The 52 terms that keep showing up.
Not a dictionary. These are the ideas that turn up in the calls, in the order they tend to matter, each in plain English with what it looks like in a real shop and the rule it came from.
Study one a day
A term a day and a quiz that remembers what you missed. Nothing leaves your browser.
Legal Hygiene
Phase 1 · 20 terms
Stay legal without becoming a lawyer: the Texas and federal rules that still apply when the owner is the HR department.
Stay legal without becoming a lawyer- 01 At-will employment Texas generally permits either the employer or the employee to end employment at any time for a lawful reason unless an agreement...
- 02 Texas Commission on Human Rights Act Chapter 21 prohibits covered employers from specified discrimination and retaliation, with Texas sexual harassment provisions that...
- 03 Texas Payday Law The Texas rule on when wages are due, what may be deducted, and how an unpaid worker files a claim with the state workforce agency...
- 04 Fair Labor Standards Act The federal statute that sets minimum pay, overtime after forty hours, recordkeeping duties, and the limits on what work a young p...
- 05 Worker classification The legal test that decides whether a person is an employee or an independent contractor for wage, tax, and benefit purposes.
- 06 Form I-9 The federal paperwork that records a new hire's identity and authorization to work, filled out by the employer for anyone hired af...
- 07 Texas new hire reporting Texas employers must report newly hired and rehired employees to the state new hire program within twenty calendar days of the hir...
- 08 Texas Workers' Compensation Most private Texas employers may choose whether to subscribe to workers' compensation coverage, while subscribers and nonsubscribe...
- 09 Employee handbook A written set of workplace rules, complaint paths, and expectations that tells employees how this employer actually operates.
- 10 Required employment posters Federal and Texas notices that covered employers must post where employees can actually read them, covering wages, discrimination,...
- 11 Family and Medical Leave Act Unpaid, job protected time off that eligible staff at covered employers may take for a birth, a serious health condition, or a mil...
- 12 Texas educator certification requirement Texas public schools generally must employ specified professional educators only when they hold the certificate or permit required...
- 13 Texas Minimum Wage Act Texas sets a state minimum wage tied to the federal rate and limits local governments from requiring a higher private employer min...
- 14 Texas Unemployment Insurance Texas unemployment law requires covered employers to register, report wages, pay unemployment tax, and respond to benefit claims a...
- 15 Workers' compensation retaliation Texas law prohibits discharge or other discrimination because a worker pursued or participated in a workers' compensation claim or...
- 16 Texas child labor law The state rules that restrict which occupations, duties, and hours are open to a minor, sitting on top of the federal floor.
- 17 Right-to-work The Texas rule that no one may be required to join a union, or to pay union dues, as a condition of getting or keeping a job.
- 18 Exempt / non-exempt The line that decides whether a salaried worker must still be paid extra past forty hours in a week, or may be paid one flat amoun...
- 19 Texas Workforce Commission The state agency that runs unemployment benefits, hears wage claims, and publishes the employer guidance a small business is expec...
- 20 Paid time off Vacation, sick and personal leave that Texas never requires a private employer to give, so whatever the handbook promises becomes...
Hire, Land, Keep
Phase 2 · 12 terms
A repeatable path from a vague vacancy to a person who is still good at day 90, with the live record checked before day one.
Hire well and keep people past the 90 day cliff- 01 Role scorecard A one page description of the outcomes, skills, and evidence that define a successful hire for a specific job.
- 02 Structured interview An interview in which every candidate for a role is asked the same job related questions and scored against the same evidence.
- 03 Offer letter The written summary of the job, pay, status, start date, and at will or contract terms given to a candidate before work begins.
- 04 Onboarding The planned first days and weeks that turn an accepted offer into a person who can actually do the job, with forms, access, and ex...
- 05 90-day landing A written first ninety days of expectations, check-ins, and evidence that decides whether a new hire is actually succeeding in the...
- 06 Compensation structure A simple, consistent way to set and explain pay for a role so offers, raises, and comparisons are not invented person by person.
- 07 Retention check-in A short, scheduled conversation that asks how the work is going before a good person starts job hunting.
- 08 Exit data The honest facts collected when someone leaves, used to fix hiring, onboarding, pay, or management rather than to close a file.
- 09 Texas covenants not to compete A Texas noncompete must be tied to an otherwise enforceable agreement and reasonably limited in time, geography, and restricted ac...
- 10 Federal employment discrimination laws Title VII, the ADA, the ADEA, and the Equal Pay Act create federal protections against specified discrimination, retaliation, disa...
- 11 Form W-4 The federal withholding election a new hire signs so the employer takes the right amount of income tax out of every check.
- 12 Personnel file The employer's record of one worker's hiring papers, reviews, discipline and pay changes, kept with medical and immigration docume...
Hard Conversations
Phase 3 · 20 terms
A fair process for performance, complaints, accommodations, and exits so the owner is not both the boss and the only adult in the room.
Handle hard people moments without making them worse- 01 Written expectations A clear, dated statement of what good work looks like in a role, given to the employee before anyone calls the work a performance...
- 02 Performance documentation Dated, factual notes of what was expected, what happened, what was said, and what comes next, kept in the personnel file.
- 03 Coaching conversation A direct, private talk that names the gap, hears the employee, and sets a short next step, held before the problem becomes a crisi...
- 04 Workplace complaint process A simple, written path for an employee to raise harassment, discrimination, safety, wage, or other concerns to someone other than...
- 05 Harassment investigation A prompt, impartial inquiry into a workplace complaint that gathers facts, documents steps, and leads to a reasoned decision.
- 06 Reasonable accommodation A change to the job, schedule, equipment, or workplace that lets a qualified person with a disability do what the role actually re...
- 07 Clean exit A planned ending of employment that covers the reason, the record, final pay, access, property, and what coworkers will be told.
- 08 Final paycheck The wages still owed at separation, due on the timetable Texas Payday Law sets for that kind of ending.
- 09 Unemployment response The timely, factual answer an employer sends the Texas Workforce Commission about wages and the reason for a separation.
- 10 Retaliation Unlawful punishment of a person for opposing discrimination, joining a complaint, using workers' compensation, or taking another p...
- 11 Educator misconduct reporting Texas law requires school leaders to report specified educator misconduct or separation information to the appropriate state certi...
- 12 Sabine Pilot public policy exception Texas recognizes a narrow wrongful discharge claim when an employee is fired solely for refusing to perform an act carrying crimin...
- 13 Hostile work environment Conduct tied to a protected trait that is severe or repeated enough that a reasonable person would call the job abusive.
- 14 Protected activity Reporting discrimination, unsafe conditions or unpaid wages, or taking part in someone else's claim, which the law shields from pu...
- 15 Adverse action A firing, demotion, pay cut, shift change or write up that would discourage a reasonable employee from speaking up in the first pl...
- 16 Whistleblower A worker who reports illegal or unsafe practices to a government body, and who several separate statutes then shield from being fi...
- 17 Progressive discipline A written ladder of warnings that escalates with each repeat, so a later firing rests on a documented pattern rather than one bad...
- 18 Performance improvement plan / PIP A dated written notice that names the gap, the standard to be met, the help on offer, and what happens if the deadline passes unme...
- 19 Termination for cause Ending a job over a specific documented failure such as theft or a broken policy, which is what the state weighs when the ex emplo...
- 20 Constructive discharge A resignation the law treats as a firing, because conditions were made so intolerable that a reasonable person in the job would ha...
Next step
52 terms is a lot to hold on your own.
Jennifer holds them for a living. Ask her and you get the list of what actually applies to your shop, ranked by what it would cost to keep ignoring.