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Hiring

Don’t fight reservist reinstatement: You’ll lose

12/01/2002
Now is not the time for your company to appear unpatriotic, in the public’s eye or before a judge. As a recent ruling shows, courts are bending over backward to give …

Offer Letters Are OK If Crafted With Care

12/01/2002

Q. Our company has typically sent formal offer letters to job candidates for certain positions. Could such letters legally bind us, and would we be smarter to avoid them? —S.T., Texas

Religious protections don’t include veganism

11/01/2002
A California computer worker was denied a job in a pharmaceutical factory because he refused to take a required mumps shot. He refused because the vaccine included material from chicken embryos …

Length of Job Doesn’t Figure in Contractor Status

10/01/2002

Q. We’re an at-will employer. Is there a law (or advisable benchmark) regarding how long we can hire temporary staff before they must be either hired on a permanent basis or released? —D.A., Michigan

Write Job Descriptions Before Trouble Starts

10/01/2002

Q. How serious is it if written job descriptions aren’t in place for employees? Is it safe to draft them even after a termination that could result in a lawsuit? —B.B., New York

No job application needed to sue for hiring bias

09/01/2002
When a University of Arkansas dean position was advertised on campus and statewide, Howard Lockridge, an African-American department chairman, told his supervisors he wasn’t planning to apply for the job. …

Keep political affiliation out of hiring decision

09/01/2002
Gary Goodman was an acting district manager with a spotless performance record over 18 years. He was turned down for a promotion to district manager of a state agency whose governing …

Bias claim goes nowhere unless minority status was clear

09/01/2002
When Steven Lubetsky applied for an analyst job, he aced the interview and several competence tests. The company offered him the job pending a credit check. Lubetsky explained that he was …

Preach secular management: Train supervisors to shun religious bias

08/01/2002
When a city-run youth program hired Cheryl Campos as a counselor, it promised her a $10,000 bonus for support-group work as well as a promotion to assistant director within six months. …

Don’t Rely on ‘Same-Actor’ Defense

08/01/2002

Q. If an employee claims she was discriminated against by the same supervisor who hired and fired her, does the employer have a defense to the discrimination claim? —S.D., New Jersey