In this column, I have been predicting for some time that when all three Republican seats of the five-member National Labor Relations Board were filled by President Trump's appointees, the NLRB would begin reversing/overruling some of the Obama Board's more egregious decisions that demonstrated an outright hostility toward employers.

Chairman Philip A. Miscimarra's term expired on Dec. 17, 2017. On Dec. 14 and 15, Chairman Miscimarra went out "with a bang!"

To inspire employees and command respect, always speak and act in the organization's best interests. Here are some tips to help you lead by example.

This month's column reports on two National Labor Relations Board administrative law judge decisions involving the issue of whether someone is an employee or an independent contractor. In both cases, former NLRB General Counsel Richard Griffin had urged the ALJ to rule that merely classifying someone as an independent contractor is an independent violation of the National Labor Relations Act. This is legal adventurism in an attempt to make new law.

In one of the cases, the ALJ found independent contractor status and chose not to reach that novel issue. In the second case, the ALJ found employee status and agreed with the NLRB general counsel, finding that the misclassification of the individuals as independent contractors was a per se independent violation of the NLRA. With a new management majority sitting on the NLRB in Washington, let us hope that this legal adventurism will be reversed.

I also report on a new NLRB case involving an employer's texting and confidentiality rules, as well as a new court case addressing the ability to discover social media passwords in litigation.
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This may be my final blog post, for reasons I explain in its opening paragraphs.

So I'm using this last opportunity to sum up the huge challenge that faces newspaper companies – and the things I believe could possibly turn the tide from ongoing decline to growth.

It's a very tall order – but with the right leadership and commitment of resources, perhaps it could be done.

One drawback to great teamwork is that, because of the effort and time it takes to work well together, team members may become isolated from the rest of the organization. To keep that from happening to your team, here are some questions team members should be answering periodically.

On Nov. 8, by a vote of 49 to 46, the U.S. Senate confirmed President Trump's nomination of Peter Robb to be the next NLRB general counsel. Robb, a management labor lawyer from Vermont, replaces Richard Griffin, whose term expired on Nov. 4.

In this column, also read an update about the U.S. Department of Labor overtime rule, news about an EEOC case, plus a case regarding the ADA.

Newspaper companies can't take a passive approach in how they approach the hiring of salespeople. They must implement a proactive hearts-and-minds marketing campaign in order to build what Charity Huff, managing partner of Maroon Ventures, calls the A-Team.

During the SNPA-Inland Annual Meeting, Huff shared proven, successful strategies to build a productive sales environment, maintain a healthy pipeline of qualified sales professionals, and reach new customers with compelling marketing tactics.

Learning to be a good coach for your employees doesn't mean mastering complicated techniques or memorizing dozens of rules as much as simply developing the right attitudes in yourself. To be an effective coach, you need to follow some basic guidelines to help you cultivate the habits and perspective that bring out the best in your staff.

Responses to the Fall 2017 Publisher Confidence Survey conducted by Cribb, Greene & Cope indicate publishers continue to be encouraged about the short-term future, and are somewhat more confident than they were a year ago.

On the evening of Monday, Sept. 25, the U.S. Senate voted 49 to 47 to confirm William Emanuel to the National Labor Relations Board.