Ah, predictions.
Way back at the start of 2015, I made a series of predictions regarding employment law in the then-upcoming year.
Not a lot of them occurred in exactly the same way I predicted. Sure, I talked about changes to the CHRO’s procedures, but my prediction regarding a Connecticut Supreme Court free speech case didn’t pan out.
So, for 2016, I resolve NOT to make any predictions.
That said, it feels like we’re in a period where employment law issues are being tweaked rather than rewritten. There hasn’t been a new federal law on employment law in many years, for example. And at the state legislature, you wonder how much more laws can be put in place on employment law before employers say “enough”. (See, e.g., General Electric.)
Instead, what we are seeing and will likely continue to see are new rules being promulgated at the agency level — such the decision from the NLRB last week regarding recordings in the workplace. Even the new white-collar overtime regulations may have less of an impact in Connecticut than some fear.
Thus, for 2016, I don’t think we’ll see as much as some predict.
Then again, let’s just check back in again in a year. There will be a new President and perhaps a change of political parties.
If there’s one thing I’ve learned about predictions, it’s that the future is never exactly what we think it will be.