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Ask Rita: Can I Just Hire Independent Contractors?
Dear Rita in HR: I am executive director of a very small nonprofit. Recently, I had to fire an employee for the first time. In retrospect, I probably made a bad hiring decision, but it was a real nightmare to go through. I would like to just hire indep …
Can We Fire Someone for What They Said in Personal Email?
Dear Rita in HR: We recently discovered that an employee is shopping online at work and is signed on to social media sites such as Facebook for about 3 hours per day. We don’t know if she merely views it for a moment and then leaves it open or if she i …
Outdated Job Description May be Getting Us in Trouble
Dear Rita: Help! I’m the executive director of a nonprofit with 35 employees. Recently, one of our employees said he can’t drive anymore due to vision problems. It’s his job to drive to different client sites to provide training . . . we serve a rural …
How Do You Count Employees . . . to Determine Which Laws Apply?
Dear Rita: We are a small nonprofit that provides summer day camps for youth. We have 6 full-time employees, and hire about 40 or so seasonal workers who staff our summer camps. We also hire a few administrative workers through a temporary agency to he …
Transgender Employees: A Respectful and Legal Workplace Approach
Dear Rita: I manage a small team of employees in a close-knit office. Recently one of my employees told me in private that “he” is becoming a “she.” I’m not sure how to deal with this. Do I call the employee “him” or “her”? I think when the other emplo …
Ask Rita: Do We Need Insurance for Our Volunteers?
Dear Rita: I recently read an article that said it was a good idea to have insurance for volunteers. I thought volunteers had immunity in both federal and state laws. Should I be doing something to protect my nonprofit? Signed, Curious in California …
How to Deal with an Office Bully
Dear Rita: I have a really awful co-worker — Gossip Greta — who is making me miserable. She goes out of her way to be rude to me and badmouths me behind my back. Once I made a minor mistake and she started yelling at me, calling me “stupid” and “inco …
Ask Rita in HR: Do we really have to do performance evaluations?
Dear Rita: I just started as the first HR Manager for an environmental nonprofit that has grown to 65 employees, although at least 35 of them are summer staff. I was somewhat shocked to discover that there are no performance evaluations in the files! W …
What Are My Nonprofit’s Obligations Under the Affordable Healthcare Act?
Dear Rita: I am the executive director of a nonprofit with 15 employees. We have never been able to afford to provide health insurance benefits for our staff. I’m confused about our obligations under the Affordable Healthcare Act. I heard that em …
Hiring Job Candidates with Criminal Convictions: Unlock the Possibilities
Like many employers, you may follow a default position of not hiring job seekers who have a past criminal conviction, but such a one-size-fits-all policy can not only get you in trouble with the law, it could also eliminate some excellent candida …
