Our Blog: Executive Counseling

The recent arbitration decision could backfire on employers.

The Supreme Court really stuck it to employees in their recent Epic Systems decision.  We’ve written about arbitration provisions in general here and why they can be bad for employees.   As if giving up your right to a jury trial wasn’t bad enough, arbitration agreements also sometimes contain class action waivers.  Employers …

Read more ›

Illinois Freedom to Work Act Bans Non-Competes for Low-Wage Earners

Illinois lawmakers are on a roll with expanding employee rights. On the heels of enacting several important laws for employees in the past few months, including the Domestic Workers’ Bill of Rights Act and the Child Bereavement Leave Act, our State has continued this positive trend, this time with …

Read more ›

The Legal Drawbacks of Quitting

To an employee in a bad work environment, quitting seems like an appealing option. Maybe a new boss has joined the company and is stifling your opportunity to advance, holding you to unrealistic expectations, subjecting you to unjustified performance scrutiny, or some combination of any or all of the above.  Maybe a coworker or supervisor is …

Read more ›

Jimmy Johns says it won’t require low-wage workers to sign non-competes.

In follow up to my post from a couple of weeks ago, the Chicago Sun Times is reporting that Jimmy John’s has agreed to stop forcing their low-wage workers to enter into non-compete agreements.  Jimmy John’s required all sandwich makers and freaky-fast delivery drivers to agree not to work for another nearby …

Read more ›

Employers take advantage of vulnerable employees by forcing them to sign unnecessary non-compete agreements

Time Magazine recently ran an article that discussed how non-compete agreements particularly hurt lower-wage earners.

Remember the 2014 controversy surrounding Jimmy John’s forcing their sandwich makers to sign non-compete agreements?  That ignited a discussion about the unequal balance of power between employees and employers and particularly …

Read more ›

Why you should actually read your employment agreement before you sign!

We recently had an employment agreement related issue arise here at the firm that reminded me how unequal the bargaining power can be in employment relationships. A very large Bank here in Chicago slipped into an equity incentive agreement-a provision which altered the statute of limitations for our …

Read more ›

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 …

Read more ›

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. …

Read more ›

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, …

Read more ›