Emojis. They are the colorful cartoon images that are built into nearly every mobile device. They are hugely popular. At this very moment, thousands of communications containing these images are bouncing off satellites. In fact, they are so prevalent that an emoji has taken the title of Oxford Dictionaries’ “Word of the Year.” Yes, you read that correctly. An emoji – not a word – was handed this year’s title. Why should this craze be of interest to employers? Well, we will set the stage for a more in depth discussion by offering a couple scenarios: Todd’s family and medical leave entitlement is due to expire tomorrow. The company’s human resources manager decides to send Todd’s supervisor a text message in order to discuss next steps. Here is the exchange: The company terminates Todd’s employment two days later. Todd then files a lawsuit alleging violations of the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). A key piece of evidence in this lawsuit is the supervisor’s response. Let’s take a closer look at the response in order to find out why. According to Todd, the emoji combination was intended to mean “game over.” Todd argues that this crude response proves that his supervisor harbors an unlawful animus towards those who take family and medical leave and those who are disabled. After all, instead of just responding “we should terminate Todd,” the supervisor went out of his way to creatively combine some images to make the… [Read full story]
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