New Manpower Blog Mixes Humor with Answers
<p><strong>Milwaukee — Aug. 23</strong><br />A new Manpower blog brings to life the oft-ignored, sometimes boring and always important topic of employment law. </p><p>Manpower’s resident comedian, singer-songwriter and North American Chief Legal Officer Mark Toth writes The Manpower Employment Blawg. </p><p>Toth dresses like Elvis, sings an employment law rock-and-roll anthem and asks interactive questions such as, “What hit an all-time low last year?” with answer choices that include “American pop culture,” in an effort to encourage companies to pay more attention to employment law so they can keep employees happy and lawyers at bay.<br /><br />“Don’t get me wrong — I like attorneys, I am an attorney,” Toth said. “It’s just that I’d like to help companies avoid paying lots of money to attorneys unnecessarily.”<br /><br />With The Manpower Employment Blawg, employment law has never been so easy.</p><p>Employment Blawg readers can look forward to learning the subtle nuances of employment law such as “Communicate, Communicate, Communicate (Unless You Communicate Stupidly)” and “Follow Your Own Dang Policies.” <br /><br />And Employment Blawg users might already be a winner! To mark the launch, visitors can participate in the “How to Hire if You Want to Get Fired” video contest. </p><p>Those who spot the most interview mistakes could take home fabulous prizes, including two airline tickets to anywhere in the continental United States or even a Manpower coffee mug.<br /><br />In the coming weeks, readers also will get answers to burning questions such as:<br /></p><ul><li>Can I ask an employee if he or she has a gang tattoo?</li><li>What should I do if an employee complains of sexual harassment but begs me not to investigate?</li><li>Whom should I call first if an employee comes into my office at 4:57 on a Friday afternoon and informs me that she suffers from several disabilities, including narcolepsy, spontaneous combustion syndrome and spleen-induced hyper-grumpiness and she demands a portable IV hooked up to a Starbucks espresso machine, a fire extinguisher mounted to her head, three-and-a-half weeks off each month and my office. <br /></li></ul><p>The Employment Blawg also contains a variety of resources in sections such as “How to Keep Lawyers from Taking All Your Money,” which includes guidelines for working with outside counsel, a lawyer score card, a budget forecast table and tips for developing a law firm request for proposal (RFP).<br /><br />Five hundred employee lawsuits are filed per day with nearly 70 percent resulting in favorable rulings for the plaintiffs, and one in every five employment lawsuits is a million-dollar case. </p>