Sometimes business is booming. Other times, not so much. We appear to be heading into a downturn, and that means you may have to make some hard decisions, including terminations of some long-time employees. Is there a way to do so compassionately? According to lawyers at Littler participating in a recent webinar, the answer is yes. Here’s how to do so.

If all three bills are enacted and signed by the president, all employers would soon be able to offer comp time in lieu of overtime, the Department of Labor would be limited in which employees it considers tipped employees and the DOL’s PAID program would become an official part of the FLSA.

• Key rules of engagement. Proven strategies for successfully managing difficult employee conversations.
• Framing discussions with employees’ career and professional development in mind. How to shape conversations to foster understanding and resolution.
• Power of self-awareness over anger. Encouraging employees to take responsibility for issues without creating hostility.
• Legally safe scripts. How to navigate “off the record” discussions with employees while protecting your company.
• Addressing new supervisor syndrome. Tailoring your approach for new managers vs. experienced leaders.
• Stopping attitude problems. 3 practical steps to tackle entitlement and attitude issues effectively.
• Sample scripts for common issues. Guidance on addressing challenges like substandard job performance, inappropriate workplace behavior and lack of reliability (attendance/tardiness).
• Handling sensitive topics. Best practices for resolving issues like personal hygiene, foul language and termination.

• What went wrong with DEI 1.0. Exclusionary policies and preferences just won’t work—and have never been legal.
• Embrace inclusiveness. This is what the law requires and what your DEI program must focus on.
• Focus on pay equity. Audit your pay system to assure everyone is paid equally regardless of sex, age, disability, etc.
• Recruit broadly. Don’t recruit by quota; instead, recruit for a diverse pool from whom you choose the most qualified.
• Rework your DEI training. Under no circumstances can you play the blame game.
• Aim for organic diversity. Do not use quotas, goals or pay incentives.
• Provide a leg up to disabled workers—legally. You can integrate self-identified disabled workers into your workforce simply by following the law of reasonable accommodations.
• Training, mentorships and affinity groups. Yes, these are fine if open to all.
• Leave no one behind. Don’t forget pregnant and religious workers receiving accommodations when training, mentoring and celebrating.

• Review our checklist of 2025 updates, and make any required changes to your policies that you may have missed.
• Prepare for anticipated handbook policy changes in 2026, and get suggested language to aid in your revisions.
• Find out how to keep DEI policies compliant under new federal directives.
• Prepare for shifts in religious accommodation rules and learn how to build compliant policies.
• Learn the key DOL changes: Overtime, heat rules and other workplace basics.
• Discover pregnancy-related EEOC updates and their implications for your policies.

• I-9 modernization updates. Review recent changes to I-9 processes, including remote verification, E-Verify and the increased scrutiny of electronic I-9 systems provided by outside vendors.
• ICE visits and raid preparation. Know exactly what to do before ICE drops by, including spotting and fixing I-9 problems.
• Correcting issues. Identify and address missing or incomplete Forms I-9 and other common issues.
• Increased enforcement. Learn tactics to navigate the new ICE taskforces and Homeland Security’s I-9 audit quotas leading to dramatic increases in enforcement activity.
• Avoid operational impacts. Discover steps that can be taken now to avoid the impact of losing your workforce in a sudden raid or I-9 audit.
• Employer liability and joint employment. Explore government priorities around criminal prosecution of employers and a continued emphasis on joint employment with staffing agencies and contractors.
• Answers to YOUR questions. In a recent webinar, numerous questions were asked of the presenter. Bring your unique questions and get all of them answered.

• Leave as an accommodation. Understand when leave may not qualify as a reasonable accommodation (rarely) and when it may be required for cases of infertility, miscarriage, stillbirth and more.
• Guaranteed accommodations. Walk away with a checklist of the accommodations the EEOC says you can’t question—no doctor’s note, no forms, no delay.
• Top practical accommodations. Easy-to-implement, detailed, practical accommodations that won’t unduly disrupt the workplace while complying with the law.
• Lessons from the courtroom. Now that lawsuits have gone to court or settled, embrace lessons learned the hard way so you won’t repeat them.
• Compliant break rooms no matter your industry. Walk away with instructions for creating compliant milk-expression rooms for any workplace.
• Postpartum accommodations. Understand the obligations you have postpartum, including how soon you may have to bring new mothers back, even if they still can’t perform every essential function.

• The latest changes. Discover how the One Big Beautiful Bill Act changes 1099 reporting, along with 8 airtight steps for completing 1099s that will keep the IRS off your back.
• Reporting requirements. Box-by-box reporting requirements for 1099-NEC and 1099-MISC, and when you may need to file both.
• E-filing credentials. What is an e-filing credential, how do you get one and what happens if you don’t?
• Filing 1099s. 3 crucial rules to determine if you need to file 1099 forms, and why you might need to give 1099s to employees, too—not just independent contractors.
• Taxpayer IDs. How to tell if a contractor’s Taxpayer ID Number is legit, and what to do if it’s not.
• Protect your company. The 6 crucial moves to activate the safe harbor for de minimis math errors.
• Leveraging available tools. Two free IRS services that should wipe out penalties for filing incorrect forms.

• Why you need a formal attendance policy. Learn how to structure a policy that establishes attendance as an essential job function.
• How the FMLA impacts absenteeism. Understand when intermittent absences are a protected right and how they affect your attendance policies.
• Tracking absences while staying compliant. Learn how to account for FMLA absences in performance evaluations and no-fault attendance policies.
• Handling attendance issues with disabled workers. Discover how to prove attendance is an essential job function while complying with ADA regulations.
• Accommodating pregnancy-related absences. Reasonably accommodate pregnancy-related absences and restrictions before and after birth under the new PWFA.
• PUMP Act compliance. Manage unlimited milk-expression breaks under the PUMP Act rules.
• How military leave impacts attendance. Learn the rules under USERRA, including extended absences for active duty.
• Spotting and addressing leave abuse. Identify red flags and implement strategies to prevent misuse of protected leave.
• Balancing religious accommodations. Navigate new Supreme Court standards on religion-based time-off requests while maintaining fairness in the workplace.

• Learn the basics of religious rights in the workplace and why making accommodations is absolutely crucial while the EEOC tests how far employers must go.
• Discover popular accommodation requests for practitioners of major world religions and some minor ones, too.
• Guard against fraud by learning what you can ask about an employee’s claimed religion or belief system to determine if the request is sincere.
• Walk through the form you should use to assess every request and why each must go through the HR office before being rejected.
• Understand what a “sincerely held religious belief” is, with plenty of examples.
• Step through the religious accommodation process from beginning to end and compare your current approach to a best-practices format.
• Learn exactly what kind of documentation you must have to show that making an accommodation creates an undue burden on your operations.
• Understand how to handle competing religious practices and accommodations in the workplace, including those whose beliefs require proselytizing and those who want to be left alone.
• Create social media policies that allow religious expression. Hint: Off-duty religious social media posts are almost always off-limits.