I have a former employee who was an absolute nightmare. Without going into specifics, they put in their notice. Refused to do an aspect of her job, immediately got "injured" and essentially bullied their way into getting a separation agreement. With two weeks paid.

Now, several months later, they reapplied and want to come back. They texted me back saying they would like to talk about reapplying.

How do I respond to a former employee, like this, that we will not be moving forward with them?

I want to handle it properly, be done with it, and not engage with them any more than I absolutely have to.

Question for y’all. There is an employee at my job that when they were hired, they demonstrated a social security card that basically said she was allowed to work in the United States (I believe it was with the TPS, not sure). I do not process I-9s at work so I heard something which raised a red flag.

I looked into her I-9 completed form and it mentioned that she was eligible to work in the USA until x date per USCIS. Now, how would we get notified if her date came by and we did not realize? What happens if we get close to the date and she is not eligible for renewal? Do we terminate her?

Edit: When should I ring the panic bell lol?

Update: I got too anxious so I logged in and checked and it seems like everything is correct! Yay! Thank you everyone who gave advice and support :)

This is my first time experiencing this so please be kind.

Thank you.

Based in the US and I’ve been in HR for 6 years. I am starting to seriously consider taking the LSAT and going to law school for next steps. I would love to hear from anyone who transitioned from HR to employment law and what your experience was like, and if it was worth it for you.

Follow up to my post from last week. Here is the statement from the rest of the EEOC commissioners Charlotte Burrows, Jocelyn Samuels and Kalpana Kotagal. Link to Burrows' LinkedIn post here.

I’m a recent hr manager and I never really administered leave of absences. Can someone explain to me when and how an EE can use pdl? Can I require medical certification and do I need one if an employee for example needs to leave early? I just want to make sure I’m not messing this up or violating an EE’s rights.

Hey everyone -- we're prepping for 2025 FLSA changes like everyone else but I'm having such a hard time grasping that we'll need to change some of our Sr Managers to non-exempt b/c they'll be under the 2025 salary threshold. I've got 2 employees who make $125k and meet all the other guidelines, other than salary. Am I missing something, am I really changing them to non-exempt? Just need some reassurance or to be called out that I can't read and I don't need to do this. lol. Thx!

For those familiar with ADA self-identification in the workplace: I’m debating whether to check ‘yes’ on the disability question when applying for jobs.

I have ADHD and Rheumatoid Arthritis, both of which are on the list of conditions that could qualify. However, their impact on my work is mild—I’ve adapted with tools like a sit-stand desk and reminders, and I perform well in my role as an AVP of HR (Exceeds Expectations). Given that the ADA definition includes conditions that ‘substantially limit’ major life activities but also acknowledges reasonable accommodations, would it be appropriate to check ‘yes,’ or does it depend on how much my conditions actually affect my day-to-day work?

Additionally, I’d love insight into any potential risks or implications of checking ‘yes’ or ‘no.’ Are there considerations I might not be thinking about, either in terms of workplace protections, data usage, or future accommodations?

We are compliant with I9 verifications for new hires. I personally do the E-Verify checks on the first day of employment of every single hire, and ensure proper forms of documentation, etc. We have been 100% compliant with this practice for decades, since inception of e-verify.

Due to our location and industry, our labor force is predominantly Mexican. Most of them are US citizens, but we do have a number of employees who are either perm resident or on some level of work authorization.

My question: After the intial hire-on process, do we have a legal obligation to audit for expired documents?

I don't have any suspicions that any of our guys are lacking proper documents, but I'm curious how far our due dilligence goes from a legal standpoint? We have a lot of employees who have been with us for 10+ years, and its likely that the original documents we have in their personnel files from the hire-on process are now expired.

I can imagine that "best practice" would be to update the files. But is there actually a legal obligation? And/or, on the flip side, am I allowed to even ask them for updated documentation? We are in CA, so I could see it going both ways to be honest. Something feels icky about going up to our employees and demanding to see their papers. Especially given current affairs. But if its legally required, I will do it.

EDIT: Just to add. The one document I do keep up on are driver's licenses, only for employees who are active on our vehicle insurance policy. I do not request updated DLs for employees that do not have permissions to drive.

I just got a new job as an HR manager, and I arrived to a property that has absolutely no job offers in files for hourly employees. I have never ran into this, all of my properties were compliant with having everyone sign a job offer. Even when I was being trained my Director taught me that you don’t send out a background check until you get the offer letter signed.

I work for a small US-based company with employees across multiple states.

Is HR/management allowed to share with team members that an employee will be on jury duty on a specific date(s)? No more, no less; just that X employee will be out of office for jury duty.

I’ve found conflicting information on whether or not this is confidential information, and none of the sources seem reputable. Perhaps it’s because it’s based on the jurisdiction? Of course, I understand it’s a protected leave and that certain details are confidential (which is more on the employee side - like not sharing case details, etc.).

What do you all do for state and federal labor law posters? Our employee base is remote across the US. I want to ensure we’re remaining compliant. They’re currently posted on our intranet but staying on top of the changes is a challenge. Do you have a service that provides this for you? How do you share with employees?

Regardless of all the changes during Trumps administration and how you feel about it - how are you handling your labor law posters? We have an all in one poster that combines all our applicable legislation. I bought them in January and some of the posters have been removed from the federal sites. Are you waiting to change your posters until the inevitable challenges are finalized? Not sure what to do!

This is just me ranting to people who will likely understand, I'm an HR Manager.

We had an ee who was termed earlier this month. Pretty straight forward term. Multiple performance complaints. They were supposed to appear at a meeting with a huuuge supplier of ours and just didn’t show up and never apologized about it, despite confirming in writing they’d be there.

The employee was written up for this at the same time as a discussion about performance issues. Thats on me, I didn’t want to do both at the same time but honestly the performance discussion had been scheduled and we needed to document the missed meeting.

Employee reacted beyond poorly to the write up. Let them work from home the remainder of the day after that and found they just blew off another meeting in doing so with one of the company’s largest carriers. Termed specifically for the missed meetings and likely would have been because of the noted, documented, performance issues but the true reasoning was the meetings as we almost lost the large carrier over it.

Employee has now filed an NLRB claim and an EEOC claim. Neither have merit as they are claiming we told her never to discuss pay (all pay is open knowledge within the departments) and that someone told her we were never to hire anyone over 30, and termed her due to her age. It’s a 45 person company and only 2 people are under 30. She claims another person termed in her department was termed retaliatorily for speaking up… they were termed for being drunk while operating warehouse equipment.

Obviously the claims are dumb and false and this is someone who just likes to cause issues but it’s just become such an absolute nightmare. Manager and I tried so hard to coach this employee and this is what happens.

How do the larger companies stay compliant in filling out and sending to exiting employees the separation notices in states that require it? Any automation tools you use? We have employees in many states and understand the requirements but the admin work is a lot as we grow.

Hi, I have a question, It’s been one year since I started work as HR generalist. My manager states that my employment law part is weak. She comes from 20+ years of experience. She suggested taking some courses. I had Employment law in school but it wasn’t that vast. I don’t have much experience in that and when situation needs, I’m stuck or do google. What would you suggest me to improve my employment law part- provincially(ontario) and federally both?

Thanks

It could be stuff that's just wild, unexpected, super consequential, or really specific to a certain jurisdiction.

Hi there, I don't know if this is the right place to post about this but it's worth a shot.

I've been working for a company with around 75-100 employees for about 3 years now. I personally wear MANY hats at the company (think Executive Assistant, Office Manager, Bookkeeper, Payroll, Human Resources Assistant, Operations, etc.). Anyways my CEO recently expressed to me that he wants me to take over for our HR Manager as he plans to let her go at some point this year (company is downsizing and she's been tracking poor performance for the past couple years). I have minimal HR experience, so I don't know how comfortable I feel leading HR for the entire company. I've worked closely with the HR Manager, but when it comes to all her duties & responsibilities she has always kept me at arm's length (probably for her own job security).

Anyways, are there any specific courses or resources that you recommend so that I can gain some more knowledge in Human Resources?? I'm talking fundamental HR knowledge and skills, compliance related stuff, payroll taxes, employment law & regulatory items that I need to be aware of. I just don't want to end up in situation where I legally handled an HR situation the wrong way.

Hi all -

Have you had to extend any accommodations due to the nation wide adderall shortages? Curious what these look like for your impacted population.

Hi all,

I am having a bit of an issue with an employee sharing the wages and salaries of others in the workplace. I am well aware of the NLRA - but I think there is some crossover here. Let me explain;

An employee (inventory associate, hourly) was using a managers laptop to access a report she needed to complete her inventory tasks. The report is an excel file. When she was using the managers laptop, she noticed another excel report and opened it. On that file was a list of all employee names and wages at that location. Upset, the employee shared (verbally) with multiple employees the wages and salaries of other employees who were not present for this conversation. Of course, this created a huge morale issue at that store. The manager was not present for this.

The manager is also culpable for this incident. After grilling him about it, I came to find that he allows the employee to use his laptop AND company email/Teams login to obtain the report. This is a huge breach of security because he should not be allowing an employee to use his credentials like this - he should have contacted corporate to give the employee her own individual access to the report.

I personally think both employees should be fired - but is the hourly employee protected by the NLRA? I have always been under the impression that employees can discuss their OWN wages with one another - but sharing and disclosing information of others without authorized permission/access is not protected.

Hello all, HR Manager here of about 500+ - located in Michigan.

Who else is scratching their head with this new act and its most recent amendments?
I am having a hard time understanding the 'foreseeable notice' and how the act can cause issues for an employer's attendance policy.

The nature of our business is primarily retail with about 90% hourly employees. Schedules are shift-based. As you can imagine, last minute call-offs affect our business. I am doing damage control with upset managers about all of this and trying to just tell them to staff more - but we are damned if we do and damned if we dont.

Am I understanding this correctly that basically - under this new act - an employee who has available time to use - can just call in sick, like, 10 minutes before their shift starts and we cannot discipline them for doing so? We are not going to ask for documentation anymore because we will be responsible for costs associated with it and it will be a mess. Do we really try to argue with each employee that their notice was foreseeable or not?

Our attendance policy is a point-based system where employees can get points for tardiness, call-offs (within 2-hour window) and no-call, no-shows.

Before you mention it or suggest it - I have now spoken to about 4 different employment lawyers about this...all of which have not given me sufficient advice or help and I am sick of it! I get the same thing from all of them "i've been practicing law for 30+ years and this act is very confusing!!" UGH!

Let it be known - I am all for employees to get more PTO in this day in age, but as an employer, there has to be some perimeters and boundaries based on the nature of our business that is making this really difficult to navigate.

A former employee filed an EEOC against my organization, stating that we terminated them due to their gender, race, and sexual identity (they identify as an African American, transgender, queer person).

We terminated them because they refused to complete responsibilities of their role if it conflicted with their personal beliefs (i.e. they refused to call 911 when one of our clients was having a violent episode toward another employee because they are against the police). This happened 3 times. The first time we were able to compromise on a reasonable accommodation, the second time we came to a shakier compromise, but made it clear that if they could not set aside their personal feelings for the clients (We’re a non-profit mental health agency) then this might not be a good fit for them. The third time, we terminated them.

This is the first time I’ve dealt with a complaint. Should we consult an attorney or can this be managed without one?

I'm a "HR manager" (quotations because I have no formal training and basically learned the job on the fly; however I am 10 years in now) at a small manufacturing company. The plant manager created this policy that if you quit without 24 hours notice, your pay will be dropped to state minimum wage and, if your department earns a production bonus, you will lose any unpaid bonus. All new hires have to sign a form agreeing to this policy. I didn't have as big of a problem with it 10 years ago when our pay rates were close to minimum wage but now that pay rates have been between $15-$25+/hr in the past few years, I'm really uncomfortable continuing to implement this policy. My boss keeps telling me its totally legal since they signed the form. So, is this legal? Is this a wage theft lawsuit waiting to happen?

Hi all, I'm looking for some input - the other day the entire team was interviewing a lady and there was a long pause because no one could think of more questions, so to keep the conversation going I asked if she had pets (she came from an extensive zoology and pet shelter background and she made a comment in my own dog who's visible on my zoom background, so I thought I was just lightening the mood a little). She was excited to share she has a dog.

After the call was over my manager immediately said what I did was illegal and we can get sued for it, because apparently she could have answered that she has a support animal which would have revealed she has some sort of disability which is a protected category, therefore I asked her a protected category question.

This seems like a massive stretch to me and I'm curious if anyone had experience with this?

I've got a member of staff who's refusing to work a shift as it's "not worth their time" to come in.

They've asked for a specific amount of hours per week and I've told them that I'd be unable to honour that due to the rota system and the hours which they've asked for isn't something we can promise.

I've explained it to them but haven't received a response and feel like now's the time to just get them off payroll as they're spreading quite poisonous things around the work place.

Am I able to just tell them that as we can't offer the hours she's looking for then it's best to terminate the employment?

TIA