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04/16/2024

What Would Taylor Swift Songs Be About If She Worked in Human Resources?

Source: Fisher Phillips, April 12, 2024

When Taylor Swift revealed the track list for “The Tortured Poets Department” – a new album she’ll release on April 19 – fans immediately began theorizing about what might have inspired each song. While your #FPSwifties live for Taylor’s songwriting, we will imagine a world in which Taylor is just like us, working a regular office job. If she worked in a company’s human resources department, what stories would she write and sing about? We’ll use five of her upcoming album’s song titles to address some of the day-to-day issues that affect employers and their HR departments.

 “Fortnight” (Track 1): Legal Considerations When Employees Give Two Weeks’ Notice

When employees resign, they often notify their employers at least two weeks (a fortnight if you’re poetic) before their last day – though no federal or state law requires it. When this happens, you suddenly have a laundry list of tasks to handle. You’ll want to ensure a smooth exit from personal and professional standpoints, and you may need to start looking to hire a replacement. And there are legal considerations, too. Here are some examples:   

• Final Paycheck. Most states require employers to issue an employee’s final paycheck within a certain timeframe – which might be different from the usual payroll schedule. Some states’ final paycheck laws provide different timing requirements depending on whether the employee quit or was fired. And compliance can get even more complicated if you have employees who receive commissioned-based pay. Failure to timely pay an employee’s final wages can subject the employer to penalties, interest, and other costs.
• Continuation of Health Coverage. As most employers know, the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1985 (COBRA) is a federal law that requires employers of a certain size to offer temporary continuation of group health coverage in certain situations. Termination of employment is one qualifying event – even when the termination is voluntary. When an employee quits or resigns, COBRA coverage may continue for 18 months after the date of the loss of coverage.
• Honoring the Notice Period. You may be tempted to ask an employee to leave immediately once they give a resignation notice. While no laws prohibit you from doing so (assuming that the employee is at-will and does not have a contract stating otherwise), you should weigh any benefits of letting them go with any risks of converting their departure into an involuntarily termination. For example, if you force the employee out, they may become eligible for unemployment insurance benefits that they likely would not have qualified for if they had quit or resigned.
• Trade Secrets. Even the most amicable employee exits may necessitate you taking steps to protect the company’s confidential and proprietary information if the individual had access to it. We previously covered how to mitigate the risk of trade secret misappropriation in the face of layoffs (but these tips can apply to voluntary terminations, too) and how to protect your trade secrets without an agreement.

“So Long, London” (Track 5): Unique Challenges of Remote Workforces

Taylor’s “track 5” songs are notoriously vulnerable – and what issue has totally shaken up HR operations in recent years? The rise of remote work. Tracking where work is being performed and ensuring multi-jurisdiction compliance raises unique questions on legal issues and strategic objectives. For example:

• When your company needs to reduce its workforce, can you lay off remote workers first? We previously covered four key factors you should consider when facing RIFs.
• How should you handle international remote work requests? We previously covered “digital nomad visas” and how employers should evaluate these requests.
• Do pay transparency laws at state and local levels apply to applicants and employees working remotely from other jurisdictions? It’s complicated. Last year, New York attempted to address remote work questions related to its pay transparency law.
• Should you monitor remote workers – and how far should you take it if you do? We previously covered the pros and cons of using employee tracking tools.

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