Sunday December 22, 2024

15 ways to avoid feds’ independent contractor wrath

Working with independent contractors? Here are 15 ways to ensure you don’t end up as the next write-up on the Department of Labor’s website for misclassifying them as employees. The feds at the DOL and the IRS smell blood in the water when they see your company employ a lot of independent contractors – and […]

Unraveling the mysteries of GINA: What HR should know

As two recent lawsuits show, the feds have the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA) clear in their sights. Here’s what HR should do about it. As you may remember, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) recently filed and settled its first lawsuit involving GINA. Just nine days afterward, the EEOC was at it again. Here […]

7 ‘special circumstance’ pay pitfalls – and how to handle ’em

You know when non-exempt staff have to be paid for off-the-clock time or travel. But what about these other wage and hour pitfalls? Here are seven compensable time issues that every HR pro should know how to handle, courtesy of Grace Lee and Robert Friedman of Venable LLP. Seminars and training Non-exempt workers who attend […]

9 do’s and don’ts of employee workplace monitoring

Thinking of keeping an eye on employees in your workplace? Tread carefully.  Employers that want to monitor staff members’ workplace activities have a lot of options: email filters, website visit logs, global positioning systems, phone logs, keystroke logger software and even video surveillance. But just because companies can use those means of monitoring doesn’t mean […]

New: 606 pages of Obamacare guidance & 2 more delayed requirements

Three days after the Obama Administration announced that it would be delaying the “employer mandate” of its signature healthcare reform law, it released 606 more pages of guidance on the legislation. The big news to come out of that guidance? Two more of the law’s requirements will be delayed until at least 2015. Since the […]

Court upholds decision that firing ‘irresistible’ worker wasn’t bias

It’s official. Iowa’s highest court has ruled — again — that a dentist did not break the law when he fired an employee because she was too attractive.   The Iowa Supreme Court repeated the decision it had made last December, finding that James Knight was not guilty of gender discrimination when he terminated the […]

The 10 strangest job interviews ever

Maybe you’ve seen candidates pick their nose or wear a t-shirt. But these applicants take the cake for most bizarre behavior during an interview. Alison Green over at The Fast Track polled readers for their strangest interview experiences. Here are the top 10: An interviewer had a clearly high candidate show up in shorts and […]

Did firm have to provide other staff to help disabled worker?

The Americans with Disabilities Act requires a lot of employers. But do companies have to assign employees to help disabled workers with job functions they can’t perform? Here are the details of the case: Renee Majors worked for General Electric in Bloomington, IN, for 32 years. In 2000, she suffered a work-related injury to her […]

When those ‘difficult conversations’ don’t get the results managers were looking for

So one of your organization’s managers has had the difficult conversations with a problem employee. She’s given it her best shot to turn the situation around, but nothing has worked.  Now the challenge has ratcheted up to new degree of conversational difficulty: the discipline phase.   When these conversations are handled correctly, they can lead […]

The latest on how managers ruin vacations, bully employees

Here are two new ways your managers are screwing up.  Managers vs. vacations Here’s some bad news for companies who hope their employees come back from their vacations refreshed and ready to dive back into work: Nearly 55% of workers said their boss expects them to work on vacation. So says a new report from […]