Do I have complete freedom of speech at work?
Can I tell my terminal manager that he is a hoe, his mama is a hoe, his wife is a hoe, his children are [...]
About Rita M. Risser Chai
Rita M. Risser Chai was an attorney in California for 20 years and now is an attorney in Hawaii. She authored the Prentice Hall book, Stay Out of Court! The Manager’s Guide to Preventing Employee Lawsuits, and she developed most of the curriculum used by Fair Measures including the firm’s first website which was praised in HR Magazine. She also wrote numerous articles on employment law including one on best practice harassment prevention training published in the magazine of the American Society for Training and Development (now ATD). She taught Law and Human Resources at the University of California, Santa Cruz, for eight years, and has presented four times at the annual conventions of the Hawaii Society of Human Resource Management.Does One N-word Welcome Another?
Managers in our programs sometimes ask, “If African-American employees call their African-American friends at work ‘nigga,’ are they welcoming someone else using the N-word?” [...]
I was out of work for a surgery on my foot, is it okay for my boss to mock me on my return?
I was out of work for three weeks due to a surgery I had on my foot. When I returned one of the managers [...]
Is it too late for me to file a harassment complaint?
This has been years ago but, I had been grabbed and pushed around by a coworker (more than once) and brought it to the [...]
My boss was looking at pictures of the inside of my house online, is that illegal?
My "supervisor" looked up my house on the internet where there was pictures of the inside, from when it was for sale, while we [...]
Is Touching Women’s Hair Sexual Harassment?
The internet has been buzzing since Lucy Flores, a former candidate for Nevada Lieutenant Governor, recounted an incident with then-Vice President Joe Biden. According [...]
Can my boss require me to share more about my personal life to enhance our team culture?
My boss told me I have to start sharing more about my personal life to enhance our team culture. Can she make me do [...]
Am I required to give independent contractors an 8-hour break between shifts?
I have a freelancer who is stating that due to the short turnaround time between days of work his entire 2nd day is eligible [...]
Is it harassment if my boss calls me honey and dear?
Rita Risser Chai replies: There is no case directly on point. There are lots of cases where the manager calls a woman that and [...]
Racial Harassment is Not Old News
Recent news about two Virginia political leaders wearing “blackface” in the 1980s might leave the impression that such behavior is a thing of the [...]