Following up on my Tuesday morning post on how the labor and employment agencies are affected by the government shutdown, I spoke with Colin O'Keefe of LXBN on the topic. In the brief interview, I explained what private employers should know about the shutdown and the effects on employees of the federal government.

One thing we did not discuss in the video or in my Tuesday post -- the ...

Whoa.

A federal judge in Pennsylvania held this week that U.S. Steel had the right under the Americans with Disabilities Act to conduct random alcohol tests on probationary employees at a coke plant, granting summary judgment to the company in a class action that had been filed by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

The court found, in a "case of first impression,"* that the ...

"Love means having to say you're sorry." Wait a minute. Is that a typo? 

No. Erich Segal, I beg to differ. As anyone who has a life knows, love means having to say you're sorry a lot. And that goes for employers, too. The company apology is a fine thing, as long as it is sincere, not a "non-apology apology," and accompanied by what they call a "firm purpose of amendment."

If you don't apologize when ...

Don't eat that pretty red apple, Snow White!!! It has poison in it!!!!

You know the old saying, "If it seems too good to be true, it probably is"? Well, it appears that this may be the case with the new "sweet deal" the Internal Revenue Service is offering to employers who agree to reclassify their "independent contractors" [sic] as "employees" in exchange for some admittedly generous ...