Human Resources people and employment attorneys should be smart enough not to tell you a dirty joke, but we do get a chuckle out of stupid or crazy employment law cases. Yesterday at the NPELRA conference Legal Update session, the presenter referenced the National Law Journal's top 10 wackiest employment law cases.
The article is worth reading, although I think the stories are funnier in the hands of a good storyteller like yesterday's speaker. My favorite in terms of irony is #10: a maternity clothing store that refused to hire pregnant women, but I also appreciate #2: a woman fired for doing nothing who kept an elaborate journal recording just that. I can imagine someone inadvertently creating such a record (by posting all day on non-work message boards, for example), but on purpose? Here's a quote:
Resorts, wrote: "This typing thing seems to be doing the trick. It
looks like I'm hard at work on something very important." She also
wrote: "I haven't really accomplished anything in a long while . . .
and I'm still getting paid more than I ever have."
The employment attorney for the company I used to work for was known for his off color jokes. He would have a serious meeting about sexual harassment and then, as the room was clearing, start tell his joke.