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Tuesday, December 01, 2009
Astronology - Winter Blues: Motivating Employees
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Losing Disability Benefits Because of Facebook/Chippendales
A 29-year-old Canadian woman who says she’s too depressed to do her job claims that her employer’s insurance company stopped paying her disability benefits because she posted some photographs of herself on Facebook in which she appeared to be happy.
Nathalie Blanchard, who has been on sick leave from an IBM office in Quebec since “she was diagnosed with major depression” 18 months ago, called her employer’s insurance company, Manulife, to ask why she had stopped receiving her monthly check. Ms. Blanchard says that an insurance agent informed her that photographs she had posted on her Facebook account — showing her apparently enjoying a Chippendales show, her birthday party and a beach vacation — proved that she was not depressedNow I can't see how this can stand (but then again I don't know the Canadian court system that well). I'm not sure an insurance agent is qualified to tell if a woman is depressed or not based on photos she posted on Facebook. And if she was enjoying Chippendales, her birthday and a beach vacation, isn't she a normal human being. Let's just say things got worse for Blanchard after this...
[Her lawyer, Tom Lavin] told The Gazette, a Montreal newspaper, that his client’s mortgage insurance was cut off because someone alerted her financial institution to the supposedly damning Facebook photos. “That forced her to sell her house because she can’t afford to pay her mortgage,” Mr. Lavin told The Gazette, “her credit has gone down the tubes and her reputation has been damaged. She’s not having a good time.”If she wasn't depressed before...Ouch.
Friday, November 20, 2009
A Few Restaurants in Park Slope You May Not Want To Work For
When Marc Murphy testified against a proposed bill mandating that restaurateurs provide paid sick leave, his director of operations made sure to point out that Landmarc treats its employees very well, thank you (among other things, they get five sick days after they’ve worked there a year). But here’s something interesting — another restaurateur who testified against the bill on Tuesday, Irene Lo Re, also happens to be the owner of one of 25 Park Slope restaurants that were busted by the state Department of Labor for underpaying workers.
Though the eateries weren’t named in yesterday’s press release from the labor department, the NY Daily News today revealed that the restaurants include Olive Vine Café, Sotto Voce, Sweet Melissa Patisserie, Baluchi's, Sette Enoteca e Cucina, and Aunt Suzie’s. And a call to Christine Quinn’s office reveals that Aunt Suzie owner Irene Lo Re spoke against paid sick leave. To make matters more interesting, Lo Re is president of the Fifth Avenue Business Improvement District and she has also been a chairperson of Community Board 6. We’ve called Lo Re to find out what, exactly, it is that she doesn't like about the bill.
That's not good news. One usually thinks of restaurants as places where labor laws are a gray area (many New York restaurants have undocumented workers and the wages paid aren't always "fair"), but there are still consequences for violating the law even within the food services industry. Mama Mexico faced a lawsuit earlier this year and the question of paid sick leave has become a hotly debate topic. Those are just two examples but it shows that no matter what industry you are in, you need to treat your workers right.
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Astronology - Giving Thanks to Our Top Performers
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Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Bill Belichick, Advice and Lists, and a Stress-Free Holiday Season
The truth is that you do have to make big decisions that leave yourself open to second-guessing if you are to be a successful leader, but when the move doesn't work out, you can't always hide behind the loyalty of your "team" as Belichick clearly has done. But then again, Belichick wouldn't have that loyalty unless he had some success.
Other articles:
About.com has some advice for creating a stress-free holiday season in the office
Some great articles from Human Resource Magazine including:
Enjoy!
Friday, November 13, 2009
Nightmare Bosses who Make Every Day Friday the 13th
I think you could add the fictional bosses of Michael Scott from The Office, Bill Lumberg from Office Space, Mr. Burns from The Simpsons and Don Draper from Mad Men on there as well.
Who else would you add to the list of nightmare bosses on Friday the 13th?
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Recession and the Job Market
I happen to catch a glimpse of the WSJ while in a meeting in a co-worker's office the other day and one of the titles on the front page was "Life on Severance: Comfort, Then Crisis" (picture on right from article). I think it was a very interesting article, but I wonder if the severance package that was described in the opening paragraph was one that was supposed to get people's emotions stirred up. There are people who are a few years out of college, stuck with tons of student loans, and making $35,000 a year who maybe got a month of severance. Then there is the $200,000-a-year CEO who they describe in the article who got a year's worth of pay as severance and has $100,000 in savings. I don't think many people are crying for that guy.
But the point of the article is an interesting one: there is a growing severance economy of unemployed Americans who use severance pay and savings to keep up their lifestyles. The 405 Club asks if severance pay is the new welfare? I don't think that's the case, but for many, it's providing that slowly eroding bridge until the next job offer. How much severance does you company give? Do you think it's enough or would you, if you made the decisions give more? It's an interesting dilemma for companies who then have to worry about keeping happy those who are left behind.
Two more good articles:
- From today's WSJ, word that workers returning from layoffs have struggled to recoup the earnings power as wage erosion threatens to slow the economy's recovery.
- Lastly, this article is supposedly from tomorrow's WSJ (I told you we're ahead of the curve), and says that women now hold half of all U.S. jobs because of the large hits in layoffs to male-dominated industries. This has upended roles about which spouse stays at home finding more women heading back into the workforce to support the family as a single-earner. Very interesting indeed.
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Yankees Parade Picture, Boeing and AOL
Unfortunately, according to MLB.com, some of those employees hanging their heads out the window got a little "overzealous" and threw private data out the window including unshredded personal financial documents that included Social Security numbers and other personal information (including whole pay stubs). The person standing next to me was actually hit with an entire blueprint from an arcitecture firm. There was also, according to The Star-Ledger, "medical records listing names, addresses, insurance information, medical diagnoses, and other private information."
That's a big oops and Human Resources should have cautioned employees about what documents to throw out. You would think with a half-ton of paper handed out that employees would have had enough to throw, but while more sensible employees threw toilet paper (and quite a bit of it), less sensible ones decided to throw out documents that could be extremely damaging for an organization.
A few other articles:
- Boeing, long-since linked to Washington state, moved their corporate offices to Chicago and now are moving some of their production of the 787 Dreamliner to South Carolina. Wired starts to explain why and some of it definitely has to do with the workers and the environment.
- Lastly, AOL is about to start another massive layoff round today and The Business Insider has a lot of details. One thing that seems like a smart move: a voluntary buyout program to ease the sting of a "mass firing". Although it achieves the same effect, it looks a lot better if people are let go on their own terms with a nice package, especially in this economy.
Thursday, November 05, 2009
Yankees Win, thhhhhheeeeee Yankees Win (and a few HR articles)
Love or hate the Yankees, you have to respect how well-run their organization is, regardless of the money. They put the right people in the right situations to succeed and pushed guys when they could be pushed. They stuck behind guys like Alex Rodriguez who had trouble outside the workplace and allowed him to succeed at the workplace. It's a good model for HR to replicate.
A few HR articles for you as I get ready to head to the Canyon of Heroes tomorrow:
- The Wall Street Journal gives some advice of what to do if you dislike your assigned mentor
- Wired has an awful story about a woman losing her job because of an error in the FBI criminal database. Ouch.
- Lastly, word today from The New York Times on the House of Representatives extending the jobless benefits.
Tuesday, November 03, 2009
Astronology - What Type of Managerial Attitude Do You Have?
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Thursday, October 29, 2009
Military Experience As Job Experience
Israel represents the highest concentration of innovationand entrepreneurship in the world today: the most start-ups per capita; the highest percentage of GDP invested in civilian R&D; more companies on NASDAQ than all of Europe, Korea, Japan, India, and China combined; and the biggest destination for global venture capital per capita. Israel raises 2.5 times as much global venture capital as the U.S., 30 times more than Europe, 80 times more than India, and 350 times more than China.So why Israel? Why would a country so small and so often under attack be seen as a positive place to do business for people throughout the world? And why would Israel having a military matter? Senor explains:
The military is where many Israelis learn to lead and manage people, improvise, become mission-oriented, work in teams, and contribute to their country. They tend to come out of their years of service (three for men, two for women) more mature and directed than their peers in other countries. They learn “the value of five minutes,” as one general told us. They even learn something more uniquely Israeli: to speak up — regardless of ranks and hierarchy — if they think things can be done better.And how does the United States treat military "experience"?
U.S. military career adviser Al Chase told us that a number of the vets he’s worked with have walked a business interviewer through all their leadership experiences from the battlefield, including case studies in high-stakes decisionmaking and management of large numbers of people and equipment in a war zone, and at the end of it the interviewer has said something along the lines of, “That’s very interesting, but have you ever had a real job?”This is one place the United States may be missing out. The United States is now employing an entire workforce in Iraq, Afghanistan and around the world. Those people are getting experiences beyond the type of stress anyone would see in a workplace. They are being asked to work together in teams and/or given leadership positions. Yet when they come back from the war we need to see actual work experience? True the lack certain of the technical competencies needed for certain jobs, but more often than not, I fear that we ignore the example set by Israel and dismiss our military veterans on the job force when they could be one of our greatest assets.
Monday, October 26, 2009
Don't Report Your Time Off?
Many companies over the years have migrated from siloed leave policies that designate a specific number of days for vacation, sick leave and personal time off to paid time off (PTO) banks programs that provide a total set number of days off that employees can use for any reason. Newer, even more flexible, programs now provide employees with more informal personal time and vacation arrangements with their managers when it suits them, guided mainly by their ability to perform their jobs successfully.Now this is much like an honor system, and like any honor system, you have the chance of abuse or free riders. But the idea makes sense. With people permanently tethered to Blackberries and the internet, the job doesn't have to stop when you leave the office. If people don't abuse the system, they'll get their job done and be happy, which should increase productivity even more. I once interviewed for a job that was run like this, though they expected you to make up for the time you missed...but you could miss as much as you wanted.
Some companies allow you to trade time off credits, work a Saturday/Sunday to get another day off, or other similar ways to make time off more flexible for the employees.
The problem here is this is not for every job. You still need to know when people are going to not be at their desks--especially in service-oriented companies--and reporting time off (or at least letting their managers know ahead of time) is one way to accomplish that. This also can only occur at companies where the management and the employees feel secure with one another. Employees have to feel comfortable enough with taking the time off (since there are issues with them feeling that way as it is) and employers need to feel comfortable enough in the fact the job will get done and the person will not abuse it.
But in the world of increasing attachment to the office, allowing an employee to have the ultimate "flex" time off doesn't mean they'll truly be away from the job and could be another "benefit" that separates your company from the rest when recruiting new employees.
Question to the audience: do any of your companies do this? what are your opinions on the subject?
Thursday, October 22, 2009
ESPN an HR Nightmare
According to sports blog Awful Announcing, in 2007, ESPN hired a new Senior Vice President, Human Resources, in part to help with the rash of sexual harassment complaints. It didn't seem to help. And the problem is, as Deadspin reports, that everyone seems to know and care except for the higher-ups at ESPN.
Deadspin relayed a story about another male on-air personality that has been rumored to take place in the same inappropriate activities. Deadspin also tells the story of an ESPN staffer who may have been promoted for the wrong reasons.
So why does this happen? Yet another Deadspin expose told of the culture that existed at ESPN and described it very much as a Human Resource nightmare. This is a culture that existed for a long time and was reinforced by the executives who were taking part as well.
As a New York Magazine poll last week showed after the David Letterman scandal, people have very differing opinions of what is OK to do in the office. A positive culture has to come from the top down. When executives and other people in power are taking part in inappropriate relationships and human resources is unable to curtail the behavior, chaos, like what seems to be occurring at ESPN happens and opens up the company to a litany of lawsuits. Let's hope your company does not look like this.
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Astronology - Giving Constructive Criticism
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Thursday, October 15, 2009
Letterman and a New Look
-Careersolvers asks if we're all that different than Letterman and gives, in the spirit of the man, a top 10 list of reasons why people get involved with co-workers.
-The Boston Globe Job Doc has a Q&A on "An Awkward Invitation" and whether you should go to HR for quick decisions.
-Hot HR Tips... says let this be a wake-up call for all Human Resources professionals
-Lastly, a Letterman insider writes about the incident for The New York Times and the atmosphere does not seem to be a good one. The situation should have been handled by Huamn Resources way before it ever got to the point it did. The article hits it right on the head: this situation was fair to no one.
Also, we have a new look here at the Astron Solutions World of HR blog. Let us know what you think. Send an e-mail to katzandrews@gmail.com to let me know.
Monday, October 12, 2009
The Job Market As It Stands
The Wall Street Journal says that it will be years before lost jobs return. And some may never return. 7.2 million jobs have just disappeared since December 2007 and there will be many Americans left standing on the sidelines once their unemployment runs out. Sad times.
The New York Times tells the story of a pair of identical twins who are living in New York City, 17 months out of college and are looking for a job--any job at all. There story isn't unlike others that I've heard from peers who are only a few years out of college; the jobs just aren't there.
Lastly, also from The Wall Street Journal, an article about law-firm hires whose first task is finding an interim job. I know some people who have been fortunate enough to receive an offer from a law firm only to have that offer deferred. Banks have also been doing this, much to the chagrin of recent college (and graduate school) graduates. With the tough hiring environment, a deferred job is better for some than no job at all.
Thursday, October 08, 2009
H-1B, ARRA, and TARP
As a recipient of TARP funding and under ARRA regulations, Capital One will not sponsor new H-1B petitions or transfer existing H1B Visas.I was curious myself. So I did some research. The Washington D.C. Employment Law Update laid it out in March:
The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that employers receiving funds through the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) or under section 13 of the Federal Reserve Act (covered funds) must meet additional requirements before hiring foreign nationals to work in the H-1B specialty occupation category.And if you still want to hire that person, you need to answer some more questions that basically guarantee the government that you didn't displace a US worker for this job.These new requirements were established by the Employ American Workers Act (EAWA), a component of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) – otherwise known as the stimulus package – signed into law on February 17, 2009. Under EAWA, companies receiving covered funds must guarantee that they will not displace citizen employees
This makes sense in practice (with all the taxpayer money going to the banks, you want them to hire US tax-paying citizens), but I was surprised (probably wrongly so) to hear it was being done in this manner, with disclosures like that in postings.
Here are some more details on this from U.S. Citizen and Immigration Services.