Healthcare entities are being faced with a growing number of challenges related to the virus SARS-CoV-2, or the disease caused by that virus, COVID-19. One of those challenges is the issue of how to apply the Privacy Rule of the
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Handling Difficult Conversations: Five important steps to improving that skill.
No one looks forward to having a difficult conversation. Whether you’re conducting or responding to a performance evaluation at work, comforting a bereaved friend, or discussing a behavioral issue with a family member, there are five steps that can help…
Six things you can do right now to improve your communication skills.
In this era of electronic communication, mindful communication is becoming a lost art. There are two primary reasons for this: first, without face-to-face contact, it becomes easier to forget that there is a second party to the communication; and further,…
Risky Business: Avoiding the Legal Issues Associated With Workplace Romance.
Valentine’s Day is an appropriate time to think about how to deal effectively with workplace romances. Real-life workplaces rarely reflect movie scenarios. Consider:
- Mel Gibson’s character whose accidental electrocution in “What Women Want” allows him to understand the innermost thoughts
…
2019 Novel Coronavirus is not a pandemic yet, but concerns are growing.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) recently published a thorough and usable webpage that provides interim guidance and resources for preventing exposure to the 2019 Novel Coronavirus, and for learning more about the developing information on that outbreak. That…
A 2019 ADA decision regarding Ebola may become relevant because of the new coronavirus.
Although the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) protects qualified individuals who may be perceived as having a disability, that Act does not protect individuals who may be perceived as possibly becoming disabled in the future. EEOC v. STME, LLC, 11th…
Numbers are fun . . . unless you’re calculating overtime compensation for a period that includes a discretionary bonus.
Calculating the “regular rate” of pay:
Section 7 of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) requires an employer to pay one and one-half times an employee’s “regular rate” of pay for hours worked over 40 in a workweek. That “regular…
Can an employee’s assertion of “self-defense” avoid termination for a typical workplace scuffle? Not in West Virginia.
At-will employment generally allows employment to end – by either the employer or employee – for any reason or no reason, other than for a violation of law. In West Virginia, as in many states, the rule that an employer…
Is It OK to Require Confidentiality Regarding an Internal Investigation? The NLRB says “Maybe . . . ”.
Investigative Confidentiality Gets the Support of the NLRB:
The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has reversed recent past decisions, and has held that an employer can require confidentiality from an individual employee involved in a current internal investigation. However, the NLRB…
Company’s “point-reduction” program to erase absence points may violate FMLA.
An employer instituted a no-fault attendance policy which allowed employees’ absence points to be reduced for each 30-day period of “perfect” attendance. An employee sued the company, based on the claim that his intermittent FMLA leave kept him from fully…