FunnyBusiness: Everything About Business Except The Bottom Line

News Alert: Happy Flight Attendants on NWA Flight

The demeanor of the flight attendants were so out of character for Northwest Airlines that I was compelled to say something. Turns out I was not alone.

My son Noah ,who was sitting several aisles away from me  on the flight, mentioned as we were waiting for our luggage that the flight attendants were  FRIENDLY.

Oh and they were FUNNY.

This was Monday. Three days before the airlines was scheduled to come out of bankruptcy.

During our conversation I told Noah that they were so nice that I actually said something to them. That's when Noah said he did too. Friendly and Funny NWA flight attendants deserve a comment.

Anyone who has had to travel on NWA during the turbulent last five years, knows that on the customer service side, they've had some mighty cranky flight attendants. Sometimes downright rude. There has been no hiding that these union employees were not thrilled they were pouring "one for the kipper."

But back to Monday's flight. It was ala Southwest Airlines. Joking around. Actually smiling and talking to passengers. It was so off[-putting that I mentioned it to the flight attendant who in an act of absolute generosity not normally seen on NWA, served me an entire can of Bloody Mary Mix sans the vodka

When I said how unusual  it was to see happy flight attendants she said, " we hear that a lot."

While NWA and their shareholders may start smiling a bit more, passengers shouldn't think that my Hartford to Minneapolis trip is an indication of a trend.

Your Global Travel News is reporting that even though NWA has survived its financial struggles, its battle with employees,who are none to happy in giving up $1.4 billion annually in compensation ,could still be its undoing.

"Employee rage swelled this month when the company revealed a management compensation plan that awards Steenland stock and options potentially worth more than USD$20 million.

“Northwest may be emerging from Chapter 11, but it has a long way to go,” said Anthony Sabino, a law professor at St. John’s University in New York.

“Much of the carrier’s unionized work force is tremendously unhappy. And in an intensely competitive and service-oriented industry such as the airlines, the bad blood could cost Northwest dearly, if not doom it altogether,” he said."

On Tuesday, the flight attendants begrudgingly agreed to a new contract. According to the Liz Fedor at the Star Tribune

"It is not a contract that any labor organization wants to pass to their members for a vote," said Andy Wisbacher, vice president of the Northwest branch of the Association of Flight Attendants (AFA).

But Wisbacher said the agreement -- the two sides' third attempt at a contract since 2006 -- passed partly because a rejection would mean the loss of a $182 million bankruptcy claim. He also said union leaders had run into legal roadblocks that prevented them from negotiating a better deal.

"We've been failed by the courts and failed by the National Mediation Board. That caused some flight attendants to vote yes," Wisbacher said."

According to the article, under the new contract a flight attendant with 15 years experience  who flies 75 hours a month will earn $35,433 a year.

Image Credit: Betty In The Sky With A Suitcase.

 

 

Would you share your salary with co-workers?

As part of their survey on Money and Ethics,  Money Magazine recently asked people whether they agreed or disagreed with this statement: "You should never let your co-workers know how much you make."

On the online survey, I was out of step with 99% of the responders.  I strongly disagreed with the statement.  I am a big proponent of everyone knowing exactly what everyone else is making. I believe sharing salaries is good for business.

Talk to most employee consultants and they say talking about salaries with co-workers is a bad idea. My online search found just one consultant who agrees with me - Alexander Kjerulf who consults on how to be happy at work.

The case against secret salaries There are three major reasons why salaries secret are silly:    1. It frustrates employees because any unfairness (real or perceived) can’t be addressed directly.    2. They’re not secret anyway. People talk, you know.    3. It perpetuates unfair salaries which is bad for people and for the organization

It's that third bullet that got my attention. Every couple of months a survey or study is released saying that women typically earn less than men. The reasons are endless: we don't know how to negotiate, we are moms, we don't work as hard as men, we aren't willing to do the same jobs as men and on and on and on.

Kjerulf says the reason salaries are treated like state secrets is that they are basically unfair and making them open feels dangerous in many workplaces. Yet,most employee consulants say keeping your salary to yourself is good business..

In an article  called shhh, they're talking salaryin USA TODAY from 2002,

Bob Lambert, managing partner at Christian & Timbers in Irvine, Calif., agrees that firing is not the answer to silencing salary talk. "Sit down with people, talk to them about the problem." Be clear: It's not OK to talk salary at the office. "Discussing compensation makes people uncomfortable because there is implied pressure for them to reciprocate by disclosing their salary," Miller says. Still tempted to talk about what you're making? Don't. "It's in your best interest to keep that information to yourself," Miller says. "Smart people listen but don't talk about their own salary." Think about it from your boss' standpoint. If you just got a raise, don't make them regret it by notifying the entire office.

Many people will tell you that their company policy forbids discussion of salaries and a violation is a fire-able offense. Not so fast. There's this thing called the National Labor Relations Act

Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act gives the vast majority of private sector employees the right to engage in concerted activities for mutual aid and protection. In order to exercise those Section 7 rights effectively, employees must be able to discuss workplace issues and information with their coworkers and with union organizers. The National Labor Relations Board has repeatedly recognized that the discussion of wages and other terms and conditions of employment is protected by Section 7. And the Labor Board has repeatedly held, over many decades, that employer rules that can be reasonably interpreted as restricting employees from discussing wages, rates of pay, salaries, breaks, discipline, work rules, and other terms and conditions of employment violate federal labor law.

As women try to equalize the pay disparity that plagues this country, one step is to advocate a open salary culture in the workplace. As Kjerouf says,

The case for open salaries
Making salaries public (inside the company of course) has some major advantages:
1. Salaries will become more fair. The system gets a chance to adjust itself.    
2. It will be easier to retain the best employees because they’re more likely to feel they’re getting a fair salary.    
3. The pressure is on the people with the high salaries to earn their keep. Everybody has to pull their weight - the higher the salary, the larger the weight.

While consultants are saying don't ask and don't tell, CNN.com recently carried an article  encouraging people to find out if they were underpaid, the subhead to the article reads Sharing salary information with colleagues is dangerous, difficult and, if you play it right, pretty darned useful.

Have you shared your salary? Would you share your salary? And do you think that having an open culture on salary could finally help women  close the pay gap?

This is cross-posted at Blogher

Mommy Bias is not a figment of your imagination

  It's the question that keeps on asking. Are moms discriminated in the workplace? Or, is it just another femi-nazi whine? In writing about this issue,Diane Danielson of The Women's Dish refers to a column by Ellen Goodman who shared the findings of a  experiment by Cornell University sociologist Shelley Correll.

"She and her colleagues at Cornell University created an ideal job applicant with a successful track record, an uninterrupted work history, a boffo resume, the whole deal. Then they tucked a little telltale factoid into some of the resumes with a tip-off about mom-ness. It described her as an officer in a parent-teacher association. And -- zap -- she was mommified. Moms were seen as less competent and committed. Moms were half as likely to be hired as childless women or men with or without kids. Moms were offered $11,000 less in starting pay than non-moms. And, just for good measure, they were also judged more harshly for tardiness."

Danielson wasn't the only blogger citing Goodman's column. Catherine Price  of Salon.com's Broadstreet also wrote about mommification.

"Said Correll, "Just the mention of the PTA had that effect ... Imagine the effect of a two-year absence from the workforce or part-time work." Frankly, I don't want to. It strikes me as crazy that an allusion to motherhood would have such a deep impact on the way a woman was professionally treated. After all, Correll was comparing these mothers not only with childless women but with fathers. That means the discrimination is not just based on parenthood but on the gender of the parent. Despite all our talk of equality in child raising, men are still thought of as putting their jobs above their families, while women are assumed to shirk professional responsibilities for the sake of their kids. That's unfair both to family-focused fathers and to working mothers, who, as Goodman puts it, are still being "mommified."

What's a working mom to do? According to the folks at Our Bodies Our Blog women do have the option to join MomsRising.org -an organization that advocates for changes in public policy.

"More than 90,000 people have registered, galvanizing around six main issues: family leave, flex time, health insurance, child care, fair wages and children's activities, such as better after-school programs. Their proposals are not new, but together they create a "motherhood" agenda that has attracted a fresh enthusiasm," writes Donna St. George in a profile of MomsRising that was published on Mother's Day.

In that Washington Post article St. George reports,

MomsRising stands out for its working-mother focus and also as an example of new-style, online community organizing. Co-founder Joan Blades also helped launch the liberal group MoveOn.org -- "the great success story of Internet politics," said Michael Cornfield, who wrote a book on the topic. The group may revive debate on family-friendly issues that have idled in recent years, said Ronnee Schreiber of San Diego State University, who studies women and politics. With Democrats in control of Congress, she said, "I think it could go somewhere."

Meantime,working moms have to deal with the reality of their situation. In reflecting on this issue Diane Danielson wrote,

It reminds me of a passage in that hilarious book, I Don't Know How She Does It by Allison Pearson, where the harried mom has managed to get the kids to school, fake bake a pie for the school event, and make it to the office on time only to be chastised for being distracted, while her male colleague announces he leaving early to do something with his kids, and everyone smiles and says "awwwww, isn't he sweet."  I admit, for a funny book, that scene brought me to tears.

Me too.

This is cross-posted at Blogher

The Break UP: Will you still love it when you learn who is behind it?

If you happen to visit a media blog this week there's a good chance you are going to find The Break Up -a movie about the disintegrating relationship between advertising and consumers. While the movie is delighting, what is taking many by surprise is that its a Microsoft project.

The Break Up
Uploaded by geertdesager

Geert Desager is the person behind the film. You can learn more about his project at his blog- Bring The  Love Back

 

Oh, and he promises to have more movies very soon . However, he does share,

Also, by the end of the month, I’ll be able to tell you whether I still work as a Marketing Manager at Microsoft, or whether this project finally turned itself against me ;-)

The New Consumer Revenge Art: www.feelingcingular.com

Customers of the New AT&T ( formerly Cingular, formerly the old AT&T) may experience a buzzing sound around certain other electronic devices. It's called RF interference and Bill at the Sound & Audio Contractor does a great job of explaining the cause and potential solutions to the problem.

Justin Callaway is one of those customers who experienced RF interference. He believes the interference was so severe it blew is audio speaker. 

Like many customers with a customer complaint, he called customer service. However, that's where your typical consumer ends.

Justin is working on a masters degree in media studies at The New School. Once he discovered that the New AT&T knew about potential problems with RF interference but didn't warn customers about it, he decided to warn consumers himself.

Think of it as the new consumer revenge art : there's the website: www.feelingcingular.com  and the animated film

The animated film was posted to YouTube two weeks ago. A little more than two thousand people have watched it on YouTube.

The Consumerist--- who coined the phrase Consumer Revenge Art-- says the film has had over 3,000 views since it was posted on April 30th.

How many people have to see the film or visit the parody website before AT&T begins to feel the consumer pressure?
Last year, a disgruntled AOL customer managed to force the company to make public statements about their policies after releasing an audio of his conversation where a customer service rep would not let him "quit" the company.

Also last year, another consumer embarassed Comcast by showing their own technician fall asleep because he had to stay on hold so long to get through to the company.

The New Consumer Revenge Art. Could it be that one piece of art is worth a 1000 consumer calls?

Is your laptop having a hot flash?

  Warning: bringing your laptop to bed could cause your computer to experience a hot flash.

You can read all about it, at my post on Blogher.

On-boarding and Off-Boarding

On my first day on the job at WWBT-TV  in Richmond, Virginia in 1973,  I thought my news director ended our meeting by saying, "welcome aboard!"

Throughout the day as I met people the refrain was the same. I thought they were saying,  "Welcome aboard!"

Fast Forward to Minneapolis circa 2007. Walking with my link to corporate America along the lovely Mississippi my link mentioned that she had just attended an off-boarding event that day.

"So," I asked, " In your world what is an off-boarding event?"

" It ' s when we acknowledge  the contribution folks( who accepted the company package)  made to the company."

In an earlier day it would be a going away party. In an earlier day these folks would be laid off. Or accepting a forced early retirement. Of course the off boarding event was all of that and more.

It' just that we can't say it.  They are neither hired or fired. They are on-boarded and off-boarded.

Deploy Solutions(tm) markets a product called Deploy Offboarding(tm)

"Deploy OffBoarding is an integrated and configurable module of the Deploy Enterprise Talent Suite™ that automates many of the time-consuming tasks associated with processing employee terminations or separations. Whether an organization and its employee(s) separate in a voluntary (e.g., employee resignation) or involuntary manner (e.g., layoff or dismissal initiated by the company), the solution provides a consistent process and highly manageable tools for gathering relevant information, triggering time-critical actions (e.g. conducting exit interviews, notifying payroll systems and benefits partners, etc.) and reducing the processing costs and compliance risks associated with employment termination."

If I were off-boarded because I had quit my job  voluntarily for a much better opportunity, I would not want the same verbiage used to describe that process  as someone who was fired. Call me sentimental but there is a difference. But that's  not what really has me worked up about this on-boarding and off-boarding thing.

What last night' conversation made me realize is that I have been walking around for 34 years thinking people aid one thing to me when they actually said something else.

For 34 years I've thought that when someone joins a company you are supposed to say, "Welcome aboard!"Evidently  they weren't saying that at all. They were saying,welcome on-board.

Which explains if you go on then you have to eventually come off. It' how you come off that makes the difference.

For me, it alway felt like I was walking the plank.

Credit Image: Flickr member webg33k

Not Your Mother's Law Firm Anymore

If you happen to be in Chicago and hoped to see this in person, you won't. The billboard has been prematurely removed.

Seems that it received a bit too much attention from both the media and other attorneys who think it may have crossed the invisible "line in the sand."
As Joe. My. God writes,

"...even an association of divorce lawyers calling it "grotesque, undignified, and offensive." (Because divorce lawyers are such a tender, easily offended bunch.) Whatever you think about the billboard, you have to hand it to its creators, who are facing professional sanctions for "conducting unbecoming" or some such nonsense. Incidentally, the law firm here is headed by a woman and that's her personal trainer's torso on the right."

Lawyers Gone Wild, a post by David W. Boles at Urban Semiotic  looks at the issue of advetising and the law.In that post, Boles highlights a quote from USA Today, 

“I think law firm advertising is boring,” says founder Corri Fetman. “This ad says something about our firm and who we are. … We’re extremely aggressive.”

Some attorneys are upset about the divorce attorney’s sexy ad that features photos of a woman’s and man’s buff torsos:

“It really sheds a very, very terrible light on the profession — totally undignified,” said Joe Ducanto, who founded the American Academy of Matrimonial Attorneys decades ago to help raise the image of divorce lawyers. “Women have had a tough enough time making their way in the profession without her turning around and denigrating them as well.”

Fetman replies that her ad isn’t promoting easy divorces. It is promoting “happiness.”

“Just because you see a billboard with a hot body on it, it doesn’t cause you to leave your spouse,” Fetman said.

“If you’re already going to leave your spouse, the ad will appeal to you. If you do want to leave, you don’t have to feel bad about it. Be honest with yourself and with your spouse.”

At BlogHer, the billboard left Jean Satterwhite with a ton of questions,

"Disgusting?  A perversion of an event in the life of a couple that already has its share of pain?  A        brilliant PR move?

Did the billboard go too far or was it just good PR marketing to get the firm noticed? Does it trivialize divorce or was it just another way for a firm to get business in a cut throat area of law? If you were dead set on getting a divorce, is this the law firm you would walk to represent you?"

Contracts, Do you enforce them?

Sometime this week,  attorneys for Don Imus are expected to  file a $120 million lawsuit against CBS claiming, " they got what they bargained for because of a clause in his contract encouraging him to be irreverent and controversial---not to mention the networks  had the opportunity to censor him with a five second delay."

Meanwhile Deborah Jeane Palfrey, aka The D.C. Madame claims that she is not guilty of running an illegal prostitution ring because of the contracts she had her escorts sign. In an article in the Washington Post, reporter Sue Anne Pressley Montes writes,

Palfrey's legal strategy is to aver she had no idea that the women working for her ever engaged in prostitution. In papers filed in U.S District Court, Palfrey alleged that a former escort identified as Paula Neble and 15 "Jane Does" breached their contracts by engaging in illegal sex.

As far as contracts go, I sign them because you have to. Rarely when a relationship has not worked out have I even looked at the terms of the contract. In other words, I have the contracts and in some cases I could probably negotiate more money, but I don't.

I don't think I'm alone. Anecdotal that it is, my experience says independent consultants rarely fight a contract breech. In theWebmaster World.com forum a new member, TMarie posed a question about client not living up to their side of an agreement. The response was typical, 

Above all, my advice is to steer away from playing hardball. Your reputation can be damaged and there's almost never any result but bad blood on both sides. In most cases the client really is struggling to come up with the content - and if you discuss things in a disposition of looking for agreement you can usually find a resolution that both sides can live with. When it's a smaller contract, the amount of cash involved usually isn't make or break anyway and certainly not worth traching your own reputation and future earning power. When it's a bigger contract, you definitely want some language in their about how you handle client defaults on deliverables. But again it's still better to play nice instead of enforcing the letter of the contract.

As an independent contractor,filing a lawsuit is usually more costly than the disputed amount of the contract. I'm not alone in my skepticism.Lori Widmer is a writer who blogs at Words On The Page.

Upon the attorney’s advice, the writer billed the client for payment in full. The client came back with a note saying he owed her nothing and in fact, the writer needed to reimburse him for all he’d paid her to date. Upon reminding him that he’d broken the contract by firing her after she’d performed exactly as he’d requested in the contract, the writer rebilled and suggested he pay to avoid litigation. The client was upset and threatened a countersuit. In the end, the relationship ended horribly, but the writer did receive one-half of the amount due from the client.

Once I  contacted an attorney after I believed an employer had breeched my contract and created a hostile working environment. The attorney listened and then advised me to use the contract as a leverage to negotiate my severance package.

While the attorney said that I had a case, he also said it wasn't worth the time, stress,and potential professional damage I would incur by suing an employer. In other words, I was in the right but the price I would pay was too high.

I took his advice, leveraged the package,and smiled all the way to the bank.

Samuel Goldwyn said it best, " A verbal contract isn't worth the paper it's written on."

This is cross-posted at Blogher

Stay At Home Dads do the job their own way

As of the 2002 census there were a reported 189,000 Stay At Home Dads. Everyone thinks that is a under-reported number.  Last July The San Francisco Chronicle reported on the day in a life of a stay at home dad.

"As the demographic grows and the raising-children-is-women's-work stigma subsides, most stay-at-home fathers will tell you their job isn't a novelty anymore. But even though there are a great many similarities between moms and dads who raise children full time, there are also some qualities that set daddies apart.

While each dad has a unique story, they share some distinct traits -- whether it's a stubbornness when it comes to asking for help or a newfound appreciation for their own mothers. A few misguided fathers walked into the job thinking stay-at-home mothers have an easy gig, and in a flurry of dirty diapers, constant feedings and unpredictable nap times were proven wrong.

And some dads describe an eerie feeling similar to missing a flight and then meeting the love of your life in the airport bar -- knowing if they had followed their traditional gender role, or let someone else take care of their children, they would have missed out on the greatest experience of their lives.

As part of its onBeing series the Washington Post features Jeffrey Barehand--  who talks about the job of being  a a SAHD (Stay At Home Dad)

to Nordette and Susan Wagner  at Blogher for sharing this video. It is beautiful.