termination
Judge Gives NASA Lesson on Background Checks
NASA scientists, engineers, and administrative support personnel believed newly- implemented background checks were unlawful, claiming NASA lacked authority to implement them and was invading personal privacy. After unsuccessfully seeking injunction in federal district court, they ultimately prevailed when Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals reversed, ordering district court to grant injunction prohibiting implementation of new procedures. Although directly applicable to public sector employment, case is useful reminder of importance of keeping background checks and interview questions relevant and focused.
High-Tech, Impersonal Firings Not Good Idea
A recent Christian Science Monitor Work & Money piece discusses how to communicate bad news regarding termination or layoff.
Specifically, the topic is the notion that “impersonal ‘cyber-firings’ via e-mail – even text message – have become an expedient way to lay employees off.”
The article leads with an employee who got the news by [...]
Read, Aimed, FIRED! The First Year on the Job May Be Deadly!
According to some recent studies, almost half of new rookie hires do not make with the company for more than 1 and 1/2 years. And it is not just lower-level employees who don’t make the cut — one study shows that over half of managers and executives don’t survive past the first year of the [...]
Five Mistakes To Avoid When Terminating Employees
Years of practicing employment law have taught me that although sometimes absolutely necessary from a business perspective, termination is the employment decision most likely to lead to litigation.
I have also learned the hard way that management often makes mistakes in terminations that make the defense of termination claims much more difficult.
A recent article points [...]
New Development on Employment Termination for Guns in Company Parking Lots
Last month, affirming a district court ruling, the Tenth Circuit ruled against a group of employees challenging their employment termination for possessing firearms in their cars on their employer’s parking lot.
The court considered — and rejected — the following arguments by the terminated employees: