In Minnesota, employees are supposed to be paid promptly and receive an accounting of their time worked. Failure to comply may mean you’ll have to pay a penalty.

Employees who steal from their employers violate their duty of loyalty. That makes them ineligible for unemployment compensation. That’s true even if the theft is small. But you must be prepared with clear testimony if you want to contest the worker’s right to unemployment benefits.

Sometimes, an employee’s absence may show you that she isn’t as good at her job as you thought. If that’s the case for an employee out on FMLA leave, you can terminate her—as long as you carefully document the reasons and are prepared to show that you would have terminated her even if she hadn’t taken leave.

Some things are best left unsaid. That includes any comments about how hard it must be for a mother to have a career and raise children. Tell managers to keep the topic out of their office chitchat.

Disabled employees may be en­­titled to some time off as an accommodation, but there are limits. If an employee is constantly absent when his disability makes it impossible to work, you may be able to discharge him. That’s because attendance can be an essential function of a job—and constantly missing work may show that the employee can’t perform that essential function.

It’s OK to fire someone whose medical problems clearly don’t qualify as a serious health condition under the FMLA.

A cardinal HR rule: Everyone who breaks the same rule should receive the same punishment. That doesn’t mean a frequent rule-breaker can’t be punished more harshly.

It can be frustrating to deal with an employee who has constant attendance problems. But if that employee has a serious health condition entitling him to FMLA leave, there’s really nothing you can do, no matter how inconvenient and disruptive his absences are.

Many HR professionals spend time agonizing over whether to fire someone they believe broke a rule warranting discharge. Could they have been wrong about the facts? Relax. There’s no need to second-guess yourself endlessly. Instead, conduct a prompt and thorough investigation and make a decision.

In almost every case, clearly documented poor performance will trump discrimination allegations. That’s especially true if you can offer examples going back a reasonable period of time.

When preparing to terminate a worker, you want to be able to produce the most solid documentation to defend a potential lawsuit. Just make sure supervisors know to document employee performance and behavior at the time it occurs—not just before or after the employee leaves the building.

You’ve been warned not to discipline employees for their Facebook rants about the company. (That could be “concerted activity.”) And you have to be careful not to use Facebook info when hiring. (That could be discrimination.) So can employers really use Facebook for anything these days? Yes, you can.

For harried HR professionals, the temptation may be strong to quickly rubber-stamp supervisors’ termination recommendations. But that’s an unwise move, which became even more legally dangerous with a 2011 Supreme Court decision.

Have you ever been frustrated that your CEO doesn’t seem to care about the FLSA, FMLA, ADA or any other of those magic compliance acronyms? What if the boss gets tired of your compliance complaints and sends you packing?