In tough economic times, harassment training tends to be viewed as a luxury that can be gone without until things get better.

I understand this thinking, but harassment training on a regular basis is never a "luxury." It's a "cost of doing business." That is the reality. Here are five reasons why:

"Don't be 'cheep' about your harassment training. (tehe - get it?)"

*Turnover. If it's been ...

I just learned that the September Employment Law Blog Carnival-Bronx Bombers Edition is up at Dan Schwartz's blog. It's a grand slam of posts on employment and labor law topics, including but not limited to my recent post on the wisdom of talking politics at work. Don't strike out -- go read it right now, even if you prefer the Red Sox or (like me) the Detroit Tigers!

Remember that one little bone that the National Labor Relations Board threw to employers on social media policies? The guidance was generally atrocious, but in the last memorandum of the Acting General Counsel a policy developed by Walmart was approved and attached.

I've suggested that employers use that Walmart policy as a go-by in developing their social media policies.

Well, now ...

Employers, is your appearance code so important that you would pay more than $150,000 to ban a $10 accessory in the workplace? 

This is the story of the $150,000 lanyard.

If you are ignorant like me, you are thinking, "What the heck is a lanyard? Isn't that a part of a ship?" (Actually, I am sure that no one but me is that ignorant.)

A lanyard, I am ashamed to admit I have only recently learned, is ...

Wow! This story has it all.

Bullying!

Chick-fil-A!

Social media!

Was this guy's YouTube post "protected concerted activity"? You decide.

Adam Smith (no relation to that "invisible hand" guy), chief financial officer of biotech company Vante, went to a drive-through at a Tucson Chick-fil-A on Wednesday morning, ordered a free water, confronted the drive-through girl* about ...

Here are some steaming hot employment law news items for this sweltering mid-July:

EEOC does nothing to protect actor wrongfully terminated because of arrest record. (NOTE: I'm being tongue-in-cheek here.) You have probably heard by now about the arrest of actor Fred Willard for alleged "lewd conduct" in an adult movie theater. Willard denies behaving lewdly apart from being in ...

The latest guidance on social media and protected concerted activity, issued last week by Lafe Solomon, Acting General Counsel of the National Labor Relations Board, is for the most part an unrealistic, hair-splitting mess. ("But Robin, tell us how you really feel about it!") However, there is a somewhat happy ending that I'll talk about at the end of this post.

The first two ...

I wonder if there is a recognized legal specialty in the area of unwed-pregnant-moms-and-religious-schools-discrimination law. If so, I think I will qualify very soon. Happy belated Mother's Day?

Not long ago, I wrote about the Archdiocese of Cincinnati, which terminated an unmarried pregnant teacher at a Catholic school -- not for "immoral" behavior -- although they did think her ...

The Chinese New Year is almost upon us. In honor of the Year of the Dragon, and in fond farewell to bilingual Jon Huntsman, who announced that he was withdrawing from the presidential race (hmm . . . speaking Mandarin in a Republican debate? . . . not sure that's a choice I'd have made), we have enough employment and HR blog posts to get you through the entire new year's season without repeating ...