its '100% release' policy, Navitas violated the ADA."

WIRTW #731: the 'futebol' edition

As we are just about half-way through the high school soccer season, it's a good time to check in on the Lake Ridge Academy Royals. 

When we last left the Royals 11 months ago, they were eliminated from the 2023 state playoff tournament in their district semifinal. This year's senior-dominant team is on a mission, which thus far they are on track to complete. The team is off to a 7-1 start, with their only loss coming to a much bigger and stronger Shaker Hts. squad that is currently a top 7 team in Ohio's D-II. (After a realignment for this school year, Ohio now has five soccer divisions, with schools placed based on size; as result LRA moved from D-III to D-V.)

In D-V, LRA is currently ranked 8th in the state. This weekend, however, brings what is likely their stiffest test of the season, a weekend trip to Toledo for a tournament and a probable finals matchup against the host, 15th ranked Maumee Valley Country Day (a team that I do not believe LRA has ever defeated). Saturday night is also LRA's homecoming dance, and I really hope Donovan and his teammates have a tournament trophy with which to celebrate. 

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