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 ...

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 ...

A cornucopia of random employment law issues for your long weekend.

Lessons for employers from the Natalie Wood investigation. (OK, I admit this is a shameless tie-in designed to get you to read a legal blog over a holiday weekend.) But the reopening of the Natalie Wood drowning investigation after 30 years does contain a good lesson for employers -- to wit, that no matter how much time has ...

Odds and ends from the employment law world this week:

Facebook rant about wages didn't create retaliation claim. Molly DiBianca of the Delaware Employment Law Blog reports on a decision from a federal court in Florida saying that a Facebook rant about an employer's alleged violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act overtime provisions was not "protected activity" that would trigger ...

Plaintiff's lawyer Donna Ballman and The Evil HR Lady have had good posts recently on common employee misconceptions about employment law, including the "right" to see what is in one's personnel file and the "right" to take a break.*

*Depending on where the employee lives, he may have these rights, but in many states he does not. And the federal Fair Labor Standards Act does not require ...

According to a recent study, organized religion is being "driven to extinction" from nine countries, including Canada, Ireland, the Czech Republic, and Switzerland. Although the United States is not on the list, studies here have also shown an increase in the number of people who call themselves "unaffiliated."

Meanwhile, American workplaces continue to struggle with the issue of ...

H.L. Mencken once said, "No one in this world, as far as I know . . . has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people." Being a "small d" democrat and believing that stupidity is not limited by one's social standing, I'd delete "the great masses of the plain."

But, apart from that nit, I am in awe -- I just can't figure out how Mr. Mencken ...

The Wall Street Journal had a good article this week about Girl Scout cookie sales at the workplace and how much charitable solicitation (if any) should go on at work.

Before I say another word, let me make one thing perfectly clear: I am 100 percent pro-charity. Those of us who are fortunate enough to have incomes ought to be as generous as possible in supporting our communities and ...