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Notes for Employees Who Have Been Notified that They’re Being Fired

Notes for employees on what to do if you think you might be fired.
Sometimes, as a lawyer, it’s easy to get caught up in statutory language, burdens of proof, and legal frameworks. Today I want to take a step back from that and offer some thoughts on how to handle one of the most basic employment-related fears: What do I …

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In the Absence of Federal Legislation for Sexual Orientation Discrimination, EEOC Steps Up

Many months ago, we heard something that surprised us – that the EEOC was interested in investigating charges of sexual orientation discrimination in the workplace.  We weren’t disappointed by this news (in fact, quite the opposite), but we were somewhat confused because the agency is charged with enforcing …

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Part 3: How coworkers can serve as allies to transgender counterparts

For the final installment in this three part series, we wanted to focus on how coworkers and others in the workplace can serve as allies to their transgender counterparts.  The following are some tips on how to address these issues in the workplace to foster a safe and inclusive working environment.

Use …

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How employers can ensure the workplace is inclusive for transgender employees

For the second installment in this series, we will focus on ways that employers can ensure that the workplace is an inclusive and welcoming environment for their transgender employees.  Much of this seems obvious in a world that has been so shaped by laws protecting employees from discrimination and retaliation in …

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Last Wednesday, I was excited to watch as thousands of Chicago workers marched across the Jackson Boulevard bridge and past my office window in support of a protest to increase the minimum wage to $15 per hour.  The protest was led by fast food workers, home care, child care, security, and retail employees all of whom struggle to provide for …

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Consideration for Transgender Employees

If your Facebook feed is anything like mine, I suspect you were met Monday morning with a huge number of posts and conversations about Bruce Jenner’s two hour interview with Diane Sawyer discussing his experiences as a transgender person.  I admire Mr. Jenner (he asked that Ms. Sawyer continue to use male pronouns for now, so I will …

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The Vanishing Earned Bonus: Part II

Just wanted to post a quick update to our ongoing blog series addressing the ways in which employers and courts have been eating away at earned bonuses by reliance on language providing employers with absolute discretion in awarding incentive compensation.

Yesterday, in McCleary v. Wells Fargo Securities, LLC, 2015 Ill. App. (1st) 141287-U (Ill. App. 1st Dist. …

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A Worker’s Guide to the Chicago Mayoral Run-Off

In anticipation of the upcoming mayoral runoff election, we thought we’d delve into where the candidates (Rahm Emanuel and Jesus “Chuy” Garcia) stand on issues facing Chicago workers.  Unfortunately, because they have such different political experience – with incumbent Emanuel coming largely from work in the federal government and challenger Garcia being more …

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A number of years ago, we published a blog setting out several tools employers have used to deny employees what we believe are earned bonuses as well as some ideas about legal principles on which an employee might rely to get those bonuses back.  For that complete blog post, scroll to the bottom of this page.  Now more than five years later, …

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