Feature
The truth about serving alcohol at office parties
Excerpted from Georgia Employment Law Letter and written by attorneys at the law firm of Ford & Harrison LLP
by Jen DiLorenzo
'Twas the night of the office party, and all through the houses,
Employees were getting ready, and so were their spouses.
Ties were knotted and straightened with care.
Women put on dresses and combed through their hair.
The children were ready, all showered and fed
And continued to play Xbox until it was time for bed.
A kiss on the cheek, "Don't let the bedbugs bite."
Then mom and dad departed and turned off the light.
When out of the driveway, they flew like a flash.
Excitedly, they drove to the holiday bash.
They arrived just in time and walked through the door
To find decorations hung from ceiling to floor.
Then, what to their wondering eyes should appear,
But a bar stocked with liquor, wine, and chilled beer.
They took less than a second to stop and think,
And like moths to a flame, headed straight for a drink.
This Week on HRhero.com
HR Q&A
To pay or not to pay? That is the question
Excerpted from Arizona Employment Law Letter and written by attorneys at the law firm of Ford & Harrison LLP
Q: We recently learned that a manager strongly "suggested" that his hourly employees not put in for overtime that they worked. This has gone on for almost 18 months. Needless to say, the manager has hit the road, but what should we do? Can we just pay the employees what we owe them and get them to sign a release?
Did You Know...
Nearly 40% of human resource professionals report that Family and Medical Leave Act confusion has led them to grant employee leave when it wasn't justified, according to a recent SHRM report. Now there's an interactive event where HR professionals can get straight answers to the most puzzling FMLA dilemmas -- FMLA Q&A: Our Experts Answer YOUR Questions. Register now for this all-new HR Hero audio conference and submit your questions to be answered by leading attorneys. Questions already submitted include:
"Our office is considering running FMLA concurrent with workers' compensation claims involving lost time. What are the positives and negatives of going this route?"
"Can I retroactively back-charge a person for FMLA to fix a failure to enforce FMLA several months ago?"
"Is attendance at court a legitimate application of FMLA leave?"
When you participate in this interactive forum, you'll also receive a full transcript to use as an on-going FMLA resource.
Read on for more information...
What's Your HRIQ on religious expression at work?
It’s the holiday season, but all may not be joyful if religious expressions are causing friction in the workplace. What should you do when issues about religion come up?
Test your knowledge of how to handle employees religious expression in the workplace and other challenging HR situations without getting into legal hot water with HRIQ, an interactive online quiz produced by HRHero.com.
The quizzes present you with several real-life workplace scenarios that could cause you legal trouble if you make the wrong decision. At the end of the quiz you can see how well you did and get an explanation of the correct answers.
In the HRHero.com quiz archive you can find quizzes on the Americans with Disabilities Act, researching job applicants, summer workers, bird flu precautions, and much more. New quizzes are added about once a month.
HRhero.com Subscribers Area Resources
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HR Tip of the Week
Think you've got rights? Yeah, right
Excerpted from Delaware Employment Law Letter and written by attorneys at the law firm of Young, Conaway, Stargatt & Taylor
Many of you know that you can be held responsible for an employee's wrongdoing if he's acting within the scope of his employment. You might not realize, however, that you have broader liability for your employees' actions under the theories of negligent hiring and retention.
Read on (Subscribers only)
Tool: HR Sample Policies and Procedures
Ever get worried about some of your policies and procedures? Wonder how they measure up to those from other organizations? Afraid you're missing something? Help is available with a newly updated set of sample 
policies available to newsletter subscribers on HRHero.com.
M. Lee Smith Publishers LLC has teamed up with Margaret Morford, an attorney and president of the national consulting firm theHRedge., Inc. to design a top-notch Policy and Procedure Manual for our Employment Law Letter subscribers.
Sample policies have been available in the subscribers area of HRHero.com for several years, but with changes going on in the nation's workplaces, the time was right to update the existing policies and create new ones.
In addition to updates, new policies cover antitrust, visitors in the workplace, employees' contact with the news media, locker rooms, parking, interns, and use of company tools and/or supplies.
We created this manual to be more than just a template of policies. It contains commentary on what you should consider including in your policies as well as practical advice and suggestions. Each policy is available in RTF format so you can save and edit the policy on your computer.
How to access:
1. Log into HRhero.com Subscribers Area: www.HRhero.com/lc
2. In middle column, under HR Tools, click "Sample Policies & Procedures"