Most-clicked story of the week
The Americans with Disabilities Act can prompt many questions about leave, including whether an employee can choose not to use their paid time off to cover their leave allotment. One attorney told HR Dive that employers should ask three questions before deciding whether to allow an employee to preserve their PTO for an ADA-approved leave, including whether a precedent has already been set.
Number of the week: 12
The number of weeks allotted by Pennsylvania’s Allegheny County in its recently passed paid parental leave policy, the first approved countywide initiative in the U.S. The policy, which will encompass the city of Pittsburgh and its suburbs, requires employers with 15 or more workers to provide the leave, and it applies to birthing parents and their partners as well as adoptions and those who experience a stillbirth.
More to add
Here are a few stories HR Dive has kept an eye on this week.
The pace of AI integration may be causing problems
As companies continue to adopt artificial intelligence tools into their daily operations, the rapid pace of change may be creating managerial bottlenecks, change fatigue and “workslop,” per a report released Tuesday by The Conference Board.
While two-thirds of the 775 leaders surveyed said they’ve highly integrated AI into their daily work, more than a third said ownership of AI-related leadership decisions remains inconsistent or unclear.
“AI is changing how work gets done faster than organizations are changing how they’re structured,” Erka Amursi, principal researcher of human capital at The Conference Board, said in a statement. “Rather than simply eliminating management layers, companies should rethink how decisions are made, responsibilities are shared, and performance is measured to ensure their organizational structures support new ways of working.”
Men are struggling with their mental health at work
Nearly 8 in 10 of the men surveyed by LiveCareer said they’ve hidden mental struggles or burnout at work, per a Tuesday report. Of the 700 employed U.S. men surveyed, 84% said they felt pressured to “tough it out” at work, and more than half said their manager hadn’t checked in with them regarding their mental health in the past year.
EEOC sues over broken conciliatory agreement again
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission sued CityCare Health Services on Thursday, stating the company failed to uphold the terms of a conciliation agreement made in June.
The original agreement stipulated CityCare must pay the discrimination victim about $40,000, implement policy changes, provide interactive training on federal anti-discrimination laws and post a notice about the agreement.
“CityCare promptly breached the agreement and has failed to provide any of the required relief,” EEOC said in a statement.
EEOC also sued Jaco Enterprises, a transportation company, on Oct. 7 over alleged failure by the company to pay any promised monetary relief.
“Employers need to pay when they have agreed to settle the serious matter of a sexual harassment charge,” Kenneth Bird, regional attorney for EEOC’s Indianapolis District Office, said in a statement when the lawsuit against Jaco was filed. “Companies that fail to honor conciliation agreements should expect the EEOC to file suit to enforce the terms of such agreements.”
Quote of the week
“Gen Z is not more disengaged than the rest of us. I think they’re just worse at hiding it.”
Dan Rust
Vice president of global leadership development, Infopro Learning Inc.
Is Generation Z more troublesome than past generations — or are they simply reflecting the culture that leaders have created? Gen Z may, in fact, represent an ongoing shift in workers’ relationship to work, Rust posits in an interview with HR Dive. Younger workers as a whole are generally suspicious of the current state of the workplace culture, but that is an opportunity for employers to consider the changes that may need to be made to keep workers of all ages engaged.