On June 15, 2020, the Supreme Court ruled that Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act protects LGBTQ rights (Bostock v. Clayton County Georgia, No. 17-1618 (June 15, 2020)).  Before the decision, 21 states had their own laws prohibiting job discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity, and seven more provided that protection only to public employees. Michigan just recently added itself to the list.

A recent U.S. Federal 11th Circuit case upended the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) guidance as to disability and accommodations.  Under the guidance, an employee merely has a functional rather than a medical definition of disability, and the determination of whether an individual has a disability doesn't necessarily hinge on the name or diagnosis of an impairment. Once an employer is on notice, they must engage in an interactive discussion concerning any...

Although diversity and DEI programs have proliferated, many question the effectiveness of these various programs.  It’s a booming industry. There are more diversity professionals today than anytime in the past.  Are they making an impact?

There have been a number of studies showing that employees value and trust their direct supervisor’s messaging more than the 2^nd line or even the CEO.  The direct supervisor is a constant in their lives and likely to experience what they experience when they hear upper-level leaders talk. In engagement studies, communication and trust are generally the lowest rated items.

Year in and year out, buzzwords seem to take on a life of their own.  They do have benefits – buzzwords or corporate jargon often unify employees as a team.  Some employers even publish a list for employees to look up and understand when acronyms and buzzwords are widely used.  

Earlier this year, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization that abortion and access to abortion is not a constitutional right and reverted back to state laws for determining the legality of the procedure.  In other words, only states have the power to regulate abortion and access to it. 

Who wants to deal with employees always opposing or dismissing the actions of an employer?  No one wants to consistently hear negative feedback.  No one wants to hear “I told you so” either.  Yet naysayers play an important role in the organization, and if harnessed properly can add value to leadership messaging and actions.

The current U.S. Supreme Court endorses workers’ rights when it comes to expressing religious values at work.  In the last term’s case of Kennedy v. Bremerton School District, No. 21-418 (2022), Kennedy was a football coach who kneeled and prayed on the 50-yard line after a game.  He was suspended by the Bremerton School District in the state of Washington for whom he worked. 

Cell phones in the workplace are a distraction that employers want to control and employees don’t want them to control.  The common statement by an employee is “what if I get an emergency call?  I cannot be unavailable to my . . .“ And what makes this worse is that the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) generally sides with employees without regard to the practicalities involved.

…or just more sensitive?  The election of 2016 opened the doors for filters to be filed away leading many employers to re-establish their work speech policies.  However, with the pandemic and work from home, it appears that rudeness is again creeping into the workplace.  

California legislature passed S.B. 1162 and is currently waiting for the Governor’s signature, creating new obligations for California employers by amending the earlier pay reporting requirements. 

Does your organization award perfect attendance?  Is it done on a weekly, monthly, quarterly, or yearly basis?  And what does perfect attendance mean exactly?  Perfect attendance needs to also take into account the variety of days that should still be counted towards perfect attendance without penalizing the employee for taking them.

As the great resignation continues and employees who leave get generally 6% growth in salary than those who stay, a lot of people have argued that wage growth is the key driver of inflation.  However, not yet as many economists say the same.  

Earlier this year, the OFCCP released Directive 2022-01: Advancing Pay Equity Through Compensation Analysis.  There was a lot of controversy over the directive, both with respect to expected analysis and analysis to be submitted when a compliance officer requested it.  For the latter, the agency generated discord in the compliance sector, because it was seemingly saying attorney/client privilege can be overturned by the agency. 

2022 is a banner year for union organizing.  1,411 U.S. workplaces filed petitions with the National Labor Relations Board according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of federal data, which represents a 69% increase from the same period in 2021 and the most of any year since 2015.  Yet only 10.3% of workers were in unions, down from 29.3% in 1964 according to studies.  Of the 1,411 workplaces filing petitions filed, about 400, representing more than 21,000 workers, have...