Treaty Oak Employers’ Law Blog

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What Do I Do if There Are Hundreds of Hours of Recordings?

What do you do when someone hands you hundreds of hours of recordings from the workplace? First of all, you can’t ignore that information. If somebody provided you that evidence of their claim, you’ve got to absorb it and analyze it. But the way that we handle that most frequently

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What Do I Do to Deal with Hearsay and Rumors?

What do you do with hearsay and rumors? You collect them. I tell people quite often things like, “Why do you know that?” or, “Who told you that?” And they’ll tell me, “Oh, I heard it third hand,” or sometimes people will say, “Well, I do know something, but I

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When Firing Policies Fail

In early February of 2020, the New York Times published an article by Nicholas Kristof, an Op-Ed columnist, about a U.S. Bank customer service representative fired for helping a stranded customer on Christmas Eve. In the article, Kristof goes on to explain how a U.S. Bank customer was stranded without

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What I’ve Learned from Workplace Investigations

2017 was an intense year for workplace investigations. It was the year that the proverbial curtain opened and the entire world became aware of the harassment occuring in certain industries. We saw powerful men finally fall because of their lewd actions and their inappropriate use of power. While 2017 brought

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The Empowering Employee Handbook

Employers should consider the attitude their employee handbooks present and what it says about company culture. This is particularly true for start-ups and those who hire professional employees. Handbooks are a pivotal piece of successful risk management, but many employers avoid using them because of bad experiences from their personal

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Reducing Workplace Violence in The Texas Workplace

All Texas companies are susceptible to claims based on workplace violence. Due to deeply-rooted legal principles, employers can be held liable for the acts of their employees, even when such acts are intentional and not within the scope of employment. Workplace violence can take on many forms, making it essential

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The Best Recruitment Strategies for Nonprofits

The best nonprofit recruitment plans invest in developing people who truly care about nonprofit work. It’s also benefits the organization and the organization’s social impact if talent acquisition and employee engagement processes not only reflect their mission but attract and retain the right professionals for the job. Hiring the ‘right’

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Performing an Internal Investigation

A startup may find itself in a position where they need to conduct an internal workplace investigation of business crimes, bullying, harassment, discrimination, policy violations, or other employee misconduct behavior within the startup’s workplace. Austin startups inherently need to conduct workplace investigations more often than established entities because they are

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How to Rock a Review of Your Nonprofit’s Mission Statement

A nonprofit’s mission won’t always stay the course, which is why regular reassessment and revision of the mission statement is a necessity. Ideally, its mission statement encapsulates the organization’s qualities. But for it to be impactful, inspire stakeholders, and meet community needs, a nonprofit’s mission statement also must lend itself

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