Not every workplace conflict that creates turbulence makes it to a jury. This one didn’t. The employer’s investigation held up under the honest-belief doctrine. TL;DR: The Sixth Circuit affirmed summary judgment for an airline after a flight attendant received a Final Corrective Action Notice for allegedly violating its Workplace
A recent Southern District of New York decision is being described as “AI destroys privilege.” That’s not what the court held. But employers using consumer AI tools in connection with employment decisions should pay attention. TL;DR: In United States v. Heppner, the court held that documents a criminal defendant generated
Remote work policies are tightening. But the Americans with Disabilities Act did not disappear when companies decided the office feels collaborative again. Last week, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission issued federal-sector guidance on telework accommodations for employees with disabilities. Although written for federal agencies under the Rehabilitation Act,
COVID vaccination mandates may be behind us, but the lawsuits they generated are still shaping how courts analyze religious accommodation under Title VII. This Third Circuit decision is a reminder that an accommodation can still be challenged when it allegedly creates a new burden. TL;DR: The
Employees do not need to use legal buzzwords to be protected from retaliation. But they do need to complain about the right thing. General workplace grievances are not the same as opposing unlawful discrimination, and courts continue to enforce that distinction. TL;DR: An employee’s internal grievance about unfair treatment
Constructive discharge is a high bar. But an ultimatum, delivered the wrong way and on the wrong timeline, can be enough to clear it. That was the lesson from a recent federal court decision involving a pregnant employee who was told she could either keep working under at-will conditions or
When employees say, “You helped him when he was injured but refused to help me,” it sounds like discrimination. It also sounds like a failure-to-accommodate dispute. A recent Ninth Circuit decision shows why that framing matters, and why getting it wrong can sink the case before it ever reaches a
Stop me if you’ve heard this before: it’s the Monday after the Super Bowl, an employee with approved intermittent FMLA leave asks for a personal day, gets denied, switches to FMLA, and later finds himself terminated for “abuse.” That is not a hypothetical. It is essentially what happened in a
Me? I probably would not tell the EEOC that I removed a Black employee from work because of her “introduction of race” into the workplace. Especially after she complained about race discrimination triggered by a question about attending a Black Lives Matter protest. But that is exactly what happened
Performance improvement plans are often treated as neutral management tools. This case shows how quickly a PIP can become the centerpiece of a retaliation claim once an employee raises equity concerns. TL;DR: After an employee raised “boys’ club” concerns, her employer placed her on a performance improvement plan about
Not every denied accommodation becomes a viable lawsuit. Courts are still asking a simple threshold question before a discrimination case goes anywhere. TL;DR: In a recent Eleventh Circuit decision, the court affirmed summary judgment for the employer, holding that a denied religious accommodation does not violate Title VII unless it
Pay equity disputes are rarely about a single salary decision. They turn on whether an employer’s explanation for a pay gap holds together once the facts are examined. A recent Seventh Circuit decision shows how reorganizations that blend promotions and transfers into the same role can expose cracks in that
In Groundhog Day, the problem isn’t that the day repeats. It’s that nothing changes. At one point, Phil Connors captures the frustration perfectly: “What if there is no tomorrow? There wasn’t one today.” That same problem shows up when employers investigate complaints about a supervisor, conclude the conduct is not