Are you an employee or a contract worker? Believe it or not, how your employer classifies you does matter. If you are labeled as a contract worker, you may not be entitled to the same rights and benefits as an employee. Whether intentional or deliberate,...
Employment Law
New law ends forced arbitration for sexual assault, harassment
Most people don’t read the fine print in the contracts and other legal documents they sign – including those related to their employment. Those documents often stipulate that if the person signing the document has a legal dispute, it must be settled via arbitration....
Can you use non-compete agreements for any employee?
A non-compete agreement is an agreement between an employer and employee stating that the employee will not leave the company and then work for the competition. These agreements also usually prohibit the employee from starting a similar company on their own. The idea...
Office dating: No means no
Some companies have rules against office dating, but most do not. Employees are allowed to engage in romantic relationships if they would like to do so, as long as both people consent to the relationship. However, if someone asks another employee out on a date, and...
2 common work dress code rules that are subtly racist
Both federal and state laws prohibit employers from discriminating based on race. No company should ever make hiring or firing decisions based on the color of someone's skin, their country of origin or their cultural background. Racism in the workplace is often...
How do you know if your workplace has a hostile environment?
It’s important that you are able to recognize if your workplace is toxic. A toxic work environment makes the workday longer and harder for everyone, so it’s necessary to take steps to correct it. As an employer, it’s your responsibility to make sure that your...
Court upholds ruling in prison employee’s retaliation case
A Missouri state appeals court in September upheld a lower court’s decision, affirming that the state most pay $700,000 to a Department of Corrections employee and her attorneys in a workplace retaliation case. Shelley Gray, a prison corrections officer for two...
Discrimination may only show up as a pattern
In a singular case of discrimination, your employer may well have an excuse ready to make it appear that they’re acting fairly. If they fire a Black employee, for instance, they may say that it had nothing to do with race and that they were just underwhelmed with that...
What should you do when a customer sexually harasses you?
Sexual harassment in the workplace is an issue that affects countless Americans. Many people have an unnecessarily restrictive definition of sexual harassment that stops them from recognizing how inappropriate their work environment actually is. For example, many...
Teach your teens how to respond to workplace sexual harassment
McDonald’s has taken several hits to its corporate reputation lately for allowing sexual harassment of its workers to flourish amid franchise operations. In the latest blow, yet another lawsuit has been filed by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC)...