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shoesMicrosoft Corp. and LinkedIn recently announced that Microsoft will soon acquire LinkedIn in a transaction valued at $26.2 billion – click here for the company’s announcement.

Under the deal, Microsoft will purchase LinkedIn’s shares at $196 each. If a share sale like this happened in Ontario, the identity of LinkedIn would not change – Microsoft would simply step in to the shoes of LinkedIn. Microsoft would inherit all employees and employment-related liabilities and obligations of LinkedIn after the deal closed.Continue Reading Microsoft Acquiring LinkedIn: What is the Employee Impact in a Share Transaction?

lampshadeWe all have an office party horror story.  The partner who got too sloppy and friendly with the summer student, the awkward aversion of eye contact the next day, or the overly honest comments from the disgruntled employee.

While holiday parties can be an important employee morale booster, for the employer they can present a minefield of potential liability and complaints. For start-ups and entrepreneurs, the informal culture can particularly be an invitation to indulge and live it up in the name of hipster, relaxed office counter-culture.

Employer host liability, however, applies to all workplaces.  Even if it’s a Saturday night and you’re at a fancy bar, the employee’s right to harassment free work environment extends to off-site employer sponsored events. If your company’s New Year’s resolutions have something to do with avoiding human rights complaints, harassment allegations or claims for social host negligence here are our top tips to get you started on the right path.
Continue Reading Holiday Party Tips for the Young Boss

In my recent blog posts, I discussed the emerging importance of coworking spaces in the post-industrial workforce and some of the risks around data security and privacy, as well as interpersonal employment law risks.  In this next part of the series, I set out strategies to consider when managing employees in the coworking space.

Nobody likes to be a joy-killer with draconian policies and 20 page employment contracts.  But having nothing in place is asking for unnecessary headaches.  Here are a few lean strategies that you can consider, and to ramp up and expand as you grow:Continue Reading Coworking Part 4: Managing Employees

In my last blog posts (here and here), I discussed the emerging importance of coworking spaces in the post-industrial workforce and some of the risks around data security and privacy.  In this part three of the series, I set out some of the employment law issues related to human interactions in coworking spaces:  booze, sexual harassment and discrimination.Continue Reading Coworking Part 3: Interpersonal Employment Law Risks

In my last blog post, I discussed the emerging importance of coworking spaces in the post-industrial workforce.  In this part two of the series, at the risk of bursting this utopian post-industrial bubble, I set out some of the more pressing employment law issues with coworking spaces:  confidential information, data security, privacy and ownership of content.Continue Reading Coworking Part 2: Data & Privacy Risks

For the last many centuries, workers have gathered together in the same workplace because they were paid and employed by the same employer, and because that’s where the work was.  It didn’t really matter if you had anything personally in common with your co-workers, and you certainly didn’t have to be inspired or motivated by them.  But you did have to show up at the bricks and mortar workspace to do the work and get your paycheque.@85KingEast insTED Talk on Jan 28 2014 with founder Roger Brennikmeyer and speaker Nick van Weerdenburg from Ranglio.io

Technology and the explosion of the entrepreneurial economy have changed all that.  Work for many is where our computer can hook up to a signal and get access to documents in the cloud.  That means work can be anywhere for many pockets of our post-industrial workforce.

This is the first part of a 4 part series looking at the coworking world:  (1) what it is; (2) what are the data & privacy risks; (3) what are the human risks; and (4) how to manage your employees who may be working out of a coworking space.Continue Reading Coworking Part 1: Turning the Workplace Upside Down