Mass Exodus Because of Rumors

I recently attended a webinar hosted by Drake Beam Morin on communications strategy  for reduction in forces (RIFs) and learned an interesting fact.  The host said that a layoff of 1% of the company’s employee population may result in up to a 33% turnover rate, if handled inappropriately.  This is largerly due to the lack of and/or lateness of direct information to the employees and the hugely insane rumor mill which results.

This is one of those ridiculous things that cost companies a ton of money and can be easily avoided.  Why are organizations so afraid of speaking to their employees about organizational change?  It can cost an organization anywhere from $20K-$150K to replace a skilled employee.  When an employee thinks they may soon be canned, they start shopping their resume.  Why risk losing 100 valued employees for a pending organization realignment which might only impact 5 employees.  Are you really going to put $1.5M at risk due to shoddy communication and the fear of being direct to your employee population?   

Work Issues Beats Death Anyday

A colleague of mine forwarded me one of the most popular videos that is flying around the internet about a professor at Carnegie Mellon named, Randy Pausch, who has terminal cancer and has been given only months to live.  A married, father of three, he gave his final lecture at CM, which has been downloaded over a million times.  He was asked to redelver his lecutre on the Oprah show.  I encourage each of you to take a listen.  The next time you bellyache about your situation at work, think about Randy.

I Vant Chore Blood! And I’ll Pay You For Time From Work. . .

So how cool is this?  I read in this blog that in December 2007, New York has required that employers allow paid time off for employees who work more than 20 hours a week to give blood. 

I know that at Microsoft, the company encourages giving blood at any time, including work hours.  Are there other companies that do this too?  What do you think about this concept going more mainstream?

Puff, Puff, Pass. . What? I can’t smoke pot at work?

The California Supreme Court has ruled that an employer may terminate an employee for using marijuana for medical purposes.  In Ross v. RagingWire Telecommunications, Inc. the employee, Gary Ross, suffered from strain and muscle spasms in his back due to his service in the U.S. Air Force.  The employer, RagingWire, offered Mr. Ross a job, but required him to take a drug test.  Mr. Ross tested positive for marijuana use, and RagingWire terminated him as a result.  Mr. Ross filed a lawsuit claiming that RagingWire discriminated against him on the basis of his disability and wrongfully terminated him.

Mr. Ross’s main argument was that The Compassionate Use Act of 1996, which gives a person who uses marijuana for medical purposes a defense to certain crimes, required RagingWire to accommodate his disability by permitting him to use marijuana to treat his pain.  The Court rejected Mr. Ross’s argument, finding that the Compassionate Use Act did not legalize marijuana use per se, but merely provided a defense to criminal charges under particular circumstances.    

The Court acknowledged that marijuana still had a potential for abuse and that employers continued to have a legitimate interest in whether an employee uses the drug.  The Court declined to extend the protections of the Compassionate Use Act any further than the plain language of the Act and into the employer-employee relationship.   Therefore, the Court dismissed Mr. Ross’s lawsuit.

A lonely world for me

On this Sunday, I find myself in need of a personal rant and since it is my blog, I can do just that, right?  I must admit that I am perplexed about something. 

Throughout my entire career, I’ve been known and sought out as the “answer gal.”  The one who has insights and advice about whatever messed up is going on in someone else’s career.  In a multitude of ways, I seem to be able to bring clarity in a world of craziness and help the colleague zone in on an appropriate plan of action for them and their current situation.  And if I’m allowed to toot my own horn, I must admit that this is the gift that God has given me.  So bear with me as I “TOOT, TOOT”!  LOL!

But the downside of having this gift seems to be the perception of others not to consider me their “equal” and seeing them put me at arms length, as one would do a priest, lawyer or mentor.  I’m valuable enough to seek out to address their current firestorm, but it seems that because their share a high level of vulnerability with me, it seems that they feel shy about deepening the professional relationship outside of our previous counsel. 

So, it becomes a lonely world for me.  I have thousands of valued friends, but very few confidants.  I dunno.  Maybe that’s a good thing?  I’m trying to tackle the balance of the give-get in every established relationship.  I feel that I’m always more on the “give” side.  Maybe that’s the “curse” of my gift.  Maybe I just need to shut up and thank the stars that I’m not in some of the unfortunate situations many families/individuals find themselves in.  I dunno. . . . . . . .

Our soldiers may get fired, but their families are now allowed to go broke caring for them

This is part two of my previous post on the the raw deal many military families are receiving.  I found this report by Sheppard Mullen on how the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) was amended to protect military families.

Long story short, the act was amended to allow an employee to take up to 26 workweeks of leave to care for an injured or ill member of that employee’s immediate family who is a “covered service member in the military.”  Actually this is awesome, considering how many of our soldiers are coming back seriously injured.  However, one of the things folks don’t know about is that this leave is unpaid.  It only protects the job- not the salary. 

So, many of the soldiers are coming back to find themselves unemployed and if they happen to be injuried, their family members can care for them but must do it with no incoming coming into the household.  This really sucks!

Welcome Home Soldiers! By the way, you’re fired.

In all reality, many of our soldiers returning home from overseas assignments have difficulties transitoning to both home and professional life.  On top of it, many soldiers are returning to find themselves receiving a pink slip from their former employer or their business gone down the tubes if they are an entrepreneur/small business owner.  Your Business on MSNBC recently had a feature story on this exact topic.   Can you believe that upon returning home, many soldiers are either demoted or fired?  Check out Mindy Chaplin’s blog for her report of some extremely outrageous stories and the legal implications.    I’m including her lessons learned below, for your reference.

Lessons Learned … Without Going to Court

• Discipline in real time. Companies should provide immediate performance feedback to employees in order to avoid any intervening issues, like military leave (or pregnancy leave), from popping up and making the situation complex. That’s how retaliation cases get started.
• Document without any discriminatory references. Never document or make references to protected characteristics (age, race, sex, etc.) or activities (military leave, whistleblowing, etc.) in relation to an employee’s performance. Doing so can create an inference of discrimination and/or retaliation. For example, avoid documenting, “If she did not go out on military leave for so long she could have been put up for a management position sooner.” Never connect the two concepts together.
• Express no hostility about employees engaged in military duties. The courts considers this kind of testimony and specifically in this case they did. Allegedly, a Target manager made comments about how the company should “recruit less from the military to reduce the company’s exposure to personnel vacancies.” See the two concepts connected together? (Target noted the Deaprtment of Defense has recognized it as a “five-star” employer that frequently recruits from the military.)
• Look at your watches, calendars & sun dials. Map out the protected leave dates (military, family, medical, etc.) and the proposed employment action date(s) on a timeline. If you think they look too closely connected, what do you think a sympathetic jury will think?
• Try an “appreciative” welcome home approach. What ever happened to the upbeat, happy, “thanks-for-serving-our-county” welcome home handshake or party? Think about this being the first response rather than the downer of an adverse employment action followed by lawsuits, bad press and hard feelings.

The Homeless’ Palaces

As I was catching up on today’s news, MSNBC has an interesting story on how many of the homeless are squatting in recently foreclosed homes which are not yet boarded up because many still have the lights & water running.  In fact, there are quite a few homeless who prefer scouting out these properties over staying in a shelter because they don’t have to adhere to many of the shelter’s rules, while still living in a comparable “lap of luxury”.

 Talk about the ultimate lifestyle transition for the homeless & the unemployed!

Hate your job? Count your blessings.

I came across a short, but interesting  post today from a guy named Joe who talks about how people who bellyache about their jobs should remind themselves of the thousands and thousands of people who are unemployed and would trade places with them in a hot second.

The post kind of touched my heart because I currently have quite a few friends who were recently laid off, are looking for jobs, and are having mixed levels of success.  I also have quite a few friends who are one paycheck away from losing their homes due to the current mortgage crisis. 

I’m not convinced that their is such a thing as an “ideal” job, becuase by definition, having a “job” means answering to a boss and not having complete control over one’s destiny.  I also don’t think there is a large population of employees who would choose to work a job, if they didn’t have to.  Having said that, if you have to work a job, count your blessings because there is another person out there who would trade places with you in a hot second.

I was in London last week, attending a global team off-site with some of my colleagues at Microsoft.  This was my first trip to London, and as an African American, I was surprised how diverse the city was.

But I must say that the job doldrums that exist in the US also exist “across the pond” as well.  I met this really handsome business banker, named Jacob, who said he stopped me because of my beautiful smile and eyes (GAG!).  Actually, he was very polite and in our short walk to the business district, I learned that he hated his job and really wanted to become a motivational speaker.  He had just recently met Les Brown and was proud to show me the picture they had taken, which was in his phone.

 Jacob was a business associate in the mortgage department and the UK is suffering from a similar housing and mortgage crisis at the U.S.  He hated not being able to meet his mortgage sales quota and the forlorn look in his customers eyes when they could not get approved for a mortgage really affected his days. 

I asked Jacob what was holding him back from going for his dream and seeking to be truly happy.  He smiled, and stated “fear”.  I share this because this is what holds alot of us back from our dreams.  Me included.