Employee engagement is sure to be at the forefront of any employer’s mind, but how often do you hear someone talking about employee disengagement? You can have a great work environment, but even if 90 percent of your employees are happy and engaged, there are bound to be a few stragglers.
Now, some employers think that one or two unhappy employees won’t have that big of an impact on their business. But even if disengaged employees are the minority, their managers and co-workers still have to pick up the slack for them, bringing down the productivity of the entire office.
Here’s how to spot a disengaged employee — and how to handle the situation.
Many people focus on the fact that a Trump appointed NLRB General Counsel, Peter B. Robb was behind this decision, but the reality is, it’s a tough sell to argue that Uber drivers could be employees, although that was the stance of the NLRB under the Obama Administration. The NLRB expanded their definition of contractors earlier this year as well.
There are rules surrounding whether a person is a contractor (often called a 1099 employee) or an employee (often called a W2 employee). It can’t just be the decision of the employee/contractor and the company. No one can consent to give away their rights to be an employee if they meet the criteria for W2 employee. The Uber Drivers don’t because they, among other things:
About 11 million parents are staying at home right now, taking care of the children. Usually, that’s a temporary stop on a career path, and mom (usually) or dad (becoming more common) will return to work, whether it’s after the kids start school, or stop nursing, or whenever financial necessity becomes a reality. Going back isn’t always that easy. Here’s why.
Finding a job can be hard
Even in today’s booming economy finding a job when you’re unemployed can be extremely difficult. Recently the Brookings Institute published a study that emphasized just how difficult that can be: “The longer a worker is unemployed, the less likely they are to get a job in a given month. The short-term unemployed (less than five weeks) are more than three times as likely to find a job in a given month as people who have been unemployed for a year or more.”
While there is a difference between voluntarily unemployed to stay home with the children and laid off (or fired), it doesn’t change the fact that it’s hard to find a job when you’ve been out of the workforce.
Harvard said that they would not renew Professor Ronald S. Sullivan Jr. and his wife, Stephanie Robinson, positions as faculty deans of Winthrop House, a dorm for undergraduate student after student protest
Why were students upset? Because Sullivan is not only a law professor, he’s a defense attorney and he joined the defense team for Harvey Weinstein, who is accused of rape and sexual assault and is the poster boy for the #metoo movement. Students said Sullivan’s defense of Weinstein made him unqualified for a supportive dean role. Students held protests and anti-Sullivan graffiti appeared.
“Over the last few weeks, students and staff have continued to communicate concerns about the climate in Winthrop House to the college. The concerns expressed have been serious and numerous. The actions that have been taken to improve the climate have been ineffective, and the noticeable lack of faculty dean presence during critical moments has further deteriorated the climate in the house. I have concluded that the situation in the house is untenable.”
With Mother’s Day just around the corner, husbands and children are thinking of presents for wives and mothers. Just what does a working mom want for a Mother’s Day present?
Well, probably not these things, unless your wife/mother loves practical gifts. Some moms love practical and some moms want jewelry. I assume you know what the mother in your life wants, and if not, ask. But these are things that every household needs–even if it’s dad who does the cooking.
When you’re working and managing a family, you want things to make the life part of work-life balance run smoothly. These are guaranteed to help.
1. Crock-Pot or Instant Pot
These are two separate items that are actually the opposite of each other–but they serve the same purpose, dinner on the table, easily. With the Crock-Pot (or slow cooker) you dump everything in the pot before work in the morning, turn it on, and come home to a delicious dinner. With the Instant Pot, you can dump everything in when you get home and in a half an hour, it’s ready to go. (The Instant Pot also does have a slow cooker function, but I swear by my Crock-Pot.)
A patient has accused one of our employees of a HIPAA violation. The patient says the employee looked up her medical records and shared the information with her neighbor. We are, of course, conducting an investigation, but this is our first HIPAA investigation, so we’re not sure what to do while it occurs.
Should the employee be suspended while we investigate? Should we withhold her patient access? Should she be paid? Naturally, if we find that she did do this, she’ll be fired. But, what if she didn’t? Do we apologize? And what do we do about the patient who accused her in the first place?
Amazon is all about the money. They fully admit to firing people based on a computer algorithm. They also are a huge company, with over 600,000 employees. With that many employees, you’ll end up with a lot of pregnant women–each woman has a manager. All it takes for a lawsuit is for an employee to feel that they were treated unfairly and for a lawyer to be willing to take the case.
While some employment lawsuits result in huge payouts, most don’t. But Amazon also has deep pockets, and where there’s one employee complaint, you’re likely to find others (just given the sheer volume of employees), so they can be a good target.
All of this is simply background, which doesn’t answer the question: did Amazon illegally fire these seven pregnant women?
Congratulations are in order to Prince Harry and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, as they welcomed their yet unnamed son into the world yesterday. The new little Earl (he won’t get a Prince title like his cousins) weighed in at a healthy weighs 7lbs. 3oz and comes with a life long tax burden.
You see because his mother, The Duchess of Sussex, is still an American citizen and she lived in the United States long enough to pass on citizenship to her children, regardless of where they are born, the new little Earl will be eligible for a nice American passport.
While that can sound splendid, as having dual citizenship seems advantageous, it’s actually a tax nightmare.
All US citizens abroad are subject to the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), including royalty. There’s no exception for being related to the sovereign of another nation. Nor does the United Kingdom get to simply declare the newest bundle of royal joy a UK citizen without any legal ties to the United States. And while you or I may be able to sneak a baby that hasn’t set foot in the United States past the watchful eye of the IRS, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex don’t have a chance.
Saturday Night Live isn’t really known for helping people make better life choices (although the Steve Martin, Amy Poehler, and Chris Parnell sketch “Don’t Buy Things You Can’t Afford” is a clear exception). But, this past Saturday Adam Sandler gave amazing (and hilarious) advice to all of us: you can’t get away from you.
Acting as travel agent, Joe Romano, Sandler talks about all the great things you can do in Italy–eat, drink, hike, et cetera, but focuses on setting expectations: “We always remind our customers; If you’re sad now, you might still feel sad there.” And, “remember, you’re still gonna be you on vacation.”
Graduation season is upon us, and that comes with a lot of boring speeches and a few gems. My niece, Katie Adams, and my nephew, Stephen Black, both graduated from my alma mater, Brigham Young University, last week; Katie with a master’s degree in accounting, and Stephen with a bachelor’s degree in political science and statistics. At their graduation ceremony, speaker Arthur C. Brooks gave one of those speeches that everyone should listen to–whether you’re a new grad, or retired from the workforce.
Brooks says “If you pay attention to politics, or television or social media, God forbid, what do you see? You see recrimination, reproach, insults, sarcasm. You see leaders at the highest level of our country who bully and berate those with whom they disagree. You see families torn apart over political disagreements. You see political foes who treat each other as enemies.”
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Why Evil HR Lady
All HR people are evil, it's in our job description. Or at least, that seems to be the prevailing theory. In reality, there's just more going on behind the scenes than most people know. I'm here to demystify your Human Resources department and tell you just why you worked your tail end off all year and still got a 1.7 percent bonus.
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