Fifteen years ago today, I posted my first Welcome message to this blog.
Whoa.
I had one modest goal:
I hope you will stick around for the first (and as far as I know, only) Connecticut blog that will focus on new and noteworthy developments in the employment law arena, particularly as they may impact those in Connecticut.
It’s hard to remember – but this was in the days before social media was a thing. In fact, the earliest mention I can find on my blog of social media was in January 2008 when I talked about how MySpace could be used to help organize people for unions and lawsuits.
This paragraph holds up pretty well:
It’s much easier for a few employees to band together than in the past. Previously, people would have to use their existing networks to find laid off employees to hear their stories (indeed, outplacement firms were a good source for employees looking to talk with other laid off workers). But now, with the rise of social networking sites, it seems only a matter of time before a group of employees will form a Facebook or MySpace page to compare experiences. Employees from around the country can share information instantly, making it much easier to figure out if there are trends associated with the layoff that may give rise to a lawsuit. (Unions already have started marshaling the Internet, like this site for a group of Washington Post workers.)
What’s interesting about doing a blog for this long is that you start to see trends and cycles. Indeed, just look at my post from last month talking about how unions are now using TikTok for organizing and doing it well. Of course, in that post, I talked about a podcast on the subject too — no one had heard of podcasts in 2007 either. The iPhone had only been announced a few months before then.
So much has changed over the last 15 years that it’s hard to appreciate some of what we’ve seen. In 2008, we saw Connecticut legalize same sex marriages. It was just 2014 when I talked about how employers needed to manage medical marijuana issues in the workplace; and now in 2022 – we have the legalization of cannabis too. We’ve had the rise of Paid Sick Leave in 2013 and then the launch of Paid Family & Medical Leave this year.
We’ve also seen the impact of politics and the gridlock in Washington DC. In 2008, we had the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Amendments Act — one of the last big changes to federal employment laws we’ve had since then.
Of course, in my 12 year anniversary post, I made some predictions about the next few years. None of us could’ve predicted the pandemic or the rise of remote/hybrid work. We’re now at the Great Resignation and the Quiet Quitters.
There will be more.
But hopefully this blog will continue to be around to see it.
On behalf of my entire firm, I just want to say thanks for your continued support and encouragements. 15 years is a super long time — we’ve seen lots of blogs come and go. But this blog perseveres thanks to you. Let me know what you’d like to see us write about next; you can e-mail me directly at dschwartz at goodwin.com.