While all economic cycles share certain features, they also have unique effects. What’s different for HR in the 2008 downturn versus the last one? Here are three distinctive characteristics of the current economic slump that are affecting your employees—and potentially reshaping your HR programs:

Employees who have disabilities sometimes pose special challenges. Accommodating their work restrictions requires diligence and flexibility. That doesn’t mean, however, that you should ignore declining performance ...

Courts often suspect the worst when employers fire severely ill employees. A judge may bend over backward trying to find a way to help the employee. An employer that can’t offer concrete, solid and compelling reasons for the termination may very well find itself trying to defend a “regarded as disabled” lawsuit ...

The more teleworkers you have on staff, the more dissatisfied your nonteleworking employees are likely to be with their jobs. And, compared to employees who only work face to face with colleagues, they’re more likely to change jobs. Those are the findings of a Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute management professor ...

It seems simple enough: No one should make cracks or comments about an employee’s pregnancy. Still, supervisors and managers often say things they shouldn’t, which can come together to form the basis for a Pregnancy Discrimination Act lawsuit ...

Discrimination cases typically have two stages. First, the employee must show that he is a member of a protected class, was qualified for the job he held, suffered an adverse employment action and a similarly situated person not in the same protected class was treated more favorably. Some federal trial judges recently construed the “similarly situated” standard very restrictively ...

It seems employees don’t want teleworking bosses, according to an Office Team survey ...

Q. How serious is it if an employer doesn’t have written job descriptions in place? Is it safe to draft them even after a termination that could result in a lawsuit? ...

There’s no such thing as a completely objective performance evaluation. It’s impossible to totally eliminate manager subjectivity. That can become a legal problem when, for example, a poorly rated employee is promoted over a minority. Increased subjectivity is one of the main reasons employers should consider turning to performance evaluation software ...

A study by consulting firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas reports that Mondays are the best days to terminate employees because it allows them to start looking for a job right away. Make job offers on Thursdays because candidates need time to think ...

When an employee sues over an alleged discriminatory firing, courts typically make a beeline for one piece of evidence: the employee’s performance evaluation. The problem: Supervisors are notorious for giving overly kind evaluations, even to poor performers. That’s why it’s wise to get another opinion: the employee’s own ...

The IRS and the courts are increasingly ignoring the “independent contractor” label that companies increasingly slap on their workers. Instead, they’re reclassifying those relationships as “employees.” And that’s not good for employers ...

There’s no law that says employers must use a progressive discipline system—but that’s no reason not to. In fact, using progressive discipline is one of the best ways to fight frivolous discrimination claims ...