Roundup: Meal and rest breaks; Handling employee dementia; Sick leave; Key compliance issues; NY freelancer protections

You issue policies and reminders about policies. You encourage people to stop for breaks. You also have a job and work to accomplish. Nobody wants to be the rest break police. But meal and rest break violations can turn into huge liabilities.

Robin Shea offers excellent advice about how to handle an employee who develops performance issues from dementia that can be accommodated—until they can't.

This is worth your time to read and consider then bookmark for later because it's likely you will need it sooner than anyone wants or expects.

Travel, gatherings, and kids returning to school mean it's party time for viruses and other bugs. Gray skies, cold, wet, and gloom make it all harder. Seasonal Affective Disorder is real.

That means making sure you are on top of all the new sick leave laws and other legal issues when employees need leave.

If you're compliant with California employment laws, you are probably in compliance pretty much anywhere else in the US. And if you want to know what employment law issues other states will be considering this year, look at what laws California recently passed.

Here's a quick explanation about what all the fuss is about with independent contractors versus employees. And then there's an excellent analysis of New York's new law to protect freelancers and how to comply. If you have independent contractors who are in New York state, the new law applies to your relationship with those workers.