You can catch her live on April 3.
Kennedy’s tweet concerning snow days was directed to Chipotle’s communications director but visible to others; Kennedy’s other two tweets were in response to customer postings, and likewise visible to others. All these postings had the purpose of educating the public and creating sympathy and support for hourly workers in general and Chipotle’s workers in specific. They did not pertain to wholly personal issues relevant only to Kennedy but were truly group complaints. I conclude that Kennedy’s postings constitute protected concerted activity.
If, as the Board suggest, employee intent is the measuring stick for whether a lone employee’s activity is concerted, then any employee’s solitary social-media post can be considered concerted merely by the employee stating an intent to initiate or induce group action. And, since social media is inherently social (i.e., group in nature), doesn’t this test suggest that all such activity is concerted.
Do you know what the biggest threat is to your company’s cyber security? I’ll give you a hint. It’s not the middle-aged man in yesterday’s John Oliver video.
It’s your employees. Cyber attacks target the weakest link, and more often than not that weak is your employees.
According to CFO magazine, nearly half of all data breaches result from careless employees. Whether it’s an employee using a company-issued laptop on an unsecured wifi network, or an employee losing a password-unprotected iPhone, your employees present the greatest risk to the security of your company’s network and data.
What can you do about it? Train your employees. They need to understand the risk of their carelessness, and the steps they can take to mitigate that risk.
Here are 10 issues about which you should be training your employees right now to limit your company’s cyber exposure.
This fake Apple ad, from Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, is the best argument you will hear on why training your employees on cyber security is perhaps the most important thing you can do for your business in 2016.
Come back tomorrow, when I’ll discuss the 10 cyber-security issues about which you should be training your employees right now.
If a picture tells a thousand words, then how many does a video tell?
Last week, the 6th Circuit affirmed the dismissal of a retaliation claim based on a video of an altercation that the plaintiff claimed she had not started.We just added this piece of art to our home.
This particular painting is special to our family. If you look closely…
The artist, Anthony Kleem, likes to include friends and family in his paintings, and he happens to love our kids. How could we not buy it?
Here’s the rest of what I read this week:
Discrimination
Social Media & Workplace Technology
HR & Employee Relations
Wage & Hour
Labor Relations
OSHA & Workplace Safety
As the saying goes, you can’t teach stupid. No matter what safety measure you put in place, your employees will do stupid things at work, and sometimes they will get hurt.
Consider the following scenario. An employee makes offensive posts on his personal Facebook page about one of your customers, which include the following:
“I seen Maurice’s bougie ass walking kahului beach road … nigga please!”
A number of other employees comment on or like the post, including a comment to “run that faka over!!! lol.”
When the customer learns of the posts and comments, he complains. You investigate and fire the offending employees.
Case over, right? Not so fast. The customer sued the employer for negligence relating to its supervision, retention, and training of the offending employees.
One of an employer’s best tools to stave off labor unions and their organizing campaigns is a no-solicitation policy. It keeps employees focused on work during working hours, and keeps non-employees (including, but not limited to, union organizers) off your property and out of your workplace.One of the benefits my kids get from going to a K – 12 school is the experience of varsity high-school sports. Don’t get me wrong, Lake Ridge Academy is far from an athletic powerhouse. The school is much more focused on academics and fine arts than sports. However, once in a while, a team catches fire, and, when it does, my kids get to hitch a ride.
Right now, the girls’ basketball team is that team. Tomorrow night, we play Cornerstone Christian (a team we beat in January) for the right to go to Columbus for the State Division IV Final Four. It will be the school’s first ever trip to the Elite Eight in any sport. The Elyria Chronicle-Telegram recaps the thrill of last night’s 41 – 40 come-from-behind victory over the state’s top ranked team.
Go Royals.
Also, I’d be remiss if I didn’t say a thank you to the student from Perry High School who, after I arrived to a very full parking lot, let me park in the press lot after I told her I was a blogger. This is the post I promised you.
Here’s the rest of what I read this week:
Last week, the Department of Labor announced proposed regulations that would expand paid sick leave to the employees of federal contractor and subcontractors. These regulations would implement Executive Order 13706, which President Obama announced last year. According to the DOL, these regulations will provide paid sick leave to 828,000 employees.
Given that our country has over 121 million employees, why does it matter than a scant 0.68% of the American workforce has access to federally mandated paid sick leave?
Neither PARTY will directly solicit for employment a current or former employee of the other PARTY who has performed any work in connection with this AGREEMENT. This provision will remain in effect during the term of the SERVICES and for one (1) year from the date of said former employee’s separation of employment from P&G or CONTRACTOR.… Further it is acknowledged that simply hiring an employee of the other PARTY is not a restricted activity in the absence of an improper solicitation as described above.
By now, you’ve likely heard about the employee fired by Yelp for her very public blog post directed at her former employer’s CEO, criticizing her $24,000 annual salary. Here’s a particular biting excerpt:I wonder what it would be like if I made $24,000 more annually. I could probably get the headlight fixed on my car. And the flat tire. And maybe even get the oil change and renewed registration — but I don’t want to dream too extravagantly. Maybe you could cut out all the coconut waters altogether? You could probably cut back on a lot of the drinks and snacks that are stocked on every single floor. I mean, I could handle losing out on pistachio nuts if I was getting paid enough to afford groceries. No one really eats the pistachios anyway — have you ever tried answering the phone fifty times an hour while eating pistachios? Those hard shells really get in the way of talking to hundreds of customers and restaurants a day.
Back in the day, if an employee wanted to obtain a copy of an employer’s EEOC position statement, the employee had to go through a process under the federal Freedom of Information Act. For starters, the employee had to wait until after the EEOC issued a right to sue letter, and the EEOC could deny the request for a variety of reasons.
By back in the day, I mean last week. Because, last week, the EEOC implemented a yuge (inner Trump voice) policy change, which provides for the release of an emplyer’s position statements and non-confidential attachments to an employee, upon request, during the investigation of a charge of discrimination. Employees or their representatives must request the document. The agency will not automatically turn it over. But, employees avoid the formality of the FOIA-request process. FOIA, on the other hand, still governs employers’ requests for copies of employees’ submissions (How is that fair?)
Two recent EEOC cases illustrate the importance of employers engaging in the ADA’s interactive process to determine if one can offer a disabled employee a reasonable accommodation.