WageLaw: Paperboys are employees.

It’s more than a trend at this point, it’s a new rule: that person you think is in an independent contractor, isn’t.  When you’re doing a business-to-business transaction, you know it.  You don’t think there’s a chance for you to pay overtime to the Verizon guy that comes and sets up your DSL, right?  And if you do, you don’t set him up with a computer, a copy of quickbooks, and a business name, do you? No.

California Labor & Employment Law Review has an excellent article on jerks in the workplace and its associated costs, and the potential laws that would be created to address it. I would be extremely surprised if any tooth-bearing version of the “Healthy Workplace” bill, which would untether harassment claims from protected statuses.

Under existing law, you can get workers’ comp is you suffer emotional distress, or pursue other remedies if it gets bad enough.  The counterargument of course, is if it’s really costing money, business will naturally eliminate it.  And the courts have said for a long time they aren’t HR deparments of appeal–that’s what they’d become if that law passed.

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