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Ask Rita: Employees Who Cross Jurisdictions: Which Law Applies?
Dear Rita: Our Northern California nonprofit provides job coaches to clients in the community. Our job coaches work in different cities during the course of a week and potentially in the same day. I know some of these cities have their own minimum wage …
Ask Rita: How Do I Prevent Sexual Harassment at My Nonprofit?
To Rita in HR: We’re a relatively new nonprofit that has taken note of the #metoo movement. This has increased our awareness, but has also led us to ask ourselves, “How do we prevent sexual harassment and assault from happening at our nonprofit, and ho …
Ask Rita in HR: What About Marijuana Decriminalization?
Dear Ask Rita in HR: Since Proposition 64 was approved in the recent California election, I have been receiving a number of questions from employees who are asking how these changes in the marijuana law will affect our nonprofit’s drug policy. W …
Ask Rita in HR: How Do I Stay ADA Compliant When an Employee Has a Disability?
Dear Rita in HR: One of our employees recently disclosed a medical condition that limits his ability to perform some of his duties. His manager wanted to fire him because he can no longer perform his job, but I don’t think we can do that. I handle acco …
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Outdated Job Description May be Getting Us in Trouble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 …
If You Give a Board Treasurer A Cookie . . .
Blue Avocado columnist Vu Le inspires us again with his ideas for nonprofit-themed children’s books. We should all be writing some! Today, I want to talk about children’s books. I am so sick of these children’s books that my one-year-old …
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 …
Twelve Ways to Get a New Executive Director Off on the Right Foot
When a new executive is hired, the board usually breathes a huge sigh of relief. They have likely been working extra hard for weeks or months interviewing candidates or taking on additional tasks, such as managing a fundraising event or overseein …
Coming Out as a Christian
Kim Klein is a legendary speaker on fundraising, taxes, social justice, and community-building. She is well-known as a leftist and open about being a lesbian. Here she comes out in a different way:Recently I shocked some colleagues whom I like a lot. T …
