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Making a formal internal complaint of inappropriate conduct in the workplace can be a scary proposition. So many employees are worried about whether they will be taken seriously, whether they’ll be perceived as a whiner or overly-sensitive, and – perhaps most scary of all – whether they will be retaliated against or pushed out of the workplace for taking a …

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With new generations emerging in the workforce, shifts in corporate thinking have begun to occur that have many talking. One of those shifts is toward the adoption of greater transparency between management and employees.  The thinking about transparency has started to change in one particularly controversial area: employee salaries.

Most companies treat compensation information as one of the most strictly protected, …

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Tech Companies Led the Way Expanding Paid Parental Leave Policies in 2015

Other Employers Should Now Follow  

The tech industry is famous for setting trends in providing innovative perks and benefits to employees. In the second half of 2015, this pioneering spirit continued for the tech industry as a craze began among highly visible companies to expand their paid parental leave policies.

Although …

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Study Finds that Older Women Face More Discrimination than Older Men

A lot has been written lately about women’s continued struggle for equal pay and opportunities in the workplace.  Nothing about those struggles is surprising.  However, a recent study shows that as women age in the workforce, things become worse for them.  Not only are they experiencing gender discrimination, but age …

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

In my last post I talked about getting the time off work you need for treatment and to care for yourself when faced with a serious illness. Now let’s look at maintaining your income while seeking treatment and/or recovering.

First, this article addresses conditions that are unrelated to work. If your injury or illness resulted at work …

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Negative Performance Reviews: Legitimate Teaching Tools or Cover-Ups for Unlawful Actions or Intentions?

Negative performance reviews can either be legitimate teaching tools or they can be mere documents to support what a manager already plans to do.  In the plaintiff’s employment law world, we call the latter, “papering the file.”  And, oftentimes, managers unfairly paper an employee’s file when planning to …

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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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How to care for yourself without derailing your career

In honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month the following is the first part of a three-part series regarding coping with a serious health condition, like cancer, in the workplace.

This first part deals with the immediate:  getting time off work for treatment without losing your job.

Oftentimes illnesses …

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LinkedIn, the business-oriented social networking giant, recently announced that as of November 1, 2015, it will offer its employees unlimited vacation time.  LinkedIn will join the ranks of other major employers including General Electric Co., Netflix, Virgin Group, and Groupon in adopting unlimited vacation policies, known in the human resources sphere as “discretionary time off” policies.

There is no federal or …

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