Management’s Workplace Blog – Information and Insights for Employers
As an employer, you might think you’ve heard all the excuses why an employee is late for work. But what if they’re working from home? Seriously, how is that even possible? Well, that’s exactly what happened in Taylor-Novotny v. Health Alliance Medical Plans, Inc.
In this case, an employee had tardiness and attendance issues from…
So, as we all know, the NFL is having a rough patch. (And as a Baltimore Ravens fan, the past month has been particularly painful for me). I was particularly intrigued by the latest (non-Ray Rice-related) gaffe – the penalty imposed on Kansas City Chiefs’ Husain Abdullah for bowing in Muslim prayer after intercepting a…
This case caught my eye because I’ve never seen the term “maxiflex schedule” before. It sounds so…well, extensive and overwhelming. I’m sure that’s what the employer in Solomon v. Vilsack thought when it denied the employee’s requested accommodation for this type of schedule, which involves substantial flexibility in working hours. The trial court stated that…
In our troubled economic times, many employers have focused on making their workforce leaner and more efficient. This frequently involves raising performance standards for employees. But it is important to do so in a thoughtful and legally defensible way.
An illustration of this point can be found in the case of Dupont v. Allina Health …
One of the most challenging issues that my clients deal with is managing employee leave rights under the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Family and Medical Leave Act. Getting employees to come to work on a regular basis can be frustrating – hair-pulling, teeth-gnashing frustrating. So the recent case of Mecca v. Florida Health …
In a happier, pre-ADAAA (Americans with Disabilities Act Amendments Act) time, I could blithely advise clients that any medical condition that lasted less that 6 months was only temporary, and therefore was not a covered disability under the ADA. Upon passage of the ADAAA, however, this elegantly simple, bright-line rule no longer applies. Instead, we …
This seems like a no-brainer – if an employee has to work fewer hours, the employer should expect (and assign) less work from the employee. Well, an employer you would think would be savvy about this obvious point – IBM – seems to have missed it, in the case of Hochstetler v. International Business Machines, …
Given all the emphasis on employees’ rights under various laws, employers are sometimes confused about their own rights. The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is a perfect example. Under the ADA, employers are required to provide reasonable accommodations to employees with disabilities in order to enable them to perform the essential functions of their jobs. …
