Issue: Personal relationships between employees and their bosses are ripe conditions for legal trouble. Risk: Any form of quid pro quo ("this for that") exchange of...
Issue: If managers "go public" about employee discipline, it could spark an invasion-of-privacy lawsuit. Risk: Jury awards and damaged employee morale, leading to...
Issue: As outsourcing grows and gains popularity, you need to prove your value to the organization. Benefit: Protect your job and build a reputation as a "big-picture"...
Issue: Paid-time-off (PTO) plans combine sick leave, vacation time and personal days into a single leave-time bank. Benefits: A PTO plan can reduce sick leave abuse and...
Expect lawmakers in other states to be encouraged by California's landmark passage last month of a bill requiring all but the smallest companies to provide health...
Issue: Interviewers often have one pet question they use to test an applicant's quality. Benefit: The right question can separate the contenders from the pretenders ...
Issue: With the job market flooded with experienced and skilled people, the temptation rises for hiring managers to use "overqualified" as a weeding-out method. Risk:...
It's true that your company could be held liable if it rejects an applicant based on inaccurate data in his background check. But don't stop doing background ...
Don't leave the hiring and firing process up to your managers. Standardize your practices, and make sure everyone follows them. Giving any worker, especially a disabled...
Joel Hernandez had worked for Hughes Aircraft for 25 years when he tested positive for cocaine during a workplace drug test. Rather than be fired, he resigned. The...
In applying for a job with a heating and air conditioning company, an applicant stated that he had been laid off from his previous job. But the truth was that the ...
Traditionally, volunteers donate their time to nonprofit groups, like the American Red Cross, without an expectation of being paid. Such true volunteers aren't covered...
Neil Patterson lost it. Fed up with
his employees’ poor effort, the CEO of Cerner Corp. wrote an e-mail to
senior managers that read, in part, “Hell will...
An employee wants to confess wrongdoing or alert you to sensitive
personnel or safety matters. But before opening up, the worker asks,
“Can you keep this...
Jane Foster had a tough decision: Follow the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) or follow her boss's orders. She went with the ADA and got fired. But a court has...
Two recent court cases help draw the boundaries on how far you can go with a razor. Federal Express recently settled a lawsuit involving its no-beard policy and a Muslim...
If you have a policy that bans hiring employees' spouses, consider dropping it, or at least rewriting it. Reason: 14 percent of dual-income married couples now work in...
