Tuesday, November 27, 2012

What Is an Employer-Employee Relationship?


When an employer hires a new employee, he is not just bringing a new member of the workforce aboard, he is also starting a new relationship. Because employers and employees often work in close quarters, they necessarily develop relationships. Managing these relationships is vital to business success, as strong relationships can lead to greater employee happiness and even increased productivity. To reap these benefits, keep the dynamics of your employer-employee relationship in mind.

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Friday, November 23, 2012

Core to an organization is respect

Respect is at the core of relationships and relationships are what make today’s families, businesses and organizations work. When respectful behavior is exercised toward others under any circumstances, it adds value and meaning to relationships.

In a conversation about respect in the workplace one day, a colleague, Nick Cirilli asked a very simple question. “Where is the line? How far do I go with my comments toward or about someone else?” Many times when we have strong differences of beliefs or opinions with people or we want to make people pay for what they did, we feel that we have a ‘perfectly good right’ to say anything that we want to them, and/or about them. We even go as far as getting other people and friends on our side. Sometimes those feelings are so strong, that it would probably take more than anything that I could tell you for you to be respectful anyway.

I have often been in situations in which I wanted to make someone pay for what they did so much that I felt absolutely justified to say anything that I wanted to them and do everything that I could to get others to feel the same way. However, as I learned more about respect, I realized how much I could be in control of what comes out of my mouth. I would love to say that I am the perfect example of how to respect everyone. Truthfully?? I have to work at it and there are times when it requires more effort than others. I can say that I have improved significantly. I do know that when I get to the name calling or language that could take away the esteem of another person, I have gone over the line. I call it the “Cirilli Line”. I am also learning to help people to PLAY rather than making them pay – educating someone on how to be more respectful in a way that we can work together more productively.

Respect is also an essential part of strengthening organizational unity. If you have a rule of only respecting those who respect you, you limit the opportunities to bring the best out of people. However, if you always exercise respect for everyone whatever the circumstances, you set yourself up to take advantage of the creativity and productive decision-making that moves things forward. When you label people, you look for the label that you give them. If you call someone ‘selfish,’ for instance, you may recognize that one characteristic in the person enough to hide other qualities or motives that may help or impress you. Take the label away. That gives you the power to set up a productive relationship that works.

Exercising workplace respect also means to interact in ways that contribute to maintaining and respecting the self-esteem of others. It means harnessing the power that you have by using respectful language when speaking of others. It means being an example for speaking to and about others.
True expressions of workplace respect include respecting others when they are out of our sight, the same way as if they are in our presence. If you want to talk about someone or a group, make sure it is okay to talk about them or to poke fun or to call them names that could take away from their self-esteem. If you question whether it would be okay to talk about them that way, it is best to be quiet. Of course, you can take a minute to ask. Most important, rather than putting conditions on whether you will treat others with respect, respect others anyway, whether they are in the room or out of the room.

Workplace respect includes two other considerations: 1) the Golden Rule: Treat others the way that you would like to be treated. Whenever you have strong differences of opinions or beliefs, you can use the Golden Rule. 2) The Platinum Rule, according to Dr. Tony Alessandra and Dr. Michael J. O’Connor (The Platinum Rule 1998): “Do unto others as they’d like done unto them.” Sometimes people just want their names spelled correctly or they just want a ‘fair chance’ or they want to be valued customers. Treating others the way that they want to be treated is the expression of your respect for the values and needs of others in your daily interactions. Therefore, workplace respect includes your use of four abilities:
  • Respect everyone anyway
  • Respect everyone whether they are in the room or out of the room
  • Treat others the way you would want to be treated
  • Treat others the way that they would want to be treated
They are called abilities because you can control your interactive behavior and what comes out of your mouth. Using those abilities helps you to successfully manage your interactions with others. As you get better, you become a model for others to follow with the surprise consequence of increasing the respect that others have for you and around you, sometimes just because your respectful behavior is so impressive. When differences do exist, remember the skill to ‘help people to PLAY rather than making them pay’.

Best Ways To Gain Employment After A Gap Year

Taking a year off after school isn’t always a bad idea. It could be a good way to get yourself mentally prepared for the next step after you have finished your education. However, finding a job with any type of gap in your educational or employment record could be problematic. How do you find work after being out of school and work for a year?

Don’t Just Sit Around Doing Nothing

Just because you are taking time off doesn’t mean that you should be sitting around doing nothing. This is the perfect time to volunteer, find freelance work or start your own company. You don’t have to do anything big to put it on your resume. The goal is to show that you have been gaining skills while you have been away from school or work.
Stay Connected To Other People In Your Field
Social media will allow you to stay connected with others in your field. Keep in touch with old teachers, professors and those who you went to school with. When you are ready to go back to work, you will find that there are many people who are willing to say good things about you. Your contacts will be how you get back in the working world despite the fact that you haven’t had a job in the past year.

Start At The Bottom Of The Company

You may need to simply find a job with the company that you would like to work for. For example, you might take a part-time job sorting mail to get your foot in the door with the company that you really want to work for. When a job opening comes up, people in the office will know who you are. This will give you an opportunity to show that you are a capable worker who can get the job done.
Learn How To Write An Effective Resume
If you send the right message about yourself to employers, you are going to see a lot more interest in your services. What you need to do is sell yourself as someone who has what it takes to do the job despite being away for the past year. Highlight what you have done in the past year.
Emphasize how your travels have made it easier for you to think about relocating for work. Talk about how your work with disadvantaged youths has taught you to work with others who don’t share your background. These are the things that employers want to hear. Turn that gap in your resume into an opportunity to talk about how you have honed your skills.

Don’t Expect To Get A Job Right Away

The best thing you can do is be patient. In this economy, employers are looking for people who have current experience with a company. This means that you may have to go to a few job interviews before you get an offer. Don’t take it personally. A company will recognize your skills eventually.
Getting a job after a year away from everything can be difficult. However, you need to talk yourself up when looking for a job. Show employers how that year away actually made you a better person and employee. It won’t be long before some great company is offering you a great job.

About Author
Mark writes on behalf of a number of businesses on topics such as auto enrolment and fiduciary management. He enjoys reading about employment and business as much as he enjoys writing about it.  Any opinions expressed in the article do not necessarily represent the businesses Mark writes for.

Thursday, November 22, 2012

5 Ways to Cut Office Costs


Managing costs is a crucial part of running any business, particularly when times are tight.  Fortunately there are some simple and effective steps which can cut office costs substantially.

1. Sell the Printers
In spite of exhortations to go green, printing is a habit for many people and the more printers there are in an office, the greater the temptation to churn out paper.  By removing printers one at a time (and ideally relocating the remaining printers to a location away from the main office space), workers will be encouraged to think before they print.
It is possible that further savings can be made by ensuring that all computers have their print settings set to print to both sides of the paper.  More computer-literate workers can be educated on ways to adjust print settings to make further paper savings, such as increasing the number of slides printed on a page or reducing a font size.

2. Turn off the lights
Make sure lights are turned on only when they are needed and that computer monitors and other electric equipment (such as projectors) are switched off unless actually in use.  IT technicians can organize computer settings which will turn off computers at a particular time, but if work-times are too flexible for this to be feasible, then employees will need to be educated about this policy and management will need to ensure that it is observed.

3. Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Resell
Many offices inadvertently encourage people to be wasteful by making disposable items readily available, particular culprits in this regard include plastic cutlery and mugs and stationery.  Where possible replace disposable items with reusable ones.  Instead of supplying plastic cups (and cutlery), have employees bring their own and provide washing-up liquid (ideally in a pump dispenser) and cleaning cloths.
Put a lock on the stationery cupboard and have someone responsible take charge of it.  This will not only prevent pilfering but also encourage people to be responsible with stationery items rather than simply losing them or half-using them and just getting another one.  If there are items in the office which are rarely used, consider reselling them and just hiring them when needed.

4. Join Forces to Cut Costs
Suppliers often provide discounts to people who buy in bulk.  It may therefore be worth investigating the possibility of teaming up with other business which also need standard office and catering supplies.  Even if this is not possible, it may be worth asking an established and reputable supplier for a discount if a large order is placed for delivery in batches as needed.

5. Conduct Regular Spending Audits
Humans are creatures of habit and it is very easy to continue to pay for goods and services which are no longer required, particularly since so many companies these days use automatic billing systems.  By making a commitment to check expenses at least every quarter and to act where potential savings have been identified, businesses can free up money for essential costs.

About The Author:
Amy Harris is a writer for Expert Market which offers a free service to businesses, providing a sourcing tool for finding office equipment and business services. She enjoys helping businesses reduce their costs and drive profit.

Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Drug Testing Poses Quandary for Employers

LAWRENCEBURG, Tenn. — The news, delivered in a phone call, left Sue Bates aghast: she was losing her job of 22 years after testing positive for a legally prescribed drug.
Her employer, Dura Automotive Systems, had changed the policy at its sprawling plant here to test for certain prescription drugs as well as illicit ones. The medication that Mrs. Bates was taking for back pain — hydrocodone, a narcotic prescribed by her doctor — was among many that the company, which makes car parts, had suddenly deemed unsafe.
“I don’t think it should end the way it did,” said Mrs. Bates, an assembly line worker who has sued Dura for discrimination and invasion of privacy. “You tell somebody you lost your job because you’re on prescription medication and they’re like, ‘Yeah, right.’ ”
Two decades after the Supreme Court first upheld the right to test for drugs in the workplace, Dura’s concern — that employees on certain medications posed a safety hazard — is echoing around the country. The growing reliance of Americans on powerful prescription drugs for pain, anxiety and other maladies suggests that many are reporting to work with potent drugs in their systems, and employers are grappling for ways to address that.
What companies consider an effort to maintain a safe work environment is drawing complaints from employees who cite privacy concerns and contend that they should not be fired for taking legal medications, sometimes for injuries sustained on the job.
“This may be the point guard for an important societal issue,” Dr. Robert T. Cochran Jr., a Nashville pain specialist who treats three of the Dura plaintiffs, said of the lawsuit against Dura. “How do we address these drugs as a society?”
There is a dearth of data from independent groups regarding impairment from prescription drugs in the workplace, partly because the issue has not drawn broad scrutiny. But Quest Diagnostics, a prominent provider of workplace drug tests, said that the rate of employees testing positive for prescription opiates rose by more than 40 percent from 2005 to 2009, and by 18 percent last year alone. The data, culled from the results of more than 500,000 drug tests, also indicated that workers who were tested for drugs after accidents were four times more likely to have opiates in their systems than those tested before being hired.
“It’s not nearly on employer radar screens as much as it should be,” said Mark A. de Bernardo, executive director of the Institute for a Drug-Free Workplace, a nonprofit business coalition near Washington, and a senior partner at Jackson Lewis, an employment law firm. “Given the liability for industrial accidents or product defects or workplace injuries involving prescription drug abuse, employers cannot afford not to address this issue.”
Nor is the problem limited to factory floors like the one at Dura’s plant here, where conveyor belts are in constant motion and tow drivers shuttle pieces of glass from station to station, former workers said. In Texas, a prominent prosecutor resigned in 2008 after a scandal for which he blamed impaired judgment because of prescription drugs. And in Missouri, a patient sued alleging that a doctor had torn a hole in his colon during a 2006 colonoscopy while taking the painkiller oxycodone.
Dr. Carl Rollyn Sullivan, director of addictions programs at the West Virginia University School of Medicine in Morgantown, said he had treated “a lot of miners telling me the ridiculous amount of drugs they’re doing underground,” most of them legally prescribed.
Challenges for Employers
Setting rules about prescription drug use in the workplace is tricky, not least because it is difficult to prove impairment. Under Dura’s policy, a prescription drug was considered unsafe if its label included a warning against driving or operating machinery, but doctors say many users function normally despite such warnings.
Also, some employers find it difficult to deal with the problem partly for fear of violating the Americans with Disabilities Act. It prohibits asking employees about prescription drugs unless workers are seen acting in a way that compromises safety or suggests they cannot perform their job for medical reasons, according to lawyers with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
“We’re up against 20 years of training on the A.D.A. that essentially suggests, ‘Don’t ask, don’t tell,’ ” said Steven M. Bernstein, an employment lawyer with Fisher & Phillips in Tampa, Fla.
Christopher J. Kuczynski, assistant legal counsel in the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s policy division for the Americans with Disabilities Act, said, “The employer must have reasonable belief the person is unable to do the job or poses a threat based on a medical condition.”
The only exception is for police officers, firefighters and others in public safety jobs, Mr. Kuczynski said. They can be required to self-report the use of prescription medication if their inability or impaired ability to perform their job functions would result in a direct threat, he added.
Even with bus and truck drivers, nuclear plant workers, and others in jobs that the federal government deems “safety sensitive,” employers are required to test for only six categories of drugs that do not cover synthetic painkillers like OxyContin and Vicodin, anti-anxiety drugs like Xanax, or other controlled prescription drugs. (Because the test looks for codeine and morphine, which experts say are far less abused than the synthetics, many employers wrongly assume it looks for all opiates.)
“That is just a devastating critique of the government’s role in this,” said Dr. Robert L. DuPont, president of the Institute for Behavior and Health near Washington. “It’s a very serious hole in the system.”
Dr. Donna Bush, a senior forensic toxicologist at the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, which sets parameters for federal drug testing, said the group was not pushing to add more prescription drugs.
“Which ones do we add?” she asked. “Drug testing for illicit illegal drugs is very easy because presence is an offense.”
Employers can choose to test for more drugs, which is what Dura decided to do at its Lawrenceburg plant in 2007. Citing concerns about drug use and worker safety, Dura hired an independent company to administer random drug tests. Dura chose to screen for 12 types of drugs, including hydrocodone and oxycodone.
“The goal of the plan was to provide a safe environment,” Lindy Boots, the plant’s former human resources manager, said in a deposition.
The concerns were not totally unfounded, some employees who worked at the plant said in interviews. A plaintiff said he knew of workers using illegal drugs on the job, and other former employees said they suspected people were passing around prescription drugs.
“If they had a headache or something was hurting some of them would give them one of their Lortabs,” said Willarene Fisher, a former employee who failed the drug test, of her former co-workers. Ms. Fisher is also suing.
Representatives of Dura declined to comment, citing the continuing lawsuit. It is one of two that have been filed against Dura; the other was brought by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Both cases are currently in court.
Court records show that over a week in May 2007, about 500 employees at the company’s Lawrenceburg plant submitted urine samples under the new testing policy. Of those, 44 tested positive for prescription drugs. They were put on a 30-day leave of absence and had to pass a second test to return to their jobs.
Susan Lowery, a former supervisor at the plant who tested positive for oxycodone, said the drug had kept her functioning after three back surgeries and did not affect her job performance.
“My record was clean,” said Mrs. Lowery, a plaintiff in one of two lawsuits against Dura. “I was there every day no matter how I felt.”
National Efforts
The drug tests coincided with Dura’s participation in Tennessee’s Drug-Free Workplace Program, which provides incentives that include a premium credit on workers’ compensation insurance.
Many states have a drug-free workplace program, a concept that developed after Congress passed the 1988 law requiring companies with federal contracts to adopt drug policies. But the programs have barely changed in the 20 years since they were conceived and focus heavily on illegal drugs.
Meanwhile, the laws on drug testing are complex and vary from state to state. Several, for example, prohibit or greatly restrict random drug testing, while many others give employers broad discretion, even providing incentives for employers to drug test their employees like discounts on workers’ compensation premiums.
Employers can ask workers in safety-sensitive jobs to self-report any potentially dangerous prescription medications, but they cannot ensure they do so.
The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration urges companies to train supervisors to look for signs of drug abuse. But an incorrect assessment can land an employer in court, Dr. DuPont said.
“If somebody puts his head down on a desk, do you test him for drugs or not?” he said. “The first time you get an employee who says you’re harassing them, you’re not going to test anyone else even if they’re passed out.”
Many doctors, meanwhile, say that most people can tolerate and function well on pain medication taken under their supervision.
“In general,” said Dr. Seddon R. Savage, a pain specialist at Dartmouth College and president of the American Pain Society, “well-prescribed opioids at a stable dose that are well supervised in most healthy people won’t cause sedation or other cognitive problems.”
Dr. Cochran said that opiate painkillers can help workers do their jobs better if taken appropriately.
“I think they terminated some people who were not in any way compromised,” he said of Dura.
Yet Dr. Cochran also estimated that about 15 percent of his patients misused painkillers and said that he understood why employers would be worried.
At the very least, Dr. DuPont said, the standardized testing that is now mandatory for transportation and nuclear workers should be expanded to include more legal drugs. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration recently added a sixth drug, ecstasy, to the panel of five — marijuana; cocaine; amphetamines; phencyclidine, or PCP; and nonsynthetic opiates — that it has long required safety-sensitive workers to be tested for.
That leaves employers in even the most safety-sensitive fields to make their own decisions about whether to test for synthetic opiates and other commonly used legal drugs. And many are skittish, even though anecdotes abound about people misusing or abusing prescription drugs in the workplace.
“I’ve seen people have their fingers cut off because they or somebody they depended on to operate machinery properly was out of it,” said Dr. Neil Capretto, medical director at Gateway Rehabilitation Center in Aliquippa, Pa. “We treat some people in construction who say so many of their co-workers are using, they sometimes have to change careers because it’s too much of a trigger for them to go back to work after rehab.”
Finding a Balance
Dr. Barry Sample, director of science and technology for the Employer Solutions business of Quest Diagnostics, said the smartest thing employers can do is come up with a thorough and consistent policy that spells out which drugs their workers might be tested for and under what circumstances.
Supervisors, he said, should be carefully trained to look for signs of impairment — the “reasonable suspicion” necessary under law to warrant testing.
“They need to understand what constitutes reasonable suspicion,” he said, “and make sure the policy is communicated clearly and very well to the employees who are going to be impacted.”
But some worry that employers wading into the realm of prescription drugs could infringe on privacy and dredge up stereotypes about people who take certain medications.
“People make stereotypical assumptions about certain medications, whether they’re prescription or over-the-counter, and use those prejudices from prohibiting people from maintaining gainful employment,” said Nick Pladson, an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission lawyer in Minneapolis who is suing a manufacturing company on behalf of a man who was required to disclose the prescription drugs he was taking and was later fired.
Although Dura officials said in court documents that the goal of expanded testing was to protect employees, some plaintiffs in the lawsuits claim they were injured on the job and supervisors knew about the medications they were taking. Others say they believe the company wanted to get rid of them because they were costing it thousands of dollars in insurance premiums, a charge the company has denied.
“The reason I was taking the medication was a work-related injury,” said Mark Long, 38, who worked at Dura and was fired for taking hydrocodone. “I really didn’t expect for my job to end.”
Supervisors worried that employees, who manufactured hundreds of thousands of windows for automotive companies including General Motors and Ford within very close proximity of one another, could cause a “domino effect” if one was impaired and had an accident.
Mr. Long said he had stopped taking Lortab after losing his job because the pain subsided when he was not working full-time. With work scarce in Lawrenceburg, a city of 14,000 in south-central Tennessee, Mr. Long drives 70 miles each way to work as a boat mechanic in northern Alabama.
Mrs. Bates, whose job was trimming car window molding, said she had been unable to find another job. She said she understood Dura’s safety concerns but believed the company should have worked with employees who take prescription drugs rather than fire them.
“If the medicine they’re taking is not good for them or the workplace, then there should be some sort of program where they can teach us how that affects you or see if something else can be worked out,” Mrs. Bates said. “But that was not an option for us.”

Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Social media takes workplace harassment to New Levels

As if employers didn’t have enough trouble preventing harassment in the workplace, now employees have newer, faster, more subtle ways to send and receive offensive comments, photos, and videos. From smartphones to social networking sites to instant sharing and Tweeted updates, the potential for employees to make offense and take offense has increased along with new technologies.
While employees may dismiss a message as “just a joke,” employers know that employees often disagree about where joking ends and harassment begins. And an employee who claims harassment has a running record (aka great evidence) conveniently located on whatever electronic device, personal or otherwise, received the offensive messages.

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HIV Employment Discrimination Still an Issue in US, UK

Employment law and licensing practices in the United States and the United Kingdom are making it increasingly difficult for people living with HIV to enter the workforce, further increasing stigma and discrimination, according to two studies presented Tuesday, July 34, at the XIX International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2012) in Washington, DC.

The first study, presented by Alison Yager, JD, of the HIV Law Project in New York, focused on professional licensing practices within the United States and how broad language can often lead to unlawful denial of licenses.

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Friday, November 16, 2012

Women Must Stand Up for Themselves in the Workplace


Certainly, women occupy more roles of power today, but women who ascend and retain positions of leadership remain few. While women make up more than half of the number of students in higher education and outperform their male classmates, (in number of advanced degrees earned in all fields but science and technology) that has not translated into gender equity or a significant increase in leadership roles.

There are many reasons why women have not achieved more positions of leadership, including access to education, gender stereotypes, and workplace culture. There is another reason, I believe, and I experienced it personally. Women need to develop personal fortitude and clear strategies to navigate complex male-dominated workforces. Future women leaders need us to explain to them clearly that there may be many difficult days ahead and they will need to build up their “armor” to prepare for those times. I believe the more women talk about their own very challenging times and what they did in response, the more we can help the next generation of women leaders excel.

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Tuesday, November 13, 2012

What Does Your Retirement Plan Really Cost?

Are you shopping for a new 401(k) plan for your employees this holiday season? For many employers, the impetus for switching providers comes from new fee-disclosure rules that took effect in July 2012. The rules require providers to detail all costs associated with their 401(k) plans. The idea was to improve transparency by preventing providers from hiding fees, thereby helping employers shop for the best options to their employees.
But the disclosure rules don’t apply to the proposals from retirement plan companies soliciting business.

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