HR Stories Podcast - A Lesson in Every Story!
Welcome to the HR Stories Podcast - where there is a lesson in every story. Our Storytellers - John Thalheimer and Chuck Simikian, the Team behind HR Stories, share real-life tales about where a business made a preventable mistake. At The HR Stories Podcast, the STORIES are the teaching tool! LISTEN to the stories of those who did not heed the warning signs. LEARN from their mistakes. ACT on best practices shared by our hosts and guests. Each year, our hosts, Chuck Simikian and John Thalheimer, deliver thousands of live seminars around the country to business owners, executives, and HR professionals discussing the fundamentals of Human Resources, Leadership best practices, and legal risk reduction activities for organizations. Each HR Story episode shares a story of where a company missed the mark, what went wrong, and how you can avoid their fate. As the Team at HR Stories, John and Chuck continue to develop and provide resources to help HR leaders, business owners, and organizations with the confidence they need to successfully handle employee issues and build strong employee practices to comply with employment laws. Both successful entrepreneurs help businesses through HR consulting, training, and coaching leaders. They have coached and trained thousands of HR Professionals, Business Owners, and Leaders to prepare them for the future. John is the Founding Director of True Star Leadership™, which focuses on helping managers and leaders learn performance management principles. Chuck is the Founding Partner of Alliance HR Partners, which provides HR consulting and training to businesses nationwide. Together, they have over 40 years of experience navigating the challenges of HR and recently published their book, The Ultimate Guide to HR: Checklist Edition. Go to https://ultimateguidetohr.com/ for more information, download a free sample, and watch their webinar on the Secret Power Behind Successful Businesses.
Episodes
As we all prepare to wrap up our 2025 and head into 2026, we take a moment to reflect on some of the most important issues that have faced Human Resources professionals this year. It has been quite the year for everyone as we adjust to a new administration putting unprecedented policy changes in place. As you plan for the start of your next year, take time to listen to the key pieces of information The Team has prepar...
This week on Hot Topics, the team touches on the following topics and more:
- Rolling layoffs are becoming more of a trend. Reducing the workforce 50 or fewer employees at a time could be a way for companies to save face and avoid reporting requirements. What are the implications of this on the remaining workforce? Studies show increases in anxiety are just the tip of the iceberg.
- Proximity bias - Does it show up in y...
After an employee asks for an accommodation of working from home due to mold concerns, things get complicated. But in this instance, you'll see how important it was that the employer recorded all of their efforts taken along the way when they say that working from home is not a reasonable accommodation.
Follow along with the team as they review the important steps to take when it comes to ADA accommodations - mak...
Welcome to another Listener Q&A with The Team at HR Stories! Today's episode goes into these questions:
1. We’ve had a couple of sexual harassment complaints that don’t seem serious. Do we HAVE to investigate all of them?
2. A male says that he has a religious belief that he cannot work alone with a woman. Is this an accommodation that we must abide by?
3. What do you do if ICE shows up at yo...
When two sisters who own a Dairy Queen are on the receiving end of a pay violation lawsuit, they are stunned. They’ve worked hard to create a “second chances” work environment and always paid their employees on time - even giving employees advances when they need it. They quickly learned that the lawsuit wasn’t for neglecting to pay their employees, but rather the frequency at which they paid them.
Today’s story emphas...
Welcome to another Listener Q&A with The Team at HR Stories! Today's episode goes into these questions:
- Can you create a policy about tattoos and piercings?
- Can we leave details out of the handbook that we want to handle case-by-case?
- Can a anxiety from a workplace incident be considered a disability and require reasonable accommodation?
Our new book...The Ultimate Guide to HR: Checklist...
In this week’s Hot Topics, Chuck and John talk about the following topics and more:
- Companies implementing AI training across their teams
- Planned salary increases for 2026 are holding steady to this year. How do we provide value for employees to retain them?
- Four-day work weeks seeing a bump in employee productivity and satisfaction. Lumen SEO is taking it to the next level by only requiring emp...
When an employee’s request for Sundays off was approved — then revoked — it led to an EEOC case and a costly lesson in religious accommodation law. Chuck and John unpack how one scheduling change turned into a Title VII violation, what the Groff v. DeJoy decision means for employers, and how HR can avoid retaliation, document undue hardship, and protect the company from legal risk.
Our new book...The U...
Workday going all in on AI, spending astronomical amounts of money investing in AI softwares and agents. With AI not going anywhere, what risks and litigation do we open ourselves to when AI starts making business decisions.
Starbucks is cutting more corporate positions and closing doors on some locations. Many companies have been able to stave off layoffs by relying on retirements and not filling open roles but in thi...
Welcome to another Listener Q&A with The Team at HR Stories! Today's episode goes into these questions:
- What should you think about when creating a lactation space?
- How do you handle an employee talking poorly about another employee?
- What is a good transition career out of HR?
- Can we pre-approve timesheets for someone going out on leave?
Our new book...The Ultimate Guide to HR: Checklists...
Welcome to another Listener Q&A with The Team at HR Stories! Today's episode goes into these questions:
- Do you have to follow the laws of where the employee is or where the company is?
- Is it discrimination to not invite all employees to the 401k info session?
- How can you protect against discrimination in hiring when it can be so subjective how people fit into a culture?
- If someone chooses to work more than th...
When someone goes from star employee to being told that he will never be a manager because they used their FMLA, a legally protected leave, there’s more to the story that what the management hopes to hear. FMLA is not a employment benefit. It’s a right. And in the case of today’s story, our main character’s management discriminating against him for using it can land an employer in a legal mess.
Our new...
Welcome to a new format from the team where they explore hot topics in the news! In today's episode Chuck and John discuss the following topics:
- The unusual perks that can keep employee retention up at little cost to the company.
- Cracker Barrel's latest controversy involving racial discrimination in the workplace.
- The extremes of job hugging and quiet quitting amongst the workforce during t...
Welcome to another Listener Q&A with The Team at HR Stories! Today's episode goes into these questions:
- HR is constantly changing because of cultural shifts or technology. What else is influencing the HR role within the organization?
- Do you have to follow other state regulations when you have employees working in other states from your business location?
- Do State or Federal laws dictate how long it takes to ...
We've seen it in the news and around social media - someone did something controversial and they went viral for it. Next thing we hear, they've either tastefully resigned from their job or the company has issued a statement saying they do not stand by the actions and the person has been removed from the company.
If you have an employee that goes viral for all of the wrong reasons, what response is within you...
Join Chuck and John as they go back to an episode that originally aired in May of 2021 to review the Ellerth v Burlington case.
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Kimberly Ellerth was 23, fresh out of college and recently married, when she landed a prized marketing job with Burlington Industries in its Chicago office. But eventually her dream job became unbearable, she said, after a boss began making sexual advances toward her.
As we contin...
Join Chuck and John this week as they go back to an episode from May 27, 2021 about the case that redefined what sexual harassment can look like in the workplace.
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In this episode, our hosts John and Chuck tell the behind the scenes story of Mechelle Vinson....a 19 year old Bank Teller and how she was coerced into having a sexual relationship with her boss in order to save her job.
In May of 1975, Mr. Sidne...
John talks to Chuck to glean what he learned at the recent National SHRM Conference. While there was the expected hot topic of AI in human resources, there were some interesting and unexpected topics covered - particularly in the mental health space. Join the team as they recap the topics that are viewed as "Can't Miss" from SHRM.
Our new book...The Ultimate Guide to HR: Checklists Edit...
In today's summer school episode, Chuck and John revisit the cases that help us understand the importance of the PUMP act.
In this week's episode, we delve into the critical yet often overlooked aspects of the PUMP Act, through the lens of two compelling stories from nursing mothers at McDonald's. Discover what happens when workplace policies fail to support nursing employees, and the crucial lesso...
Join Chuck and John as they take a trip back to June of 2023 to revisit the case of Geduldig v. Aiello - the ORIGINAL pregnancy Supreme Court case.
Sylvia Aiello, was a pregnant woman who sought disability benefits under the California State Disability Insurance program. However, the program excluded coverage for pregnancy-related disabilities. Aiello argued that this exclusion violated the Equal Protection Clause of ...
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