Yes, It’s Legal:10 More Things Companies Can Do Without Breaking the Law #yesitslegal

Every now and then, I come across a blog post that I wish I had written. Last Friday, I read one of those posts.

Suzanne Lucas (aka, the Evil HR Lady) and Alison Green (aka, Ask A Manager) jointly wrote a post entitled, Yes, it’s legal … queries from a combined 13 years of blogging about the workplace. The post lists 62 different things — some commonplace (“It’s legal to require overtime.”), and some unusual (“It’s legal for your manager to make you clean up rat poo.”).

I loved the post so much, I thought I’d add 10 of my own (shamelessly built around the themes from the 10 chapters in my book, The Employer Bill of Rights: A Manager’s Guide to Workplace Law).

1. It’s legal to refuse to hire a felon.

2. It’s legal to refuse to let you bring a representative into your disciplinary meeting (as long as it’s a non-union shop).

3. It’s legal to close our business.

4. It’s legal to change our handbook as often as we want (and hold you to the new policies).

5. It’s legal to impose a punishment less than termination on a perpetrator of harassment.

6. It’s legal to fire you if you work unauthorized overtime.

7. It’s legal to tell you why we don’t like labor unions.

8. It’s legal to replace you while you're on a leave of absence (as long as the leave isn’t FMLA-protected).

9. It‘s legal to refuse to hire someone who won’t sign a non-compete.

10. It’s legal to oppose your claim for unemployment.

How about you? What would you add to the list? Leave your thoughts in the comments below, or tweet it with the hashtag #yesitslegal.

Written by Jon Hyman, a partner in the Labor & Employment group of Kohrman Jackson & Krantz. For more information, contact Hyman at (216) 736-7226 or jth@kjk.com. You can also follow Hyman on Twitter at @jonhyman.