Here is a revisit to a post written last year. I keep running into a lack of understanding of what the FLSA requires. I am currently writing 30 Days to More Effective HR and the first part deals with the FLSA. (30 Days will be released by subscription in the near future.) So here is the post from last year called Recordkeeping Under the FLSA.

As an HR consultant that specializes in working with smaller businesses I frequently get asked what records have to be kept and how long do they need to be kept. Well that is not an easy answer. Various statutes have different requirements. So in this post I am going to address recordkeeping under the Fair Labor Standards Act.

For all employees the FLSA requires:

• Employee’s full name and social security number, as used for Social Security purposes, and on the same record, the employee’s identifying symbol or number, if that symbol or number is used in place of name on any time, work or payroll records.
• Address, including zip code.
• Birth date, if younger than 19.
• Sex and occupation
• All additions to or deductions from the employee’s wages.
• Total wages paid each pay period.
• Date of payment and the pay period covered by the payment.

If the employee is classified as a non-exempt employee you must also keep the following information:

• Time and day of week when employee’s workweek begins.
• Hours worked each day.
• Total hours worked each workweek.
• Basis on which employee’s wages are paid (e.g., “$9 per hour”, “$440 a week”, “piecework”)
• Regular hourly pay rate.
• Total daily or weekly straight-time earnings.
• Total overtime earnings for the workweek.

There is no prescribed method or format for how these records are to be kept. But whatever method used needs to be consistent. Most attorneys recommend that these employment records be kept for 5 to 7 years after the last date of employment of the individual. Payroll records should be kept for a period of two years. Of course any record involved in a lawsuit must be kept for the period of time required by the court.

Timekeeping records are often problematic for many companies. The FLSA allows you to use any method you desire. It only requires that they be complete and ACCURATE. I emphasize that last point because it is often missed in manual timekeeping. With a time clock, if someone clocks in at 08:02 that is accurately recorded. However, if the employee is manually writing their time on a time sheet they will usually enter their time at 08:00. You need to emphasize that the time record MUST be an accurate record of the actual time. If the workers work a fixed schedule from which there is little variation you may keep a record showing the exact schedule of daily and weekly hours and merely indicate that the worker did follow the schedule. When a worker is on a job for a longer or shorter period of time than the schedule shows, the employer must record the number of hours the worker actually worked, on an exception basis.

There is nothing wrong with requiring Exempt employees to keep time records, by the way. You just have to be very careful that their pay is not improperly docked as a result of that time record.

The FLSA is actually more complicated than I have made it out to be. There are many exemptions to the FLSA that may allow for, or require, different records to be kept or not kept. But this set of information should provide you with the basic set of records you need to have.

Fines can be levied against an employer for poor recordkeeping, so be aware. 

In the January 24th issue of the Wall Street Journal there was an interesting article entitled An Energy Shot for the Brain. (Sorry no link, I actually read the paper version.) Since it caught my eye I read it and thought “Hmmm I know a lot of HR people that could use an energy shot for the brain.” (Of course I also know some HR people that could use a shot to the brain… but that is a different story.) The story is about a purported brain enhancer called citicoline that is showing up in beverages and dietary supplements. My reaction was yippee a miracle drink for HR!

Before I proceed any further let me say I have not tried this product so I am not endorsing it, with one exception which I will mention later. According to the article “Citicoline is an organic molecule found naturally in the body, particularly the brain. Scientists believe citicoline speeds up the formation of brain cell membranes and may boost production of neurotransmitters essential to brain function.” In some countries it is sold by prescription to help regenerate the brain after a stroke. It has not been able to get passed by the FDA in the US, but some US companies have picked it up as a food and beverage supplement. So it is made available to the public in a drink called Nawgan with the phrase “What to drink when you want to think.” It also comes in a gel form called GungHo. It is also found in pill form called Cognizin.

Like I said I have not tried any of these products. But one product I have tried is 5-Hour Energy drink and it does contain an unknown amount of citicoline, and I have to say that I have used 5-Hour Energy and it works for me. I am not sure it has restored any brain cells, but it certainly picks me up. Now I must confess my stimulant of choice is coffee. I even wrote about that in An Essential Tool of HR: COFFEE. Sometimes however another cup of coffee just does not sit well, so that is where I have substituted 5-Hour and it as worked well on those days of long hours.

So when I read this article about citicoline and the possibility of it improving my thinking I was intrigued. So I may search some out and give it a try and report back to you. In these days of the importance of intellectual capital it never hurts to have an edge. Hmmm… perhaps HR can use this in a number of ways. You want your HR department to stand out in your company? Take away the coffee pot and serve a citicoline laced beverage. Shoot, if you want the entire company to perform better take away the water cooler and substitute Nawgan or have snacks of GungHo laying around.

If anyone from these companies know where I can buy their products let me know.

The definition of when an employee is protected by FMLA was recently expanded by a decision of the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals. According to attorneys Jeff Nowak and Eric B. Meyer the decision on Pereda v. Brookdale Senior Living Communities, Inc. altered how a request for FMLA leave must be considered. According to Eric “…in 2005, a Pennsylvania federal court recognized ….that an employee’s FMLA rights become sacrosanct upon requesting FMLA — even if the employee is not yet FMLA-eligible — provided that the employee has satisfied all FMLA service requirements when the FMLA begins.”

The Perda case dealt with a woman who was pregnant and was requesting leave under the FMLA even though she had not yet been at the company for 12 months or worked the requisite 1250 hours. A no brainer for denial you say? Hold on, she was going to be eligible by the time the baby’s birth occured. However, prior to that event arriving the company terminated her. The court hearing the case looked at the regulation about eligibility and it read:

“The determination of whether an employee has worked for the employer for at least 1,250 hours in the past 12 months and has been employed by the employer for a total of at least 12 months must be made as of the date the FMLA leave is to start.” 29 C.F.R. § 825.110(d).

As Jeff Nowak points out “ So, the answer is easy enough: when assessing an employee’s eligibility under the FMLA, employers should make the calculation not as of the date of the request, but as of the date the leave is to begin.  If an employer terminates the employee ‘in order to avoid having to accommodate that employee with rightful FMLA leave rights once that employee becomes eligible,’ the employee could advance an FMLA interference claim.

Both Jeff and Eric both offer suggestions for employers in dealing with FMLA leave requests.

From Jeff:

“Keep in mind that the FMLA requires a 30-day notice for foreseeable leave.  This is particularly true for the birth of a child.  An employee who reports a future need for FMLA leave (even though they are not yet eligible) likely will be protected by the FMLA if the employee would be eligible by the time the leave is to begin.“ Additionally “… don’t treat your employee differently after the leave request has been made.”

From Eric:

• Don’t automatically disregard an FMLA request from an employee who has not satisfied all service requirements at the time of the request.
• The scope of the Pareda decision goes beyond pregnancy. … Therefore, it is broad enough to encompass any request for foreseeable FMLA leave.
• The employee does not get a free pass in between.
• An employee has no legal right to commence FMLA leave early.
• Be sure to check state rules on employee leave.

Both attorneys make it clear that employers are allowed to hold employees requesting FMLA to the same work performance standards to which all other employees are being held. But you CANNOT avoid your responsibility as an employer under the law by playing games with timing. Genuine concerns can be dealt with but trumped up reasons used to terminate someone just to avoid FMLA leave will get an employer in trouble.

Thanks to both Jeff Nowak and Eric B. Meyer for their inspiration in this post.

On January 9th my friend and fellow consultant, Cathy Missildine, wrote a blog post entitled Is the HR Generalist Dead?  Her post was based upon a discussion that I participated in along with another two consultants. The basis of the discussion was a general a comment made about the state of business for consultants. One member of the group made the observation that many consultants who provided “generalist” services were not doing as well as “specialist” consultants.  One example was a compensation specialist whose business was doing quite well, while we knew several “generalist”consultants not doing so well. Thus came the comment about the death of the HR generalist. Here is my response.

In my opinion I think the world of the generalist is tied not so much to function but tied to the size of the company utilizing the consultant. Bigger businesses generally have a staff of generalists and when they seek the help of a consultant they are looking for a specialist to solve a particular problem. When smaller companies, who may have either a small HR staff, or no HR staff at all, need HR help it is usually on a broader scope, thus a generalist consultant may be more appropriate. The problem that generalist consultants have had during this economic downturn has been with the nature of small business versus that of big business.

Small businesses during the past several years have been reticent, with all the uncertainity, to spend money. If you are unsure about where your next dollar is coming from, or when, you are not going to spend it on consultants, regardless of how much you may need their help. Larger companies on the other hand often use consultants to solve problems that internal staff cannot solve. In some cases the companies may have even cut staff, thus freeing some money to pay for the consultant.

In the non-consultant world of HR I think we are beginning to see the same dichotomy. Larger companies are starting to use specialist even more than they have in the past, at least that is my perception. As I teach the PHR classes more and more students that work for larger companies hold specialist positions. However, smaller companies to do not have the staff or revenue to have anything but generalists. When you only have limited opportunities to have staff you need someone who can do as much as possible, thus the need for a generalist.

So my answer to the question Is the HR Generalist dead is “no”, but the nature of the field has changed. The HR generalist is now transitioning to be a small company position, whether it is in the consulting field or the in-company position. That is my view, what is yours?

I originally published this post on April 2, 2009. I really like it and was reminded of it the other day. So I am republishing it so today’s readers can see it.

Author Po Bronson (see his bio here) has an article in the  April 2009 issue of Fast Company magazine that is the same as the title of this blog post. In this article he discusses one aspect of the the question “What do I do with my life now?” His original premise,form six years ago, was that people and companies were better off if people were doing something they really cared about. And if they did “They would work extra hard and innovate their way out of this black hole.” His discussion in this article is about six major fallacies that people project onto this dilemma. These are:

Myth 1: People are the architects of their own change. “Extremely few people quit because of career ennui. (definition) Rather , most are pushed into change. They’re laid off or can’t make ends meet or have at-home demands or find their new , postmerger boss to be an absolute ass.” Comment: My personal experience matches this. Although I voluntarily left several postions I did so not because of boredom, there was typically some other situation that was not to my liking. And of course the once I was let go in a downsizing. I would like to think that I have been the architect of my own change, but perhaps not. And most other people I know had job change happen TO them as opposed to making it happen.

Myth 2: All it takes is passion. “I call this the Modern Dream Machine Industry. Media companies have made a killing selling …. false claims that you can just dust off your fantasies and live your dream.” Comment: We would all like to believe you can go and do what you love to do and the money will follow. All you have to do it do it with passion. But if you have been around for any period of time you know that is not generally true. There does have to be a market, and passion must be accompanied by planning and sacrifice

Myth 3: Your dream job has no sucky parts. “I call this the Fallacy of Intrisic Fit. There’s this notion that you should love the mere act of what you do so much that just by virtue of it being Monday morning and you’re at work, neurotransmitters of joy will drip on your brain all day. That is not how real people do it. All jobs have things you hate about them. But real people feel fulfilled enough by the overall purpose that the crummy parts are worth it.” Comment: I know I have never had a job without some crummy parts. And I don’t think I have EVER talked to someone who loved EVERY aspect of their job.

Myth 4: You’ll love the job for the job. “There is an old parable about the three bricklayers..All three men have a sense of purpose (money, family, building a cathedral). Not one said, ‘I just love laying bricks.’ Doing something for the sheer love of it is not what real people mean when they say their work provides a sense of purpose.” Comment: A common theme throughout history is ‘having a purpose’. Most everyone I know has at sometime asked “Why am I here?” Having a purpose, a reason, for doing what you are doing makes doing it easier to do.

Myth 5: There is “the one.” “There is no one thing each of us is meant to do on this planet. … For each of us, there are dozens, even hundreds, of careers, any one of which could provide a sense of meaning and goodness. The biggest mistake is to be seduced by the myth that you’re looking for the right answer, as if there is only one. For most people a ‘calling’ is not something you just know the moment you see it. It’s something you grow into by having an impact on your organization and your community.” Comment: I would like to think that I could, and would, do many other things in life and be as good (or bad) at them as I am at what I do currently. I do get some satisfaction out of thinking about the impact I have had on people. Ones who got jobs, ones who learned more, ones who passed tests, ones who ended up better off having gotten some guidance from me. Human resources really turns out to be a much more powerful position than people give it credit for being.

Myth 6: You don’t know what you want. “Don’t tell me you don’t know what you want. Of course you know what you what you want: fulfillment, connection, responsibility… and some excitement. The real problem is figuring out how to get it. Which is hard. Of course it is hard. It’s supposed to be hard. If it weren’t hard you wouldn’t learn anything along the way…. If you don’t know how to make the best of a bad situation you will never get there. Comment: Excitment… I have thought that the best job in the world for me would be to be Indiana Jones, with one leg in the classroom and the other persuing ‘scientific’ adventure. Either that or be like Dirk Pitt from Clive Cussler’s novels. Guess I will just settle for the time being of dealing with excitement of negotiating I-75 in Atlanta at 7 a.m.

Bronson ends his article with this statement: “If you are not willing to be humble and repeatedly be a beginner in new areas and learn the details faster than the next guy, you are not capable of transformation. Only by embracing these realities will you be able to answer the question “What should I do with my life now?” So to all you job seekers, to all you bored HR people, to everyone read some Bronson and reflect and decide if you can TRANSFORM.

What have I been reading you ask (well you may not be asking but go with the premise)? I have selected five for Friday…. Great reads in HR.

1. First up is Stephanie Thomas @ProactiveStats writing at Compentsation Cafe. Her topic is one I frequently get asked about by clients… file purging. In If I Shred It, Will I Dread It? she answers many, many questions about document destruction and retention. So rest the urge to purge until you have read her post.
2. Also writing at Compensation Cafe, Derek Irvine asks the question “What is the role of HR? Where and how can HR make the most difference for the organization?” He uses IBM as a success story in determing the answer in Who Needs “A Seat at the Table” When You Can Do This? Yes, I know he used the dreaded and hated phrase but he justifies it quite well.
3. Third entrant is from one of the superstars of the next decade in HR, Trish McFarlane. (@TrishMcFarlane) If you do not know Trish, you need to follow her, she in an HR innovator. In her blog HR Ringleader she asks the question Can Music Impact Employee Performance? Personally I cannot work without music in the background. My son is the same way. So what about you?
4. Dan McCarthy is recognized as one of the premier blog writers on Leadership. His blog Great Leadership is widely read. In this post Are You Managing or Just Nagging he helps us understand the difference between performance issues, behavioral issues or pet peeves and how you can handle the difference. I will guarantee many of you will copy this and use his advice in your managerial training or discussions.
5. Finally we have Dr. Daniel Crosby who writes Incblot. He writes about persuasion power in Power Up With These Persuasion Techniques. The ability to persuade is a key skill for an effective HR leader. So arm yourself with the knowledge from this great post. You may even want to consider his seminar.

There you have it. Once again I have tried to make your job easier by trying to be your eyes and doing some screening for you in the blogsphere. Good reading.

Today’s post is a guest post by a young writer trying to make her way in the blog sphere. I accepted this post for publication because I have not written specifically about women’s issues, there are other writers, Trish McFarlane, Lisa Rosendahl and the other Women of HR members, who do a better job of it. See the bottom of this post to see my additional comments.

The 5 Significant U.S. Labor Laws for Women to Know About

A rundown of the laws that help protect equality and fairness in the workplace

Labor Day is not only a statutory holiday and a day of rest, picnics, watching football and fireworks before the kids get sent back to school. The first Monday in September acts as an economic and social reminder of contributions of hard work across the U.S.

The very first Labor Day was celebrated in the year 1894. Today the federal holiday is observed to thank working men and women across the country. It also serves as a reminder that children were once forced to work to make ends meet for families, and women were once paid drastically lower wages compared to their male counterparts or shoved aside in the workplace in order to make room for men returning home from the war. We’ve come a long way in terms of labor rights and protection for women in the workplace when female workers can seek compensation via a personal injury attorney should their rights be violated by an employer or coworker.

The following labor laws are related to women and exist to help protect women’s rights, as well as create a standard of equality and fairness in the workplace:

1. Women’s Suffrage

Women’s suffrage was ratified August 18, 1920, and stated that congress would protect: The right of all citizens of the United States to vote regardless of sex. Even though one can argue that women’s suffrage is not a literal labor law per say, the right to vote did give women the power to check the box of candidates that would protect their labor rights, fair pay and equality in the workplace. This amendment is directly linked to the large number of women who took jobs during World War II to help keep the U.S. operating—especially in the essential war industries. Still, in 1942, the National War Labor Board urged employers make equal wage adjustments for women when they worked comparable jobs to men. Sadly, the majority of employers ignored the request, and most women were pushed out of their “essential” war jobs to make room for returning male veterans.

2. Family and Medical Leave Act (or FMLA)

The FMLA is in place for companies of 50 plus employees. It states that employers must grant a maximum of 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave to expecting employees for the birth or adoption of a child. Not only did the FMLA Act protect women’s jobs should they decide to have a baby, it also left the FMLA open to men should they want to take leave or remain home to care for a spouse, child or parent with a serious illness.

3. Fair Labor Standards Act (or FLSA)

During the early 1960s, job ads would appear separately according to sex. Higher paying jobs would be listed like this: “Help Wanted: Male”. While women’s jobs—oftentimes advertising for the identical position—would appear as “Help Wanted: Female”, but accompanied by a much lower wage, which was typically about half of what men earned doing the exact same job. However, the FLSA attempted to establish equal wages and overtime pay for women. The FLSA also forbid the employment of children under 16-years old and limited the hours and jobs that children, 16-years and older, could work.

4. Whistleblower Protection

A whistleblower is defined as an individual who reveals alleged dishonest or illegal activities concerning an employer to the public. Activities could include:

• Various types of misconduct—such as sexual and ethical
• Violations of laws or regulations—e.g., environmental regulations
• A threat to public interest—e.g., fraud, health and safety violations or corporate corruption

Whistleblower protection extends to women who could fall victim to sex discrimination or reprisal, by encouraging those with illegal knowledge to come forward by promising:

• A percentage of the money recovered or damages won
• Protection from wrongful dismissal
• No risk of reprisal from the organization or group accused
• Whistleblowers are protected from sexual discrimination

5. Comprehensive Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (or COBRA)

COBRA, established in 1985 grants workers who lose their health benefits the right to continue group health benefits provided by their group health plan for limited periods of time. Women, especially single mothers, benefit from COBRA if they decide to transition jobs or suffer an:

• Involuntary job loss
• Hourly cutback that reduces them from full time to part time employees
• During a transition to a new job
• A family death, divorce, or another tragic life event

Colleen Harding is a freelance writer and guest blogger who specializes on writing about law. Her passion for the legal realm started with a job as a Legal Aid and continued when she accepted a role as a Human Resources Coordinator for a mid-sized U.S. manufacturing company. Colleen is always looking of more freelance writing work and can be contacted at colleenaharding@gmail.com

Colleen did a good job of covering some significant “female” oriented laws. There are however, a few others. First is the Civil Rights Act of 1968 which specifically forbids discrimination on the basis of gender. Secondly is the amendment to that law, ten years later, called the Pregnancy Discrimination Act. And then in the compensation arena is the Equal Pay Act which specifically forbade pay discrimination on the basis of gender.

Gender based discrimination is still widespread, although in my opinion less so than in the years past. So with continued awareness perhaps we can see it eradicated or at least further diminished.

Give Colleen some feedback on her post if you would be so kind.

In case you haven’t heard the U.S. Department of Labor, Wage and Hour Divison, is encouraging your employees to report you. They are doing this several ways, including three timekeeping methods the encourage your employees to use. Of course this is nothing new. The Department of Labor has always been the instrument to investigate and right the wrongs employers commit against their employees. But the current USDOL has gotten creative in their outreach to your employers in their effort to get them to turn you in.

First, their is the webpage for a program called We Can Help. It is not designed to help you the employer. Please notice the right the box entitled How to File a Complaint. If you click it you are taken to a full page explanation of how to file a complaint.

Next their are two pdf files that offer timekeeping methods to help your employee keep track of their time in order to compare their records against yours. The first is called the Work Hours Calendar. It includes the following statement in its opening. “It is recommended that you keep your own records of all the hours you work and of your pay. It is recommended that you keep all your pay stubs, information your employer gives you or tells you about your pay rate, how many hours you worked, including overtime, and other information on your employer’s pay practices. This work hours calendar should help you keep as much information as possible.” It provides further recommendations on the types of things an employee should pay attention to.

The second method is the more basic and bilingual Work Hours Recordkeeper. It includes calculations for employees to determine their hourly pay, not based on what you say but based on what they are paid and how much they work. They idea is that if you are working them more than recorded hours, in their opinion, you may be violating the FLSA minimum wage and overtime regulations.

The third method, especially valued by your more tech-savy employees is the I-Phone application called the DOL-Timesheet. I understand it is fraught with problems, but that won’t stop employees from downloading it. So you need to pay attention to your smart phone using employees.

Now before you get the idea that I am not for paying employees correctly or legally or what they are due let me assure you that I am all for every company understanding the Fair Labor Standards Act and complying with it as is necessary and correct. As you can see here this is one of the things we assist companies with, HR compliance. It is critical that companies managers are educated in the PROPER application of the FLSA in order to avoid the often onerous fines and penalties associated with violating the law.

In today’s litigous world and with the super active DOL it is important to exercise prevention as much as possible.

It is important to occasionally revisit why good documentation and good HR practices count in making sure your company is well run and stays out of trouble. A decision handed down in March of 2011 by the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) demonstrated why companies should ensure that they promptly investigate ALL complaints and document that investigation.

The SCOTUS decision centered on a case that dealt with what constitutes a “complaint” when made by an employee. The case of Kasten v. Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics Corp. dealt with an employee who had been terminated for multiple violations of clocking in and out. He was warned several times, each time with a threat of more severe penalties if he did not amend his behavior. Finally after the fourth time he was suspended and terminated. Mr. Kasten then filed a complaint that he had actually been fired for retaliation. He claimed he had made several oral complaints about the location of the time-clock, which he said was illegal, to supervisors and to an HR representative. So he sued alleging that he was fired in retaliation for his having made the complaints about the time-clock location. The FLSA prohibits retaliation and makes it illegal “… to discharge or in any other manner discriminate against any employee because such employee has filed any complaint or instituted or caused to be instituted any proceeding under or related to this chapter, or has testified or is about to testify in any such proceeding, or has served or is about to serve on an industry committee.” The company claimed that since none of Kasten’s complaints had been made in writing they should not be held to be valid.

Since this decision made it to the Supreme Court it is obvious that Mr. Kasten’s attorneys did not agree with the lower courts that held for the company. So SCOTUS focused on the definition of “complaint.” They found, contrary to the lower courts, that an oral complaint was as valid as was a written complaint and equally protected. One justice said that, when the FLSA was written (1938) it could be assumed that many of the people the law meant to protect would not have been able to write their complaint. Another justice however did note “[t]o fall within the scope of the anti-retaliation provision, a complaint must be sufficiently clear and detailed for a reasonable employer to understand it, in light of both content and context, as an assertion of rights protected by the statute and a call for their protection.”

What this means for employers is that you must pay attention to the oral complaints of your employees. According to the attorneys at Fisher & Phillips, ”An established pattern and practice of documenting and investigating all complaints is invaluable in these situations.” You best defend yourself if you can show a history of having investigated any time an employee made a claim and you document the investigation and the results of that investigation. That way when someone claims they made a complaint which was ignored and that they were terminated for having made the complaint the company will be able to show that it has an established pattern of investigating ALL complaints. This certainly does offer proof in individual cases but can certainly bolster the company’s credibility when it denies the allegations of retaliation.

The bottom line is this:

• Train your managers and supervisors to take seriously any compliant and employee makes about ANY policy, procedure or practice.
• Have someone, preferably someone from HR (or an unbiased HR consultant) promptly investigate the complaint and document the finding.
• Resolve the complaint by either correcting the issue or explaining to the employee why they are incorrect in their interpretation.

I wrote on this issue back on May 13, 2011 as well in Under the FLSA “Oral” Complaints Count, and you can find further information there.

Thanks to my friends at the law firm of Fisher & Phillips, LLP for the inspiration for this revisit. You can read their Legal Alert as well.

 I have no intention of creating a list of behaviors that can get you fired. If you want to see that go read your employee handbook. This post is more of a reaction to another list that was published on January 10, 2012 in CBS  Money. The article is entitled 5 behaviors that can get you fired, written by Dave Johnson. I don’t know if Mr. Johnson is writing from personal experience or if he was asked to weigh in on this topic because they could not find anyone with HR experience. (Hey CBS Money, give me a call.) The credentials listed for Mr. Johnson are that he “has written three dozen books, including the best-selling How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera, and covered technology for a long list of magazines that include PC World and Wired.” Undoubtedly he is a fine writer and probably a very nice person, however, this list was not exactly top-of-the-line advice. The reactions in the comments section bore this out.

His listed included:

1.  Abuse your sick days
2.  Throw bombs
3.  Undercut your own team
4.  Evade transparency
5.  Be anonymous

Here is my feedback on these points. First, anyone who is abusing sick days should get fired. Follow the policies. The point is that they are abused and not just used. Mr. Johnson unfortunately goes a step further and said “If you always use every vacation day to which you’re entitled every year, or have a habit of calling in sick on Mondays, you are flagging yourself as someone who lacks personal integrity and abuses the system.” That is a bad statement. Someone who uses all their vacation and someone who calls in sick every Monday should not be lumped in the same category.

Second, he was using “throwing bombs” metaphorically. Actually throwing bombs can be very bad or very good depending on your job description. What Johnson meant was always being the naysayer or being the difficult person to work with. Does that get you fired? Perhaps, eventually, most likely in a RIF.

Third, undercutting your own team may indeed get you fired at some point. Having reservations about the bosses’ ability to do the job or the team’s ability to accomplish the work will not in and of itself get you fired. Publicly airing those points of view may. One caveat to that however, is that in today’s environment of NLRB activism that public gripping may actually be protected concerted activity, depending on with whom you discuss it. So bosses be careful in moving on this one.

The fourth point of evading transparency actually meant hiding your poor work or lying about it. And indeed lying about your work should get you fired. There is an old saying about no matter how much you dress up a pig it is still a pig. On a side note about honesty, I saw Russell Crowe’s Robin Hood the other night. There is one scene in which the king is looking for an honest man to tell him the truth about the crusade. Robin volunteers an honest answer. His honest answer ends up putting him in stocks along with his friends. There is another whole lesson there about being brutally honest.

The fifth point is about being anonymous.  Johnson makes the statement “… most organizations actively try to grow their next generation of leaders from today’s individual contributors….many companies have an implicit “up or out” policy that requires employees to participate, collaborate, grow and advance.” The truth of that statement is very dependent on the size and culture of the company. I don’t really think that being anonymous will get you fired. It will certainly keep you from being recognized which could work against you in a downturn. But few people really have an opportunity to be anonymous. If you are doing good work your boss will know it. And if her advancement is dependent on your work she will be unlikely to let you go. But she may also be unlikely to let you advance.

Well as it turns out Mr. Johnson’s list was not a terrible one, but certainly could have been “fleshed out” a bit more. He does however need to correct that vacation thing. Though, if you are higher up in the organization there may be some companies that will not look kindly on you taking all your vacation. You just have to decide if you want to work for them. I would not.