We read a great article in the Manta blog recently, where Dale Carnegie training instructor Larry Prevost answered a reader’s query regarding the best way to get in contact with a decision-maker at a company. He states that, truly, there are many decision makers at a company…it’s important to be able to find the one [...]

A recent case illustrates what happens when conflicts of interests are allowed to exist. In this instance, a major law firm who represented a client as well as others in a similar class action case, is being sued by the client – who actually has a weak case, but is hoping to collect from the [...]

The National Conference on Citizenship (NCoC) recently posted on its website a compelling case about the benefits reaped by those corporations that practice “corporate citizenship” and encourage their employees, partners, and suppliers to embrace the culture of giving back as well. In the form of donated time, funding, and/or talent, companies are increasingly finding positive [...]

The following was released by the U.S. Department of Labor – Wage and Hour Division (WHD) – Administrator Interpretation Letters – Fair Labor Standards Act: The department released an important clarification/interpretation of the definition of “son or daughter” under Section 101(12) of the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) as it applies to an employee [...]

Breaking news from The Miami Herald: A two-day sting has led to the closure of 70 Florida businesses — including 24 in South Florida — because of violations of the state’s workers’ compensation laws. Random site visits by the state Department of Financial Services found the companies failed to provide workers’ compensation insurance for their [...]

We highly recommend subscribing to the McKinsey Quarterly. Registration is free, and the firm supplies a good deal of information and news that is of interest to businesspeople from top management, to middle management, to entrepreneurs. We found a piece in the June edition of particular benefit to our wide range of clients: How to [...]

Important update: Workers’ compensation insurers are required to return excess profits pursuant to Section 627.215, Florida Statutes. The Office recently performed an evaluation of submitted data that included earned premium and incurred losses. The Office determined that 16 different workers’ compensation insurance companies or groups realized excess profit as defined by statute for the 2005, [...]

In the Alonso case, the plaintiffs  agreed as part of their employment application process with an ambulance company that all claims would be taken to binding arbitration.  In reversing the trial court’s ruling that the plaintiffs were bound by the arbitration agreement, the Sixth Circuit observed that, prior to signing the waivers, the employees were [...]

This case from the California state courts is unusual in that the trial court granted the employer summary judgment as did the appellate court but also is instructive because it shows the threshold for sexual harassment includes the banter between co-workers. Although the employer prevailed, it spent big dollars to defend the decision of the [...]

In holding that even though an employee did not use the employer’s complaint mechanism, the person who the complaint went to was the supervisor, the alleged harasser. The point is that the employee has to have an alternate method of making the complaint that does not involve the immediate supervisor. In reversing the summary judgment [...]