Archives

Employers Behaving Badly Edition

Although this is supposed to be a weekly review of workplace news, life got in the way last week and I didn’t get it done. But I am making amends by bringing you several stories about employers behaving very badly.

Lawyers behaving badly:  Unfortunately, some of the worst employer behavior seems to come out of law firms.  This …

Read more ›

We’re coming in late with this Workplace Week in Review but only because there was so much news to sift through!

First, Happy Martin Luther King Day.  I hope everyone is at home, resting and reflecting on Dr. King’s teachings.  One of my favorites, which I try to remember during trying times, is in the image above.

If you read any news …

Read more ›

Happy New Year!  All of us at at the Firm took a couple of weeks off to enjoy our families and the holiday season.   We hope you did as well.

This first week of the year was looking a little light in workplace news until the end of the week when two interesting pieces of news dropped.

First, on Thursday the …

Read more ›

It’s beginning to look a lot like…..bad decisions

After three years, office holiday parties are back! In general, the office holiday party season is (NOT) the most wonderful time of the year for employment lawyers. A few years ago I wrote a cautionary blog about the ways in which office holiday parties can go awry.  In it, I included some real-life examples of …

Read more ›

We at Case + Sedey love employment law, mainly because we love helping employees but also because the news that comes out of the workplace is always interesting and, oftentimes, hilariously unbelievable.  In a new (hopefully) weekly installment of the Workplace Week in Review we will highlight the best of that news.  This week, we learned how *not* to manage employees, …

Read more ›

Despite what many employees think, you may not record workplace conversations.

Illinois is one of only eleven states that require two-party consent to the recording of a private conversation.  In the rest of the 39 states, only one party’s consent is needed.  And, despite what many think, workplace conversations are often “private conversations” for purposes of the law.

I wrote about the …

Read more ›

In 2016, the Illinois legislature passed the Illinois Freedom to Work Act which banned non-competes, one type of restrictive covenants, for employees earning minimum wage or less.  If you recall, this Act was a direct response to the Jimmy John’s non-compete debacle.  In that instance, the Illinois Attorney General sued Jimmy Johns and the sandwich-maker relented.

While that Act was a good …

Read more ›

With the recent rollouts of the first available vaccines, one of the questions we have heard a lot of lately is: Can my employer require me to get the COVID-19 vaccine?

Late last month, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) released updated guidance on the rights and responsibilities of employers and employees related to the COVID-19 vaccine. You might remember this …

Read more ›

An unprecedented number of employees have found themselves needing unemployment benefits during this time of crisis.  Many employees we have talked with have been temporarily laid off or “furloughed” but expect to return to work.  Others, still, have lost their jobs entirely.  The Illinois Department of Employment Security has published a list of Frequently Asked Questions that is helpful in …

Read more ›

We’ve received lots of questions from employees about the coronavirus and their rights under the new Coronavirus Response Act.  To say that things are murky right now would be an understatement.  It’s no wonder employees are confused.  Below are some answers to common questions:

Q: Can my employer force me to come into the workplace?

A:  It depends.  If you work in …

Read more ›