yankees-300x300On Friday, at my firm’s annual Labor & Employment Law seminar, I’ll be talking about the NLRB and Employee Handbooks with my colleague, Chris Engler.  Among the topics we had planned to discuss was the ongoing Triple Play Sports Bar & Grille case that I had previously posted about here and here.

So of course yesterday, the Second Circuit released an long-awaited decision on that very case. And it’s a strikeout for the employer.

The case involves a mix of old and new concepts. Old: Employees have the right to improve the terms and conditions of their workplace — so called “Section 7” rights to protected concerted activity under the National Labor Relations Act, even if they are not “unionized”.  New: It applies to Facebook and other types of social media.

And now, even to Facebook “likes”.

In the case, Jillian Sanzone and Vincent Spinella, two employees of Triple Play Sports Bar and Grille, located in Watertown, discovered that they owed more in State income taxes than they had originally expected. One of the employees discussed this issue with co-workers, and complaints were made to the employer.

The discussion continued on Facebook, and a former employee, Jamie LaFrance, posted the following “status update” to her Facebook page: “Maybe someone should do the owners of Triple Play a favor and buy it from them. They can’t even do the tax paperwork correctly!!! Now I OWE money . . . W[*]f!!!!”Continue Reading Employer Strikes Out; Facebook Likes Protected by NLRA, Says Second Circuit

iPod, iPad, iTunes, iWork….

I’ve been meaning to write a post about work songs since I started this blog.  (In fact, back in 2008, I noted that I would write about it in an upcoming post.  Three years later…)

But it never felt important enough. Too frivolous. Just a simple post about songs.

I was thinking about that again tonight when I heard of Steve Jobs death.  So sad. Such a loss to society.  He was serious but didn’t take himself too seriously.  And he also had some wonderful visions.

He once said that: “Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it’s worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains.”

And so, I come back to the post that I have really just wanted to write and have fun with.  What are the top “work” songs? Rather than wait another three years to do a blog post on this, now seems appropriate.  “The problem is I’m older now, I’m 40 years old, and this stuff doesn’t change the world. It really doesn’t,” Jobs once said.Continue Reading What Are My Favorite “Work” Songs On My iPod? Steve Jobs Knows.