Fishing while on FMLA supports firing: Union Pacific Railroad (UP) was justified in firing an employee who took Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) leave and then appeared in a co-worker's Facebook live video of a fishing trip on one of the days he was out, a California district court said (Dunger v. Union Pacific Railroad Company, et. al., No. 18-cv-6374 (C.D. Calif. June 3, 2019)). The employee had previously taken intermittent leave on multiple occasions, without repercussions, for a hiatal hernia and gastroesophageal reflux disease. When questioned about the video, in which he said, "I'm not out here," the employee initially said he could not recall whether it was him, but eventually admitted it. He was fired for violating UP's policy against dishonesty and misusing FMLA leave.  Source:  HR Dive 6/25/19

Lack of communication skills hurts new grads: “Communications skills are the first area I would work on to enhance your value throughout life, no matter what you do,” Warren Buffett once said. Buffett only has one diploma hanging in his office. It’s the one he received for completing a public-speaking course in 1951. “It’s incalculable how much value I got from that hundred dollars,” says Buffett. Buffett’s right. In one survey of HR professionals across the United States, 63% said that, given two candidates of equal qualifications, the one who has better “oral communication skills” would be the one they’d choose to hire.  Source: Forbes 6/21/19

Detroit didn't make the Mercer list: Mercer’s 2019 Cost of Living Ranking was released last week, with Hong Kong again taking the lead. The annual Cost of Living Ranking is designed to help multinational companies and governments determine compensation allowances for their expatriate employees. The report is based on in-depth research for more than 500 cities throughout the world. This year’s ranking includes 209 of these cities. The top ten are:  1. Hong Kong, 2. Tokyo, 3. Singapore, 4. Seoul, 5. Zurich, 6. Shanghai, 7. Ashgabat, 8. Beijing, 9. New York, and 10. Shenzen.  Source: Mercer 6/26/19

Employers dealing with activist employees: Workers are showing increasing dissatisfaction with employers who insist that their companies are apolitical.   Hundreds of employees at Wayfair’s headquarters walked off the job to protest the furniture company’s $200,000 sale of beds to a government contractor that planned to use them at U.S. migrant detention camps. Also, more than 100 Googlers petitioned the San Francisco Pride Parade to ban the company from this weekend’s festivities because of what they see as Google’s inadequate protection of LGBTQ people from attacks on YouTube.  Even banks are taking stances:  Bank of America said it will stop lending to companies that run private prisons and detention centers, following a similar decision by JPMorgan in March.   Wayfair promised to donate its profits from the sale to the American Red Cross. But Google warned employees marching with the company’s Pride float that they can’t protest during the parade.  Source:  Bloomberg 6/27/19

Generation X not in good financial position:  Generation X is being called the “sandwich” generation because they have reached the point in their lives where they are frequently paying for their children’s expenses — including their college education — while also taking on the responsibilities of caring for their parents. This is happening as they close in on retirement.  EBRI’s newest study, “Comparing the Financial Status of Generation X Families,” examines key financial status indicators of Generation X families and compares them with those of older and younger generations. The comparisons not only evaluate the Generation X families against other generations as of 2016 but also by how the indicators differed when prior generations were the same ages Generation Xers were in 2016. In particular, homeownership, net worth, debt-to-asset ratios, and retirement plan ownership and balances are the emphasis of the analysis.   Source: EBRI 6/27/19