In today’s litigious society it’s best for employers to set some ground rules on office romance. Adopt an anti-fraternization policy that bans relationships between employees who hold a boss/subordinate relationship. But take note: Employees who aren’t involved in an affair with the boss won’t necessarily win a sex discrimination lawsuit if they don’t get the perks their co-worker got.

Employees and former employees have just 300 days to file their initial EEOC discrimination complaints. But that countdown doesn’t start until the “adverse employment action” they want to challenge has occurred. That means that the moment employees know they have been fired, the clock starts ticking.

Government employees retain the right to free speech, and they can’t be punished for speaking out on matters of public importance. But if it’s part of an employee’s job to speak up, that protection doesn’t apply. Those employees are merely doing their jobs.

Sometimes, employees get angry over some real or imagined slight and walk out. To make sure they really did quit and can’t claim constructive discharge, document your efforts to determine what happened.

Chicago-based aerospace giant Boeing has agreed to pay $380,000 to settle two sexual harassment complaints filed by employees at its Mesa, Ariz., plant.

Q. We offer employees a set number of paid time off (PTO) days per year, which they may use for any reason, including vacation and sick days. Must we pay out all earned but unused PTO days upon termination?

Here’s a twist, courtesy of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2009 Gross v. FBL Financial Services age discrimination decision. The court ruled that employees have to show that “but for” their age, their employer wouldn’t have fired them.

If you grant time off to employees who aren’t yet eligible for FMLA leave, take note: If they’re on your payroll, their time off counts toward FMLA eligibility. That means that once they hit the one-year mark, they become entitled to those 12 unpaid FMLA weeks—and terminating them could launch an FMLA lawsuit. That wasn’t always the case ...

When you challenge an unemployment claim, what you say can come back to haunt you.

Some employees who believe they’ve been mistreated get so angry that they begin airing their grievances to co-workers. That can be a firing offense. Although you can’t ban employees from talking about wages or other conditions of employment, you can prohibit harassing conduct.

Not everyone who has a learning disability or even mild retardation is disabled. Under the ADA, every disability is measured by the individual’s condition and whether or not the condition he claims is disabling substantially impairs a major life function. Thus, someone with minor intellectual deficits may not be disabled under the ADA.

In today’s economic climate, you might be tempted to forgo hiring a temp to fill in for an employee who’s out on FMLA leave. Especially if you initially believe the employee won’t be gone long, what’s the harm? But what will you do if the employee returns to a huge pile of work left undone during her absence? Think twice before you tell her to catch up or else.

Employees are entitled to broad protection from discrimination based on their religious beliefs and practices. However, that protection has limits. Consider, for example, what may happen if an employee tries to bludgeon—figuratively—her fellow employees with her religious beliefs.

Here’s a new worry for Ohio HR pros who play a role in deciding whether to fire employees: You could end up being sued personally if it turns out that the discharge was wrongful under Ohio’s public policy exception to at-will employment. That means your own assets—not just the company’s—are at risk. Here’s how it works:

If you are planning a layoff within a small group of employees, the fact that one of the employees about to lose her job is the oldest of the group won’t be the basis for a successful age discrimination claim. It takes more evidence that age was a motivating factor for the employee to win an age discrimination case. That’s because she can’t use statistics to prove the disparate impact on older workers in such a small group.