Does the Americans with Disabilities Act need an overhaul?  I’m guessing that most of you would say no–at least, not in a way that expands the law.  Well, there is the proposed ADA Restoration Act, which would expand the definition of disability under the ADA and require employers to provide more in the way of accommodations.  Check out George’s Employment Blawg for more details.

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In an effort to give you new training ideas, I’ve returned to YouTube. You just never know what gems you’ll find there. See what you think about this one.

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Arizona has a new immigration/hiring law.  It’s touted as the toughest state immigration law there is.  For an explanation of this new law, check out an article in the Arizona Employment Law Letter.

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That’s not a question on your employment application.  That’s probably not a question on any document in your workplace, unless you require your employees to answer a secret question for security purposes–to be able, for example, to access something that’s confidential.  We would have learned this from banks.

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Thomas Paine was a prolific writer and a lot of other things.  What he wrote had much to do with the U.S. becoming a country.  Paine could hardly be described as someone satisfied with the status quo, and he wrote something that, it seems to me, describes in almost a profound way why the status quo is sometimes such a powerful thing.  His quote gives us all something to ponder from a human resources standpoint and from many other standpoints.

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President Bush has signed the Defense Authorization Act.  This is significant for employers, because this Act contains amendments to the Family and Medical Leave Act, the first amendments to the law since it was enacted in 1993.

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January 30–burn a bridge, to:  To lay waste to the positive affiliation between an employee and an employer, thereby jeopardizing the chance of obtaining a positive reference; the consequences of such bridge-burning provide the only reason people do not flip out on their bosses and do try to make a clean exit, citing “an opportunity I couldn’t pass up,” which really means “I hate your guts.”

Last week, there was a post about the uproar in the golf world over a Golf Channel host’s comment about Tiger Woods and the followup by Golfweek Magazine.  As noted in the post, there are employment cases that arise out of language and conduct having racial overtones, demonstrated by a recent case summarized in the Florida Employment Law Letter.

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Last week, there was a post called “Handbook Heaven” about the new, somewhat controversial handbook rolled out by the Tribune Co.   A recent case underscores the fact that handbooks can be serious business when you end up in court.  As the summary below from the Illinois Employment Law Letter implies, when you have to go back to a 1968 handbook, you can land in “Handbook Hell.”  Maybe Mark Schickman was right about the Tribune Co.’s new handbook.  Maybe.

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January 27–Bschool:  Business school; ground zero for the hatching and learning of vast amounts of corporate bs, which is then used to identify fellow Bschool attendees and make those who aren’t feel stupid or just confused; actually a very long, expensive cocktail party where people go to make connections and buy the right to say “At Stanford/Wharton/Princeton/Harvard . . .”

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It just may be necessary to begin taking computers, blackberries, and anything else that allows electronic communications away from executives.  As previously noted on this blog, it’s too risky for them and their employers.

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On January 25, I did a brief post on the Department of Labor’s announcement that it was working on new regulations for the Family and Medical Leave Act.  These regs would be designed to address some long-standing employer concerns.  Dan Schwartz blogs about this subject, noting that Senator Chris Dodd (formerly presidential candidate Dodd) has his own concerns about what the DOL may be doing.  Check out Dan’s blog on the continuing FMLA saga.

The Carnival of Business and Entrepreneurship blog mentions my post on the racial controversy in the golf world (January 24).  Jon Hyman mentions in his blog my Part IV post on Avoiding Employment Lawsuits (January 11).  The Corporate Vigilance blog mentions my post on psychologists evaluating CEOs (January 15).  My thanks to all.

As noted in a post on January 10, Ohio has a new law (effective March 23) making military status a protected class under Ohio’s Civil Rights Act.  That means it’s like race, gender, national origin, etc.

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