• On May 29, 2018, the Starbucks Coffee chain had  to shut down 8,000 facilities for the afternoon to conduct "Anti-Discrimination, or "Sensitivity" training for all employees because of a poor decision of one associate in Philadelphia. This associate treated two minorities in a discriminatory fashion, and actually called the police because they were in the facility and asked to use the rest room. This closing cost Starbucks millions of dollars for the day, not to mention the poor "Press" they received initially for the incident.

• On May 15, 2018 the 10th Circuit court decided that a jury should decide whether an employee was fired for violating a company policy or because she was pregnant, in the Fassbender v. Correct Care Solutions case. In this case a supervisor had many pregnant women working in her department, and when she found out another employee (Alena Fassbender) was pregnant, she said, "What, you're pregnant too?" and then complained "I don't know how I'm going to be able to handle all of these people being pregnant at once."  Fassbender was fired for what was said to be policy violations, however, there seemed to be enough evidence to review whether this supervisor violated The Pregnancy Discrimination Act and fired her for being pregnant.

Both of these cases illustrate why training, especially for front-line managers, has long been considered an important aspect of preventing discrimination and retaliation. Can you be sure all of your managers and supervisors would know how to react in these and other circumstances? Remember good training can help you "sleep better at night", knowing your team can handle situations properly!