Office drama is something we’ve all dealt with in some form or another - but this situation was off the charts. We could have thrown up our hands and chalked it up to people behaving childish (they were), but the impacts were all too real and something had to change.
As neighbors with their own ballot initiative systems, OR and WA tend to inspire each other for progressive employment law street cred – and both States have been busy. Like Missile Command, there’s a whole lotta incoming, that will take additional effort on your part to manage.
While I don’t expect most of you to find $5,000 hidden in wasted meetings, most organizations with some exploration can find better ways to apply the precious resource of their employees and leadership. While meeting regularly isn’t bad or inherently wrong, going through the motions like you always have, is a hard habit to break – but one that should be broken regularly.
If you’re a business that hires employees, at some point you’ll be faced with the knowledge that a candidate has a criminal background. Many times, the candidate will self-disclose their offenses, explain their bad choices, and how they’ve been on a good path for a period of time. So what can you do when faced with this information?
Is it possible to classify an administrative assistant as an independent contractor so you can hire them for a 90-day try-out period? This might sound like a good idea, but the short answer is no, you cannot.
Because your employee handbook outlines your company's guidelines and policies, it's important that your employees sign off on having received their handbook. It demonstrates that not only did they receive it, but they are also responsible for knowing its contents. What happens when one of your employees refuses to sign the handbook though?
Many people will try to come into work even if they're sick, so long as they can still walk and talk. But this can put other employees at risk for catching that bug. For employees who may already be vulnerable to illnesses (such as being immunocompromised) this can even be dangerous. How do you handle situations like this?
Work environments can be as diverse as the people working in them. Often times, employees wish to decorate their workstations with personal items to make their spaces feel comfortable while they perform their tasks. What sort of policies can your company put in effect to regulate appropriate workplace displays?
While wage and hour law requires that employees are paid for all time that they are 'suffered or permitted' to work, the question here is whether his attempt to go to a cancelled meeting would count.
Even if an employee has exhausted their FMLA leave for the year, their condition may fall under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The ADA defines a disabled employee as one who has a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities including working.
