Real Life Employment Law
Nearly every day, executives and managers, and the in-house counsel and Human Resources professionals who work with them, are confronted with unanticipated questions regarding the workforce. Just when they think they have "seen it all," along comes a new and often stranger scenario involving an odd twist to an area they thought they fully understood. These individuals often find themselves back at square one when trying to construct an appropriate response and devise a creative solution to the problem presented. Sometimes these "Quirky Questions" can be resolved easily; other times, they implicate practical and legal issues that are not immediately apparent.
This Quirky Employment Questions Blog addresses unanticipated questions regarding the workforce.
We encourage you to submit your thoughts and reactions to the questions presented. We also encourage you to submit questions that you would like to see addressed, subject to these guidelines.
Stephen D. Bell
Michael Droke
Joseph W. Hammell
Sarah Andrews Herman
Ryan E. Mick
William J. Miller
Melissa Raphan
Gregory M. Saylin
Gabrielle Wirth
David C. SingerBLOG CONTACT INFO
E: Wirth.Gabrielle@dorsey.com
P: 714.800.1455
Quirky Question # 23: I read with interest your Quirky Question # 22 regarding age discrimination and releases of age discrimination claims. We have a slightly difference issue. Our company has gone through periodic reductions in force, stemming both from increased automation of our manufacturing processes and economic downturns. Our RIF procedures have been carefully constructed, involving evaluations of 10...
Quirky Question # 22: Our company decided to close one of its two manufacturing facilities in Minnesota. In deciding which facility to close, we considered factors such as the relative productivity of the facilities and the age and condition of the buildings and equipment. The employees of our closed facility will receive separation benefits in exchange for signing a release...
Quirky Question # 21: We recently made a job offer to a gentleman as a lead systems administrator in the California division of our telecommunications company. As part of our routine pre-employment drug testing, he tested positive for marijuana. However, the applicant presented us with a doctor’s note allowing him to use “medical marijuana” for chronic back pain cause by...
Quirky Question # 20: We recently saw in the newspaper that one of our employees had been arrested for DUI and marijuana possession. Based on the newspaper article, we insisted on drug testing the employee under the “reasonable suspicion” section of our drug testing policy. The employee adulterated his urine sample by adding soap to it. The testing facility advised...
Quirky Question # 19: Our company provides automobiles and vans to some of our employees who have to conduct product installations or repairs at customers’ work sites. Some times these work sites are closer to the employees’ homes than is our central office; some times they are farther away. Figuring that the distances roughly balance out between the shorter and...
Quirky Question # 18: We recently terminated one of our executives. One of our standard practices when we terminate a senior executive is to check carefully his/her email communications for the preceding twelve months. When we checked this executive’s email communications, we discovered approximately eight messages to and from a private law firm. The message subject line was: “Personal, My...
Quirky Question # 17: We run a retail clothing firm. Our goal is to cultivate a youthful, preppy image. We prohibit “facial jewelry” with the exception of earrings. This prohibition is set out in our Employee Handbook. One of our employees insists on wearing “facial jewelry,” displaying various facial piercings. Can’t we prohibit this practice? Can we tell our employee...
Quirky Question # 16: I am both disappointed and embarrassed to report that one of our employees is an outspoken White Supremacist. His views are abhorrent to me personally, as well as to nearly all of our company’s employees, both minority and non-minority. The organization to which our employee belongs advocates violent conduct toward minorities. Given that fact, should we...
Quirky Question # 15: We have a manufacturing company and we use multiple shifts to operate our plant. We run three shifts daily (7:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., 4::00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m., and 11:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m.) We recently reassigned one of our employees to the third, and latest shift. Our employee balked at this assignment, advising us...
Quirky Question # 14: One of our employees discovered fortuitously (by Googling his own name) that a co-worker down the hall has been posting messages to a Web-blog, in which he identified the employee by name and made graphic, negative sexual observations about him. Not surprisingly, the two employees are not friends. The subject of the comments had no idea...
Erica ChenErica is an associate in the Costa Mesa office of Dorsey & Whitney and a member of the firm’s Labor and Employ...
Jack SullivanJack is a Partner in Dorsey’s Labor & Employment group, where he focuses his practice on employment adv...
Ieva AubinAs an employment and business immigration attorney, ...
Michael DrokeMike started his career as a client, not a lawyer...
Matt DurhamMatt defends employers in Utah and throughout the ...
Aaron GoldsteinAaron is a Partner in Dorsey’s Labor & Employ...
Josh HughesJosh’s experience spans trial and appellate advoc...
Jillian KornblattJillian is a Partner in Dorsey’s Labor & Employ...
Laura LestradeLaura began practicing at Dorsey in 1992 and has s...
Ryan MickFor more than a decade, Ryan has counseled corpo...
Nick PappasNick litigates and counsels with respect to com...
Melissa RaphanMelissa is a Partner in Dorsey’s Labor and Employ...
Gabrielle WirthEmployers turn to Gabrielle for guidance on how they...
