Two former Neiman Marcus loss prevention investigators who were fired from Neiman Marcus in October 2007 for having sex on the job are suing the company for illegally videotaping them.

Q. We provide PDAs to virtually all our employees, some of whom are nonexempt. This enables them to send and respond to e-mails at all hours of the day and night. Does an employee’s time spent on his or her PDA outside of work count as hours worked?

When tax firm KPMG wanted to fill hundreds of positions worldwide, it held an enormous job fair that attracted 20,000 candidates. But nobody showed up in person. The two-day, round-the-clock fair was entirely online. More organizations are tapping the global reach of the Internet to recruit employees who otherwise might not come to a convention center event.

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?

Q. We just hired a salesperson from a competitor. We warned her not to take proprietary information from her former employer, but she says what is on her personal laptop is her information. Is there any risk for us from that laptop?

What are the best online tools to help you get things done smarter and faster? Gina Trapani, lead blogger for Lifehacker.com and author of Upgrade Your Life, is an expert at helping people master modern technology. Here’s how everyday Joes and Janes can be like master geeks, she says.

Many of the millions who post information online never think a potential employer might read what they post. Meanwhile, employers believe that if the information is available online for the viewing, they have an obligation to look. However, several laws may restrict how you conduct the search or how you use the information.

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. Our employees often use their cell phones when driving vehicles. Does North Carolina prohibit or limit cell phone use while driving?

Video surveillance can help catch employees who are abusing the system. For example, video of an employee cleaning the gutters while on FMLA leave may show he’s not sick. But before you conduct your own surveillance or hire someone to do so, here’s a simple tip ...

Exercise extreme caution when terminating employees with knowledge of your IT systems. More than eight in 10 IT security professionals admitted that, if laid off tomorrow, they’d take valuable and sensitive company information with them, according to a new Cyber-Ark Software survey of 300 IT pros ...

Three former employees of Metaldyne Corp. in Plymouth have pleaded guilty to plotting to steal trade secrets and sell them to industry competitor Chongqing Huafu Industry Co. of Chongqing, China ...

Q. Our company has a strict Internet-use policy. During the course of routine computer maintenance and observation, our third-party IT provider advised us that one of our employees had been viewing child pornography in violation of our policy. We immediately terminated that employee. Is there anything else we should do regarding this employee’s violation of our company’s policy? ...

Q. A former employee wants copies of 18-months' worth of e-mails. That would be an enormous undertaking. Do we have to honor the request? ...

The average worker spends about two hours every day dealing with unnecessary interruptions, ranging from e-mails to instant messages to phone calls to visits from co-workers. Those interruptions cost businesses $590 billion a year in lost productivity. HR professionals can help solve this problem at any organization. In fact, it could be the latest work/life benefit: time to pay attention.