The purpose of the performance improvement plan or “PIP” is to give an employee the opportunity to make certain changes in their work performance so as to merit ongoing employment. Put another way satisfy the PIP and you keep your job. Of course, there are all sorts of statements in the PIP (or there should
Firing
How to Handle a Firing
From an employer’s perspective the firing of an employee is hopefully the culmination of a deliberative process and compliance with the company’s policies and procedures. It is the ultimate adverse employment action and everything that is said and done may be put under the microscope by an employee’s lawyer, EEOC, or Texas Commission on…
Mad Men Non-Competes

The much acclaimed Mad Men AMC television series is coming to an end with only a few episodes left. The partners and employees of the New York advertising firm Sterling Cooper have given us a number of employment, partnership, negotiating, and other lessons over the…
Help – My employee spends all their time playing Fantasy Football.

A few years ago, I profiled an employment termination based on an employee’s overuse of company time and computers for his Fantasy Football league. Fantasy Football has literally changed both the way fans watch football and the amount of time they devote to following football and making league decisions during work time. There
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Is your BMI too high to work for this Texas Hospital?
Bruce Carton of law.com tracked down a great story about a Victoria, Texas hospital (in between San Antonio and Houston) that has implemented a hiring policy that requires potential employees to have a Body Mass Index of less than 35. According to the Texas…
Negligent Supervision & Hiring
The Case
FINRA recently fined Merrill Lynch $1 million over a Texas Ponzi scheme. The case, which involved a San Antonio broker who was sentenced to prison was covered in a recent blog post in the Stockbroker Fraud blog.
The Merrill broker persuaded investors to put money into a partnership and used at …
Protecting your business from an employee departure – the IT response.

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Fantasy Football Firing
It’s that time of year – the NFL season is drawing to a close and fantasy football leagues are in the midst of the playoffs. Fantasy leagues are as popular as ever and cover all sports, not just football. Fantasy leagues based on the NFL are by far the most popular and in many instances…