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Employee Relations

New risk: Workers can claim retaliation even if there’s no adverse job action

03/01/2000
Judy Morris’ supervisor at the county road department first evaluated Morris’ job performance as “excellent.” Later, he rated her as “very good.” The supervisor said …

Women-hating comments, even if not sexual, can equal sexual harassment

03/01/2000
Elizabeth Smith got hit with a double whammy: a harassing boss and a company that didn’t take it seriously. In the end, the company’s lax response cost it big-time …

Don’t fear distress caused by proper investigations

03/01/2000
You don’t have to worry that the target of your harassment investigation will turn around and sue you for emotional distress. The 2nd Circuit said he …

Harassment: How to stop it before, and after, it starts

03/01/2000
Protect your organization from employee lawsuits for harassment by focusing your attention on both preventive and corrective measures. Provide every employee …

More firms crack down on employee use of the Web

02/01/2000
Nearly a third of employers, 31 percent, now monitor and/or restrict employee Internet use, according to a Vault.com survey. Approaches range from restricting …

Notify employees before stripping unused vacation

02/01/2000

Q. Can we require employees to forfeit vacation time that they don’t use within a certain period? —G.J., Massachusetts

Don’t hand out authority without giving training to match

02/01/2000
Promoting lower-level employees to supervisory roles, even if it’s on a temporary or “acting” basis, can backfire if you fail to educate them on their new legal responsibilities. That’s what happened …

Tell employee of subpoena for personnel file

01/01/2000

Q. We recently received a subpoena to produce the contents of an employee’s personnel file in connection with a lawsuit. The employee is a party to the lawsuit, but the company is not. Do we have to comply with the subpoena? Should we tell the employee about the subpoena? —K.H., District of Columbia

Get the most from your temps

06/01/1998
Some managers hire temps and then pray that the newcomers don’t get too far behind or make too many mistakes. But there’s a better way.

Cut Noise Pollution at Work

07/01/1997
Stroll through your workplace and listen. What do you hear?