Law Office of Arkady Itkin 

As I meet more aggrieved employees, I notice a clear, repeating pattern - and employee works and performs well, enjoying working with his professional team and in his work environment, having a good relationship with his supervisor. At one point, his supervisors leaves or is being transferred to another department, and a new manager is being appointed to supervise the same employee. The new manager might be coming from outside, might not be experienced or even worse - might be having his first management position, upon receiving which he or she is eager to exercise his new power and control (what we commonly call as "power trip.")

Your new supervisor might have very different expectations from the previous one, which can be legitimate as every professional has different idea of what and how the performance of his or her subordinates should be. But when the new person abuses his power, nit-picking an employee, who has been working for the same company for much longer, this will necessarily cause undue stress and confrontation between the employee and his new manager.  This eventually leads to a range of legal claims by an employee - from harassment and hostile work environment, to retaliation (if the employee complains about his supervisor to the higher up, and as a result gets disciplined or terminated).

How can such problems at workplace and potential liability be effectively prevented and avoided?

One effective way to prevent this problem is to have the new manager undergo training and not only on discrimination, harassment and other laws that cover California workplace, but also generally on employee relations and on what makes a great manager who receives respect and admiration from his employees and who increases productivity, as opposed to one who creates bitterness, frustration and unnecessary stress on his employees. 

In addition, it is important to consider supervising closely the new manager and his ways of handling and communicating with his employees  - at least in the beginning stages of that new supervisor's job.

It is unfortunately for me to see how many companies-employer fall victims to bad legal advice, whether it's a result of intentional misleading or lack of knowledge of employment law on the side of the defense attorneys. 

Here is a typical scenario. A company gets sued for discrimination, harassment, retaliation or wrongful termination. They refer the case to their defense counsel who might be a very experienced employment lawyer or an attorney who doesn't know much about the specific area of employment law.  

The lawyers who are competent in employment law will be able to tell right away whether the lawsuit has merit, and yet they will still advise their client - the employer - against settling the claims early, as these attorneys are being paid for their services hourly and thus are interested in billing at least a certain minimum amount of hours before they let the case go. An honest, ethical firm will act in the best interest of its client, as it should, and will urge their client to settle, rather than litigate the case, pay attorneys fees, and be potentially liable for a trial verdict in favor of employee and for employee counsel's attorneys fees. 

The lawyers who do not know much about employment law won't even be able to evaluate the case properly and decide whether it should be settled early rather than litigated. Thus, many of those lawyers, governed again by the desire to bill a certain number of hours before they settle, will still move forward and defend the case even when the liability is clear, potentially exposing their client to a much greater loss, including punitive damages and the opposing party's attorneys fees.

Many employees suffering from a disability or a particular medical condition qualify for FMLA leave, under which they are entitled to be placed on unpaid leave for up to 12 weeks in a year, assuming that certain FMLA conditions are satisfied. 

However, very few employees are aware that upon expiration of FMLA leave, they might be entitled to additional time off as a reasonable accommodation to their disability / medical condition. Under California law, an employer must engage with an employee in a good faith interactive process to find out if the employee may be provided reasonable accommodation to his or her disability / medical condition at workplace. One of those reasonable accommodations can be extending the employee's leave beyond FMLA leave, unless this extended leave would impose undue hardship on the employer's business. An employer who fails to engage in this interactive process to investigate whether reasonable accommodations can be provided to the disabled / sick employee may be liable for disability discrimination, failure to accommodation and other violations of employment laws in California. 

If you believe that your employer did not fulfill it's obligation under California law and you would like to discuss your situation at workplace, contact San Francisco employment attorney Arkady Itkin for a free, no-obligation consultation.