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An employee’s refusal to perform an assigned task often frustrates or flusters a manager. The next time such a situation occurs, seize control by doing the following.

Judge Trevor McFadden of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on Dec. 11 said “tenure protections” for ALJs are unconstitutional. McFadden’s opinion could hamstring the NLRB’s ability to conduct its business of enforcing the National Labor Relations Act.

Discriminating against applicants and employees because they serve or have served in the military is illegal. The Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act protects service members from discrimination in the workplace and requires employers to reinstate employees who are called to or volunteer for active-duty assignments.

Wearables in the workplace are mostly perceived as benign management tools, although some complain they represent a dystopian step toward Big Brother surveillance. Now the EEOC has weighed in with a fact sheet warning that wearables could enable or perpetuate workplace discrimination and suggesting how employers can mitigate liability.

It’s a new HR year and we’re here with some important lessons from the top four employment lawsuits of 2024. Don’t repeat these employer mistakes.

When performance-improvement plans work, everyone wins. But when PIPs are used to justify terminations, they sometimes cause more problems than they solve. Poorly applied, they create legal liability.

The incoming Trump administration is expected to enact policy changes that could affect employer-sponsored benefits, according to the nonpartisan, nonprofit Kaiser Family Foundation. Beyond the benefits realm, new administration policies could restrict employers’ access to foreign-born workers and limit the reach of diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.

How can intermittent leave work in a school setting?

At the very least, avoid using the term in front of applicants or in any written materials describing them, such as interview notes. Rejected applicants could view the term as an age-related code word, thus sparking an age-discrimination lawsuit.

Ignoring an employee’s complaints that she was subject to ongoing sexual harassment just cost an employer more than $2 million. The EEOC sued on the employee’s behalf and won the largest damages award it has ever obtained in the Northern District of Texas, among the most conservative federal courts in the nation.