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Mark

In my humble opinion The Office is the world’s #1 employment law training aid. All you have to do is (1) watch it and (2) do the exact opposite of everything you see.

To help enhance your viewing experience, each week I provide a critique of the action from an employment lawyer’s perspective. We also conduct a weekly “Are You Smarter Than a Lawyer?” Contest. Anyone who leaves a comment below identifying a legal issue that I missed will win a valuable prize.

Last Night’s Episode: Jury Duty

The Plot: Here’s NBC’sfficial description: ”Jim returns after being away for jury duty and a curious Dwight will not stop questioning him about the case; Angela and the Senator welcome their new baby.”

My Analysis:

1. Issue: Andy’s Stress Release
   Description: Andy forced the warehouse employees to stop working and clear out so that he could do a “stress-release dance” to the theme from Footloose. In addition to hurting productivity, Andy made a huge mess, imperiled worker safety (mostly his own), wasted company resources, made an inappropriate comment and committed a copyright violation that could have Kenny Loggins coming after the company.
   Risk: $$$$
2. Issue: Lies, Lies and More Lies
   Description: As we discussed in our most recent webinar, dishonesty is the #1 way to get fired fast. Jim lied about being on jury duty. Andy lied about Jim lying (and about no one ever lying to him before). The lies continued to pile up as they both engaged in an attempted cover-up. Dwight conducted an “investigation” that followed none of our patented Investigation Tips contained in our 2012 Employment Law Tool Box. The company should conduct an actual investigation with a real HR person and fire them both. In addition, Angela lied about her baby’s due date (and possibly, its paternity).
   Risk: $$$$
3. Issue: Don’t Touch
   Description: Andy gave Jim an over-the-top hug and strange handshake when Jim returned the the office. He later slapped Jim as punishment (after telling him that he was in “deep doo-doo”) for his jury duty lies. Touching employees is never a good idea (especially if you’re Andy).
   Risk: $$
4. Issue: Emotional Distress
   Description: Stanley, Phyllis, Darryl and others expressed that they suffered various levels of distress due to Jim’s prolonged absence. The value of their claims was diminished when they later encouraged Jim to leave work to care for his kids.
   Risk: $
5. Issue: Defamation
   Description:  Dwight made several defamatory comments about Jim (including calling him a “pervert”) and Toby (“the most forgettable man on the planet”). Dwight also made multiple public pronouncements proclaiming that he is the father of Angela’s baby, which may not be true. Virtually everyone who saw Angela’s baby made a disparaging comment about him.
   Risk: $$
6. Issue: Inappropriate Comments
   Description: Andy made comments about his and Jim’s posteriors. Stanley made a comment about Jim’s posterior. Kevin, Oscar, Ryan, Phyllis and Angela made inappropriate race/national origin-based comments. Gabe made a creepy comment about the maternity ward. Kevin called Erin “bimbo.” Erin called Kevin “himbo.” Kevin and Erin made potentially unlawful comments about obesity. Dwight made multiple inappropriate comments to Angela while contending that he’s the baby’s father.
   Risk: $$$
7. Issue: Gambling
   Description: Erin and others may have violated state anti-gambling laws by conducting a baby pool.
   Risk: $$
8. Issue: Dwight on NCIS?
   Description: Jim tricked Dwight into traveling across the country to perform as an extra on NCIS. Jim (and possibly the company) could be on the hook for travel and other expenses/damages.
   Risk: $$
9. Issue: Invasion of Privacy
   Description: Oscar, Kevin, Erin and Gabe charged into Angela’s hospital room with video cameras rolling, potentially creating invasion of privacy and other claims.
   Risk: $$
10. Issue: Drug References
    Description: Andy made Dwight take an imaginary “chill pill.” It seemed to work — temporarily. Angela made a reference to drugs at a “James Taylor concert.”
    Risk: $$
11. Issue: Corruption of Minors
    Description: Kevin bought Angela’s newborn a violent Call of Duty video game. Jim and Pam brought their kids into the office solely to make everyone feel sympathy for them. They made their daughter lie about artwork she didn’t create, which resulted in her sobbing uncontrollably.
    Risk: $$$
12. Issue: Breach of Confidentiality
    Description: Approximately 0.8 seconds after promising Angela he wouldn’t disclose that Angela’s baby was born out of wedlock, Oscar disclosed that information to Dwight who kept the secret for approximately 0.7 seconds.
    Risk: $$
13. Issue: Interference with Medical Care
    Description: Dwight attempted to interfere with the baby’s circumcision.
    Risk: $$
14. Issue: Fire Hazard
    Description: Dwight smoked a cigar in the workplace and then extinguished it in a highly unsafe manner. Andy observed Dwight’s actions but did nothing.
    Risk: $$$
15. Issue: Theft of Company Time
    Description: Once again, no employees did any discernible work.
    Risk: $$

Facebook, Google Plus, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube: What are YOU on?

In last week’s webinar, we asked our 3,423 viewers a series of questions to see how you’re really using social media.

Here was our first question …

More than two-thirds (67%) now use a SM tool. That’s a slight dip from last quarter’s 71% (the highest ever in our quarterly index) but still up quite a bit over the previous quarter’s 58%.

That led to our next question …

This is where things got a little surprising. After reigning as the undisputed heavyweight SM champion in every one of our quarterly indices going back to the beginning of time, Facebook (26%) appears to have suddenly stumbled to fall behind LinkedIn (51%) as the go-to tool in the business world.

Also interesting was the fact that in only two months on the Index, Google Plus has jumped from nothing to a fairly substantial 18%. Much of that appears to have come at the expense of Facebook. (As you’ve probably noticed, there’s quite a bit of anti-Facebook backlash percolating in the SM universe. The news this morning that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg could reap as much as $28 billion in Facebook’s IPO could fan the flames even more.)

Almost no one uses anything other than three as their primary tool. YouTube and Twitter are both hovering around 2%.

So, how much time are you spending on SM? Here’s what you said …

The results were rather surprising (at least to me):

• One-third of you spend a grand total of zero minutes each week using SM @ work.
• The most popular answer was 1-30 minutes, capturing another third or so.
• Less than one-fifth spend more than an hour a week on SM.
• Approximately one-tenth spend 3 or more hours on SM, with 1% spending more than 10 hours. Yikes.

Social Media Freaking You Out?

In our pre-webinar survey, confusion over social media rules was repeatedly named as a top concern. For all the latest legal developments in that area, check out our webinar replay and our handy 2012 Employment Law Tool Box, which includes a sample social media policy courtesy of the fine folks at McGuire Woods LLP.

As always, thanks for your participation. Stay tuned for more on the latest trends affecting the wonderful world of workplace law.

Congrats to COURTNEY, winner of our monthly “Spot the Bogus Workplace Celebration” Contest.

Courtney was the first astute observer to identify “Bring Lady GaGa to Work Day” as the fake holiday. Believe it or not, the rest are very real. Click here for the full list.

Thanks for your participation — enjoy the rest of the month!

You are hereby notified that you have a mandatory training session this evening.

At 9/8c, you are required to tune in to your local NBC affiliate and watch tonight’s NEW episode of The Office. Failure to do so could result in disciplinary action.

In my humble opinion, The Office is the world’s greatest employment law training aid. All you have to do is (1) watch it and (2) do the exact opposite of everything you see.

TONIGHT’S EPISODE: Jury Duty. Here’s NBC’s official description: “Jim returns after being away for jury duty and a curious Dwight will not stop questioning him about the case; Angela and the Senator welcome their new baby.” For more, click here.

OFFICIAL “ARE YOU SMARTER THAN A LAWYER?” CONTEST. Tune in tomorrow to see my detailed analysis of the episode and exactly what I would tell the company if I were its lawyer. Anyone who spots an employment law issue that I missed will win a valuable prize.

Enjoy!

In each of our quarterly webinars, we conduct a series of polls to see what’s really going on out there in the wonderful world of work.

Today’s topic: EMPLOYMENT LITIGATION.

We asked our 3,423 attendees at last week’s webinar this question:

Not exactly the prettiest picture.

Once again, far more employers are seeing an increase — versus a decrease — in claims. The percentage reporting an increase (47%) was up 20% over last quarter and was nearly fourteen times the number of those reporting a decrease (4%). Yikes.

To get at your greatest source of pain, we also asked this question:

Surging to the top this quarter for the first time in awhile was Terminations, with nearly a third of the votes. Others receiving double-digit votes included Wage & Hour (18%), Medical Issues (16%) and Investigations (12%).

So, What Should Employers Do?

Unfortunately, the increase in litigation is showing absolutely no signs of letting up. That means it’s more important than ever to (1) know the law and (2) take action on key risk areas immediately.

We discussed a variety of ways to achieve those goals in our webinar. Here’s the replay and SlideShare if you didn’t get a chance to join us.

And here’s our official 2012 Employment Law Tool Box, packed with dozens of tools to reduce your headaches and keep you out of court. It includes termination tips, an investigation checklist, cheat sheets on wage and hour and medical leave laws and much much much more.

More Tomorrow

Please join us tomorrow when we’ll discuss SOCIAL MEDIA @ WORK.

Want to win in the changing world of work?

Talent has replaced capital as the absolute #1 key competitive differentiator. The companies that get the best talent will win. Those that don’t, won’t.

It’s that simple.

But how exactly do you get the right talent at the right time? ManpowerGroup has the answers.

Here’s our latest insight paper entitled How to Navigate the Human Age, which includes all our latest research and recommendations on talent, work models and people practices to help you WIN.

For more on ManpowerGroup’s thought leadership — including what we presented at last week’s World Economic Forum — click here.

Earlier today, the Department of Labor proposed new FMLA rules related to leave for military families and airline flight crews.

Here’s a handy summary from the DOL. Here are FAQs. Here and here are fact sheets.

Here’s what the DOL identified as the major provisions:

• extension of military caregiver leave to eligible family members of recent veterans with a serious injury or illness incurred in the line of duty;
• a flexible, three-part definition for serious injury or illness of a veteran;
• the extension of military caregiver leave to cover serious injuries or illnesses for both current service members and veterans that result from the aggravation during military service of a preexisting condition;
• the extension of qualifying exigency leave to eligible employees with covered family members serving in the Regular Armed Forces;
• inclusion of a foreign deployment requirement for qualifying exigency leave for the deployment of all service members;
• the addition of a special hours of service eligibility requirement for airline flight crew employees; and
• the addition of specific provisions for calculating the amount of FMLA leave used by airline flight crew employees.

The DOL says it will accept public comments on the proposed regs here (although the new rules aren’t loaded into that system quite yet).

One of the best ways to avoid needless employment law disputes is to stay in touch with what your employees are thinking, feeling and doing.

As part of our never-ending quest to keep you up-to-speed on the latest developments affecting your workplace, the following is our guide to some of the lesser-known holidays/celebrations your employees might be observing this month.

Just to make sure you’re paying attention, we included one made-up day on our list. The rest are very real. The first person to post a comment identifying the bogus day will win a valuable prize.

• Return Shopping Carts to the Supermarket Month (1-28)
• Working Naked Day (1)
• Hula in the Coola Day (1)
• Hedgehog Day (2)
• Wear Red Day (3)
• Bubble Gum Day (3)
• Liberace Day (4)
• Weatherperson’s Day (5)
• World Nutella Day (5)
• Ballet Day (7)
• Just Say No to PowerPoints Week (5-11)
• Wave All Your Fingers At Your Neighbor Day (7)
• Laugh and Get Rich Day (8)
• Read in the Bathtub Day (9)
• White Shirt Day (11)
• Jell-O Week (12-18)
• Get a Different Name Day (13)
• Quirky Alone Day (14)
• National Call In Single Day (14)
• National Gum Drop Day (15)
• My Way Day (17)
• Love Your Pet Day (20)
• Inconvenience Yourself Day (22)
• National Chili Day (23)
• International Sword Swallowers Day (25)
• National Tooth Fairy Day (28)
• Public Sleeping Day (28)
• Bring Lady Gaga to Work Day (29)

What does this mean for employers? If your employees suddenly start impersonating Liberace, swallowing swords, eschewing PowerPoints, wearing tutus, inconveniencing themselves, changing their names, crooning like Sinatra, incorrectly predicting the weather, encasing office supplies in Jell-O and/or suddenly leaving work to return stolen shopping carts, now you know why.

Enjoy the month!

Sources:  holidayinsights.com, brownielocks.com

We have two winners in our official “Smartest Person in our Audience” Contest following yesterday’s webinar.

Congrats to ALEX and DALE who finished in a virtual tie for first place. In recognition of their efforts, they will each receive a $100 gift card good for any of the fine merchants on giftcertificates.com.

For the record, the correct answers to the quiz questions were C, B, D, A and D.

Thanks again to all who participated!