The Trump Board quickly jumped on the Obama Board’s seeming obsession with otherwise innocuous employee policies and handbook provisions. The Boeing Company. We have repeatedly blogged about the Obama Board’s “biggest idiot” theory as applied to handbook provisions.  Rather than reviewing handbook policies to see whether a reasonable person might interpret them to unlawfully prohibit protected concerted activity, the Obama Board seemingly reviewed the policies from the perspective of the biggest idiot in the workplace.  The Trump Board recognized the extreme hardship this put on both Employers and Employees, leaving both groups to guess at what was permitted versus prohibited conduct.   Overruling Lutheran Heritage  Village Livonia, the Trump Board ruled that in evaluating whether a rule potentially interferes with an NLRA right, “the Board will evaluate two things: (i) the nature and extent of the potential impact on NLRA rights, and (ii) legitimate justifications associated with the requirement(s).”  The Board majority described three categories of policies.  The Board will: (1) uphold rules that, when reasonably interpreted do not ban protected conduct, or that do ban protected conduct but a business justification outweighs the potential impact on protected conduct; (2) individually scrutinize rules that, when reasonably interpreted, appear to ban protected conduct and weigh the value of the protected conduct against the business justification for the rule; and, (3) strike down policies that, when reasonably interpreted, appear to ban protected activity and the value of the activity outweighs the business justification.  So, say “hello” to your employee handbook, and “goodbye” to your biggest idiot!