Your boss’s gender can affect just how much pain he or she seems to inflict. Researchers at the University of Toronto compared men and women working in one of three situations: (1) for a lone male supervisor, (2) for a lone female supervisor, or (3) for both a male and a female supervisor. Which one sent the stress meter off the scale?

As the impact of the global economic crisis takes hold, a quarter of U.S. employers expect to make layoffs in the next 12 months. Find out how employers nationwide are hunkering down—and the HR lessons you can apply to your organization. Your goal: Do what needs to be done ... without killing productivity.

Sometimes, employees who think they are about to be fired for poor performance will try to take pre-emptive action by quitting and then suing. Courts are pretty strict when it comes to “constructive discharge” ...

If an applicant discloses a disability and says she can’t perform the job’s essential functions even with an accommodation, you can turn her down. You don’t have to second-guess her assessment and look for a reasonable accommodation.

A recent federal appeals court decision shows how risky it is to ignore the interactive accommodations process spelled out in the ADA. In Talley v. Family Dollar Stores of Ohio (6th Cir.), the court held that the breakdown of the interactive process can, in and of itself, constitute a constructive discharge of an employee.

Q. Our restaurant has a written requirement that waiters be able to lift, transport and carry objects weighing from 25 to 30 pounds up to 20 or more times per shift. An applicant for a server job has informed us on his application that he has a condition that prevents him from lifting more than 10 pounds and that there are no accommodations that could be made so he can perform all of the job duties. Are we going to be in violation of the ADA if we deny a job to this applicant?

Sometimes, you find out pretty quickly that someone you hired isn’t going to work out. While the final decision to terminate may take some time, many supervisors naturally start giving the cold shoulder to bad hires. Such a blow-off may be crass, but it’s not the kind of behavior that commonly puts an employer on the losing end of a lawsuit.

Effective Jan. 1, 2009, employers with 15 or more employees have a new set of ADA rules to contend with. President Bush signed off on a law significantly amending the ADA in September, greatly changing how employers must handle disabled applicants and employees.

You don’t have to ignore a sudden and shocking deterioration in an employee’s performance and behavior. You can and should ask for a fitness-for-duty exam. Just be prepared to discuss possible accommodations if it turns out the employee is disabled.

Sometimes, you want to send a message to a problem employee, but don’t want to make such a big deal out of it that she’ll think about filing a lawsuit.

The Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 1994 (USERRA) grants service members re-employment rights when they notify their employers of their intent to return to work after being released from active duty. But what happens when an employer finds that its business needs have changed while the employee was on active duty? ...

Independent contractors aren’t covered by the ADA, as the following Indiana case shows ...

Q. An employee whose doctor says she cannot stand for long periods of time recently requested an accommodation. She works as a cashier in a checkout line. The employee requested the opportunity to sit on a stool while she works. Our employees normally work 8.5-hour days, with a one-hour break for lunch and two 15-minute breaks throughout the day. We are concerned that giving this employee a stool will prompt other employees to request seats of their own, even though they do not have the disability she does. Do we have to accommodate her request, knowing that it could lead to significant morale problems?

Train all bosses to avoid even the appearance of favoritism. Explain that excluding anyone from an “inner circle” may trigger a lawsuit, especially if those on the “in” list are largely members of the same protected classification as the supervisor or manager. Something as simple as speaking a common foreign language with select subordinates can trigger a lawsuit ...

Sometimes, it takes a new manager or supervisor to see how poorly an employee is performing. If an employee who has been getting good reviews suddenly appears to slump under new leadership, don’t jump the gun and discipline the employee right away. Here’s a better approach ...