Disputes between co-workers and between employees and their bosses are almost inevitable—which is why every HR professional must know how to gather the necessary facts to find out what’s going on. Whether it is a small inquiry or a weighty investigation into serious allegations of misconduct, being deliberate and intentional about an investigation will create a more helpful and less disruptive process.

Sometimes it’s best to scrap the metrics and go with your gut—even in the stats-happy world of professional sports. So far, the Minnesota Vikings are glad they did. Given Brett Favre’s remarkable season thus far, it’s probably a good thing that, before signing him, they didn’t pay any attention to a Bizjournals survey that ranked him 34th out the 36 NFL quarterbacks in 2008, when he played for the Jets.

A University of Minnesota study of sexual harassment shows that female supervisors are more likely to be harassed than women with no supervisory duties. More than half of the female supervisors who responded to the survey reported having been sexually harassed on the job. But only 30% of women with no supervisory duties reported harassment.

You are no doubt familiar with Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. It prohibits various kinds of discrimination and also spells out tight deadlines for when employees must file complaints with a state discrimination agency or the EEOC. But there is another avenue employees can use to get into federal court, as long as race is at the core of the discrimination claim: Section 1981 of the Civil Rights Act.

Employees are entitled to work in an environment free from religious harassment, and employers should treat such harassment just as seriously as they do any other kind of harassment. Do that by promptly investigating complaints and fixing any problems you discover. What you don’t want to do is ignore religious harassment.

Do you require employees to sign an agreement to arbitrate workplace disputes as a condition of employment? If so, you don’t lose the right to force the case into arbitration if you don’t ask for it during an EEOC investigation.

Companies that fire lots of employees get sued for discrimination by many of the castoffs. But all those terminations may be an indication of employee/management personality conflicts, not discrimination.

Pregnant women have many legal protections under Title VII’s sex discrimination provisions, the Pregnancy Discrimination Act and the FMLA. They rarely, however, qualify as disabled. That’s because normal pregnancies may create temporary difficulties, but they’re not severe enough to count as substantial limitations ...

A group of 200 community and religious leaders marched on the Minnesota Department of Transportation (Mn/DOT) building on July 23 to demand renewed efforts to hire more women and minorities. According to protesters, Mn/DOT is employing fewer women and minorities, even as federal stimulus dollars and state infrastructure spending have swelled the agency’s employee rolls.

Participation in new “social media” outlets is on the rise, creating many questions for employers. Should we be using social media to develop business or to recruit new talent? Should we allow employees to use social media at work? What types of restrictions do we need? Can we monitor off-duty conduct? And what are the potential liabilities?

Twin Cities employers have another recruiting tool. Ronald McDonald is lovin’ it here! In honor of the 30th anniversary of the Happy Meal, McDonald’s hired Sperling’s Best Places Research to evaluate the nation’s 50 largest metropolitan areas for family fun. When the results were tabulated, Minneapolis came out on top.

Some bosses are visibly irked when they receive a doctor’s note restricting the work an employee can perform. If the employee notices that reaction and then gets disciplined or fired, watch out for a lawsuit! Her attorney will probably try to link the timing of the doctor’s note and the adverse employment action as proof of discrimination or retaliation. 

If your organization is a target for union organizing or your employees have recently voted to be represented by a union, be careful how you respond. You should consult with an experienced labor lawyer before you do anything else. Consider what happened in one recent case.

The Minnesota Legislature recently enacted a law designed to protect employers from some of the legal risks that may accompany hiring people with criminal backgrounds. The law is designed to help those who have served their sentences re-enter society as productive citizens.

In one of its most anticipated employment law decisions in years, the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that New Haven, Conn., discriminated against white firefighters when it refused to promote them after they passed a test that most black co-workers failed.

It’s one of the sad realities of today’s litigious world: Even when you win a lawsuit, you’re seldom able to recoup all your legal fees unless you win big. That’s true even if your opponent is the EEOC and it’s clear it didn’t have much of a case to begin with.

Employers can’t fire employees in retaliation for “blowing the whistle” on illegal activities. But Minnesota’s Whistleblower Statute doesn’t apply to workers who complain about practices they simply think are unethical.

Here’s a good reason to be careful about disciplining employees right after they complain about possible discrimination: A court may view the timing as so suspicious that it won’t  toss out the case early. Then it will be up to you to prove the complaint and discipline weren’t related.

Employers have faced more retaliation claims ever since the U.S. Supreme Court made such cases easier to win by ruling that retaliation is an action that “might have dissuaded a reasonable worker from making or supporting a charge of discrimination.” While the federal courts have placed some limits on what constitutes a retaliatory act, they continue to struggle with the question.

It’s natural for supervisors and managers to become upset when employees accuse them of some form of discrimination. Tell them they must resist the impulse to strike back. It inevitably makes the situation worse. Many forms of managerial punishment may end up being construed as retaliation—which can be far easier to prove than the alleged discrimination that started all the trouble.

Ellen Bahr was a supervisor for Capella University and regularly had to evaluate workers in her department. One black woman was performing far worse than the rest of the workers, so Bahr placed her on an improvement plan. Even then, the employee’s work remained below standard ...

The Minnesota Court of Appeals has decertified a class-action lawsuit brought by 4,900 current and former Minnesota employees of 3M. The suit alleged that company policies, seemingly neutral, actually had a disparate impact on older workers.

Rather than trying to wage a court fight over what increasingly looked like a losing battle, a local company has decided to settle with an employee who sued to enforce a noncompete agreement he had signed.

Exotic dancers at suburban Minneapolis’ King of Diamonds club pay the club a fee of $20 to $100 every night they work. King of Diamonds maintains the dancers are independent contractors and “pay for the pole” in order to earn tips. The club does not pay them an hourly wage. Attorney E. Michelle Drake sees things differently.

A legal theory often referred to as the “cat’s paw” holds that an employer can be liable for hidden bias if it merely rubber stamps a subordinate’s discriminatory decision. By conducting an independent evaluation of the situation, you can cut off that liability.