Andy, the Director of Human Resources at one of my clients, called me last week. He was pretty distraught. One of his employees, we’ll call him Tom, has been battling lung cancer, and he recently learned that the cancer has advanced to stage four.  It’s clear that his days are numbered. Tom has been a diligent, hard-working employee for several years as part of the employer’s facilities team, and in this role, he is responsible for…

Every one of you employs at least one of these employees — you know, the one who: requests medical leave because of, let’s say, his uromysitisis poisoning (clearly, an FMLA-qualifying condition); but wants to use his accrued paid leave instead of tapping into FMLA? He might even get indignant, insisting that the law allows him to choose either FMLA leave or ordinary sick leave to cover an absence clearly covered by the FMLA. How do…

I can’t imagine anything more exciting than having joined Littler earlier this year.  [Click here to read about that virtual love fest.] But I have found a close second: the arrival of the American Bar Association’s summary of every FMLA case decided in 2018! Yep, you read that correctly.  Every little scrumptious FMLA decision.  About mid-February or so, the ABA’s Federal Labor Standards Legislation Committee publishes a comprehensive report of FMLA decisions handed down…

I am bursting at my FMLA seams, and I’ve been dying to share the news with my blog readers. A few weeks ago, six colleagues and I decided to leave our Chicago-based boutique firm and venture toward the labor and employment powerhouse: Littler Mendelson P.C. Littler is the world’s largest employment practice representing employers, and I am joining with dear friends and phenomenal attorneys, Dave Radelet, Chris Johlie, Staci Ketay Rotman, Terry …

Thanks to those who attended my webinar last week with Matt Morris on “Six Ways Your Managers Are Causing FMLA & ADA Leave Lawsuits, and How to Train Them to Stop.” A link to the recording can be accessed here (just requires providing some basic info about you) and the presentation PowerPoint can be downloaded here. To those who attended, thank you.  To those who missed it, you still have time to access…

It’s the end of the year, which means bonus time. Or perhaps instead you want to offer a pay incentive to employees to improve attendance or production?  Take, for instance, a point-based attendance bonus policy in which employees are assessed points for every tardiness or absence (even for FMLA or ADA-covered leave), which, in turn, disqualifies an employee from receiving the incentive. In these situations, can an employer disqualify an employee from the bonus or incentive? In…

When: Wednesday, December 12 (12:00 – 1:15 p.m. central time) Online registration: Click Here Over the past year alone, employers have been forced to defend FMLA and ADA lawsuits due simply to an inappropriate comment from a manager after an employee requests time off or an accommodation in the workplace. A snide comment about an employee in an email . . . Discussing an employee’s medical condition with others in a meeting . . . Telling…