Work Matters

"All things related to labor and employment law, weaving in references to the classics, business literature and current events."

Author: Michael P. Maslanka is the managing partner of Ford & Harrison in Dallas. He writes the “Work Matters” column for Texas Lawyer’s In-House Texas publication and records labor and employment podcasts. Texas Lawyer is also behind Tex Parte Blog.

Blawg Related Categories: Labor & Employment • 5th Circuit Court • States • Texas • Legal News Publication • Partner • Podcaster • Podcast

Recent Posts from Work Matters

Three questions to help resolve ethics questions
I am a big fan of questions: They focus, they clarify, and they resolve. So, I was struck by the "Three Rules of Thumb" included in the West Point ethics system, as explained by Ronald…
Economic dependence a key factor in assessing independent-contractor status
It's a tough economy. One solution is to use independent contractors, not employees -- no muss, no bother. When a business no longer needs them, off they go. That's a nice theory, but it's not…
5th Circuit: Evidence of the alleged harasser's homosexuality is a threshold issue in a same-sex sexual harassment case
To establish a claim of same-sex sexual harassment, must a plaintiff show that the harasser is homosexual and that the harassment was motivated by sexual desire? By a 2-1 vote in Love v. Motiva Enterprises…
Set up incentives using reality, not wishful thinking
How should employers create incentives for their employees and align their interests with the company's? Check out "The Five Traps of Performance Measurement," by Andrew Likierman in the October 2009 issue of the Harvard Business…
2nd Circuit takes on delegation of hiring obligations to independent contractors
We sometimes lose sight of the basics. Look at a Sept. 10 case from the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Halpert v. Manhattan Apartments Inc. A plaintiff sues for age discrimination, saying he was…
Administrative review board lets former in-house lawyer use privileged materials to mount whistle-blower case
Can a former in-house lawyer use attorney-client privileged information to establish that he was fired for being a Sarbanes-Oxley whistle-blower? On Sept. 30, the Administrative Review Board at the Department of Labor said yes. According…
Rudeness and resulting resentment can foster cheating
I've blogged before on the work of Dan Ariely, a professor in the area of behavioral economics. The July-August 2009, issue of the Harvard Business Review has an interesting article of his, "The End Of…
Employers have a defense to claims they failed to engage in an interactive process regarding reasonable accommodations
Recall that an employer's failure to engage in a reasonable-accommodation dialogue with a disabled employee is, in and of itself, an Americans With Disabilities Act violation. To have such a dialogue, the employer and employee…
Embrace twitterers, tweeters, tworkers or whatever you want to call them
Jay Shepherd is a management lawyer who writes an always interesting and informative blog, "Gruntled Employees." The Aug. 20 posting on why Twitterers make better employees (he calls them tworkers) caught my attention. Here are…
Bard and bench agree: Civility matters
I love Shakespeare (as you can tell by this article), so I had to read an opinion from a U.S. District Court judge in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania who quoted Will in an opinion…