Belief: harassment by customers, vendors, or other non-employees is not the employer’s exposure because the employer does not control the harasser. FEHA liability for third-party harassment turns on response, not control. The standard is whether the employer knew or should…
Belief: California’s heat illness rules are satisfied by having a written plan on file. The plan is the starting point, not the finish line. Cal/OSHA’s outdoor heat illness standard (Title 8, §3395) and the newer indoor standard (Title 8, §3396,…
“She never asked for anything” is the sentence that turns a manageable performance issue into a FEHA case. Under FEHA, the duty to engage in the interactive process is not triggered by a formal accommodation request. It is triggered when…
Belief: when a California-based employee works a week in Nevada, Texas, or Arizona, that state’s overtime rules apply because that is where the work happened. California courts and the Labor Commissioner have rejected that view. California’s daily-and-weekly overtime rules generally…
Belief: a private corner with a curtain is enough to satisfy California lactation accommodation rules. California Labor Code §§1030–1034 require more than a make-do solution. The space must be private, free from intrusion, not a bathroom, in close proximity to…
Belief: criminal history screening is solved by waiting until after a conditional offer. California’s direction is toward stronger protections, which means criminal history decisions are increasingly judged as civil rights and consistency issues, not just a timing checklist. The break…
Belief: seasonal allergies are a personal annoyance, not a workplace accommodation issue. Most of the time they are minor. But the legal risk comes from how managers respond when an employee says allergies are interfering with breathing, concentration, or the…
Belief: skills-based hiring is automatically fair because it’s “objective” and degree-free. Skills-based hiring can widen opportunity, but it can also create a new proof problem: you replace a blunt credential screen with a set of skill labels that are applied…
Belief: Form I-9 paperwork mistakes are harmless because you can always fix them later. That belief used to feel safe because many employers assumed there would be a clean correction window for routine omissions. The failure pattern is basic: missing…
Belief: if payroll software runs automatically, overtime calculations are reliable. Many wage-and-hour problems are not “policy failures.” They are configuration failures that repeat across every pay period. A common failure pattern is incentive pay, bonuses, or premiums that should be…
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