Helping your employees save for emergencies, which in turn reduces their stress, thereby making them more effective, so that the company is more profitable, ergo you can help employees save, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera

So, is that worth $56 every six months?

Right to bare arms in the workplace?

I remember a single panel comic from many years ago – sweaty members of the Constitutional Convention were discussing including the right to bare arms (try as I did, I was unable to find the comic – if you know where I can find it I would appreciate an email). With summer slowly approaching, and the air conditioning in our office still not functional, I can see us invoking that unwritten Amendment.

Regardless of your Second Amendment views, employee safety is and should be an expectation, for employees, customers and vendors. So how do you make that happen?

One option is to arm a few trained managers. SHRM answers these five questions (and more): 

1. What are the risks and benefits?
2. What if a gun is fired in the workplace?
3. How will it affect employee morale?
4. What are the policy considerations?
5. What are alternatives (from our authors at Ogletree)?

Also, don't forget to check your HR Library for state-specific information, including policies and forms or click here to choose your state if you aren't already a subscriber.

#MeToo quiz

One of our favorite bloggers, Robin Shea at Constangy (Constangy is the author of one of our Georgia resources) put together a quick 7 question true/false, multiple choice quiz on #MeToo. This is open book (so open that the answers are conveniently provided along with the questions) because we don’t care about what grade you get, just that you stay out of jail.

1. Which big shot had to resign because of allegations of inappropriate and violent behavior toward women?
2. In the wake of #MeToo, employers should radically change the way they respond to sexual harassment allegations.
3. Which type of employee is most at risk for being credibly accused of sexual harassment in the #MeToo era?
4. Which category of individual is least likely to have had sexual harassment training?
5. Employers should add contact information for their Board of Directors to their harassment policies and training materials for all employees.
6. Now that we all know how serious sexual harassment can be, our training should focus on that and less on other types of harassment (racial, national origin, etc.).
7. Now that we all know how serious sexual harassment can be, employers should proceed on the assumption that "the victim is always right."

Bonus: Robin includes a link to her Mother’s Day employment law quiz from last year, which is a timed essay (kidding).

Under standing desks

OK, "under standing desks" would literally mean sitting on the floor, and create bunk desks and the inevitable "who gets the top desk" rock-paper-scissors tournament and the stern adult admonition that jumping from the top desk was NOT OK.

So instead, Holly Mancl and Howard Mavity from Fisher Phillips will help you understand standing desk requests and answer three questions:

1. Should you always provide employees with standing desks upon request?
2. Are you ever required to provide an employee with a variable desk?
3. Could failure to provide a variable workstation become a safety and health hazard?

How to approach an employee showing signs of cognitive decline

Dear Littler: We have an employee who is exhibiting signs of dementia or some other sort of cognitive impairment. He has fallen asleep at work a few times recently and seems confused by tasks that did not pose any problem for him in the past. His performance was solid for years but started declining in the past several months, along with his attention to detail. How do we handle our concerns about his well-being and performance? Should we ask him what’s going on with his health?

                                                                                                 —Worried in Wisconsin

Dear Worried in Wisconsin . . .

Dress codes should not be encoded

Translation: lay it all out ahead of time (dress code pun) and be clear.

The Hartford Small Business Ahead blog provides five tips:

1. Have an answer for "Why not?" other than "Because your Furoshikis* look silly"
2. Send out reminders – like now, before the dress code begins to suffer the dreaded summer creep
3. Be really specific – casual wear means different things to different people
4. Understand the talking point do's and don'ts
5. Have "The Talk"

Need a dress code policy? See our blog "Dress codes: who, what, wear" or login to your hrsimple.com HR Library.

* Disclaimer, I have a pair and they kinda do.

Don't ask a woman the gender of her child, especially. . .

A friend of mine, let's call him "Art" (because everyone else does), asked a woman on an elevator if she was having a girl or a boy. Turns out she wasn't pregnant. And it was an express elevator.

Pregnancy is an issue, or more appropriately, the plural, issues, that most workplaces will have to deal with at some point, and the more help, maps, guidance, direction, examples, prayers (non-denominational and not mandatory), the better.

So we share The Evil HR Lady's 5 most common mistakes small businesses make with pregnant employees and how to steer clear.

Foul language *

* This blog is about profanity. For "fowl language" see below.

Foul language comes in various colors, intensities and tones, with just as many interpretations. And, like much of the HR landscape, it can depend on both the protagonist and the audience, intended or not.

A one-off f-bomb after stapling the flappy piece of skin between your thumb and pointer to your quarterly report would likely be better tolerated than a string-of-filth invective directed at someone in particular.

SHRM provides three steps to help:

1. Notice
2. Change expectations
3. Lay down the law

* I don't know if fowl curse, but chicken squawk is talk. Chicken is also a computer language in which "chicken" is the only valid symbol. Duh.

Rorschach, Horshack and Abednego

Rorschach, Horshack and Abednego

The phrase above tumbled out of my head as I read this blog post from our partners at Troutman Sanders. Kind of went like this:

Personality testing –> Rorschach –> Somebody, Meshach and Abenego –> somebody in the Sweathogs.

I am sure it says something about me that a Meyers-Briggs test begat inkblots begat catechism with Reverend Tozer begat a late 70’s sitcom, but I don’t know what it is. However, I now crave a long narrow loaf of French bread.

Although personality is not a protected class and is a legitimate reason not to hire an applicant and/or discipline an employee, you know adding "testing" to anything almost always raises red flags, so check out the blog.

Guidelines for a valid no-solicitation/no-distribution policy

Guidelines for a Valid No-Solicitation/No-Distribution Policy

Many employers would like to ensure that employees focus on their work during their working time – after all, that’s what they’re being paid to do! One way employers attempt to prevent distractions is by implementing a policy that prohibits employees from soliciting their co-workers (Buy cookies! Participate in this raffle! Come to my church supper! Join a union!) or giving them written materials to read while at work.

According to the National Labor Relations Board, the following guidelines apply:

All aboard the Love Train for long-term onboarding!

onboarding

änˈbôrdiNG

noun

1.  getting a new employee up to speed as fast as possible so you can get back to work
2.  the first step in learning how to surf; literally just staying on the surfboard by any means, often accompanied by the phrase "Hang one"
3.  a 90-day process of integrating a new employee into the company's culture, process and team
4.  the refrain you shout across the dancefloor as soon as you hear the first chords of "Love Train" by the O'Jays

Gender and workplace bathrooms

In 2016 the Governor of North Carolina lit a fuse when he signed a law requiring individuals to use the restrooms consistent with their “biological sex”. Shortly after, the U.S. Department of Justice filed a lawsuit preventing North Carolina from enforcing this law – and the “bathroom issue” as we know it was born. 

As an employer you are legally required to provide workers reasonable access to restroom facilities under the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)’s rules. Seems pretty straightforward, right? In the last few years LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) issues have come to the forefront and many employers have been left wondering how to do what for who. To complicate matters even more, what happens when doing something to make one employee comfortable has the adverse result on another employee? Let’s take a look at what bathroom gender requirements are, and what experts recommend as best bathroom practices

Personal hygiene in the workplace

When you took your job in HR, you knew that you would have to face some uncomfortable situations: terminations, poor performance reviews, disciplinary actions, but perhaps the worst of all is the “we need to talk about your personal hygiene” conversation. Your staff’s poor personal hygiene can negatively effect co-workers and customers alike, and management needs to take these delicate matters seriously. Here are few ways to deal with hygiene issues in the workplace. 

1. Have a policy in place. And use it. 

As we say often, the best way to enforce rules in the workplace is to have rules in the workplace. When you have a clear policy on what level of hygiene is expect of all staff members, your staff can clearly understand what is expected of them, and these uncomfortable issues are less likely to arise. When new staff is hired make sure to go over the employee handbook with them and highlight these areas. Here is a sample dress code policy from our partners at Polsinelli that includes hygiene. 

No FMLA for pet's death

The Family and Medical Leave Act does not provide leave to care for an ill or dying pet. (Because a pet is not technically a family member. Really. Despite how we pet-owners feel about our fur babies. That’s mine in the picture.) But I also said that, “if an employee becomes depressed because of the death of a pet, it is possible that this could rise to the level of a disability that would require a reasonable accommodation under the Americans with Disabilities Act, or a serious health condition for which leave must be granted under the [Family and Medical Leave Act].” I further noted, however, that most people may experience grief but not become clinically depressed as the result of a pet’s death. So my interest was piqued by a recent case in which the employee claimed that his insomnia following his dog’s death was a serious health condition under the FMLA.

Master the modern method for managing March Madness

March Madness is not, in fact, capturing the King of Leprechauns (although imagine the benefits). But it can be either:

• an annual distracting scourge

or

• an inevitable activity that you can manage.

Your choice.

Richard Meneghello and Shayla Balch at our author Fisher Phillips help you manage:

• productivity
• hourly workers
• company organized pools
• risks.