Ep. 43 – To Give or Not to Give? A Guide to Being Merry, Not Messy
Making Work Better: Employment Law & Workplace Challenges
Release Date: 12/02/2025
Ep. 44 – You vs. You: The Art of Negotiating Your New Year’s Resolutions
Making Work Better: Employment Law & Workplace Challenges
New Year’s resolutions are more than just a fun thing for us to think about every January. In fact, they’re a form of internal negotiation that has the potential to impact our lives and the lives of the people around us – and Kristen Prinz and Amit Bindra are here to help you make the most of the new year. Whether we want to make a career change, get more exercise, or achieve some other goal in 2026, this episode will give you the tools you need to determine what’s most important, why it matters to you, and how to go about achieving it. ...
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Ep. 43 – To Give or Not to Give? A Guide to Being Merry, Not Messy
Making Work Better: Employment Law & Workplace Challenges
The holiday season is fast approaching, and workplaces can help to keep spirits high by staying clear of potential issues surrounding gift-giving in the office. What may seem like a simple gesture between coworkers can also lead to a variety of legal pitfalls, from discrimination and harassment claims to tax implications. Business counselors Chad Ayers and Christina Hynes Mesco dive into those issues by sharing stories of their own holiday experiences at work. In this episode, we’ll share suggestions for success when giving gifts to colleagues. Chad and Christina will discuss: The potential...
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Ep. 42 – What It Really Takes to Have a Healthy Workplace Culture, with Michelle Aronson
Making Work Better: Employment Law & Workplace Challenges
Many business leaders think that a healthy workplace culture is important, but they don’t always know what it takes to have one. Some companies may simply restate their values at every annual meeting and call it a day. Others may not know what their culture looks like at all. Improving the health of your workplace isn’t a one-and-done thing—for as long as your company remains open, learning what is and isn’t working must be an ongoing process. Business counselor Kristen Prinz is joined by Michelle Aronson, founder of Culture + Strategy Lab and host of the True Stories at...
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Ep. 41 - Managing Misconduct the Right Way
Making Work Better: Employment Law & Workplace Challenges
It’s an unfortunate statistic, but most people have seen or experienced some form of misconduct at work at least once in their careers. As employment attorneys and workplace investigators, Christina Hynes Mesco and Laura Feldman have seen the full gamut of these types of matters and know that even the most cautionary tales can teach us valuable lessons about how to approach these difficult, and often highly emotional, cases. Using a recent and very public corporate scandal, Christina and Laura explore how a prominent corporation properly responded to misconduct claims and use...
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Ep. 40 – Navigating Recent Workplace Trends, with Beth Ridley
Making Work Better: Employment Law & Workplace Challenges
It’s no secret that the American workplace is constantly changing. The last few years alone have witnessed major trends, from “job hugging” and a focus on mental health at work to Gen Z entering the labor force amidst a backlash against DEI initiatives. Such shifts have left business leaders struggling to navigate their new reality in a way that promotes business, inspires employees, and makes us all feel better about our jobs. Business attorney Katie Rinkus welcomes Beth Ridley, a workplace culture consultant and the CEO of Ridley Consulting Group, to dissect these various...
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Ep. 39 – Finding Your Values—and Why They Matter at Work, with Suzy Welch
Making Work Better: Employment Law & Workplace Challenges
In this thought-provoking episode, employment and business attorney Kristen Prinz speaks with NYU Stern School of Business professor, bestselling author, and podcast host Suzy Welch to discuss her book Becoming You: The Proven Method for Crafting Your Authentic Life and Career. An outgrowth of years of research into human values, Becoming You clarifies what values really are—and what they’re not—and helps readers better understand themselves and what makes them more authentically happy by finding their “area of transcendence.” Our values influence countless aspects of our...
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Ep. 38 – High Rank, High Risk: Harassment in Executive Spaces
Making Work Better: Employment Law & Workplace Challenges
In this eye-opening episode, employment attorneys Kristen Prinz and Christina Hynes Mesco explore the complex dynamics of harassment among senior executives—particularly how it impacts women in top leadership roles. Executives often have fewer avenues for reporting sexual harassment than other employees, and women continue to face disproportionate scrutiny and higher standards of behavior in the workplace. At the same time, executives are not immune from being accused of harassment themselves. Kristen and Christina rely on their own expertise in counseling clients and litigating...
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Ep. 37 – Social Media & Workplace Harassment: The Lively-Baldoni Dispute
Making Work Better: Employment Law & Workplace Challenges
Social media can be a great way to stay connected to current events, but we’ve seen it used more and more frequently as a tool for harassment and retaliation, including in the workplace. The ongoing lawsuit between Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni is just one recent example, which features claims of a social media smear campaign—and the court of public opinion is taking sides. Employment attorneys Kristen Prinz and Laura Feldman provide an overview of the dispute and unpack the power dynamics between a big director and an even bigger star. Using this legal saga as a test case,...
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Ep. 36 – Employment Law Changes Under Trump: The First 100 Days
Making Work Better: Employment Law & Workplace Challenges
The first 100 days of the new Trump administration have been nothing but unprecedented. From terminating federal agency heads to signing controversial executive orders to the targeting of DEI efforts, both businesses and individual workers are dealing with a lot of change—and likely navigating a lot of confusion. Prinz’s marketing manager Matt Tedeschi welcomes senior associate attorney Mary Charlton to the mic to analyze some of the most significant changes from an employment law perspective and what they mean for workers nationwide. Matt and Mary offer critical insight into the...
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Ep. 35 – Mental Health & Non-Competes in Illinois
Making Work Better: Employment Law & Workplace Challenges
Earlier this year, an amendment to the Illinois Freedom to Work Act invalidated non-compete clauses that would make it more difficult for a veteran or first responder to obtain mental health services. Without timely access to proper mental health care, these groups are at a higher risk of developing conditions like PTSD from their line of work. Partner Amit Bindra unpacks the new amendment with Operations Manager Angelia Salgado, a licensed professional counsel (PLC) who holds a master's in clinical mental health counseling. They discuss the law from the perspectives of both the legal field...
info_outlineThe holiday season is fast approaching, and workplaces can help to keep spirits high by staying clear of potential issues surrounding gift-giving in the office. What may seem like a simple gesture between coworkers can also lead to a variety of legal pitfalls, from discrimination and harassment claims to tax implications. Business counselors Chad Ayers and Christina Hynes Mesco dive into those issues by sharing stories of their own holiday experiences at work. In this episode, we’ll share suggestions for success when giving gifts to colleagues.
Chad and Christina will discuss:
- The potential implications of a manager giving gifts to subordinates
- Whether the typical “Christmas bonus” or high-value gifts should be considered as wages
- How the public and private sectors differ in their approaches to accepting gifts
- What kinds of gifts may have tax implications
- How workplaces generally treat holiday celebrations outside of gift-giving
- Inclusive alternatives to a gift exchange
To make the most of this time of year, streamline your organization’s gift-giving and holiday celebrations. Tune in to hear our recommendations for how employers can show they care while also avoiding liability.
Stay Connected and Learn More
Read Chad’s blog post on gift-giving
Listen to a related episode: Ep. 13 – “How Can You Throw a Safe and Appropriate Holiday Party?”