After having expressed concern (here and here) that penalizing employees for not participating in "voluntary" wellness programs may render the programs . . . er . . . involuntary*, my view was somewhat vindicated this week by Rep. Louise M. Slaughter (D-NY) in a letter that Rep. Slaughter sent to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

*Under the Americans with Disabilities Act ...

NOTE TO READERS (7/18/15): Due to a technical issue with the comments, replies that I tried to make to a number of commenters did not "post." I apologize. I think we have everything fixed now, and I've gone back in this morning and replied to just about everybody unless the comment did not seek a response or I couldn't understand the comment. My responses are under the name "InsiderBlog ...

Happy new year, everybody! Although I've been on vacation, the news never sleeps, and the Mayans were wrong. Accordingly, I have a few items to catch you up on.

"Ha-ha! We were just kidding!"

UPDATE: Thanks to reader John Perkins, SPHR, for the 2013 Mayan Calendar. Most educational!

"Near occasion of sin" is a legitimate ground for termination, Iowa court says. You've probably already ...

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit* has held that employers may use "sticks" to encourage participation in wellness programs as well as "carrots," if the wellness program is part of a group health or other benefit plan.

*The 11th Circuit hears appeals from federal courts in the states of Florida, Georgia, and Alabama.

Let me back up and explain the issue a bit.

**NERD ALERT ...

Here's a strange little case for ya . . .

A loss prevention manager for a major retail store chain -- we'll call her "Loretta" -- had some performance issues in the past but was only five days away from the satisfactory completion of a performance improvement plan. She and a male loss prevention partner were called to investigate a sexual harassment complaint. During the investigation ...

You kiss your mother with that mouth? Evil HR Lady has an entertaining discussion about a nasty e-mail she received from a "cusser" who didn't like the fact that she had expressed opposition to cussing at work. (Not all cussing -- just the "every other word out of your mouth" variety.) Anyway, the e-mail contained -- you guessed it -- cussing just about every other word. To provide the flavor ...