FunnyBusiness: Everything About Business Except The Bottom Line

Bully Bully For You

  According to a recent study up to 30% of all American workers say they have been "bullied" at work.

Many Americans are familiar with sexual and racial harassment, but not generalized workplace bullying,” said study team member Sarah Tracy of Arizona State University. Bullying can lead to higher company costs including increased employee illness, use of sick days, and medical costs, ultimately affecting productivity, she added.

Workplace bullying can include “screaming, cursing, spreading vicious rumors, destroying the target’s property or work product, excessive criticism, and sometimes hitting, slapping, and shoving.” Subtle behaviors, such as silent treatment, disregard of requests and exclusion from meetings, count as bullying.

Who falls prey to the office bully? Surprisingly it is not the grown up version of the awkward kid on the playground. In fact, according to the experts, office bullies go for the people who have the most potential to succeed. Gary Namie is a psychologist who  not only studies workplace bullying but who has founded the nonprofit , BullyBusters,which is working to get states to pass anti-bullying workplace legislation.( 10 states have introduced legislation, none has passed a law)

"It's much different than school-yard bullying," he says. "This target isn't the kid with the Coke-bottle glasses."                          

Instead, workplace bullies tend to drive out colleagues they view as threats: those who are technically competent, independent, possess good social skills, and have strong ethics (and thus may be whistleblowers).

Targets tend to be reluctant to report bullying, primarily for fear of retribution, but also because they run the risk of being labeled a whiner or a snitch, or losing their job outright if the               bully is their superior.             

There is little evidence that workplace bullies go  on to commit workplace violence. According to the Center for Disease Control's National  Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, co-workers commit  fewer than one in 10 acts of workplace violence.

            

While workplace bullying hasn't gotten a lot of attention in the U.S, it does seem to be a topic that has been "on the radar"in the UK and Australia  for several years. There are  several websites devoted to dealing with workplace bullying including Bully Online and Bullying that has posters and lots of information on how to deal with bullies.

How can you tell if you have a bully environment in your office? According to BullyOnline,

If you have a serial bully on the staff they will reveal themselves by their department showing excessive rates of

• staff turnover
• sickness absence
• stress breakdowns
• deaths in service
• ill-health retirements
• early retirements
• uses of disciplinary procedures
• grievances initiated
• suspensions
• dismissals
• uses of private security firms to snoop on employees
• litigation including employment tribunals or legal action against     employees

Hat Tip to my buddy Harold for pointing me in the right direction.

Image Credit: Flickr member Indignico

Once again, it pays to be a hare aka The Story of a Sun Country Flight Attendant

When she decided to become a flight attendant 17 years ago she could have as easily applied at Northwest Airlines. 

Instead she opted for Sun Country-- a smaller , privately owned airlines also headquartered in The Twin Cities  that offered lower pay and fewer benefits.

" At the time we were flying to Oslo Norway and I am fluent in Norwegian," she explained.

She stayed with Sun Country because these days the airlines doesn't have lay overs.

" We do turnarounds. I leave the house in the morning and I'm often home before the kids get back from school."

She says she started as the same time that one of her friends started at Northwest Airlines. At the time the friend was making more money. She had more benefits.

Today, the flight attendant at Sun Country makes more than her friend---Northwest has slashed attendants salaries by nearly 40%. Morale is horrid.

Most importantly, the Sun Country flight attendant likes her job.She said, " we have fun." Of her friend she says, " she's not having much fun these days." Then she shudders.

Image Credit: Hare and Tortoise Sculpture in  Boston'sCopley Square . Created in 1995 by Nancy Schon as a tribute to all the runners who have participated in the Boston Marathon. Click here to read about the inspiration behind this popular Boston sculpture.

The Burka as business attire

In southern Afghanistan ,it's becoming increasingly dangerous to be a working woman.Writing in Canada's Globe and Mail, Jane Armstrong reports on how these women are coping.

Last month's assassination of activist Safia Ama Jan, the director of women's affairs for the province of Kandahar, who was gunned down outside her house as she left for work, put a chill in the hearts of female professionals. It harkened back to the time when the Taliban were in power and women were routinely beaten, mutilated and killed for disobeying their restrictive edicts. The women now say the death threats are on the rise, but local police can do nothing to protect them.

At Monday's gathering, eight women sat around a table in a shabby board room, lamenting the rise in violence. They are educated, married women with families. Like nearly all Kandahar women, they wear burkas in public — and remove the head-to-toe covering once inside their offices.

“When I leave for work in the morning, I don't know if I will be coming home,” one working woman lamented during a Monday-morning meeting at a women's resource centre in downtown Kandahar.

I change my route every day,” she continued. “I wear a different coloured burka. Everyone has fear.”

The weekly meetings are a chance for female professionals to gather and vent about the current spate of violence against women in this troubled city.

In Afghanistan  it seems the only way a woman can work is by wearing a burka out in public. And yet, in Europe several countries ban women from not only wearing burkas but the hijab- the most common form of headcovering for Muslim women. 

The issue of banning burkas is now being discussed in the UK after politican Jack Straw said he would like to ban burkas.

The veil question has exposed a staggering level of thoughtless illiberalism, and not just where you'd expect to find it. Hot off the mark, the Express consults its readers about a ban on the veil:

 

"An astounding 97% of Daily Express readers agreed a ban would help to safeguard racial harmony." It's not quite clear how this ban would be implemented. (Policemen ripping veils from women's faces? Asbos? Flinging wearers in jail?)

 

In response to the debate in England, Bill Maher brought up the issue of banning Burkas on his weekly HBO program. Maher asked the guests  -- CNN host Lou Dobbs, Ben Affleck and  terrorism expert Danielle Pletka, what they thought of the idea of forbidding women in the United States from wearing burkas. Maher  is in favor of the ban --saying the burkas are a sign of oppression.

Dobbs agreed. Affleck warned that a ban would be a violation of religious freedom and the terrorism expert said despite her reservations of infringing on religious freedom, she too is in favor of the ban.

While burkas make me uncomfortable for a myriad of reasons, I agree with Affleck. So does David Edgar, a playwright who wrote an opinion piece about the Burka controversy in The Guardian.

And yes, the veil can be alienating to people trying to communicate with the person wearing it; it is sometimes (but not always) worn involuntarily, and (for me) is an expression of devotion to a non-existent supernatural being whose worship excuses all kinds of barbarism. But if we want to have a leg to stand on when we stand up for The Satanic Verses or Behzti or Jerry Springer, we must defend to the death the right to wear it.

Image Credit:  Flickr member Netjeret men Nefer

 

Ode To This American Life

It is part of the algebraic equation we call work. Give someone your time, expertise, brawn, mind,or soul, and in exchange they give you money.

Recently, This American Life devoted a program to Getting And Spending Money. 
 

If you don't have the time to listen to the entire program, take the seven minutes to listen to Marti Nixon's experience at a product placement company.

 

 

Prologue. Marti Noxon used to work for a company that did "product placement" for the movie industry. And when some auditors came to check that clients were being correctly billed, the company's bosses took unusual steps. Namely, they hired actors to play the employees who were supposedly on the payroll. (7 minutes)

If you listen to the entire program, you will hear from an artist who was scammed out of  $40,000 -$50,000 from his first "show" in NYC, as well as from a suburban dad who decided the best way to make money was to rob banks.

My favorite story from this particular episode is called That Guy. Here is how This American Life describes the piece.

Cook investigates that moment when you realize you've become "that guy" you've always hated, and how the simple act of purchasing deodorant can lead to that moment. (9 minutes)

It is a story about individualism and the power that advertising messages have on our choices and loyalties.

 

You have a couple of choices when it comes to listening to the program. You can listen on the website. This requires some navigational skill. First, go to their home page .Look at the left navigation bar  for a link to the Complete Archive. It instructs you to START HERE.

 

When you get to that page  look for the 9/8 episode for 2006.Just click and listen.

 

If you subscribe to Audible.com you can download episodes on your iPod. That's my preferred listening method. It has become part of my weekend ritual. I walk Uma Thurman along the Mississippi, across the Stone Arch Bridge and listen to This American Life. It  doesn't get better than that.

 

In the spirit of full disclosure.

Some people dream of careers writing for The New York Times, or becoming a network correspondent. Not me. My goal is to become a contributor for This American Life.

That's my confession.  It's my time of year for confessions.
I have This American Life envy.

 

The Resume Writing Blogs

Sitting with my son Noah, and our cousin Jeffrey in an unpretentious Mexican restaurant near Washington Square on Sunday, we started talking about Noah's job.

Having just graduated in June from the University of Wisconsin, Noah sent out one resume, went on one interview and was gainfully employed 10 days after graduation.

Not so for his friend Sam*. Like Noah, Sam graduated from Wisconsin in June. He was a strong student with a major in marketing. He had several internships. He's sent out 95 resumes and hasn't been called for one interview.

Jeffrey said the obvious. There has to be something wrong with his resume. Or does there?

Just the day before I was chatting with my friend Lynne about resumes. Sitting in a lovely european coffee shop( that's what it called itself, "european coffee shop" ) near 1st avenue and 15th in NYC, I was talking via my cell phone with Lynne in St.Louis who had just landed her dream job-- planning events and managing volunteers for a nonprofit.

Instead of going the tradiitional resume route, Lynne opted to send a "career basket". Lynne had taken 12 words that described the skillset of the position and then filled a bucket with chatchkees representing each skill. For organized, there was  a little dayplanner, for creative,a box of crayons,and so on. Her traditional resume was in the center of all the stuff. She got the job.

Not ready to do a bucket resume but not wanting to end up in Sam's position with no call backs?

There are a ton of resume writing blogs that will either provide you with the confidence to create the world's best resume ,or intimidate you enough to  hire a professional resume writer to do the job for you.

Jennifer Anthony at ResumeASAP Blog offers practical advice like: Eight Essential Proofreading Secrets to Keep Your Resume Out Of The Trash andListing Other Interests on a Resume Yes or No?.

At One Louder Heather Hamilton has a post with multiple links for people who want to brush up on resume strategies.

The Executive Resume Blog offers news on the latest trends, techniques, and issues affecting executive employment and executive resume writing.  Laura, like many of the resume blog writers promotes she is a certified resume writer. Then there's a post from Diane Penna, who asks the question,Are Resume Writing Services Necessary? Her conclusion?

If you are concerned about having your resume get noticed, I would suggest getting help with your cover letter instead. Resumes, while detailed, are not typically written in full sentences, while a cover letter requires excellent English skills. Don't make the mistake of thinking that just because a cover letter wasn't requested that it isn't needed. Do what I did. Spend an extra hour or two and put together your own resume and I bet you'll be pleasantly surprised with the results.

And finally, Lorelle on Wordpress suggests that just as Thursday is the new Friday, Blogs are the new resume.

’For your career, a blog is essential,” says Phil van Allen, a faculty member of the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena. ‘’It’s the new public relations and it’s the new home page. Instead of a static home page, you have your blog,” he said. It’s a way to let people know what you are thinking about the field that interests you.”

*Sam is a pseudonym. He is a real person and would love a job interview.

Image Credits: Flickr members spoOman and Pål Løberg

This is cross-posted at Blogher
 

Working Girls Can't Win For Losing

On the right we have Campbell Brown. Although Brown was on the short list for taking over Katie Couric's job on The Today show, Radar Online reported earlier this week that NBC execs say she never had a chance because she isn't a mommy.

NBC brass concluded that Today's core audience of stay-at-home moms would have trouble relating to a female host without rugrats of her own, banter about kids and spouses being as essential a part of Today's mix as cooking segments and Al Roker. (In fact, Brown wasn't even an honest woman until April, when she wed Fox News analyst Dan Senor.)

In writing about the Brown disclosure in  the BROADSHEET Column in Salon.com ( subscription required),Rebecca Traister wrote:

Apparently, the "Today" show's female viewers, including a core of stay-at-home moms, "would have trouble relating to a female host without rugrats of her own." It didn't help that Brown is something of a looker, and that the network felt her less-foxy viewers might have been intimidated by her beauty.

On the left we have Meredith Vieira. who was forced to leave her prestigious job at 60 minutes  in 1991 because she couldn't negotiate a family friendly contract. Vieira is the mom to three teenagers and whose husband is legally blind, has MS and a couple of bouts of colon cancer. She premiered on TODAY last week.  This from The New York Times

"At 52, Ms. Vieira is that rare television woman who doesn’t seem afraid of her age, perhaps because even with sagging skin and rippling smile lines, she looks amazingly pretty and vibrant on camera. She wore a sober black pantsuit that was casually elegant, not stuffy. Her manner, warm and self-deprecating, is easy on the eyes and ears"

And in the center, Katie Couric.  Since her debut earlier this month on the revamped CBS Evening News we have heard about the legs, the botox, the clothes, From Andrea Peyser's review in the New York Post,

Her face was Botoxed beyond normal human endurance, proving that even pampered, overpaid news babes possess the courage to suffer for their art.

And for the first time in history that a female was allowed to deliver a network's evening news alone, Katie chose to wear an unfortunate white blazer - the result, no doubt, of some jokester lying to her face when Katie asked, "Does this make me look fat?"

And the day after Labor Day, to boot!

So much written about nothing. Nothing  or very little written about their qualifications.
Does anyone know anything about Charlie Gibson's wife or kids?  Has it been in a lomg marriage or is he a serial  husband? What about  Brian Williams? Does his wife have any diseases? What about his kids?  Do the men  get spa treatments? A little microderm abrasion? Maybe a touch of botox or are we encouraging a couple of smile lines on their faces to add to their gravitas?

I actually don't have a problem with people commenting on the appearance of TV anchors or how the job affects their family life  as long as men are given the same scrutiny as the women.

It is demeaning, discriminatory and insulting when women are not judged on the same criteria as men. So go ahead talk about insipid white jackets and botox and legs-- and now let's put that same micrsocrope on the men.

It won't happen because to do so would be to marginalize their effectiveness and professionalism. Hey you want to talk about Meredith's smile lines and Katie's Botox? Do it over it lunch. But spending all this oxygen  in the media on who has kids, who'sa more sacrificing mom and who is sexier is on the same level as Forbes hideous article on Why Men Shouldn't Marry Career Women.

While the insights about botox and kids may seem harmless and just part of our culture ( those mommys love to read this stuff), it is irresponsible on the part of the leaders in media to continue to perpetuate covering the fashion and appearance of women news professionals.

If this were just ignorance at play, it would be one thing. But these are smart boys. They know exactly what they are doing.  By encouraging the discourse on Katie's legs, Campbell's childlessness, and Meredith's sacrifice they are sending a message to everyone about the way women need to behave-- the way they, the boys want us to behave.

A couple of thoughts to reporters; How about saying no. No more stories about Katie's Botox if in the same article you don't talk about the other anchors appearances. No more stories about their Mommyness unless you talk about their coworker's daddiness. And no more comments on clothing unless you 're ready to do nightly critiques  on the choice of ties these anchors wear.

You've Got Mail, Radio Shack's Electronic Pink Slip

The email read "  "The work force reduction notification is currently in progress. Unfortunately, your position is one that has been eliminated."

Aside from that Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play?

In trying to explain the company's unconscionable behavior of firing 400 people via email, a RadioShack a company spokesperson  Kay Jackson  said, " Company officials had told employees in a series of meetings that layoff notices would be delivered electronically" She said employees were invited to ask questions before Tuesday's notification on a company intranet site.

So there you have it. The "we warned you excuse". Which  makes about as much sense as " it's part of youth culture " excuse ,and "I was gobsmacked" excuse.

There  is precedent for RadioShack's behavior.

Earlier this month, TheTimes in England reported that a shop keeper defended his decision to fire an employee via a txt message because " it's part of youth culture."

Katy Tanner, 21, learnt that she had lost her job as a sales assistant at the Blue Banana store in Cardiff only when she received the text message. She had been working at the shop for eight weeks.

The text message, sent by Alex Bartlett, the shop manager, said: “We’ve reviewed your sales figures and they’re not up to the level we need. As a result we will not require your services any more. Thank you for your time with us.”

Miss Tanner was at home because of a migraine when she received the message. She said: “I don’t think it’s right to just text someone. At least they should have talked to me face to face. It’s very impersonal and not at all professional.

The trend to "sack text"evidently began in 2003 on the recommendation of PriceWaterhouseCoopers. Again in England, the business consulting firm advised their client The Accident, an insurance firm to send text messages to more than 3000 employees announcing the company was shutting down and that they were being laid off. Their rationale was that since the company had run out of money, txting would be the most cost-efficient thing to do.

At the time, the owner of the company said he was "too devastated" about the loss of the company. However, after he was spotted sunning himself in a villa in Spain, 21 employees sued and as was reported by The Register

"The tribunal ruled in their favour adding that staff had been "cynically manipulated".

But since the company has no cash, the compensation claim will be covered by the Government using taxpayers' money, the Telegraph reports.

Following yesterday's decision, other former workers are now expected to seek compensation."

At the time of the original text message  The BBC  reported the police were called to the insurance company.

"it was reported disgruntled workers looted offices of computer equipment before leaving their workplace following news of the redundancies.

Looting was definitely on the mind of HighJive  responding to this post on Make The Logo Bigger 

"Hope one of them was the marketing director who greenlit the recent testimonial ads with 40-year olds playing teens.While this isn’t the first time a company fired someone via email, 400 all at once is pretty ballsy.I’m guessing a few of those ex-employees may come back at a later date to ‘update’ management on their job search. I’ll be looking out for that breaking news on CNN.
(Via Drudge on Breitbart.)"

HighJive's response:
"actually, it was pretty ballsy. most employers disconnect people's computer before firing them to avoid disgruntled types messing with the systems."


You can't make this stuff up.


Image Credit: Flickr Member Jamalulo

 

 

Northwest Airlines encourages employees to "Dumpster Dive"

I kid you not.  Northwest  Airlines hired an outside firm to create a booklet "Preparing for a Financial Setback" to help financially strapped employees who have endured massive pay cuts. Northwest is also planning on cutting more jobs.

One of the sections of the booklet included "101 ways to save money". For a time, the advice was posted on their website and about 50 employees received the booklet with the incredibly offensive advice.

'Northwest spokesman Roman Blahoski said some employees who received the handbook had taken issue with a couple of the items. "We agree that some of these suggestions and tips ... were a bit insensitive," Blahoski told Reuters.

     

The four-page booklet, "Preparing for a Financial Setback" contained suggestions such as shopping in thrift stores, taking "a date for a walk along the beach or in the woods" and not being "shy about pulling something you like out of the trash."

While this was reported on FoxNews.com on Tuesday, neither the StarTribune or the St.Paul Pioneer Press had any coverage of this bizarre story.

A couple of thoughts. If someone in Northwest's communication department approved this dribble, shouldn't they be accountable? 

Oh, and its not a " bit insensitive" It's egregiously offensive.

How did such an offensive, outlandish, insensitive and idiotic idea get approved?  Chances are, no one in the Northwest Communications area actually  proofread the copy in the booklet before it was printed or put on their website. ( you won't find it there now) One can only assume that on a list of priorities, a booklet providing financial advice to employees who are facing lay offs just isn't high on a priority list of a communication department dealing with potential strikes, bankruptcy, and general unhappy customers.

Then there's the consultants who came up with the advice in the first place. The Reuters article said it was an outside firm. Just who is this firm and why would they include a recommendation to rummage through the trash?  Is there another side to the story that we are just missing?

The employees of NWA deserve an apology from the Douglas Steenland, president and CEO of NWA.

In fact, he should have to spend a day dumpster diving.

You can't make this stuff up.

Oh, and the tag line for the photo is " So I went dumpster diving and all I got was this lousy lice."

Image Credit: Flickr member Thomask

From Both Sides Now- The Job Interview

  You can read the full post at  Blogher. Image Credit: Flickr Member Esthr Cartoon is originally from CVOnline, the Central European recruiting firm

Working Holiday

What's wrong with this picture?   The cartoon was featured as part of a recent article in Work/Life Today,which bills itself as "the newsletter for work/life professionals".

In my version of this cartoon instead of the man in the flowered swimming trunks there would be a mom in an itsy bitsy teeny weeny yellow polka dot bikini on the surfboard with laptop, cellphone(wireless ear piece-natch), rubbing SPF 40 suntan lotion on a  small child while giving them a Ziploc bag full of cheerios.

Am I missing anything? Perhaps the pet dog is on the back of the surfboard too.

The article was in response to Expedia's sixth annual survey on the vacation habits of work prone Americans. According to the survey, which was released shortly before the 4th, Americans are forfeiting 574 million vacation days. When you realize that Americans have the smallest amount of vacation to begin with,(France has over 30 days a year)the reality of those four days left in the office is magnified. As Nina at Queercents wrote in her post on the issue....

Jo Bronson at Time recently penned a commentary about Americans and their inability to relax. He believes that we have begun to prefer brief snippets of what he calls “stolen time” to the long stretches of authorized vacation. He notes, “According to travel agents, the growth trend in travel is the half-week sneak-away built around a weekend. Families still hit Disneyland and Paris, but we cram the experience into three or four days. We don’t get to relax, but we come away feeling as if we got a bargain for our precious time. Fewer workdays off means less catching up.” Why are so many Americans not taking their vacations? He concludes, “One of the top reasons given for not taking a vacation is that it’s too much extra work. We have to get ahead of our workload in order to leave, and then we have to catch up on our workload upon our return. The longer the vacation we take, the bigger the stumbling blocks appear. So only 14% of Americans will take a vacation two weeks or longer this summer. Bottom line: it’s simply become too stressful to relax.”

The technical term for this growing trend is Vacation Deprivation. According to the folks at Word Spy:

"vacation deprivation n. Foregoing vacation days because of busyness at work.
—vacation deprived adj.

In addition to providing citations of how the term is being used, Word Spy also lists the earliest citation it could find. Turns out that honor goes to The Dallas Morning News on October 29, 1995.

While many of us fret over the vacation days we leave at the office, Tula Connell who blogs for the AFL-CIO puts the entire vacation deprivation issue into perspective

The survey cites 14 days as average for an American worker, a number that doesn’t include federal holidays. But citing 14 days as an “average” figure also minimizes the extent to which millions of workers get no paid vacation, even while working two or more jobs.

In fact, 25.5 million private-sector workers in the United States do not have paid holidays and 22.2 million private-sector workers have no paid vacation, according to a survey of benefits by the Center for Economic and Policy Research.

Work at Avis car rental? No paid vacation. Tend to our elderly in many of the nation’s nonunion nursing homes? No paid vacation.

In this corporate mind-set economy, where workers are getting further behind even as they work longer hours, musing about the “vacation gap” may seem like fretting over not having a garden when you can’t even afford a house."