Author: Dorsey & Whitney

Quirky Question #237, Badger your employees to sign new non-competes?

Quirky Question #237, Badger your employees to sign new non-competes?

Question: We are a Wisconsin employer that has recently lost a number of employees to competing companies in our area. We’re worried our competitors are getting an unfair edge in the market, basically using employees we’ve spent time and resources training to compete against us. It doesn’t seem fair. Unfortunately, it didn’t occur to us to have our employees sign...

Quirky Question #236, “I need some time off to give my daughter a mental boost…”

Quirky Question #236, “I need some time off to give my daughter a mental boost…”

­­­Question: We employ a very elderly lady, Agnes. In fact, she’s a great-grandmother. She has asked to take some time off under the Family and Medical Leave Act. See tells us that her daughter Beatrice is out of the picture, but that Agnes raised Beatrice’s daughter, Catherine, who now herself has a two-year-old daughter Dorothy. Catherine is having foot surgery...

Quirky Question #232, We Can Require Our Employee To Work At The Office, Right?

Quirky Question #232, We Can Require Our Employee To Work At The Office, Right?

Question: We are a medium-sized Minnesota employer.  Our lead accountant recently spoke with our Director of Human Resources and requested to work from home several days a week due to a medical condition.  We believe his condition is serious, but think we can figure out a way for him to continue in his current role.  That said, we think the...

Quirky Question #228, E-Cigarettes: To Vape or Not to Vape at the Workplace

Quirky Question #228, E-Cigarettes: To Vape or Not to Vape at the Workplace

Question: Our California company has a no smoking policy but had not thought to include a ban on e-cigarettes, as we had not experienced any problems with them at the workplace until now.  A handful of our employees use e-cigarettes during work hours.  A week ago, a supervisor informed HR that coworkers were concerned about the health effects of being...

Quirky Question # 227, New Bells and Whistles in Minnesota Statute

Quirky Question # 227, New Bells and Whistles in Minnesota Statute

Question: We have an employee who we have been planning to terminate because of performance issues.  This employee may have realized this was coming because he recently sent an email to a number of people claiming that our company policies violate the law.  We have been aware of these possible problems before his emails were sent and already have been...