WTFriday #1: Lawyers – We’re Just Like You!

Ed. Note: So, other L&E bloggers I follow have special Friday things that they post, like roundups of what they read, I think for the express purpose of not giving readers anything too taxing right before the weekend. Not having to worry about “readers” per se, and not feeling any compelling need to post the rest of the week, that part of the special Friday post is lost on me. Nonetheless, I am jealous of all of them for myriad reasons, so I’m stealing the idea. As I’ve said before, one of the influences for this blog was Gary Skoning‘s “Wackiest Employment Law Cases” series.  I figured the regular Friday post would be a great way to pay homage to that tradition, so from now on, every Friday I’m going to link to the most ridiculous L&E-related story I’ve read this week. I’m calling it WTFriday. Clever, right? Okay, here goes:

If you poll a few labor & employment attorneys about what industry has the most L&E sketchiness, one of them is bound to say themselves. Not themselves specifically, but lawyers, as a group. We are the worst.

Don’t believe me? I had a friend from law school that went on three interviews in a month, two small firms and a slightly bigger operation, and all three of them asked her if she was planning on having babies anytime soon.

So, from the “Shouldn’t We Know Better” Desk comes this headline in the ABA Journal:

Lawyer Accused of Harassing Employee, Asking Her to Wear Swimsuit to the Office

Yeah. You read that right. Apparently the prominent Chicago class action attorney (whose name you cannot read here, but is certainly available in the article) is facing a couple of lawsuits for trying to “work out a deal” with some of his female employees, and other totally normal successful-attorney-type behavior like taking off his pants at work.

The attorney says that the employee is raising false allegations because she was recently asked to look for another job.

Happy WTFriday, everybody.

Chicago-Area Employers: Bring Your Social Media Questions!

If you’re in the Chicago-area, especially in the western suburbs, I will be conducting a seminar for the West Suburban Chamber of Commerce & Industry on July 15 entitled “Hiring and Managing Employees in the Age of Social Media”. The info is below.

We’ll be discussing the basics of social media policies and what to do when an employee misuses social media, the NLRB’s facebook firing push, and how you can and can’t use SM to screen applicants and employees. There will also be a Q&A  at the end, so bring your questions. Hope to see you there!

And if you are an employer in the Western Suburbs, check out WSCCI. They are a great resource and connection point for businesses in the area.

Seminar Info:

“Hiring & Managing Employees in the Age of Social Media”

July 15, 2011

7:50 – 9:00 am

WSCCI Chamber Offices, 9440 Joliet Road, Suite B, Hodgkins (East doors of the Republic Bank building)

Please RSVP to Kristen at kristenh@wscci.org or call 708-387-7550.

What the Supreme Court’s Wal-Mart Decision Means for You

Yes, You.

I say “You” because this is a blog – and that means I have super fancy internet magic that shows me who reads this stuff I write, and I can tell you that massive corporations make up about .001% of my ego-killing-ly meager audience.

So this post is to the small businesses, sole proprietorships and freelancers that do read this blog with some regularity (and thank you for it, by the way). I know you all got blasted from your corp lawyers and your local chambers of commerce and your aunts on Facebook telling you about the Supreme Court’s business-friendly stance in Dukes v. Wal-Mart, and how it was such good news for companies in this struggling economy and so on. And I know it’s been tough to gauge where the SCOTUS stood on employment issues for a while, and this case was all about discrimination law, so it seems like a good sign and you guys are probably feeling really good about it and everything. So forgive me for playing with your emotions a little, but this next statement is going to be something of a roller coaster. Just bear with me…

What does the Dukes v. Wal-Mart decision mean for you, small business owner? Nuthin.

Seriously – not a damned thing. If you employ one to one hundred employees, I cannot imagine any scenario by which the Dukes decision will ever have an effect on your business, even if every one of your employees sued the pants off of you at the same time.

But you know what? That’s good. Really good. No, seriously. In a million ways, you do not want the Dukes decision to have any effect on your business.

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