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What I've Been Reading This Week


I am sure many readers have heard that former Senator and Vice President Joe Biden announced earlier this week his candidacy for the Democratic nomination for President.  With a background rooted in a blue collar/labor friendly mindset, I would expect to soon see labor/employee friendly policy proposals from him.  For the time being, we will wait to see whether any of those anticipated policy proposals gain enough traction to strengthen his position in the Democratic nomination process.  Stay tuned.

As always, below are a couple articles that caught my eye this week.


California Employers: Remember to Conduct Harassment & Abusive Conduct Prevention Training!

As the heading notes, this article really only applies to California employers...namely those that employ more than five employees.  As Vida Thomas writes, effective January 1st of this year, employers in the state with five or more employees are required to provide one hour of harassment and abusive conduct prevention training to all non-supervisory employees and two hours of training to all supervisory employees.  This mandatory training must be completed by January 1, 2020 and must occur again once every two years thereafter.  It is worth noting that "employee", for the sake of this training, is deemed to include migrant, temporary, and seasonal workers.  While there is still time to get this training completed, the clock is ticking.  As always, it is better to conduct the training for your employees rather than waiting until the last minute.


Complaining Among Co-Workers: A Chance to Bond?

Katie Heaney at The Cut wrote an article earlier this week which suggested that complaining among co-workers (about their work) can actually serve a tangible benefit to the overall work environment.  Of note, co-workers confiding in each other about their dissatisfaction with the work itself, an issue with another co-worker, or a complaint about a customer/client can lead to a better and more productive work environment by keeping employees diligent and in check.  Now generally speaking, I do not necessarily agree with the article’s premise that workplace gossip produces quite such a rosy outcome.  I am sure many readers can recall a work environment permeated by workplace gossip that led to bitter feelings between co-workers, cliques forming, co-workers dividing up and taking “sides”, and some co-workers left feeling like they have been bullied when they are the subject of others’ complaining.  As noted, while complaining among co-workers might serve some tangible benefit in the workplace, I can think of far too many instances when this conduct produces the opposite result.  And do not forget a recent National Labor Relations Board decision which held that cursing about a customer/client is not necessarily protected concerted activity under the National Labor Relations Act.

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