Labor: Staying sharp with regular handbook review
Everyone wants to know the rules.
June 17, 2013 at 04:25 AM
4 minute read
The original version of this story was published on Law.com
Everyone wants to know the rules. Whether the arena is a grade school playground or the Supreme Court, the participants in any activity are more comfortable when expectations are clearly defined. It is not nearly as important that the rules be reasonable as that they be established in advance. As long as expectations are well-known and consistently applied, human beings are generally willing to adapt to them. Even if those rules prove detrimental to one's position, griping, whining and complaining is not as common when participants know and understand the rules before engaging in the activity.
The American workplace proves this theory. Although there is no federal law that requires a private employer to provide handbooks to its employees, the happiest employees are those who know what is expected and believe their employers are consistently applying procedures that were established before the employment relationship began. An effective employee handbook communicates the employer's expectations and the consequences for failure to meet them. It demonstrates an employer's commitment to compliance with the law. Most importantly, it delivers simple answers to common questions and provides employees with a mechanism to resolve the inevitable issues that arise.
Most sophisticated employers in the 21st century already maintain an employee handbook or policy manual in some form. Management-side employment attorneys no longer ask a new client whether a handbook exists but when it was drafted, how it has changed over time and the process used to prove the employee received it. The most effective employee handbook is not a loose, unstructured compilation of dos and don'ts, but an organized and coherent document tailored to the particular workplace and written in plain language to explain the policies and procedures.
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Charles A. Weiss of Holland & Knight has entered an appearance for Rafael Badalov in a pending trademark infringement lawsuit. The suit, filed July 26 in New York Eastern District Court by Lee Law on behalf of Otter Products LLC, accuses the defendant of selling counterfeit phone cases and accessories bearing the plaintiff's 'OtterBox' trademark. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Nina R. Morrison, is 1:24-cv-05214, Otter Products, LLC v. Badalov et al.
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Michael J. Hickey and Michael L. Jente of Lewis Rice LLC have stepped in to represent Tidal Wave Management in a pending trademark infringement lawsuit. The case, filed July 18 in Missouri Western District Court by Husch Blackwell on behalf of Waterway Gas & Wash Co., accuses the defendant of using a mark that's confusingly similar to the plaintiff's 'Clean Car Club' mark. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Fernando J. Gaitan Jr., is 4:24-cv-00471, Waterway Gas & Wash Company v. Tidal Wave Management LLC.
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