• The core elements of workplace due process and the importance of the written record in the discipline and termination processes.
• Tough conversations to have with employees that invite them to involve themselves in their own performance improvement.
• Structuring disciplinary documentation that is constructive and insulates the organization from legal liability.
• Alternatives to formal progressive discipline that re-engage employees without the formal trappings of “being written up.”
• Leadership landmines to avoid under all circumstances, especially regarding tricky situations that may miss awareness from good-natured yet unsuspecting managers.

Not only are sectors such as retail, construction and food service more likely to be hostile environments, but the managers you rely on to stop ongoing harassment may be engaging in the harassment themselves.

If we offer intermittent leave to an employee to care for an ailing parent, but he won’t present a medical certification, can we require him to take FMLA leave?

Sometimes, our differences may clash in ways that seem impossible to reconcile. It’s hard to make everyone happy. That doesn’t absolve employers from the obligation to try.

In a significant new development, the Department of Justice’s Criminal Division has issued a memo elevating immigration violations to white-collar crime status. At the same time, it’s also expanded a corporate whistleblowing pilot program to include immigration violations.

Increasingly, U.S. Supreme Court decisions turn on the exact language Congress chose to use when writing laws. The justices often rely on the ordinary meaning of the words contained in legislation.

Earlier this year, the Littler Mendelson law firm surveyed 350 in-house lawyers, business executives and HR professionals and asked them what their greatest concerns were for managing employees this year. Here are their top three.

If you’re planning on hiring teenagers this summer, remember the Fair Labor Standards Act has strict rules regarding the jobs and hours teens may work.

Under the ADA, workers with disabilities who aren’t yet eligible for leave or who have used up their accrued leave and FMLA entitlement may be able to take more time off as a reasonable accommodation. However, there is no ADA right to indefinite leave.

During the hiring process, critical insights often emerge between the lines of résumés and during unguarded moments in interviews. For HR professionals, detecting these signals—whether they’re explicit comments that raise eyebrows or subtle inconsistencies in background verification—requires expertise and careful attention.