No more pencils, no more books, no more teacher's dirty looks . . . except for one little quiz on employment law issues that come up during the summer.

Law360 reported yesterday morning that the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission settled a transgender discrimination and harassment lawsuit (not our Detroit-area funeral home case). Although the employer entered into the consent decree voluntarily, we now have a pretty good idea of what the EEOC thinks employers should do in dealing with employees who are ...

We are non-partisan here at Employment & Labor Insider, but that doesn't mean we can't look forward to the Iowa Caucus. (DISCLAIMER: This Employment Law Blog Carnival is guaranteed obsolete in two weeks, if not sooner.)

Ring in the Old!

On February 1, Hawkeyes will gather at their precincts, hear inspiring speeches from the candidates' pitch men and women, and (if Republican) mark their ...

When you get tired of all the shopping and hustle and bustle, take a break and head over to Win-Win HR, where Lorene Schaefer is hosting the Employment Law Blog Carnival: A Festival of Lessons. It will get you back into the proper spirit!

Well, it's that time of year again - what are you thankful for? Here are some Human Resources and employment law matters for which I am thankful. Please feel free to add your own in the comments.

I'm thankful that I'm not Trey Gowdy. The Republican Congressman from South Carolina and chair of the House Benghazi Committee is not out, but he's definitely down -- for the moment. He's ...

Mike Haberman of the HR Observations blog was our gracious host for the October Halloween Employment Law Blog Carnival: Scary and Frightening edition. It's a trick-or-treat bag full of outstanding posts by the cream of the employment law and HR bloggers. If you miss it, it'll be a terror!

(Thanks very much to Mike for hosting, and thanks as always to our favorite "carnie," Eric Meyer of ...

Are you still using "independent contractors"? Get out of here - you know they're really employees!

On Wednesday, I did a very short "breaking news" post on the new Interpretation issued by Wage and Hour Administrator David Weil on when workers are "employees" versus "independent contractors" under the Fair Labor Standards Act.

Here's more.

As employers probably ...

We have reached the fifth and final of our five harassment "must-haves": No retaliation.

It should be easy to avoid retaliation, right? Because retaliatory conduct is intentional - you can't "accidentally" retaliate against someone. You can't "negligently" seek payback.

To retaliate, you have to work at it.

Of course, that would make life way too simple. Employers can ...

Male attorneys, it's not a good idea to use the "V" word when referring to your female adversaries, and you might even be sanctioned for it.

(Chill! I'm not talking about that "V" word.)

Have you ever heard of the word "virilism"? Neither had I. But apparently it's a real thing: the appearance of male secondary sex characteristics in a female. (Males can have the condition, too, but it's ...

(St. Patrick's Day is sooooo nine hours ago!)

Ever looking to the future, we celebrate the coming April Fools' Day with this month's greatest employment law blog posts. Some of my summaries are accurate, and others are "fools' editions" - you'll have to read the actual posts to know which is which. There are so many excellent posts that I'm listing them in alphabetical order by ...