NM Probationary Employees Protected by Human Rights Act

In a case of first impression, the New Mexico Court of Appeals has held that State employees on probationary status may still assert a claim of sex or race discrimination under the New Mexico Human Rights Act (HRA).  See Rodriguez v. NM Workforce Solutions, 2012-NMCA-059.

Bullying Legislation, Revisited.

I have previously written about bullying legislation with considerable suspicion. To summarize, "I'm not a fan." Specifically, I expressed the view that it's impractical, over-burdensome on business, concerns a fuzzy, subjective term that cannot be uniformly applied or understood, and reflects a policy conclusion is not empirically established at all, at this point, e.g., that forceful/aggressive employees are "bad" for business and meeker/milder employees are "good", and that we need to run one group out in favor of another.

Recently, however, I've explored the matter further with colleagues, through a question posed by Marc Brenman on ADR, Conflict Resolution and Mediation Exchange--"Bullying: Amenable to legislated approaches?"  Ultimately, although I appreciate that my view and understanding of workplace "bullying" has been broadened and enhanced considerably, I come to the same conclusion regarding the efficacy and desirability of anti-bullying legislation.

Cleaning House and Cleaning Up Our Acts - Anti-Bullying Legislation

As I catch up—or at least get less far behind—on the piles of work, potentially work-generating activities, kid activities, and volunteer responsibilities  littering my plate, I turn to a long delayed blog.  Ahhhhh, it's like Spring Cleaning.

You see, I have been toting around Volume 14 of the LERA publication Perspective on Work"—yes, that's "Summer 2010/Winter 2011"—for months now, wanting to do something with it.  It had a number of interesting articles I wanted to comment on, including titillating tidbits like work place bullying, and universal, guaranteed pensions for all.  But, the longer I waited and put it off, the more things jumped ahead in line… You know how that goes. 

Now, however, I am ready to tackle it.  I am just back from facilitating at a women's retreat held by my church, where we discussed issues like the burdens we carry around unnecessarily, freedoms we fail to exercise, and ways in which our freedom is restricted by ourselves as well as by forces outside our control.  In honor of these themes, I will limit myself to just the issue of bullying, and then promptly discard what has become an albatross upon my briefcase.