On August 11, I will be hosting Blawg Review. For those who are unfamiliar with it, Blawg Review is a weekly review of the best of the blawgosphere, with its hosts rotating with each issue. Because of my Blawg Review responsibilities, WIRTW will be on hiatus next week, to return on August 15. Starting Monday (8/4), however, I will begin accepting submissions for the August 11 issue of Blawg Review. If you would like one of your posts considered, please email it to me with "Blawg Review" in the subject line.
On to this week's best labor and employment law posts:
Michael Moore at the Pennsylvania Labor & Employment Blog asks a question that is near and dear to my heart - is the legal system to blame for humorless work environments?
From a legal perspective, should employees be worried about injecting humor into the workplace and is an employer’s “joke slap-down” necessary? If your humor doesn’t demean people based on their membership in a protected class, then joke away.
It is the “off-color jokes” and other “humor” related to gender, race, national origin, religion or other protected classifications that can be considered harassment. These types of comments always find their way into allegations of discrimination or harassment when a complaint is filed.
I don't think it is necessary to scrub all humor from workplace. Indeed, such a measure could do more harm than good in terms of employee morale. Michael, however, offers several good tips to assist in avoiding liability for humor that does make its way into work.
The aptly named Labor and Employment Law Blog gives us 5 reasons why companies prefer to drug test job applicants as opposed to employees.
Meanwhile, the (not so) Evil HR Lady gives some insight on drug testing from an HR perspective.
The Delaware Employment Law Blog summarizes Senator Obama's promises to working women if he becomes President.
George's Employment Blawg tells everyone how to bulletproof employee investigations.
Finally, John Phillips' Word on Employment Law gives his tip of the week on the importance of written job descriptions.