You’ve probably got an ADA policy that extends reasonable accommodations to any disabled workers. That’s good. But are your managers following through? If your paper policy is the only thing granting accommodations, a court could make you pay the price … big time. As in punitive damages...

Basing hiring decisions on the prejudices of your customer base is a sure way to land in court. Hiring managers can’t try to push off their bias onto a third party using excuses like “Our customers feel more comfortable dealing with [male or younger or white] employees.” That just won’t fly in court...

Are your managers giving you only half the story when recommending a termination? Watch out! As a new court ruling says, this kind of “willful ignorance” on your part is no defense to discriminatory conduct ...

If you thought only employees could put you on legal notice that harassment is occurring in your workplace, maybe it’s time you looked up … into the sky. A new court ruling says that “helicopter parents”—super-involved moms and dads who hover over their kids’ lives—can officially flip your notice switch, requiring you to take prompt effective action to stop the harassing conduct. If not, you’ll see them both in court ...

“Do that one more time and you’re through!” Have supervisors in your organization (or even you) uttered this phrase before? A new court ruling shows that if your firing threats are simply empty promises, be prepared to pay up in court ... even if you responded promptly and lawfully to the initial complaint.

Many companies have horribly confusing organizational charts—or no org charts at all. A new court ruling issues a stern warning to employers: If you want to avoid harassment liability, you’d better get your straight-edged ruler out and connect employees to their supervisors by name.

You can’t expect employees to walk into HR and ask, “May I have a reasonable accommodation under the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990? Oh, and don’t forget to engage me in the required interactive process!” As the following case shows, blowing off that interactive process could be seen by the courts as “bad faith,” which gives the employee a direct admission ticket to a jury trial ...

Does your company allow employees to play music while they work? Do you ever pay attention to the words? The EEOC says maybe it’s time you plug in. Some companies that don’t monitor their employees’ choices in music just might be singing the “EEOC blues,” as the following case shows...

While the ADA requires companies to make job accommodations for disabled workers, you don’t have to employ anyone who can’t perform the “essential functions” of the job. And on-time attendance is an “essential function,” right? Not necessarily, as the following case shows ...