WIRTW #590 (the “win some, lose some” edition)

Life is often about competition. For example, I litigate for a living. Trials have winners and losers. We also compete for jobs, for college admissions, and for sports titles. And competition requires a winner and some losers.

Some things, however, we do just for the experience, even if that experience is built around competition.

Last weekend, my daughter’s band, Fake ID, competed in the finals of the Tri-C High School Rock Off. Even though they did not win the competition, they won the event. They played three songs (including two of their own originals) on stage at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in front of more than a thousand people. They earned a lot of new fans. They befriended other bands with whom they will be able to plan future gigs. As a finalist, they got to record a song in an amazing recording studio at Tri-C (stay tuned; their first single is coming soon, and I’ll be asking all of you to pre-save it on Spotify).

Before we dropped Norah off at the Rock Hall for the pre-event activities, I told her to have fun and play a great set, and that nothing else matters. She understood, and if you ask her she will tell it was mission accomplished. 

Here’s what I read this week.

Coronavirus

• Your Sick Policy Can Make the Corona Outbreak Worse. Here’s What It Should Look Like — via Evil HR Lady, Suzanne Lucas
• Coronavirus Confidential — via Kate Bischoff’s tHRrive Law & Consulting Blog
• Employer’s Coronavirus checklist — via HR Examiner with John Sumser
• 8 Questions Employers Should Ask About Coronavirus — via Harvard Business Review
• Twitter ‘strongly encouraging’ all employees to work from home to reduce coronavirus spread and COVID-19: Steps to prepare a remote work policy — via HR Dive
• When Covid-19 Comes To Town, You Need A Crisis Response Plan — via Oklahoma Employer’s Law Blog
• What Managers Need To Know As Coronavirus Expands Our Remote Workforce — via Forbes
• Avoiding Coronavirus May Be a Luxury Some Workers Can’t Afford — via The New York Times
• What Are Your Employee Rights Regarding Coronavirus? — via Screw You Guys, I’m Going Home

Discrimination

• How the presidential candidates plan to address sexual harassment — via Fast Company
• Long-Awaited Sex Harassment Guidance Absent From New EEOC Portal — via Bloomberg Law
• A Harasser for All Seasons — via FisherBroyles
• The World Needs More Businesses that Call Bull**** on Ageism — via The HR Capitalist
• Alcohol in the workplace *hic* quiz! — via Robin Shea’s Employment & Labor Insider
• No Foul for Termination Over Failed Breath Alcohol Test — via The Employment Brief
• Hospital worker fired for disclosing patient information, not race and sex — via HR Dive
• For Employers Facing a Discrimination Claim, Being Wrong Can Also Mean Being Right (or, at Least, Being Nondiscriminatory) — via Employment Discrimination Report

HR & Employee Relations

• Working Parents Need a “Parenting Posse” and How Working Parents Can Regain Control Over Their Lives — via Harvard Business Review 
• All the Ways Startups and New Employers Can Get Into Trouble — via Dan Schwartz’s Connecticut Employment Law Blog
• When Your Employee Ghosts: Abandoning Employment — via Employment & Human Rights Law In Canada
• My coworker is blackmailing me not to take time off for my honeymoon — via Ask a Manager

Technology

• How Lawyers Can Maintain Their Sanity in the Age of (Nonstop) Email — via Law.com
• The Perfect Travel Security Policy for a Globe-Trotting Laptop — via Dark Reading
• iPhone still bests Android when it comes to device security — via Boy Genius Report
• Cybersecurity Training Basics — via HR Hero Line

Wage & Hour

• If Your Remedy For Workplace Coronavirus Concerns Affects Pay, Don’t Compound The Harm With A Wage Law Violation — via The Wage and Hour Litigation Blog
• Do you know FMLA better than a federal judge? Take this three-question quiz and find out. — via Eric Meyer’s The Employer Handbook Blog
• Want to Stay on the Cutting Edge of the FMLA and ADA? Here Are My Top Three Resources for Employers — via Jeff Nowak’s FMLA Insights

Labor

• Trump’s NLRB Board Stuck in the Past: Latest Ruling Fails to Recognize Modern Workplaces — via The L•E•Jer
• As Unions Read the Tea Leaves, Retail Workers Union Locals Rush to Endorse Biden — via Workplace Fairness
• A Return to Common Sense in Federal Labor Law — via Stoel Rives World of Employment
• Gator in Your Basement? Nope, That’s Just the NLRB Sharpening Its Joint Employer Test — via Who Is My Employee? 
• Joint Employment Update: NLRB Issues Final Rule; 17 States Sue to Enjoin New DOL Rule — via LE Blog