Sometimes, it’s tempting to offer a disgruntled employee a quick cash settlement in exchange for her signature on a liability release. If a few thousand dollars will avoid an expensive lawsuit, it’s worth it, right? Maybe, maybe not ...

Employers sometimes come up with some very specific rules for when and how employees must call in to let their bosses know they will miss work. Sometimes those rules become contracts ...

Q. In our severance agreements, we typically require a terminated employee to waive all claims, including FMLA claims that could have arisen while the employee worked for us. I’ve now heard that it is improper for employers to get waivers of FMLA rights from existing employees. What should we do?

If some of your employees work under an employment contract that sets salary and other terms, be careful about changing anything. While you may need to cut salaries during tough economic times, doing so without getting a written modification is risky.

Don’t be shy about restricting employees from stealing customers when they leave. Your best bet is to include specific language and examples of the sort of solicitation you want to ban.

Do you use an arbitration policy to resolve workplace disputes? If so, it pays to have your attorney review that agreement to make sure it meets Florida contract law standards—especially if you operate in several states and use the same agreement for each location.

Q. Recently, an employee left our company to join a competitor. When we took a look at his computer, we found deleted e-mails and files indicating he downloaded some valuable information about our customers. We suspect he transferred it to our competitor. He was an at-will employee and we had no employment agreement with him. Is there anything we can do about this?

Layoffs are in the news. With a recession looming, this necessary evil is on agendas throughout corporate America. A layoff—or RIF—is a tricky, painful process for management, those who lose their jobs and even employees who remain afterward. Here are four critical and often overlooked RIF potholes that can make the route more treacherous than it needs to be ...

Q. We discovered that an employee has posted false, profane statements about our company and managers on his Facebook page. What can we do? ...

Q. We want current employees to sign noncompete agreements. If we do not offer an employee something of value in exchange for signing the agreement, is it against the law to terminate the employee? If we offer something of value, and the employee refuses to sign, can we terminate the employee? ...

The U.S. economy was already on the brink last month when the Wall Street-fueled financial crisis came and pushed it over the edge. Organizations nationwide are being forced to slash costs, which often means cutting payrolls. Too often, however, employers make tactical errors during layoffs. Here are six key steps to help keep layoffs as legally painless as possible:

Q. As an employer, what can I do to avoid unauthorized disclosure of sensitive company information when an employee departs?

If you use a mandatory arbitration agreement, you may be able to set a relatively short deadline for employees to bring discrimination claims ...

A temporary employment agency violated federal labor law by including a confidentiality provision in an employment contract, according to a recent NLRB ruling (Northeastern Land Services, Ltd. dba The NLS Group and Jamison John Dupuy, 352 NLRB No. 89, 2008). In the case, the agency fired a worker for violating the confidentiality provision ...

Q. I just learned from a reliable source that two employees are going to start a similar business. Apparently, they have submitted paperwork that is based on the forms I used to create my own business. Is this grounds for termination? ...