By Mary, The Undercover HR Director ("OnYourSide" in the Forums) The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requires employers to provide reasonable accommodations to qualified employees with disabilities. For all the kicking and screaming by employers about making accommodations, you’d think accommodations cost them millions of dollars – but it’s not true! Accommodations for people with disabilities are usually extremely low or even no cost. The Job Accommodation Network (JAN) conducted a study recently that showed as many as 56 percent of workplace accommodations cost NOTHING. Of those accommodations that did have a cost, the average one-time cost was $600. What other kind of investment could an employer make in their employees that would buy them so much goodwill? What … [Read more...]
How To Request Job Accommodations From Your Boss By Using the ADA
More Insider HR Tips: What Are HR Pros Saying About You?
HR Knicker Twisters, by Mary The Undercover HR Director ("OnYourSide") in the forums Welcome to my second article! I’ll be writing articles periodically when I have news to share with you or an opinion on current events. I hope you had a chance to read my first article. I promised to share with you some “HR Knicker Twisters” gleaned from the recent SHRM® 2010 Annual Conference and Exposition that I attended in San Diego, California. Californians: you have a seriously gorgeous state. I can see why California is in such danger of earthquakes. There must be so many jealous transplants from other states weighing it down that if a really big earthquake happened California would just crack off and drop into the Pacific. As your intrepid Undercover HR Director, I attended the … [Read more...]
Attacking a Bullying Victim, Again: Phoebe Prince
A lawyer who is defending one of the bullies that drove high schooler Phoebe Prince to suicide just published an article in the online magazine Slate. The outrage comes from the slant of the article, which "reports" as objective news that Phoebe brought the bullying upon herself. She's painted as being a "self-mutilating misfit bent on suicide." The apparent purpose of the article is only too obvious to people who have been the victims of workplace bullying; the purportedly objective investigator makes the bully appear less awful by heaping blame on the victim. How many people have complained to HR of a "hostile work environment", only to be called in to HR and disciplined for poor performance while nothing happens to the bully? This happens so often it's sickening. But this … [Read more...]
Insider H.R. Tips From SHRM, The Biggest H.R. Conference in the Country
Inaugural Article By Mary, the Undercover HR Director ("On Your Side" in the Forums"): I’ll be writing articles periodically when I have news to share with you or an opinion on current events. I recently returned from The SHRM® 2010 Annual Conference and Exposition, held in beautiful San Diego, California. I thought you might like some insight into what those dastardly Human Resource folks are cooking up. I attended the Conference in my “day job” capacity as a Human Resources professional, and as your Undercover HR Director. But first – a question: What do you call one hundred HR professionals on the bottom of San Diego Bay? A good start! No, wait – that’s lawyers. Lawyers on the bottom of San Diego Bay! (Apologies to Curt) A little background: SHRM® stands for … [Read more...]
Jury Awards $250 Million for Gender Discrimination and Hostile Work Environment
In the largest ever gender discrimination/hostile work environment verdict, a jury ordered the pharmaceutical company Novartis to pay a class of women $250 million in punitive damages, plus back pay, front pay, and attorney fees to be determined later. "A jury that found Novartis discriminated against women by paying them less than men, promoting fewer of them and allowing a hostile workplace awarded $250 million in punitive damages on Wednesday." (Full article HERE). One district manager was said to have forced female employees to look at pornographic images, and even gone so far as to instruct women subordinates to sit on his lap. With another large class action pending against Wal-Mart that makes similar allegations of unequal pay, many are wondering if this is the start of a … [Read more...]
Worklaws Exposed
Get the power of the Worklaws Exposed eBook instantly! Many flexible options for gaining immediate access to powerful strategies and your rights as an employee. Don't be miserable in the workplace. You do have rights. And this book shows you what they are and the most effective ways of asserting them. Don't feel miserable and powerless another day! Click Here to get your copy now! … [Read more...]
Age Discrimination Among the Unemployed, and Movement on a Workplace Harassment Bill
Good News / Bad News The Illinois State Senate passed a version of the Namie's anti-bullying bill. The bill was introduced by Illinois State Senator William Delgado, who said "Being in an abusive work environment is intolerable. This legislation will finally give workers some means of relief from the abuse they may be tolerating in their work environment." At the time the Bill was introduced, it was written to apply to public and private employees, to make harassment from bosses and from co-workers illegal, and would have made managers and co-workers individually liable for bullying. The bill even went so far as to make it a criminal act for a manager to retaliate against an employee who complained about bullying. (Read more HERE). But you know how politics work. Business … [Read more...]
Why You Should Not Give Up if the EEOC Turns Down Your Hostile Work Environment Claim
Schools Tackle Teacher-on-Teacher Bullying In the Workplace USA Today features an interesting article about how 41 states have anti-bullying statutes for students, but zero states have anti-bullying statutes that apply to the teachers or administrators. That's starting to change, however, with two school districts -- one in Iowa and one in California -- for the first time ever explicitly prohibiting teacher to teacher bullying. This collateral bullying is a huge topic in itself. But what's troubling to me is that the article does NOT specifically state that the new rules prohibit school administration from bullying teachers. It's an otherwise interesting article, and you can read it HERE. When an EEOC Investigator Turns You Down, You Can Still Prevail I recently … [Read more...]
Desperate Housewife Sues Abusive Boss For Hostile Work Environment
Former "Desperate Housewives" star Nicollette Sheridan filed a lawsuit against the show's producer, Marc Cherry. Sheridan's suit accuses Cherry of “creating a hostile work environment on the set and behaving aggressively and abusively toward the cast and the writers." She claims that her character was killed off in retaliation for resisting his abuse, and she seeks $20 million in compensation. Three Hostile Bosses Ordered to Pay $185,000 to Two Employees Who Fought Back In Georgia, the former DeKalb County CEO Vernon Jones and three other people were ordered to pay two former employees $185,000. The former employees alleges that Jones created a hostile work environment based on race within the County’s Parks and Recreation Department. The trial was closely watched because … [Read more...]
50-State Resources For Employee Rights
50-State Resources for Filing Unemployment (scroll down to find your State's Departments of Labor website) Alabama Alaska Arizona Arkansas California Colorado Connecticut Delaware District of Columbia Florida Georgia Guam* Hawaii Idaho Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Maine Maryland Massachusetts Michigan Minnesota Mississippi Missouri Montana Nebraska Nevada New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico New York North Carolina North Dakota Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania Puerto Rico Rhode Island South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah Vermont Virgin Islands Virginia Washington … [Read more...]
