PHRca common mistakes
PHRca · Understand the traps and how to avoid them.
Treats FMLA and CFRA as the same statute: applies the 50-employee/75-mile test and the federal family-member list to a California leave scenario.
Most candidates study federal leave law first and read California questions through that frame; the state law reuses the same acronyms and week counts, so the coverage thresholds and the definition of 'family member' (including parent-in-law, adult child, grandparent, grandchild, sibling, domestic partner) get glossed over.
What to do instead
Build a one-page side-by-side chart (employer size, eligible family members, reasons for leave, interaction with PDL, PFL, and paid sick leave) and, on every leave question, first identify which statute is being triggered before selecting an answer.
Treats the reasonable-accommodation analysis as a single decision made at the time of the request, and selects an answer that closes the file once an accommodation is granted or denied.
Candidates look for a discrete 'yes/no' answer and forget that FEHA imposes an ongoing, affirmative duty to engage in a timely, good-faith interactive process that continues as the employee's condition or job duties change.
What to do instead
Memorize the sequence as a loop - recognize the request (even without the word 'accommodation'), meet and confer, consider the employee's preferred option, document, implement, and re-engage when circumstances change - and reject any answer that treats the process as complete after one meeting.
Selects the answer that says the employer may terminate for any reason because employment is at will, without checking the listed exceptions.
At-will employment is taught early and repeated often, so it becomes a default answer; the exceptions that create liability (implied contract from handbook language or long tenure, the covenant of good faith and fair dealing, whistleblower and retaliation statutes, public policy torts) require an extra step of analysis that gets skipped under time pressure.
What to do instead
Before choosing an at-will answer, run a three-question checklist: is there handbook or oral language promising progressive discipline or termination only for cause; is the employee in a protected category or engaged in protected activity; and is there a statute (Labor Code, FEHA, WARN) that restricts the action?
Applies federal coverage thresholds to California discrimination and harassment questions, for example answering that FEHA does not apply because the employer has fewer than 15 employees.
Title VII and ADA thresholds (15 employees) and the 50-employee figures used in federal leave and some training rules blur together, and candidates anchor on the number they saw most recently.
What to do instead
Memorize California's own trigger numbers (FEHA generally 5 or more employees; harassment training obligations at 5 or more) and, for each question, underline the word California or the statute name before evaluating whether the employer is covered.
Classifies an employee as exempt because the person is paid a salary, using the federal salary level as the test rather than California's higher salary threshold plus the duties test.
The 'salaried equals exempt' shortcut is intuitive and the federal threshold is widely quoted; the California requirement that salary equal at least twice the state minimum wage, indexed annually, is easy to overlook.
What to do instead
Adopt a two-gate test: does the salary meet the current California minimum salary threshold for the year in question, and does the actual work satisfy the duties test (executive, administrative, professional, computer professional)? Treat both gates as mandatory and recheck the threshold annually.
Gives the wrong deadline for final wages, such as 'within 30 days' or 'by the next regular payday,' regardless of how the separation occurred.
Candidates remember a single generic payroll deadline from federal or another state's rules and do not separate involuntary termination, resignation with at least 72 hours' notice, and resignation without notice.
What to do instead
Memorize three distinct rules: involuntary termination - final pay due at the time of termination; resignation with at least 72 hours' notice - due on the last day worked; resignation without notice - due within 72 hours. Remember that earned but unused vacation is wages and must be included.
Accepts an answer that the employer may discipline an employee for discussing pay with coworkers, or that a complaint about working conditions is unprotected because it was not filed with an agency.
Candidates default to the idea that complaints must be formal and channeled through HR to be protected, and they do not connect California's wage-disclosure protections and protected concerted activity to everyday employee conversations.
What to do instead
Remember the rule set: California prohibits policies barring employees from disclosing their own wages, protects employees who discuss or inquire about wages, and protects concerted activity about working conditions even without a formal complaint. Eliminate any answer that penalizes informal discussion or informal complaints.
Selects interview or application questions about salary history, workers' compensation claims, disability, medical conditions, or family status as acceptable areas of inquiry.
These questions feel operationally useful for screening and are common in practice, so candidates rely on habit rather than on the specific California prohibitions on salary-history inquiries and disability-related pre-offer questions.
What to do instead
Screen every proposed question against two lists - permissible and impermissible - and practice rewriting impermissible questions into job-related alternatives (for example, ask about ability to perform essential functions with or without accommodation, and provide the pay scale on request instead of asking for prior salary).
Assumes a written Injury and Illness Prevention Program is required only for high-hazard employers, or that serious injuries need only be logged in the OSHA 300 log.
Federal recordkeeping is emphasized in study materials, and candidates conflate the recordkeeping obligation with the Cal/OSHA requirement that every employer maintain a written IIPP and report specified incidents to Cal/OSHA.
What to do instead
Memorize two California-specific rules: every employer with employees must have a written IIPP covering responsibility, compliance, communication, hazard assessment, training, and recordkeeping; and a fatality or serious injury or illness must be reported to Cal/OSHA immediately, with a written report within 5 days.
Treats new-hire notices and personnel file access as optional good practice, so questions about the wage notice at hire, the 30-day file copy request, or record retention lengths get answered from memory instead of the statute.
These are administrative details that do not appear in day-to-day HR decision-making, so they are under-studied; the numbers (notice at hire, 30 days to produce copies, twice per calendar year, multi-year retention periods) are easy to confuse with each other.
What to do instead
Build a simple notice-and-records table listing each obligation, the deadline, and the retention period, and drill it until the deadlines are automatic. Where the numbers conflict in memory, reason from the shortest deadline (30 days to provide copies) to the longest (multi-year retention) rather than guessing.