Sad Baseball Night In New York

A sad baseball night in New York as the Yankees and Mets both lose one-run games against their arch-rivals. So how about some great HR articles instead?

-CNN has a great article up on how significant others should react when their men get laid off -- but they still have a job. Some great advice there.

-24 Hours Vancouver is next with some advice not to lie on your resume because it'll come back to haunt you.

-Next, the Zanesville Times Recorder writes about mandated sick leave. It may not have passed in Ohio, but it is has a chance of becoming a national law.

-You have some questions for HR? Well the Atlanta Journal-Constitution has an "Ask HR"

-Lastly, Business Management Daily says that while HR salaries weaken, comp and benefit pays have grown.

Let's hope tomorrow is a better night for New York baseball...

So That's What Those Pirates in that Commercial Were Singing About!

The FreeCreditReport.com guys will be happy with this article from Forbes which says that you should get your Credit Report checked before your employer does: click here

(Well at least they should pay those guys so they don't have to be pirates anymore...)

Next, from the Sun-Times News Group and the Naperville Sun, an article about a Society for Human Resources Management (SHRM) that warns that no one is immune from sickness: click here

Lastly, from USA Today's On Deadline section (referring to a 2006 Forbes article),would you like to bring your baby to work every day?: click here

Podcasting!!!

Adding to our Web 2.0 personality here at Astron Solutions, we have our first podcast courtesy of Workforce Management about managing the unpredictability of talent in today's world: click here

From the Business Wire, the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) will be surveying presidential candidates on key workforce issues: click here

Also, make sure to check out some other podcasts on Daxle's website of business podcasts...some good stuff there: click here

Lastly, the Baltimore Sun's "On the Job" has an article about sick and vacation days all being in the same bank: click here

And since we decided we needed some representation between New York and DC, we're adding the feed of the Baltimore Sun's career section on the right...

March On

Marching on here on the first workday in March as we update you on some Human Resource news that we had previously touched on here on the blog...

First from the Society for Human Resources Management (SHRM) and their study titled "2008 Flu Prevention in the Workplace Study" say that 33% of offices send their employees home if they come to work sick to battle against presenteeism...but just 10% actually offer the employee the telecommuting options that would allow them to work from home: click here

While most of them (59 percent) say their companies offer free flu vaccine to employees, other options are reported. Eighteen percent of companies encourage employees to get a flu shot offsite and 10 percent will pay for it. Nineteen percent offer shots onsite, but at employees' expense. Three percent do the same, but subsidize part of the cost.

"Employers recognize the benefits of keeping their employees healthy and productive during work hours," said Susan R. Meisinger, president and CEO of SHRM. "Flu season is a real threat to all businesses, so prevention is top of mind for HR professionals."

Educating employees on preventative measures to reduce the spread of flu at work is an initiative reported by 47 percent of HR professionals. Other common prevention efforts include making hand sanitizer and tissues easily accessible (52 percent).

Lastly, we turn to another one of our fellow bloggers for advice saying to make sure to protect yourself from lawsuits which can be costly, time consuming and bad for business and your company's public image: click here

Sick? Work From Home

I finally caught it.

I felt like I was in a horror movie being chased by the killer the past few months as I'd seen colleagues, family and friends go down with the winter bug. I'd done everything to avoid it from quarantining myself from the sick, to loading up on Orange Juice and Airborne, to washing my hands with Purell.

But I got sick anyways. And when it hit it wasn't a mild cold or a virus, but a nasty infection.

Many have to make the choice in this situation whether to go to work or stay home. Many, according to a CBS News report from 2005 (click here), choose to go into work--something called presenteeism:

Although it's done out of job dedication in many cases, it really doesn't help to have an employee in the office who is spreading an infection to others, in addition to not being able to work as well due to their own illness. Some experts say presenteeism can actually result in a greater loss of productivity than absenteeism.

I chose absenteeism, or staying home from work. But instead of making it a sick day off. I've parlayed my days off into opportunities to telecommute. We've talked a lot in this blog about telecommuting, but this seems to be one of the cases where it truly does seem to work.

Although the source (Telecommute Connecticut) may be a little biased in this article (click here), this passage from Jen Jorgenson, a spokesperson for the Society of Human Resource Management (SHRM) is important to note:

Companies may want to encourage telecommuting rather than have employees come in to the office and use their computers to get work done and infect everyone else around them, Jorgenson said employees who telecommute when sick can continue to be productive without making others sick.

If you're having a hard time figuring out if you're too sick to go to work, this Medicenet article that was a feature on WebMD, can help you figure it out: click here

The New York Times (click here), Baltimore Sun (click here), and Asbury Park Press (click here) all give the same message: if you're sick, stay home!

Human Resources can have a role in this by encouraging employees to work from home when sick instead of stressing on them coming in and fighting through it while spreading the germs and giving them access to things like laptop computers and VPN access so that they can access all their files from home.

And this issue is not just a United States one...sick days cost British businesses £ 34 billion according to this article by the Daily Mail: click here

Thirty nine per cent of workers say they are completely bored when they have to take time off sick, and wish they were back at work.


Wouldn't it be better to take those bored workers and give them something to do when they are home?