Women in Business: Their Own Worst Enemy?

With women holding so few key roles and leadership positions in boardrooms around the world, you might think we’d spend time building each other up rather than tearing each other down. But it seems that despite constant calls for more stringent gender equality measures in the workplace, it can often be women themselves sabotaging progress.
In 2010 Kelly Valen released a hard-hitting book entitled The Twisted Sisterhood, which revealedthat almost 90 percent of the 3,000-plus women who took part in her survey frequently felt “currents of meanness and negativity emanating from other females” and that almost 85 percent of those who took part in the 50-question survey admitted having suffered “serious, life-altering knocks at the hands of other women”.
Valen went on to say that there was “a distinct undercurrent of meanness and negativity plaguing our gender, and that these secret, social battles are waged, in many cases, by the very same women singing the praises of girl power, feminism, and female friendship in their lives”.
It’s a ‘Man’s World’ — so why aren’t we women helping one another?
It is speculated that such ‘sniper sister’ attitudes stem from a distinct feeling that there’s not enough success to go around; because we live in what is still a male-dominated society, women are apt to feel like they are presented with fewer opportunities, and thus have more motive for one-upmanship (or one-upwomanship) than men perhaps do.
Research by the Institute of Leadership and Management on ambition and gender found different attitudes between men and women. Compared to their male counterparts, they tend to lack self-belief and confidence — which leads to a cautious approach to job opportunities and a reluctance to take risks in order to further their careers.
Traditionally, young girls are also taught conflict avoidance roles — not necessarily a bad thing in school, but in a workplace environment this can lead to a continuation of passive-aggressive patterns into adulthood. Instead of addressing a conflict directly, some women whisper – not all, but it only takes a few to have a knock-on effect on another woman’s career. Whether perpetuating rumors that a female colleague only got the job because she’s good-looking or even because she must be sleeping with the boss, such spite takes its toll.
As well as this, young girls are often socialized not to compete, according to a Women In Higher Education article which goes on to state that relationships are particularly central to women’s lives, and that they expect their friendships to be on a level playing field; thus, when something affects this balance, such as a promotion, it raises feelings of insecurity. It seems women are far more likely to judge their professional abilities against those of other female colleagues than those of males.
In fact, a recent Oxygen Media poll found that 65 percent of women resent other women who are either in power, or act like they are.
This pervading culture of comparison could work for the positive; but only if women start treating the issue as one of a non-gendered meritocracy and use it to healthily fuel their own and other women’s ambitions.
Instead, often women still think they should be handed things just for being women – a problem which perpetuates feelings of resentment and negativity from both those struggling to promote for gender equality and professional meritocracy as well as those who are happy to take such isolated individuals as spokespeople for the equality movement and use it for their own misogynistic means.
Intentionally or not, it seems many of us women are guilty of at least one of the above. Whether by harboring insecurities which prevent us from stepping forward and taking on a new challenge, intentionally deriding the success and progress of other women or even nurturing illusions of inviting social condemnation simply because we happen to be women, we need to work together to stop this kind of behavior.

Pregnancy Leave: Study Suggests Flexible Schedules Could Be Better For Bottom Line

Pregnant women face numerous challenges at work – discrimination in hiringand the absence of federally mandated maternity leave, to name two. However, one of the issues they deal with gets much less press than the others: pregnancy-related sick leave. A recent study suggests that flexible schedules might reduce the amount of time pregnant women take off due to pregnancy-related illness.
The research, conducted by the Division of Psychiatry at Norway’s Stavanger University Hospital and published in the November 2012 issue of BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, and examined the relationship between the number of sick days pregnant women take and their work schedules. The findings, summarized in a press release, indicated that women working for employers who granted them greater flexibility took fewer sick days. The results seemed to support the idea that flexible schedules make pregnant workers more, not less, productive while enabling them to better attend to their prenatal health.
The researchers tracked 2,918 pregnant working women via questionnaires distributed at weeks 17 and 32 in the women’s pregnancies. They found that 75 percent went on sick leave at some point in their pregnancy and that the duration of work missed ranged from one week to 40 weeks with an average of eight weeks. Most notably, the researchers found that the 60 percent of women who cited flexible working environments took on average seven fewer sick days.
Thirty-five percent of women cited fatigue and problems with sleep as their main reason for taking time off, followed 32 percent with pelvic girdle pain – pain centered in the lower abdomen and back — and 23 percent with nausea or vomiting.
Granted, this study was conducted in Scandinavia, a region famous for its ample parental leave, where companies are also required to provide generous compensation for sick days. (The U.S. Federal Government, in comparison, does not force companies to provide any paid sick leave to employees.) However, John Thorp, BJOG Deputy-Editor-in-Chief, argued in a press release that “the factors that affect pregnant women are universal” and that the study “shows a clear link between working conditions and the duration of sick leave, which highlights the potential benefits for employers to have a support system in place.”
Dr. Signe Dorheim, who co-authored the study with Bjorn Bjortvatn and Malin Eberhard-Gran, noted that flexible work schedules make sense for most women with health conditions. While nausea and pelvic girdle pain are pretty inextricably linked to pregnancy, participants’ fatigue could also have been tied to excessive stress at work. A flexible schedule would give women more opportunities to manage that fatigue, making them more productive in the long run. “Women who suffer from work-related fatigue, such as insomnia, are likely to require more time off” in a traditionally structured work week, Dr. Dorheim told Yahoo Lifestyle UK.
The findings appear to contradict the idea that accommodating the needs of pregnant women is bad for business and could provide an incentive for employers to offer more flexible schedules to pregnant employees.

Health and Wellness Programs – How to Start or Support Yours Right Now

Most people have heard about those “dream” companies that offer on-site fitness facilities with premier equipment, flat screen televisions and basketball courts, or an office café with a gourmet chef at the helm. But for most organizations, these high-end perks are out of reach because they simply don’t have the resources to invest.
The good news is that wellness efforts don’t need to be fancy or expensive to make an impact at work. With a little commitment, creativity and effort, your organization can start up a workplace wellness initiative, or support the success of one already in place, right here and right now.
Who has time for health and wellness initiatives?
As a leader, you probably already have a lot on your plate. From meeting deadlines and motivating your staff to managing employee performance issues, leading a team can be incredibly satisfying and equally challenging. You might think, “Who’s got time to pitch in with health and wellness initiatives?”
Numbers You Should Know
Before you close the book on helping out with health and wellness in your organization, consider:

• Employees who are sedentary, overweight, smoke and have a high alcohol intake miss work 50% more often than those who don’t have these four risk factors. They also use up two to three times more in health costs.
• Chronic conditions related to obesity cost Canada $4.6 billion in 2008, which included lost work time due to employee absences.
• In 2007 – 2009 24.1% of Canadians were obese. In the US that number hit 34.4%.
• According to the Canadian Mental Health Association, 83.1% of workers in Canada think stress in their organization is a big concern.
• High levels of job stress can double the risk for heart attack.

What happens when I encourage and support health and wellness?
It may take a little time, but organizations that support and promote health and wellness report:

• Fewer absences
• Better productivity
• Lower health costs (disability, worker’s compensation, benefits costs, etc.)
• Improved morale and loyalty

What can I do to create a healthier workplace now?
Everyone, especially leaders, can play a role in organizational health. If you’re lucky enough to have a workplace health and wellness committee, join it or encourage members of your team to sign on. Don’t have one?  Maybe it’s time to lead the way and start one.
In fact, the more diverse your team is, the more ideas and insights will be brought to the table. Whether you’re a large organization with a moderate budget or a smaller company with limited resources, these five quick tips can help get the ball rolling.

1. Look at the issues. Gather up whatever data you can and figure out if there are any specific health-related concerns or patterns. Have you noticed productivity slipping?  Are people getting sick more often? Has the vending machine become most employees’ lunch of choice?
2. Ask around. Whether you send out a formal survey, get feedback from a “healthy workplace focus group” or simply talk to people on their lunch break, find out what’s important to your employees. After all, building a high-end gym is meaningless if what people really want is simply the availability of healthy snacks.
3. Enlist others. A healthier path can sometimes feel like a lonely road. Get support from other members on your team. If you don’t ask, you may never discover that your quiet and collected colleague is actually a yoga guru or that your assistant is a healthy chef extraordinaire.
4. Start small and stick to it. The little things can make a huge difference. Set goals that are realistic for your time and resources and are consistent and ongoing. Some “small” healthy ideas include:
   • Forming a work team – be it bowling, soccer or baseball that plays every week.
   • Launching a “Fresh Friday” potluck event that focuses on healthy food.
   • Putting up a bulletin board in the lunchroom and asking employees to contribute “healthy hints” and recipes.
   • Negotiating corporate discounts with local gyms.
   • Handing out pedometers and honouring a weekly or monthly “Best Step Star”.
5. Celebrate the victories. Did the work soccer team win the championships? Or did that walking program result in some serious weight loss? Don’t forget to celebrate these wins! They not only make those participating feel connected, but also encourage others still on the sidelines to get involved.

What can I do to support ongoing initiatives?
If you already have a health and wellness program in place you can still do your part to lead the way by:

• Walking the talk. As a leader, you help to set the vibe for your team. If you eat chips for lunch every day while buried under paperwork in your office, you’re not so subtly letting your employees know health is low on your priority list. Instead, try embracing healthy initiatives and chances are at least some of your team will follow.
• Helping to sell. You likely have a lot more influence on workplace health than you realize. A personal invite from their boss to join the work soccer team or contribute to the monthly healthy potluck event can help team members feel included and motivated.
• Flexing for success. It’s one thing to wax poetic about the benefits of good health and quite another to actually support it. For the most part, employees need you to provide a little time and flexibility – whether it’s time to attend a wellness event, a committee meeting, or doling out a balanced enough workload so they have time to hit the gym after work.

Your support of employee health – no matter how big or how small – can go a long way in creating a healthier and more productive group that’s committed to supporting the team and you as a leader.

REPOST ARTICLE SOURCE:
 http://www.shepellfgi.com/EN-CA/Employees%20and%20Families/Wellness%20Articles/Healthy%20Working/_HealthWellnessPrograms.asp

3 Tips for Job-Seeking Boomers Hoping to Combat Age Discrimination

Recently, the research and consulting firm Millennial Branding firm teamed up with the career networking site Beyond.com to survey more than 5,000 job seekers about their job search. And they found that Baby Boomers — folks in their late forties to sixties — are having the toughest timefinding jobs compared to other generations.

According to the study’s findings, Boomers are searching the longest compared to Generation X or Gen Y. In fact, 25 percent of Boomers have been hunting for jobs for more than a year, while only 17 percent of Gen X and 10 percent of Gen Y have waited more than one year to land a job.
Even more importantly, 65 percent of Boomers feel employers have discriminated against them because of their age.

These results aren’t a huge shocker — there are plenty of reasons why employers might be wary of bringing older folks on board.

“They cost too much, might not seem relevant with the times, or don’t fit with thecorporate culture (if it’s a young startup for instance),” suggests Dan Schawbel, a Gen Y expert and founder of Millennial Branding.

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Hiring Discrimination Against Women

For decades, the status of women in the workplace has been debated everywhere from the boardroom to the courtroom. Working women are sometimes subjected to bias because of sex, in spite of numerous laws and regulations that prohibit employment discrimination targeting women. Court cases from district courts all the way to U.S. Supreme Court cases render decisions based on discriminatory employment practices against women and other protected groups in the workplace.

Issues Concerning Traditionally Female Occupations

Historically, women were relegated to office support and administrative positions such as clerk typists, secretaries and administrative assistants. Employers who engaged in unfair hiring practices attempted to justify making discriminatory hiring decisions for several reasons. Some employers believed women lacked the skills and qualifications necessary to perform nontraditional and higher-paid positions simply because of gender. Other employers who hired or promoted women into supervisory or management positions prevented those women from attaining higher-level roles, which is referred to as the “glass ceiling.” The glass ceiling is a metaphor used to describe a barrier where the targeted group–in this case, women–can see the higher rungs on a career ladder but are prevented from attaining more responsible and influential positions due to discrimination based on sex and business decisions that convey the message that men are more suited to leadership roles. This is evidenced by a study in 2003 conducted by University of California-Hayward professor Dr. Richard Drogin who discovered “women make up 72 percent of Wal-Mart’s total workforce, but only 33 percent of its managers.” Wal-Mart is the largest employer in the U.S. This was a disturbingly disproportionate number of women prevented from reaching higher-level positions, which ultimately led Wal-Mart to becoming the defendant in a national gender-bias lawsuit.

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The Worst CEOs of 2012

Who are the absolute worst chief executives of 2012? Sydney Finkelstein thinks he knows. The longtime professor at Dartmouth College’s Tuck School of Business is the author of 11 books with such titles as Why Smart Executives Fail and Think Again: Why Good Leaders Make Bad Decisions, so he knows a thing or two about utter failure. He’s been putting out his list for three years now, and last year it included the chief executives ofNetflix (NFLX), Research in Motion (RIM), and Hewlett-Packard (HPQ). Here’s the list (except where noted the companies didn’t respond to a request for comment):

1. Brian Dunn, who resigned as chief executive of Best Buy (BBY) in April after allegations surfaced that he had an inappropriate relationship with a much younger subordinate. That’s not why he’s on the list, though. Declining stock price, cratering same-store sales, loss of market share to more nimble competitors, and an addiction to share buybacks that cost the company $6.4 billion with little to show for it—that’s why he’s on the list.

2. Aubrey McClendon, the CEO of Chesapeake Energy (CHK) who apparently has trouble keeping his company’s finances and his own apart. According to Reuters, McClendon borrowed as much as $1.1 billion over three years in undisclosed loans against his stake in thousands of company wells and ran a $200 million oil-and-gas hedge fund on the side, an “obvious conflict of interest,” Finkelstein says. Use of the company jet (and company employees) for personal purposes and a corporate sponsorship deal for Oklahoma City Thunder while McClendon was an owner of the basketball team also didn’t help. Jim Gipson, a spokesman for Chesapeake Energy, declined to comment.

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Job disability a headache for U.S. recovery

(Reuters) – Monica Soltes was excited 10 years ago to leave Merrill Lynch and start her own business as an independent financial planner in San Diego. After she fell off a porch at her cousin’s cottage and broke her elbow, her dreams unraveled.

Following multiple surgeries that confined her to bed, Soltes was diagnosed with a hormonal disease that is weakening her bones. She also ran out of money, signed up for disability benefits and has been unable to work again.

The 47-year-old from Michigan is among the 8.7 million American workers on the U.S. disability rolls, an important part of the social safety net. Since the recession began in 2007, she has been joined by a record number of people seeking disability benefits, raising questions about the program’s solvency and casting a pall over future prospects for U.S. economic growth.

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Disability Employment: Are We at the Tipping Point?

Later this month, when our country marks the 22nd anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, many of the law’s champions will lament that the employment situation for our citizens with disabilities has not improved since the ADA was signed.

In recent years, that situation has gotten worse. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the disability workforce shrank by over 10 percent during the recession, five times faster than the non-disability workforce, which shrank by only about two percent.

And BLS data released earlier this month reveal that as the rest of the workforce has slowly begun to recover, the disability workforce has lagged. The number of working age Americans without disabilities participating in the labor force grew by almost 3 million in the past year. During the same period, the number of workers with disabilities declined by 94,000. Even at the high water mark for disability employment before the recession, only 37 percent of working age adults with disabilities were in the labor force.

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Christians Claim Workplace Discrimination in Landmark Case

LONDON — One of Europe’s highest courts is considering a landmark decision on the employment rights of Christians, including two British women who were disciplined for wearing crucifix necklaces at work.

They were among four Christians who this week took their cases to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg claiming workplace discrimination that a former Archbishop of Canterbury says has turned them into victims of a new secular orthodoxy.

The four, all Britons who claim that national laws failed to protect them, argue that their employers contravened European human rights legislation that bans religious discrimination and allows “freedom of thought, conscience and religion.”

A lawyer for the British government argued at a hearing in Strasbourg on Tuesday that these rights were protected only in the private sphere and not in the workplace.

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Employment Non-Discrimination Act

Qualified, hardworking Americans are denied job opportunities, fired or otherwise discriminated against just because they are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender (LGBT).  There is no federal law that consistently protects LGBT individuals from employment discrimination; it remains legal in 29 states to discriminate based on sexual orientation, and in 34 states to do so based on gender identity or expression.  As a result, LGBT people face serious discrimination in employment, including being fired, being denied a promotion, and experiencing harassment on the job.

What is the Employment Non-Discrimination Act?

The Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) would provide basic protections against workplace discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity.  ENDA simply affords to all Americans basic employment protection from discrimination based on irrational prejudice.  The bill is closely modeled on existing civil rights laws, including Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Americans with Disabilities Act.  The bill explicitly prohibits preferential treatment and quotas and does not permit disparate impact suits.  In addition, it exempts small businesses, religious organizations and the military, and does not require that domestic partner benefits be provided to the same-sex partners of employees.

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Discrimination lawsuits double as definition of ‘disability’ expands

The number of employment discrimination lawsuits under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) has nearly doubled in the past five years and seen a sharp increase in recent months, federal court records show, as the definition of “disability” has expanded and what many believe are baseless lawsuits are filed.

The increase follows changes to the law in 2008, when Congress said that courts had interpreted the definition of “disability” more narrowly than it desired.

In the last fiscal year, disability-related complaints lodged with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) also rose to their highest level, at 26,000, and payouts to complainants through that process nearly doubled to $103 million compared with the figure from 2007. That does not include money paid out to those who took their complaints to court.

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Filipino-Americans Win Discrimination Case in California

A group of Filipino American hospital employees in California have won in a case of national origin discrimination and harassment, the Asian Pacific American Legal Center (APALC) announced Monday.

The settlement is the largest for a workplace language discrimination case both in the U.S. west coast and the country’s healthcare service. It is also the largest language rights settlement ever secured by APALC.

The landmark victory was achieved by APALC, a member of the Asian American Center for Advancing Justice and the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) on behalf of 69 Filipino American hospital employees who were subject to national origin discrimination and harassment when the hospital singled them out for enforcement of an unlawful English only policy in violation of federal and state law.

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Cases of Genetic Discrimination

Although no genetic-employment discrimination case has been brought before U.S. federal or state courts, in 2001 the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission(EEOC) [eeoc.gov] settled the first lawsuit alleging this type of discrimination.

EEOC filed a suit against the Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) Railroad for secretly testing its employees for a rare genetic condition (hereditary neuropathy with liability to pressure palsies – HNPP) that causes carpal tunnel syndrome as one of its many symptoms. BNSF claimed that the testing was a way of determining whether the high incidence of repetitive-stress injuries among its employees was work-related. Besides testing for HNPP, company-paid doctors also were instructed to screen for several other medical conditions such as diabetes and alcoholism. BNSF employees examined by company doctors were not told that they were being genetically tested. One employee who refused testing was threatened with possible termination.

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Age Discrimination in the Workplace

Nearly a third of Massachusetts residents report that they or someone they know has experienced age discrimination, a new AARP surveyfinds.

According to Debbie Chalfie, AARP expert on age discrimination, older workers are concerned about keeping their jobs, and hiring bias has been a top issue during the economic slump. “Everyone has taken it on the chin during this recession, but older workers are the ones who don’t have the time to recover if they’ve lost their jobs, or used up their savings.”

Though national unemployment rates have declined somewhat since 2009, it still remains high, particularly for workers age 50 and over. In fact, the average length of unemployment between jobs for older workers is well over one year – an all-time high. “Age discrimination is continuing to be a barrier,” said Chalfie. “It is critical that those who need or want to work longer are able to do so.”

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Workplace discrimination prompts ‘whitened’ job applications

Ethnic minority women face discrimination “at every stage of the recruitment process”, a report by MPs says. But what is finding a job like for those affected?

Jorden Berkeley, a black 22-year-old university graduate from London, spent four months applying for jobs but getting no responses from bigger companies, and offers from elsewhere that were limited to unpaid work experience.

Then a careers adviser suggested Miss Berkeley drop her first name and start using her middle name, Elizabeth.

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Workplace Fairness and Performance Appraisal

There has been a lot of discussion in the HR blog world of late regarding the subject ofperformance appraisal. More and more people are dismissing the importance of the performance appraisal process. There are a number of arguments that have been used, most of which I have always said have more to do with the user than it does with the tool. But now I am not so sure. I am beginning to think it may have as much to do with a changing view of the concept of “fairness” in our society. So I wanted to get you thinking along those lines as the trend develops and people apply a new definition of “fairness” to the performance appraisal process.

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Workplace Fairness and the Role of the Union

We were very fortunate to welcome Al Brown on Friday (March  23) for our most recent Workplace Fairness Luncheon. Al is the Labour Relations Officer for the SAIT Faculty Association.  Al addressed the topic of the union and Workplace Fairness. He brings to the table a wealth of experience, and broad knowledge of the Alberta Labour Relations Code.

I asked Al what he considered the most important learning the non-union employer can gain from the union, and he suggested that it is the concept of fairness. Unions will step in to fill the breach when there is a perception of unfairness in a workplace.

The role of the union rep is one of witness, ensuring the worker is treated with fairness and fully understands the case and the circumstances. At SAIT, there is an opportunity for circumstances to be resolved at an informal meeting before the grievance process is initiated. This requires a good working relationship between the union and Human Resources.  Open and honest communication about the circumstances will ensure that the appropriate process is followed.

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Catholic social solutions to workplace fairness

Bruising industrial confrontations within Qantas and in Victorian hospitals during the latter half of last year pose pertinent questions as to whether alternative forms of ownership and control of workplaces might in some instances have more to offer than conventional wisdom may suppose.

A case in point is the great complex of worker-owned manufacturing, retail, financial, agricultural, civil engineering and support cooperatives and associated entities headquartered at Mondragon in the Basque region of Spain.

With Spanish unemployment levels following the global financial crisis standing at some 22 per cent, the Mondragon cooperatives have demonstrated impressive resilience, absorbing their share of economic hits and emerging largely unscathed.

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A Workplace Fairness Assessment at Vista Projects: Process, Results, and Benefits

Vista Projects embarked on a Workplace Fairness Assessment in November 2011, and the results have seen an increased more accessible profile for HR in the management of workplace conflict and a new tool for enhancing employee engagement.

In Alberta’s booming oil and gas sector it is becoming increasingly important for competitive companies to differentiate themselves for potential employees.  Vista Projects, a privately held full services engineering and procurement (EP) company, has been ranked among the best small and medium employers in Canada for three years since 2010, and they are not resting on their laurels.  In a few short years Vista Projects has grown to a mid-sized company of nearly 400 employees.  Management at Vista recognize the importance of cultivating, maintaining and promoting a healthy work environment and they are committed to working for it.

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Election 2012: Moving Forward on Fairness for Women in the Workplace

Women made a difference this election. Issues like fair pay received attention nationally and at the state level like never before. Women at all levels broke barriers. And a record number of women were elected to Congress. The results of this historic election represent great progress for women, and they have also created a great opportunity: a chance to move forward with real, concrete solutions to the challenges women and their families grapple with every day.

Challenges like unfair pay. Women who are employed full time in the United States are still being paid just 77 cents for every dollar paid to men, amounting to more than $11,000 in lost income each year. During many campaigns this election, elected officials and candidates talked about what this wage gap means for women and families. Now, it’s time to act.

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