AUDIENCE Businesses both large and small, including their owners, human resource personnel, and supervisors and managers. WHAT IS NEW IN THIS EDITION This book provides the expert legal guidance employers need in order to avoid a toxic workplace and ultimately to head off lawsuits, given that employees who get fired for stirring up trouble at the workplace are also often the ones to sue for wrongful termination. Updated legal information throughout, including to 50-state employment law charts on drug testing, illegal discrimination, and more. Readers will learn to identify problem employees early on, so as to manage the situation by getting them back on track or rooting them out before they have a chance to do more damage. One third of U.S. workers believe that workplace conflict will increase over the next 12 months (SHRM, 2024). This perception is attributed to underlying tensions and unresolved issues within workplaces, indicating potential triggers for future conflict.

And U.S. companies face at least a 10.5% chance of being hit with an employment lawsuit (Hiscox, 2017). Though these cases don't usually wind up in court, for the ones that do, the damage awards can be big. The median judgment is around $200,000, in addition to court costs and attorney fees. About 25% of cases result in the employee winning damages of $500,000 or more (Hiscox, 2015).