Archive for February, 2009

Time for Servant Leadership

Sunday, February 22nd, 2009

In this time of economic shrinkage, it is tempting for employers to believe that any remaining employees should consider themselves “damn lucky to have a job” (as one of my former law partners used to say). This attitude can lead to subtle exploitation of employees who will do almost anything to keep their paychecks coming [...]

Accommodating Mental Disabilities

Monday, February 16th, 2009

One of the inevitable problems that the Americans with Disabilities Act Amendments Act (ADAAA), which went into effect January 1, 2009, will cause employers will be the difficulty figuring out how to treat every disabled employee on a case by case basis while all other discrimination laws demand that you treat every one equally. That [...]

Cupid at Work? Bah humbug!

Wednesday, February 11th, 2009

Reuters published a story today about a CareerBuilders.com survey on workplace romances. Just in time for Valentine’s Day, 40% of American workers admit that they have dated a coworker. Another 10% say there is a coworker they would like to date. Interestingly only 5% of women want to date a coworker while 14% of men [...]

I-9 Cautionary Tale

Monday, February 9th, 2009

If you like to rant and rave about the lack of government enforcement actions to stem the tide of illegal immigration, remember that you as an employer are primarily responsible for making illegal immigration unattractive by requiring every employee to demonstrate his eligibility to work in the United States. This is done by requiring every [...]

Training Slashed Even As Employees File Lawsuits

Thursday, February 5th, 2009

One of the ironies of recession is that businesses tend to cut back their training of their employees at the same time that layoffs are spawning the filing of higher numbers of employee lawsuits. This is happening again during the present deepening economic crisis. Unfortunately, this is one of those situations of businesses “cutting off [...]

Sexual Harassment for all Ages

Tuesday, February 3rd, 2009

Texas courts have considered sexual harassment at both ends of the age spectrum lately. One case involved a teenager as a victim and the other involved a 62-year old harasser who claimed age discrimination when he was fired. Both cases have lessons to teach employers about sexual harassment, still one of the most common employment [...]