Make Timely Complaints About Ageism

Imagine this: work colleagues regularly taunt you about your age. They call you names, laugh at how you walk and ignore your input.

On the one hand, you don’t want to complain because you don’t want to play the victim or make things worse. On the other hand, you wake up every morning feeling anxious about going to work. You’ve noticed how exhausted you feel at the end of the day. And you know how deeply this harassment impacts you mentally, emotionally and physically.

Does this behavior sound ridiculous in today’s workplace? Yes, it does. But sadly, it is real.

Last month, a lawsuit against toymaker Mattel revealed some of the most noxious, blatant behavior, including a barrage of ageist taunts, mocking and harassment.

The question is, what do you do about it?

“When someone experiences harassment or discrimination on the basis of their age, speaking up is difficult in

How to avoid ageism when recruiting new talent

In a twist of irony, older workers with decades of experience and expertise are still finding themselves overlooked and undervalued by recruiters and hiring managers.

According to a study conducted by the University of California, Irvine, workers over 40 are only about half as likely to get a job offer than younger employees — but their age is not the only detrimental factor. Unconscious biases about their experience and the expectations that come with it may disqualify them from the get-go, says Jill Chapman, senior performance consultant at Insperity, an HR administrative services company.

“As a recruiter for most of my career, I hear things like, ‘I need a college grad to do this, or I want somebody with just a couple of years of experience,’” says Chapman. “You’re forgetting about a whole pool of people who would be very good at what you’re looking for.”

Older employees face many hurdles when it comes to the

A Small Business Owner’s Guide to Federal Employment Laws

You want to treat your employees fairly and provide a healthy work environment for all. But in the real world, things sometimes get messy. You have an employee who needs time off, but he’s the only person who can do his job. Someone is upset about being passed over for a promotion. Another employee is allergic to a coworker’s perfume. And someone is “dishing the company tea” on social media.

Now what?

In human resources (HR) training, every ethical challenge has a tidy answer. In practice, it’s often quite difficult to find solutions that everyone agrees are fair and right.

Federal employment laws are nice, tidy guide rails for your business. While they don’t resolve every HR dilemma, they give you a framework for handling many of the complexities involved in employing people.

This article covers nine types of federal labor laws you need to know and when they apply

A Guide on How to Avoid Wrongful Termination Claims

At-will employment doesn’t necessarily mean you can fire employees at will. Know how to protect your business from wrongful termination complaints.
Most employment relationships are at-will, meaning you can fire employees at any time for any legal reason or no reason at all. Often, employers hear “at-will” and “any reason” and skip over the “legal” part. In fact, there are many illegal reasons for firing an employee, and it’s important to understand them before you let someone go.

How easy is it for a snap decision to turn into a wrongful discharge complaint? Consider the well-known case of EEOC v. Walgreens, in which a diabetic employee with an 18-year record of excellent service ate a $1.39 bag of chips because she was hypoglycemic. She tried to pay for the chips when her sugar rebounded, but her supervisor, perhaps under the influence of a particularly strident presentation on shrink prevention, fired

How to Become ADA Compliant in 4 Steps

More than 40 million people in the U.S. live with some form of disability. Creating a fair recruitment process and implementing an accessible work environment for all employees should be of the utmost importance.

It’s also a legal requirement.

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) prohibits discrimination against individuals with disabilities in all areas of public life. The ADA went into effect in 1990. It’s a federal law, so it applies to every state without variation.

HR managers need to be well versed in ADA compliance if they want to avoid lawsuits.

Overview: What is ADA compliance?
The ADA guarantees equal opportunity for individuals with disabilities in a number of different settings. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) enforces sections of the ADA that prohibit employment discrimination.

Any organization operating in certain settings must make the required accommodations to be sure they’re complying with ADA guidelines.

These settings include:

Public

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