In Newcastle upon Tyne, England, a company called onebestway is stretching the limits of the proverb that necessity is the mother of invention. With the company’s business tanking in these terrible economic times, the boss had an idea. Everyone should come to work naked on Fridays.

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There have been a number of posts on this blog about bullying in the workplace. (Click here, here, here, and here.) State legislatures have considered anti-bullying laws, but so far, no such law has been enacted. So, we’re stuck with bullying?

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In addition to showing us how helpless a man is when under The Man Gene’s spell, South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford teaches all executives, managers, supervisors and other bosses lessons about dealing with crises or serious bumps in the road. Handling the unexpected is an important part of the job.

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Five of the Second Circuit opinions authored by Judge Sonia Sotomayor deal with the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA). ERISA cases aren’t considered as sexy as a lot of employment law cases, but the number of such cases is growing. The U.S. Supreme Court is occasionally asked to consider a case filed under this complicated statute. Getting a sense for how Sotomayor approaches ERISA is, therefore, useful.

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Employee privacy is a hot button issue generally. Privacy in the workplace is also growing in importance: monitoring email, searching employee property, taping conversations, videotaping certain locations of the workplace, and surveilling employees during work hours and while off duty. (See post on recent Supreme Court decision.) Judge Sonia Sotomayor authored one opinion in this area. It, of course, doesn’t deal with all the sub-privacy topics, but it deals with a couple of them. More important, it provides insight to her thinking on this increasingly explosive issue.

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In a previous post, I called attention to a case pending before the U.S. Supreme Court about the legality of a strip search of a student at school. What the Court decides in such a case can always have implications for workplace privacy issues and employer search policies. The Court has now decided Safford Unified School District #1 v. Redding.

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As noted in two previous posts, the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Ricci v. DeStefano would be important because of its potential to change the way discrimination cases are evaluated under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act and because Judge Sonia Sotomayor was one of three judges who issued the decision being reviewed by the Supreme Court. (Click here and here.) The Court’s decision is now in. The majority of the Court disagreed with Sotomayor, issuing one of the most significant opinions ever under Title VII.

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It’s routine for all kinds of employees to bow their heads silently during all kinds of meetings. Is the person speaking at the meeting leading a prayer? Are the employees praying silently? No. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act isn’t implicated at all. These folks are intently using their BlackBerrys.

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There are two cases from the Second Circuit in the category of retaliation and harassment which also consider allegations of unlawful discrimination. The primary holdings by Judge Sotomayor in these cases deal with retaliation and harassment and demonstrate her ability to delineate among various types of retaliation, harassment, and discrimination claims in which the lines are sometimes blurred. Her holdings also demonstrate that when she finds probable harassment or retaliation, there’s little doubt a reasonable jury could use the voluminous evidence in existence as a basis for also finding harassment or retaliation.

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As reported on this blog last year, the U.S. Supreme court ruled that the Second Amendment gives individuals a right to keep and bear arms for personal use. The Court didn’t say whether the Second Amendment generally applies to state and local governments. The Court’s ruling also didn’t directly affect employer policies banning guns from the workplace.

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“Immigration raid” brings to mind ICE agents descending unannounced on an employer that relies heavily on immigrant labor. Arrests are made. Chaos spills out of the workplace into a community. As the Los Angeles Times reports, a “desktop” or “computer” raid isn’t as dramatic but causes just as much disruption.

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This post by Delaware Employment Law Blog isn’t really a cartoon, but the post’s pie-charts sort of reminded me of a cartoon. The subject of the post isn’t pure HR humor, but after reading the post, I think you’ll agree that some of the results of the survey are funny. They also provide a lot of food for thought about a serious workplace problem. To get the full impact, you’ll need to read the entire survey.

As noted previously, a topic that doesn’t receive enough attention is the misclassification of employees as independent contractors. Colorado has just enacted a state law dealing with this subject, and there’s also a federal bill pending. There’s now a case on this subject filed in federal court in Minnesota that’s drawing attention.

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Most of the news today is about employers laying off employees, sometimes resulting in getting sued by the laid off employees. As reported by The Seattle Times, it’s possible, even today, for the shoe to be on the other foot.

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In light of our recession and all its fallout, business executives, particularly those on Wall Street, have been vilified for their failure to put customers, shareholders, employees and the public ahead of making money. Some have argued that the driver of our economic downturn is greed, pure and simple.

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Recent business reports indicate that employees are afraid to take a vacation this year. The most troubling reason for this point of view is that employees are afraid taking a vacation could result in the loss of a job.

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According to the New York Times, a subject regularly covered on this blog raised its head recently at the annual Seventh Circuit Bar Association meeting in Indianapolis during a freewheeling panel discussion among judges. Since word got out about this, lawyers across the country have joined an online debate that impacts all kinds of employers.

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In AT&T Corporation v. Hulteen, the U.S. Supreme Court takes us back to another time in our country when maternity leave was inferior. The Court’s decision isn’t just a trip down memory lane, but significant for the present.

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With the convergence of our economic crisis and swine flu fears, sick days are nothing to sneeze at. Some workers have always taken pride in never missing a day of work because of sickness. They don’t take into account the number of coworkers they’ve made sick to keep their record perfect. 

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According to a New York Times report, female employees have continued to come a long way, baby. Women not only comprise more than 50% of management, professional and related occupations, the number of female bullies is also on the rise. While male bullies target men and women equally, the female bully prefers her own kind. So, what’s going on?

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