As 2026 is near, now is the time to discuss whether your department will improve or maintain its status quo. Improvement comes from being proactive on some goals and objectives that will make your department a little bit better (or a lot better) over the next 12 to 18 months. If you choose to improve in 2026 it will not be easy since there are lots of people in every organization that are comfortable with [...]
This article is a post from Jeff Nowak's FMLA Insights blog. Jeff is an employment lawyer at the Littler law firm's Chicago office. I strongly recommend subscribing to the FMLA Insights blog. In Jeff's most recent blog he reminds us that kindness in the workplace is critical through a well told story. John always sat in the same spot in the same pew, positioned about 50 feet from the side entrance of the church. Deep [...]
Polite people sometimes refer to certain employees as being stubborn as a mule. Less polite people translate stubborn as a mule to names that are less polite. Stubborn employees can benefit employers by seeing difficult projects to the finish line but other stubborn employees sometimes refuse to cooperate with an employer's request to assist with certain tasks. Those latter stubborn workers typically do not understand that they are required to cooperate with their employer as [...]
The EEOC recently cobbled together a quorum of its Commissioners and that will enable the Commission to engage in official actions. The EEOC is in charge of enforcing laws like Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Age Discrimination in Employment Act. Those first two examples (Title VII and the ADA) explicitly do not apply to tribal employers while the third example (ADEA) is silent regarding [...]
Tribal employers must navigate the difficult question of whether an employee should be educated, disciplined or terminated for statements in social media posts. When this issue arises in your workplace, do you have a framework for determining when the tribe should take action and when the tribe should not. This article is based, in part, from the Workforce Bulletin, a blog published by law firm Epstein Becker Green. More specifically, by lawyers Nancy Gunzenhauser, Lauri [...]
This summer a newspaper article caught my attention regarding employee retention and it surprised me in a couple ways that may not surprise my experienced readers. The article was written by the co-authors of a book titled Job Moves: 9 Steps for Making Progress in Your Career and it, in part, tackles this retention issue by suggesting meaningful engagement with present employees may keep some of them on the payroll longer. The article asserted that [...]
My news feed fed me an article from the Wealthy Nickel titled 15 Reasons Employers Won’t Hire People Over 50. I do not know what the Wealthy Nickel is and I am agnostic on its value to society writ large. On the other hand, I am not agnostic on an article that fails to unequivocally condemn employers that discriminate against hiring older workers because I am an older worker, and more importantly, because age discrimination [...]
Richard McGee [...]
Richard McGee richard@richardmcgeelaw.com richardmcgeelaw.com 612-812-9673 The United States Supreme Court ruled unanimously that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 does not require evidence of significant harm to conclude that unlawful discrimination occurred in the workplace. Title VII addresses discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin and sex. Remember, in most instances, Title VII exempts tribal employers from compliance. Nevertheless, the lesson from Muldrow v. City of St. Louis is [...]
Richard McGee richard@richardmcgeelaw.com richardmcgeelaw.com 612-812-9673 Your lawyers like at-will and your employees like for cause. Is there a middle ground between the views held by legal counsel and devoted employees? Yes. At-will employment creates a low threshold for employees and employers to end the employment relationship. Employees can leave you without any reason and employers can discharge employees for any reason unless it violates the law or employer policy. For cause or just cause employment [...]
Richard McGee richard@richardmcgeelaw.com richardmcgeelaw.com (website) 612-812-9673 Yes, it matters. Big Brother, The Man and the Government believe that when employers classify a worker as an independent contractor the employer is making that choice to intentionally avoid employer responsibilities to the worker, the government and others. By intentionally misclassifying workers as independent contractors, the employer can avoid minimum wage and overtime, taxes and some liability for the contractor’s actions. Of course there are other employers misclassifying [...]
What is Your Strategic Plan for Your Department in 2024? Richard McGee 612-812-9673 richard@richardmcgeelaw.com As 2024 begins now is the time to discuss whether your department will improve or maintain its status quo. Improvement comes from being proactive on some goals and objectives that will make your department a little bit better (or a lot better) over the next 12 to 18 months. If you choose to improve in 2024 it will not be easy [...]
Federal Vaccine Mandate for Employers Weeks ago President Biden asserted that his administration will require employers with more than 100 employees, health care workers and employers engaged in federal contracts to require their workers to be vaccinated or be tested for COVID on a weekly basis. As to federal contractors that promise was met via a guidance issued by the Safer Federal Workforce Task Force. A regulation, that likely will provide more details, is [...]
My two day investigations training is scheduled for April 22 and 23 by Zoom. There are available spots if you and your team want to attend. The training costs $495 for each participant. NNAHRA kindly approves this training as credit hours toward recertification. Please write or call if you want to attend: richard@richardmcgeelaw.com or 612-812-9673. Thank you.
There is interest in my two-day Investigations Training. I have tentatively scheduled the training for April 22 and 23, 2021 (apologize for the short notice). Part of the motivation for the requests for those dates is for THRP recertification. NNAHRA has been very kind in allowing my training sessions to count toward THRP recertification. If you are interested in registering for the Zoom training, the Investigations training is $495 per person. Please reach out at [...]
The first question presented is whether tribal employers should hang posters? Please do not think about posters of sports stars or good looking celebrities, but instead think about the exciting posters summarizing employee rights relating to worker’s compensation, minimum wage and union organizing. Some laws require that employers hang posters in workplace common areas to inform employees of their rights and the employer’s responsibilities. Whether tribal employers should hang the federal posters depends on whether [...]
Should employers suspend performance evaluations in 2020 because of COVID? Answer: No. That is my answer but others disagree. In a recent Wall Street Journal article titled Pandemic Produces a Kinder, Gentler Performance Review, the question presented was whether performance evaluations should be suspended because both employers and employees have had a difficult year. The article discussed a pandemic-driven management style called empathetic leadership. Empathetic leadership involves recognizing and evaluating the whole person and [...]
Can tribal employers compel employees to be vaccinated against COVID-19? My email inbox has received this question numerous times in the last week and therefore I thought it was a good time to address the question. Answer: Yes with some likely exceptions. Tribal employers start from the premise that the tribe defines the terms and conditions of employment as an exercise of the tribe’s inherent sovereignty. Accordingly, if the tribe mandates vaccines for its [...]
As human resources professionals there is a significant range of skills, talents, attributes and virtues needed to navigate the myriad workplace challenges. On the subject of virtues required for human resources professionals, the following article appeared in the Employment & Labor Insider blog written by lawyer Robin Shea. HR Virtue No. 1: They have "spider sense." By the time the lawyers get called in, the harm is often done already and all we can do is grab [...]
101 Things Everyone Should Know About Tribal Employment After discrimination and harassment, our most popular training session is 101 Things Everyone Should Know About Tribal Employment and the materials for that session are now a published book, a power point presentation, a 50 plus question quiz and a summary of the 128 takeaways from the class. The book's front cover is below. A huge thank you to our friend Tal Moore who made meaningful suggestions [...]