A lot of small-business owners believe that once the two employees involved in a harassment complaint have been split onto different shifts, the matter is handled. It isn’t. Separation stops the immediate contact. It does nothing to establish whether the…
Your coworkers started a friendly pool on when the company’s next product ships, and you put in twenty dollars without thinking twice. It felt like a fantasy football bracket, not a legal problem. California does not see it that way…
“We updated the handbook a couple of years ago, so we’re covered.” It’s a reasonable-sounding belief, and in most states, it might even hold up for a while. Not in California. California employment law turns over on a predictable, twice-yearly…
Many employers treat a workplace investigation as a means to an end. Gather the facts, reach a conclusion, move on. As long as the conclusion is right, the thinking goes, the process doesn’t much matter. Recent litigation says otherwise. Employees…
Your manager texts you after your shift ends, a quick question, a schedule change, something that needs a fast answer, and you answer it, because saying no feels like more trouble than it is worth. This happens often enough that…
You used marijuana on your own time, off the clock, weeks before a drug test flagged it. Now your job is on the line, and the timing does not sit right with you. This shows up often enough that California…
You used a vacation day for your kid’s school conference, and it did not occur to you that you might not have needed to. Or you skipped it, because asking felt like it would cost you something with your manager….
You posted an opinion about a story that was dividing the country, and it never crossed your mind that your job was the thing on the line. Then Monday came, and your manager wanted to talk before you had even…
You heard that federal civil rights enforcement is shifting away from looking at outcomes, and toward requiring proof of intent instead. You wondered if that means a policy that happens to hurt one group more than another is now safe,…
“My new gig app said I was an independent contractor. I found out later I never actually qualified as one, not in California.” That’s a version of something I hear often enough that it deserves its own explanation, separate from…
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