pottYou might think that smoking pot on the job as a state employee would be justifiable grounds to get you fired.

A no-brainer, right?

(Let’s save a discussion for eating brownies and swearing at your cat for another blog post.)

After all, even the Connecticut Supreme Court is stating that the “statutory, regulatory and

paperI’m a big P!nk (yes, the exclamation point) fan. One of her most recent hits, is a song “Just Give Me A Reason”.

Somehow, reading a new Appellate Court case that will be officially released tomorrow, this song title kept sticking in my brain.

The case, Madigan v. Housing Authority of East Hartford (download

With all the talk about the state’s implementation of medical marijuana laws, it’s easy to wonder what impact those laws will have on terminating employees who use marijuana on the job.

One recent Superior Court decision gave a pretty clear answer for state employees: None.  In other words, for employers: Fire Away.

That, of course,

Draft with care

Suppose that, after you’ve employed a worker for a year or so, she asks you for a raise. She doesn’t ask about any guarantee term for employment but you come back and give her a 36 month time frame for her salary going forward. 

You draft an

One of Connecticut’s many nicknames is the "Constitution State", so named for the state’s adoption of the first state Constitution. (Delaware holds the distiction of the first state to ratify the U.S. Constitution for those history buffs).

But on the ballot in two weeks is a question asking if the state should hold its

Does the state have "just cause" to fire an employee who misuses his work computer by accessing shopping websites, and two websites where you can purchase hallucinogenic mushrooms? That is the question that was answered in the affirmative, albeit indirectly, by the Connecticut Supreme Court, in a decision to be officially released on August