1. Pitfall to avoid #1. The court found that the employer "consistently tolerated profanity among its workers and had not previously disciplined employees for widespread profanity in the workplace including the words “f---” and “mother-----,” among other expletives and racial slurs. Testimony also indicated that managers were using profanity as well. OOPS!  So when you fire an employee for engaging in the same conduct as others who were not disciplined and the employee you fired just happens to be exercising his Section 7 rights under the NLRA (union organizing in this case) it sure looks like your are violating the NLRA.
2. Pitfall #2: In the few instances when the employer had issued corrective action for using profanity it had not gone directly for discharge in any prior case.
3. One Ray of Hope: The court concludes by writing, "However, we note that this case seems to us to sit at the outer‐bounds of protected, union‐related comments, and any test for evaluating 'opprobrious conduct' must be sufficiently sensitive to employers’ legitimate disciplinary interests.  
   

1. The new overtime regulations were poised to take effect on December 1, 2016. This was the rule that more than doubled the minimum salary test for determining exempt status from the current level of $455/week to $913/week.
2. Just a few days before that effective date a federal judge issued a preliminary injunction blocking implementation of the new rule.
3. The Obama Administration then filed an appeal.
4. When the Trump Administration took over the DOL requested and was granted a 30-day extension to respond.
5. The DOL was then granted a second extension to May 1, 2017. 
6. Now the DOL has been granted yet another extension through June 30, 2017.

Why? In its motion filed in April the DOL noted, "The due date was previously extended to allow incoming leadership personnel adequate time to consider the issues. The nominee to be Secretary of Labor has not yet been confirmed. Thus, the federal government respectfully requests an additional 60-day extension. In the meantime, the pending injunction could decided upon and either rescinded or a final injunction could be issued, which would block the rule altogether.