WIRTW #800: the 'world cup' edition

The World Cup kicks off on June 11, and plenty of matches will be played during the workday. (June 17, I'm looking at you. Portugal vs. DR Congo starts at 1 p.m. ET, followed by England vs. Croatia just three hours later.)

So what's an employer of football-loving employees to do?

Nick Mohammed, of Ted Lasso fame, has a suggestion. He's released a tongue-in-cheek video called Fight for Your Right to Watch the 2026 FIFA World Cup at Work.

I'm not suggesting employees spend the next six weeks with one eye on their work and the other on a World Cup stream.

Then again, I'm not exactly suggesting they don't, at least for games that matter to them.

Instead of treating the World Cup as six weeks of lost productivity, smart employers might view it as six weeks of culture-building. A lunchtime watch party. A company bracket. National team jerseys on match days.

If employees are going to be paying attention anyway, you might as well harness the enthusiasm rather than police it. Productivity might dip for 90 minutes, but morale and goodwill can last a lot longer.

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Here's what I read this week that you should read, too. 

Ohio's new ethics guide — Artificial Intelligence for Lawyers and Judicial Officers — leaves one big question unanswered

Ohio's new AI Ethics Guide for Lawyers is worth reading.

It tackles many of the questions lawyers have been asking since generative AI entered the mainstream: competence, confidentiality, client communications, billing, hallucinated citations, supervision, and judicial use of AI.

First, credit where it's due. Ohio deserves praise for stepping into a conversation that many jurisdictions have been reluctant to have. Lawyers are hungry for practical guidance on AI, and doing nothing is no longer an option. The Ohio Board of Professional Conduct deserves recognition for taking a serious run at a rapidly evolving issue.

Which is why one part of the Guide surprised me. On the question of whether lawyers can ethically disclose client information to AI platforms, the guidance seems to say both yes and no.

A helpful tip on the FLSA's tip credit

For many craft breweries, the taproom is where the magic happens. It's where customers connect with your brand, your beer, and your people. 

It's also where wage-and-hour lawsuits often begin. 

Artisanal Brewing Ventures, the company behind Southern Tier, Victory, and other craft beer brands, is facing a nationwide collective action over its pay practices at 15 taprooms across five states. At the heart of the lawsuit is an issue that too many hospitality employers overlook: compliance with the Fair Labor Standards Act's tip-credit rules. 

🎶 With my mind on my Title VII and Title VII on my mind. 🎶

Barbie Bassett, a longtime white news anchor for WLBT, lost her job after two on-air comments her employer deemed racially offensive. First, she referred to a Black reporter's grandmother as "grand m*mmy." WLBT received viewer and employee complaints and gave Bassett a written warning.

Less than six months later, during an on-air segment about Snoop Dogg, Bassett dropped the phrase, "fo shizzle, my n**zle." A Black co-anchor immediately told her, "I can't believe you just said the N word on live TV."

Complaints followed, as did national media, and then Bassett's termination.

She sued, claiming race discrimination. Her argument was, basically, WLBT fired her because she was white, relying heavily on testimony from the station's general manager that "there are some things that Black people can say that White people can't say."

The one mistake I keep seeing employers make, over and over again

One of the biggest mistakes I see employers make, over and over again, is treating employee wage information as "confidential."

Policies that ban employees from discussing pay.

Confidentiality rules that include "wages," "salary," "compensation," or "payroll information."

Managers who tell employees they are not allowed to ask coworkers what they earn.

HR departments that discipline employees for talking about their pay.
Employers that fire employees for creating or sharing salary spreadsheets.

Stop it.

WIRTW #799: the 'inclusion' edition

Is it too much to ask a school to provide a gluten-free treat for my son?

Donovan has Celiac disease. The school has known of his autoimmune disease since he started there in kindergarten. (He just finished 11th grade.)

Yesterday, the school provided cupcakes to the entire upper school to celebrate the end of finals.

That is, the entire upper school except for my son and the few others who cannot eat gluten, because no gluten-free treats were provided. Nor did the school let us know in advance so that we could send something of our own.

No one is asking for special treatment. Quite the opposite. We're asking for equal treatment. We're asking that students with medical dietary restrictions be given the same opportunity to participate in the small moments that help build community and belonging.

What makes this especially frustrating is how easy the accommodation would have been. Gluten-free cupcakes are not rare. They're not difficult to find. And if obtaining them wasn't feasible, a simple heads-up to affected families would have solved the problem.

This is exactly why inclusion matters, despite what current resident of the White House wants us to believe. Inclusion isn't about ideology. It's about making sure people don't feel invisible.

Yesterday, Donovan felt forgotten. He felt like no one cared enough to think about him. Whether that was anyone's intent is beside the point. The impact was the same.

No one should feel that way at school. No one should feel that way at work.

The best schools and the best employers understand that belonging is built in the small moments. It's created when leaders take the extra step to make sure everyone can participate. It's reinforced when people with disabilities, medical conditions, religious obligations, or other differences aren't treated as afterthoughts.

Inclusion is not measured by mission statements, diversity committees, or carefully crafted website language. It's measured by whether people think about those who might otherwise be left out. A cupcake at the end of finals may seem trivial to most students. But when everyone else is celebrating together and you're the one standing on the outside looking in, the message is impossible to miss: this wasn't planned with you in mind.

Schools and employers teach lessons every day that never appear in textbooks or training manuals. This week's lesson was that some people belonged in the celebration and others were left standing outside it.

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Here's what I read this week that you should read, too.

Can you harass someone for being American?

The EEOC does not file many lawsuits.

It receives tens of thousands of discrimination charges every year but litigates only a tiny fraction of them. Which means that when the agency does decide to sue, it is usually trying to say something bigger about its enforcement priorities.

That is what makes the EEOC's recent national origin discrimination lawsuit so interesting.