Tag: employment law
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Employment-at-will makes the US an outlier and not in a good way
Most developed nations require cause to fire workers. The US stands alone in defaulting to at-will employment, and the costs are larger than usually admitted.
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PIPs are legal cover for terminations decided weeks earlier
Performance Improvement Plans are sold as a chance to recover, but the data and the documents show they’re usually paperwork for a decision already made.
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NDAs have become tools to hide misconduct, not protect trade secrets
Non-disclosure agreements were designed to protect intellectual property. They’re now routinely used to silence harassment victims, and reform has barely begun.
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Most employee handbooks create more legal exposure than they prevent
Boilerplate handbooks downloaded from templates often introduce more legal risk than they remove. Here’s why most small employers have it backward.
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Severance agreements are bought silence dressed up as generosity
Severance feels like a parting gift, but the legal language is usually buying your silence and your release. Here’s what to read carefully before signing.
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Mandatory arbitration is fairer and faster than the lawsuits it replaced
Mandatory arbitration has a bad reputation, but its actual outcomes for consumers and employees often beat the courts it bypassed. The data tells a fuller story.
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Trade secret law is being weaponized against worker mobility
Trade secret law was meant to protect formulas and code. It’s increasingly used to lock workers out of their own careers when noncompetes fail.
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Restrictive covenants are how employers extract free labor after employment ends
Non-competes, non-solicits, and clawbacks let employers control workers after they leave. The covenants are spreading down the income ladder. Here’s the cost.
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The FTC’s non-compete ban went too far and small businesses are paying for it
Banning non-competes for fast food workers made sense. Banning them for senior engineers and acquired founders is a different policy — and small businesses are taking the hit.