Employee Rights and Protections

Last week, an employee came to me after reporting her manager for harassment - trusting HR to keep it confidential. Instead, HR passed the complaint to the manager's boss, who told the manager everything. By week's end, her manager had turned her words into a threat - and her job into a target. Here's what being a former corporate counsel taught me about HR's quietest, biggest lie: When HR says "This conversation is confidential," they mean: "Everything you say will be documented, distributed, and potentially used against you.” I've sat in those meetings. I've seen the reports. I've watched the aftermath. The truth? Your "confidential" conversation gets shared with: 1. Your direct manager 2. Their manager 3. Legal department 4. Executive team 5. Anyone deemed "relevant" to the investigation But it gets worse. Remember those "performance issues" that suddenly appeared after your complaint? That's because HR took your vulnerable moments and reframed them as evidence: "She admitted feeling anxious" becomes "Unable to handle workplace pressure" "He mentioned being distracted" turns into "Lack of focus and productivity" "They expressed concerns about the team" transforms to "Not a cultural fit" I've watched this playbook destroy careers for years. Now I'm helping employees protect themselves. Three rules I want you to remember: 1. Document everything BEFORE going to HR 2. Assume every word will be shared 3. Get things in writing - after any verbal conversation, send a follow-up: "As discussed today…" Protect yourself first. The company already has an entire department doing the same. Follow for more insider insights on protecting your workplace rights. #EmploymentAttorney  #CaliforniaEmploymentLaw  #EmployeeRights

My first 4 years in HR I was so poor. I didn’t make enough as a Coordinator, Specialist, or Generalist to pay all my bills. HR only covered my rent and utilities…not even my gas to get to work. So I bartended all week. I would work 8-5 in the office, then 6-close at the bar. Saturdays I would work a double at the bar and Sundays were exclusively saved for all day studying to obtain more HR certifications. When I was promoted and given an increase that set my base pay to $50k, I could finally breathe. I quit the bar (mostly because now I was salaried so I couldn’t guarantee getting off by 5pm now) and began living a little easier. Do you want to know what I bought when I got my first “big” paycheck? Groceries. I went to Walmart and got groceries I could never afford before. Groceries like strawberries, coffee creamer, and even paper towels. I remember tearing up in the checkout line because I couldn’t believe I could afford this. I no longer had to live off bar food, chicken and rice. I could afford to have breakfast every day instead of fasting until lunch. Compensation is not just a philosophy, friends. Decisions about COLA’s and inflation are not just meetings. Compensation directly determines the quality of life your employees experience. At this time, even people making $100k a year are struggling. There are employees in our organizations paying off student loans, caring for sick family members, and balancing whether or not they can get strawberries this week. So advocate your asses off. Find more data, offer cost saving solutions that allow for comp increases, and don’t give up on being the voice for your employees. May you and those in your organization never need to skip the strawberries. #HRCommunity #GlobalHR #Compensation #CompensationPlanning #COLA #Inflation #Leadership

🚨 California just moved one step closer to regulating AI in hiring. The Civil Rights Council’s Automated-Decision System (ADS) rules are now at the Office of Administrative Law. If OAL signs off, they could take effect as early as July 1, 2025—and they’ll reshape how we build and deploy AI for recruiting, screening, and promotions. What’s coming: 🔹 ADS = almost any algorithm that helps make an employment decision. 🔹 Bias evidence matters: lack of testing can sink your defense. 🔹 Four-year data-retention rule for inputs, outputs, and model logs. 🔹 Liability extends to vendors acting as an employer’s “agent.” 🔹 Accommodation required for candidates with disabilities. What this matters (from my perspective): Even without a formal “audit mandate,” the safest path is to prove your models are fair, job-related, and well-documented—before the rules land. ⏰ Action item: Start (or strengthen) your bias testing, validation studies, and contract language now. Don't wait for the regulations to be final... or cross your fingers for a Federal ban on enforcement. #AI #Hiring #Compliance #California #ADS Khoa Lam, Jeffery Recker, Bryan Ilg, Sheila Leunig, Patrick Sullivan, Dinah Rabe, Emily Brown, Navrina Singh

Over the past several years, I've written several times about ongoing #COVID19 risks*, employers' responsibilities to protect employees' health, and how accomodating the health concerns of the immunocompromised, disabled and others are a vital #DEI consideration. I predicted that stringent Return to Office (#RTO) policies would end up in courtrooms to determine if working in an office is truly a vital job requirement and whether employers are accomodating the diversity of health risks people face. Fortune's article notes, "After seemingly having won the return-to-office wars, employers may be walking into a legal storm by enforcing rigid return-to-office (RTO) mandates... Rigid RTO policies are disproportionately impacting disabled employees, mothers, and older workers–and could even, in certain cases, breach the law." The Americans with Disabilities Act is over 30 years old, but it pertains very much to our current age of ever-evolving COVID variants and repeated reinfections. The ADA’s reasonable accommodation obligation includes “modifying workplace policies” and “might require an employer to waive certain eligibility requirements or otherwise modify its telework program for someone with a disability who needs to work at home.” We know people with comorbidities face additional risks from COVID infections, thus some with disabilites are filing complaints to fight for accomodations from overly strict RTO policies. And it's not just people with disablities filing claims. "Companies are facing a rise in mental health disability discrimination complaints from employees who view remote work as a reasonable accommodation. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has observed a 16% increase in such charges between 2021 and 2022, particularly for conditions like anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress syndrome." Then there's older workers, who say they are more likely to retire due to forced to RTO (and less likely to do so when offered remote options.) "If RTO policies disproportionately affect older employees, either by forcing them into early retirement or by making their work conditions less favorable compared to their younger counterparts, employers could face age discrimination claims." The pandemic demonstrated companies can operate with workers remote and that employees can be productive and engaged in remote or hybrid work arrangements. Overly stringent RTO demands fly in the face of those lessons learned, and that is causing a rise in claims and lawsuits. Smart employers will consider what sort of flexibility it can offer to all employees, accomodate individual employee's unique health needs, and strive to make offices and workplace as safe as possible from the continued surges of COVID infections. *See the first comment for a note on ongoing COVID risks. https://lnkd.in/gyxYmuRA

Years ago, a good friend, whom I would consider an INTROVERT by today’s standards, was reported to HR for not being ‘friendly.’ She is naturally quiet and prefers to come to work, do her job, and go home. Eventually, she was FIRED. The reason: she lacked ‘enthusiasm’ for her role, and ‘it just wasn’t working out.’ Here’s why HR failed her: Coming in to work on time, producing high-quality work, and communicating essential updates is enthusiasm ENOUGH. As a bonus, the only thing we owe to anyone in the workplace (esp as an individual contributor) is a ‘GOOD HELLO,’ maybe a ‘HOW ARE YOU,’ and a ‘GOODBYE’ outside of critical work updates. Not everyone has the energy to play the ‘excited’ b-plot character in a ROM-COM. In a world where everyone wants you to be Andy Bernard (The Office) - Extrovert. Being Stanley Hudson (The Office) - Introvert is perfectly fine. As a former HR leader, I know one of the essential functions of HR is to manage the employee lifecycle. Nowhere does this include managing someone’s insecurities about how much small talk someone makes with them. I’ve never been a fan of these labels because it does not lend itself well to folks who identify as the one, the only, and the other. Companies that want to promote inclusion must carefully filter this kind of feedback to an employee. HR failed by addressing one party instead of isolating this issue to a thinly veiled personal preference laced as ‘concern.’ The real issue was the person who was ‘uncomfortable’ with her not living up to her expectations of what ‘enthusiasm’ should look like. The REAL issue was the culture. By making my friend aware. It made her abandon who she was to code-switch and it still didn’t pay off. The lesson from this situation is clear - a truly inclusive workplace embraces all personality types. Judging employees by superficial measures of "enthusiasm" unfairly targets introverts who can be high performers despite their more reserved nature. Rather than forcing introverts to conform to an extrovert ideal, organizations should focus on tapping into everyone's talents and ensuring all voices are heard - regardless of communication style. The path forward is setting guidelines around delivering quality work and constructive collaboration - not mandating performative chatter. #aLITTLEadvice 

#AI can streamline recruitment—but at what human cost? In our latest research, published in the California Management Review, we reveal a critical insight for organizations using AI in hiring and performance reviews: Even when AI is unbiased, it can still be perceived as disrespectful. Across four experimental studies, we found that people feel less respected when evaluated by #algorithms than by #humans, even when the outcomes are identical. Why? Because people want to be seen as whole individuals, not just data points. Here are three takeaways: - Perceived respect matters more than perceived bias in AI evaluations - Respect influences team performance, creativity, and organizational commitment - A hybrid model—AI + human interaction—can help preserve dignity in the process As AI becomes embedded in HR, we must go beyond fairness and ask: Are we treating people with respect? Let’s not lose the human in the loop. Read more: https://lnkd.in/e9g34ZvW

The Mobley v. Workday lawsuit has far-reaching implications for recruiters, HR professionals, and the growing industry of AI-driven hiring tools. It is the first major class action to challenge an algorithmic screening system under employment discrimination laws, and it is likely to set precedents for how such cases are handled. Here are 5 key consequences and lessons emerging from this case. This wraps up our final part in the Mobley vs Workday article series. In summary, Mobley v. Workday rings a warning bell: HR technology must be handled with the same care for civil rights compliance as any human decision-maker would be. Employers also must be proactive by scrutinizing biases and the tools they use to ensure they don’t inadvertently disadvantage protected groups. #JenniferTardyConsulting #TheEquityEdge#Retention #InclusiveWorkplaces #WorkplaceCulture #LeadershipMatters #EmployeeExperience #WorkplaceEquity #MobleyvWorkday

Accommodations are not favors—they serve to remove barriers to success and help disabled employees perform their best. Yet, for many employees, receiving necessary accommodations is an uphill battle that might result in additional health or career injuries. Employers often discourage employees from making accommodation requests, deny a significant percentage of requests, and may even retaliate. Employers and managers who support accommodation requests, however, can truly help someone thrive. They can even help heal some of the harm produced by growing up and living in unaccommodating environments. They can help up find the best of who we are and who we were meant to be. 🌹🥀🌹 While our identity and pride are tied to our dignity as human beings, unaccommodating environments can injure our sense of self and make reclaiming our self-worth much more difficult. Reminding ourselves that we are valuable is harder work when we are denied support and face barriers to fulfilling our potential. To truly create inclusive workplaces, organizations must move beyond performative #inclusion statements and focus on true change. This means, among other types of action, actively dismantling the barriers that prevent disabled employees from thriving. All of these are the elements of unlocking human potential: 🌻 Supporting people with job-matching and job-crafting 🌻 De-toxifying organizational environments, 🌻 Creating human-first #HumanResources systems, and 🌻 Providing accommodations #Accommodations are not favors. They are a tool of #equity. 🌻 When barriers to performance are broken, #human brilliance blooms. The stories of two dyslexic people who were treated very differently by their organizations help illustrate the importance of accommodations - thank you, Salomon Chiquiar-Rabinovich and Charles Freeman for sharing your stories via my book, The Canary Code: A Guide to #Neurodiversity, #Dignity, and Intersectional Belonging at Work. Read on! #dyslexia #dyslexic #DisabilityPride2024 • Ruth Rathblott, MSW

Noncompetes are now unenforceable! Well, that’s not quite true, despite the headlines. This is what is true, and is something I’m following as a lawyer who drafts/negotiates #noncompete provisions along with litigating them (I have 2 upcoming trials primarily focused on the enforceability of such clauses): On April 23, the Federal Trade Commission (#FTC) issued a final rule to ban many, but not all, #noncompetes across the United States. The rule isn’t effective until 120 days after publication in the Federal Register. So, don’t go to your boss’ office today, stick up your middle finger, and tell him or her to shove the noncompete where the sun doesn’t shine. Furthermore, there is an exception. Existing noncompetes for senior executives can remain in force under the FTC’s final rule, but employers are banned from entering into or attempting to enforce any new noncompetes, even if they involve senior executives. Additionally, there is a possibility that the rule never becomes effective. The expectation is that litigation will soon commence over whether the ban is proper, with a request that the FTC’s rule be stayed in the meantime. Importantly, whether or not the rule withstands challenge, there are mechanisms employers can use to protect their proprietary information, which they should be examining irrespective of the outcome. As the FTC has noted, secret laws and non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) both provide employers with well-established means to protect proprietary and other sensitive information. Some say NDAs aren’t worth the paper they’re printed on; I’m currently in the middle of a multi-million dollar case involving the breach of one, so we shall see! If you have any questions about the above, then feel free to contact me! https://lnkd.in/eihUvXP8

Don't tolerate bullying behavior! Remember these 7 Steps to Deal with a Bully at Work... 1. Recognize the Behavior Bullying isn’t always obvious. It may include sarcasm, exclusion, public humiliation, micromanagement, or persistent criticism. If a pattern of behavior makes you feel anxious or devalued, take it seriously. 2. Document Every Incident Keep a detailed, dated log of what happened, when, who was involved, and how it affected you. This evidence is vital if you decide to report the behavior or pursue legal support. 3. Set Boundaries When Safe If it feels emotionally and physically safe, assertively but calmly tell the person their behavior is inappropriate. A simple statement like “Please speak to me respectfully” can sometimes interrupt a bullying pattern. 4. Report Internally If the behavior continues or is serious from the start, report it to your HR department or a trusted leader. Present your documentation and focus on the impact to your work and well-being—not just your personal feelings. 5. Take Care of Your Mental Health Bullying can lead to stress, anxiety, and burnout. Don’t ignore your emotional health. Talk to a therapist, seek support from a trusted friend, or use your company’s employee assistance program (EAP). 6. Explore Your Options If leadership fails to intervene, you may need to consider transferring teams or finding a healthier work environment. Sometimes leaving a toxic culture is the most empowering decision. 7. Know Your Legal Rights When bullying involves discrimination based on protected categories (e.g., race, gender, age), it may be unlawful harassment. Visit eeoc.gov or consult an employment attorney to understand your options.