What Is Professional Grief? Why Career Loss Looks Like Burnout (Copy)
Severance deals, union rules and contractor tests are all in motion, and only some of it is final
Most workplace rules don’t change overnight. They change when a five-seat board finally fills its empty chairs.
For months, the National Labor Relations Board has been sitting with three members. Without a quorum, it can’t issue decisions, so a long list of questions about how employers and employees deal with each other has been stuck in place.
Two nominees are now waiting on Senate confirmation. If they get through, the board can start ruling again, and the direction is expected to be strongly pro-business.
That could mean revisiting decisions that have shaped workplace policy for years, some going back further than you might expect.
Meanwhile, the Department of Labor is clearing out regulations at a pace few people have seen before, and one major rule has already changed.
Keeping up with all of it is a job in itself. Here’s where things stand.
(02:34) That Glassdoor Review Could Come With Strings
The rule right now: Under a recent NLRB decision, confidentiality and non-disparagement clauses in severance agreements could violate employee rights, even when the employee signed willingly.
For a lot of people leaving a job, that meant more freedom to talk about their experience, whether with former coworkers, in an online review or anywhere else.
What could change: A new board is expected to revisit that decision. If it does, the agreement someone signs on the way out could carry a lot more weight than they expect.
There are good arguments on both sides. Employees want to be able to share what really happened, and employers want protection from someone set on tearing down a company that did things right.
So who wins, and what’s really behind the push to change it?
Why location matters: Federal rules are only part of it. Some states play by their own rules, and depending on where you live, a national reversal might not change much for you at all.
(09:50) The Union Rulebook Is Up for Revision
Two decisions that shape how unions form and how employers respond to them are likely targets.
Cemex- It changed how unions get recognized and what happens when employers cross the line before a vote. That whole process could be reversed.
Captive audience meetings- Employers lost the ability to require workers to sit through anti-union meetings, and that ban may not last.
The combined effect- Taken together, these two changes would shift the balance between employers and organizers in a big way.
The ripple effect- Union activity changes pay and benefits for workers who never join a union, sometimes in ways nobody connects back to the union.
Unions bring up strong feelings. Some members say theirs is the only thing protecting their interests, and others feel they have no say at all.
Either way, when employees start talking about organizing, it usually says something about how they feel at work. That’s worth paying attention to whether or not these rulings change.
(18:19) Ten Rules Out for Every One In
The Department of Labor has advanced more than 60 deregulatory proposals in response to an executive order requiring 10 regulations to be cut for each new one issued.
How does an agency decide which ten go?
You’d expect a careful process, with the cuts tied to the new rule they’re balancing out. The reality is less tidy than you might hope.
Two of the proposals reach into areas most employees never think about until something goes wrong.
One concerns how certain workplace injuries get reported, and it touches people from office workers to construction crews. The other concerns who’s responsible for protecting the retirement savings sitting in your 401(k).
Both come back to money, and to who ends up paying when protections get thinner.
What happens to the people those rules were written for?
(24:28) The Contractor Test Has Already Changed
Most of what’s above is still a forecast. This one is in effect now.
The shift. The standard for deciding whether a worker is an employee or an independent contractor has moved, and the burden of proof moved with it.
The risk. With so much of the workforce doing gig and 1099 work, misclassification is easy to miss and expensive to get wrong. Plenty of people working as contractors today are likely employees in practice.
The question to ask. There’s a simple starting point for checking whether a worker is really a contractor, and it’s a good time to go back to it.
The blind spot. Managing people outside the US doesn’t make the issue go away. Workers in some countries actually prefer contractor status, and that creates its own risks. Every country has its own rules.
(28:53) Check the Forecast Before You Rewrite the Handbook
All this change can feel like whiplash, but reacting to every headline isn’t the answer. Bryan Driscoll compares it to the weather. “This is kind of like a shifting weather pattern,” he says. “Some paths might clear up, and some might get even stormier.”
Whether your company has 20 people or 2,000, the goal is the same. Prepare without being reactive.
To stay ready without overreacting:
Pick your sources. Find one or two trusted places that tell you when something actually changes, ideally ones that cover your industry or region.
Know your weak spots. Understand which changes would affect your business most and where you’re exposed.
Audit what you can control. Handbooks are a start, but one audit belongs near the top of the list right now, and it isn’t tied to any of the rulings above.
Bring in help. You don’t have to carry all of this on your own, and sometimes an outside expert is the smartest call.
So What’s Actually on Your Desk Right Now?
Very little of this is settled, and that’s exactly what makes it hard.
The contractor rule is real today. The rest depends on confirmations, decisions and a lot of political momentum.
There’s more to every one of these changes, including which audit to move up your list, why some states could stay untouched, and what a Target CVS that unionized taught one HR leader about labor relations.
You don’t need every answer today, but you do need to know which questions to ask.
Connect with Bryan Driscoll: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bryanjohndriscoll/
Connect with Traci here: https://linktr.ee/HRTraci