Making Work Better: Employment Law & Workplace Challenges

The holiday season is fast approaching, and workplaces can help to keep spirits high by staying clear of potential issues surrounding gift-giving in the office. What may seem like a simple gesture between coworkers can also lead to a variety of legal pitfalls, from discrimination and harassment claims to tax implications. Business counselors Chad Ayers and Christina Hynes Mesco dive into those issues by sharing stories of their own holiday experiences at work. In this episode, we'll share suggestions for success when giving gifts to colleagues.

Chad and Christina will discuss:

• The potential implications of a manager giving gifts to subordinates
• Whether the typical "Christmas bonus" or high-value gifts should be considered as wages
• How the public and private sectors differ in their approaches to accepting gifts
• What kinds of gifts may have tax implications
• How workplaces generally treat holiday celebrations outside of gift-giving
• Inclusive alternatives to a gift exchange

To make the most of this time of year, streamline your organization's gift-giving and holiday celebrations. Tune in to hear our recommendations for how employers can show they care while also avoiding liability.

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Many business leaders think that a healthy workplace culture is important, but they don't always know what it takes to have one. Some companies may simply restate their values at every annual meeting and call it a day. Others may not know what their culture looks like at all. Improving the health of your workplace isn't a one-and-done thing—for as long as your company remains open, learning what is and isn't working must be an ongoing process.

Business counselor Kristen Prinz is joined by Michelle Aronson, founder of Culture + Strategy Lab and host of the True Stories at Work podcast, to dive into what it really takes to bring your workplace culture to life. By sharing real scenarios that business clients have navigated, our hosts provide insight into the link between the strength of a company's culture and its response when something goes wrong.

Michelle and Kristen explore:

· Whether culture can be measured accurately with quantitative metrics

· The responsibilities that both leadership and employees have in creating company culture

· The root causes of most culture issues

· The link between employee engagement and customer engagement

· How our personal biases cloud our ability to assess claims of workplace harassment

· What companies with the strongest cultures are doing to invest in their health

If you're aware of problems that exist in your work environment and aren't sure how to respond—or if you want to learn how to identify problems before they arise—this episode will be well worth the listen.

About Michelle Aronson

Michelle Aronson is a recovering HR executive, executive coach, and business school professor turned founder of Culture + Strategy Lab. She helps growing companies turn culture into a competitive advantage—using real strategy, not fluff.

Michelle once managed both employee and customer experience (a.k.a. half of the CEO's bonus) and learned firsthand how to uncover the invisible forces shaping culture and driving results. Today, she designs custom, measurable strategies that align leadership, culture, and business outcomes.

She also hosts True Stories at Work—a podcast sharing the best leadership stories you've never heard, from hilarious to heartbreaking, plus a few workplace confessions.

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It's an unfortunate statistic, but most people have seen or experienced some form of misconduct at work at least once in their careers. As employment attorneys and workplace investigators, Christina Hynes Mesco and Laura Feldman have seen the full gamut of these types of matters and know that even the most cautionary tales can teach us valuable lessons about how to approach these difficult, and often highly emotional, cases.

Using a recent and very public corporate scandal, Christina and Laura explore how a prominent corporation properly responded to misconduct claims and use that example as a springboard for providing their best practices for organizations faced with similar complaints.

In this episode, you will learn:

• The key role that senior leadership and even boards of directors play in addressing misconduct in the workplace and the kinds of training that both should receive

• How to ensure that senior leadership has a pulse on what's going on in an organization

• How to spot retaliation and best prevent it

• When employment insurance can impact an organization's response to misconduct claims

• Whether a complaint needs to be formally filed to treat harassment claims seriously

• Practical considerations when conducting an internal versus an external investigation

• Why culture audits are recommended for preventing and even responding to harassment claims

This episode will be a valuable guide for senior leaders, HR professionals, and managers navigating harassment claims, as well as attorneys who may be advising individuals in bringing these claims forward. Tune in to learn which practices will help you identify and prevent harassment within your team.

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It's no secret that the American workplace is constantly changing. The last few years alone have witnessed major trends, from "job hugging" and a focus on mental health at work to Gen Z entering the labor force amidst a backlash against DEI initiatives. Such shifts have left business leaders struggling to navigate their new reality in a way that promotes business, inspires employees, and makes us all feel better about our jobs.

Business attorney Katie Rinkus welcomes Beth Ridley, a workplace culture consultant and the CEO of Ridley Consulting Group, to dissect these various workplace trends, explaining their effects on businesses and employees alike. Together, they shine a light on how some leaders have responded to new trends—and it's not always for the better. Often, businesses have "over-rotated," or dramatically course-corrected in ways that have had toxic effects on company culture.

In this episode, Katie and Beth explore:

• The new focus on productivity as opposed to a "culture of belonging"
• What a "belonging" looks like and why it's important at work

· Over-rotation vs. a "both/and" long-term sustainable approach to change

• The underlying factors of the "leadership trust crisis"

• How workplace trends like "quiet quitting" and "job hugging" affect employee morale

• Questions that leaders can ask themselves about the impact of their work

• What it means to prioritize "workplace emotional safety"

• Generational tension at work and ways to manage it

If you're an employee who feels overwhelmed by the uncertainty of the current climate, Beth and Katie provide a new perspective. If you're a business leader feeling the same, this episode offers insight on how to sustainably respond to the changes and still reach desired results. Tune in for a few tips on problem-solving, even when you don't have all the answers.

Beth Ridley

Beth Ridley is a former corporate executive turned workplace culture consultant, speaker, author, and CEO of Ridley Consulting Group. She helps organizations turn culture into a true competitive advantage.

Drawing on 25 years of global leadership and management consulting experience—and expertise in change management and positive psychology—Beth equips HR teams and people managers with practical roadmaps and tools to build resilient, change-ready, high-performing teams without burning people out. A recognized thought leader on leadership and workplace culture, Beth's insights are featured in national publications, on television, and from stages at events worldwide.

Beth holds degrees from the University of Virginia, Tufts University, and Columbia University, and has lived in London, Tokyo, Johannesburg, and Bangkok. She now calls Milwaukee, Wisconsin home, where she lives with her husband and three children.

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In this thought-provoking episode, employment and business attorney Kristen Prinz speaks with NYU Stern School of Business professor, bestselling author, and podcast host Suzy Welch to discuss her book Becoming You: The Proven Method for Crafting Your Authentic Life and Career. An outgrowth of years of research into human values, Becoming You clarifies what values really are—and what they're not—and helps readers better understand themselves and what makes them more authentically happy by finding their "area of transcendence."

Our values influence countless aspects of our lives, from the relationships we form with others to how we approach our work. But when our work is out of sync with our values, it can lead not only to personal distress, but to toxic team dynamics, misunderstanding, and all-around negativity. So how does one get back on track?

Suzy suggests the difficult task of identifying an overarching purpose, or "area of transcendence." It isn't necessarily simple work—in fact, it can be downright intimidating. But by making it easier to identify our values, Suzy's work aims to give readers the understanding and agency they need to craft a life that truly fulfills them.

In this episode, Kristen and Suzy explore:

· How Suzy's career path influenced the creation of the Becoming You methodology

· Telling the difference between values and virtues or personality traits

· The development of the Values Bridge, Suzy's test for determining one's core values

· Reasons why we might not be living our values

· What it means to live an "A+ life" and why so many people settle for a "B+ life"

· How an authentic life impacts team dynamics at work

Whether you're looking to find work that's aligned with your values, to improve the culture of your workplace, or simply want to live more authentically, Suzy's book is required reading. Dip your toe into the world of human values by listening to this episode—and take the first step toward positive change.

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