I was so appalled at how nasty and cynical my former HR directors and managers treated employees because of the new employment laws! When they came around me bashing President Obama, I told them that I didn’t want to hear it and I dared them to say anything racist. I voluntarily exited this position with glee because who wants to be around all this whining baby mess!

Some of you seem panic stricken. I strongly suggest that you consider making an appointment with your employee assistance program so that you can handle all the work you have to do. It seems to me that you can’t take what you have been dishing out to employees for over 8 years!

Just do what you have been telling employees to do all along, stop whining and find solutions!

To all of you who have been contributing these last few days, it’s terrific that you’re thinking and you care. That’s why we’re in HR.

Thanks again for the site references for these bills, Lynn, and all you contribute in these discussions. You are my hero!

Most companies now buy “Employment Pracitces” Insuruance for all types of employee claims, then you only have to pay the premium & if there is a claim the deductable, which usually goes to the company’s lawyer. The premiums for these are based on # of employees, previous lawsuits, and your employee manual among other things. That way, no one is going to actaully pay beyond their premium and deductable for frivolous or valid lawsuits. (Granted the more lawsuits there are the bigger those premiums become.) Lawsuits from clients are more likely to drive us out of business, like the drycleaner who got sued by his creepy client, but where was his liability insurance? Our insurer always steps up when we have that rare claim against us.
Business owners are always talking about their fear of going out of business for one reason or another, usually having to do with lawsuits or government regulations or unions. But I wonder how often that actually happens. I think it is rare. More often people go out of business because their is no demand for their goods & services or because the finances are poorly managed. The SBA reports 7 top reasons for business failure and none of them are excessive costs of government regs or costs of lawsuits or costa of labor.

Back to the issue at hand – how long will a company need to keep payroll records – granted they can be scanned and kept on a disc but you still need to store tham and plan on doing that every year. I think most companies try to do the right thing but it is expensive to defend every allegation. So, maybe there should be a law that if you lose the case you must pay the other sides’ legal defense costs? Yes, I know that opens up a can worms but as a small company that does pay fairly, we could not afford to defend ourselves against frivolous claims for very long – then there would be about 35 people out of a job.

As for “for the people”, a good HR person is a professional that looks out for EVERYONE so if we are a little,a s you say, “government hating deviant conspiracy theorists” so be it.

The purpose of my posts are to encourage people to really read what is in front of the legislature and react to it…use the democratic process. If you read it your self instead of using what someone else extracted from it, your view point will end up tainted. I’m not a conspiricy theorist, by any means…I just see what’s happening and I don’t like it. When you see things like someone being able to sue a company for unequal salary, even though they don’t belong to the same organization…or even in the same geographic area, you should ask why? I can understand in the same org…but why should it not matter what company you are with or where you are located? That doesn’t make sense…if it makes sense to you, tell everyone why you think it’s good. Maybe you have an idea that no one has thought of… you can’t just sit back and say…”well, the intent of the proposed bill (s) is good…” of course it can be…but it can also be filled with ear marks. Ask yourself, what else is in that bill?

SheBurns…you are correct, the legislature is constantly a work in progress…that is exactly why you have to question and react to everything that’s in front of them.

I, for one, enjoy this site because it encourages debate and thought.