Improving Employee Performance
How to Talk So Employee Performance Produces Results: Dr. Barbara Brown says that if you want to improve employee performance, think about your daily conversations with employees. No better opportunity...

The Impact of the Federal Minimum Wage Increase
Poll: Will the Minimum Wage Increases Adversely Affect Your Company?The increase in the federal minimum wage on July 24, 2008...

Got Motivation Ideas?
This next week is National Make Someone Smile Week and, in conjunction, I am requesting ideas about what your organization does that makes your employees smile. Employee motivation is...

Trade Secret Protection
More than $50 billion is lost per year due to trade secret and other intellectual property losses. Trade secrets are a type of intellectual property... [nobscot May 30, 2006]

Boomerang Employees Valuable Asset For Companies
According to a recent survey, more than half of 100 US companies said they would re-hire former employees, also known as boomerang employees and... [nobscot Feb 09, 2006]

How Honest Is Your Employee Feedback?
Nobscot Corporation is conducting research to determine the level of employee candor in employee opinion surveys and exit interviews. This research... [nobscot Jan 16, 2006]

Climb: If you can, try a few careers until you're sure
Aaron Karo performs stand-up comedy in Boston. He also bills himself as an author, public speaker, and sitcom actor.

The Corporate Curmudgeon: Taking the measure of your meetings
''When the outcome of a meeting is to have another meeting, it has been a lousy meeting."-Herbert Hoover

For complaints, phone home
Working from home isn't new, but Karen Hughes has tapped into a more recent adaptation: the virtual call center.

Webcast: Dealing with Depression in the Workplace

Supreme Court Rules Equal Protection Clause Does Not Allow Public Employee Discrimination Claim

Wal-Mart Settles Disability Discrimination Lawsuit for $250,000

Sleepy Employees Hurt the Bottom Line, Says Dr. Benjamin Gerson

Sleep disorders affect worker productivity and cause weight gain, hypertension, diabetes and other conditions that increase overall healthcare costs (PRWEB Jul 24, 2008)

Read the full story at http://www.emediawire.com/releases/sleepapnea/bmi/prweb1133504.htm

Home2Office Announces Business Alliance with the Work Design Collaborative

Corporate Agility authors find IT company and teleworker portal a 'perfect fit' for the future of work. (PRWEB Jul 24, 2008)

Read the full story at http://www.emediawire.com/releases/telecommuting/teleworking/prweb1134644.htm

To Cut Employee Gas Costs, Toronto Insurance Company Turns Work Week Upside Down

People in Toronto work long hours and long days. In the face of ever higher gas prices and unstable financial markets, many people are working more days and even longer hours. But one insurance company has gone against the grain and instituted a four day work week. (PRWEB Jul 24, 2008)

Read the full story at http://www.emediawire.com/releases/life-insurance/4-day-work-week/prweb1138534.htm

First VMware, now Citrix, announce hiring slowdowns
The tech sector, generally bullish so far, manifested increasing caution about the economy on Wednesday as a second IT vendor this week announced plans to cut the tempo of hiring.

Career Watch
Advice on communicating with the boss; breaking down those rosy employment projections from the BLS.

A computer science professor's never-ending H-1B fight
Ten years ago, Norman Matloff, a computer science professor at the University of California at Davis, warned Congress that the H-1B visa was not a program for fixing a labor shortage but simply a payroll dodge. He was one of the first to do so, and his efforts continue today. He sat down recently for an interview with Patrick Thibodeau.

Top Stressors: Managed!
In Monday's newsletter, I sent out the poll in this blog. After a few thousand responses (yes, I've asked this...

De-Stress Your Lifestyle
Lately, we've been focusing on attitudes and perspectives that can relieve stress, and that's an important part of stress relief, but there's something to be said for good old-fashioned simplicity....

Stressed About Money?
With gas and food prices rising, a huge wave of foreclosures continuing, and many Americans deep in debt, many people have...

"Just One" Doesn't Work When Public Employees Treated Unfairly
When I go to a restaurant by myself, one of my pet peeves is to be asked, "just one?" like it's a sign of my own personal failure to be there without another guest. A public employee in Oregon can probably relate -- she just had her own version of "just one" shot down by the U.S. Supreme Court. If you've been treated arbitrarily or irrationally, you better find someone else to join you at the table, says the Court.

Maybe You Should Leave the Spouse at Home
Unfortunately, we live in a world where harassment and retaliation cases haven't gone away, and there are still some pretty egregious ones there. But a couple of suits filed recently caught my eye in that they involve the actions of the employer's spouse. In both cases, powerful people brought their spouses into their workplace to work with them, but their employees allege their boss wasn't doing enough to curb their spouse's egregious behavior. These cases highlight the worst side of nepotism, where bosses don't hold their spouses to the same standards of behavior to which the rest of their employees would be subjected.

Paula Brantner Returns to Workplace Fairness as Executive Director
I am thrilled to announce that today, June 2, I return to work with Workplace Fairness as the organization's Executive Director. Workplace Fairness' mission of providing information and education to workers and representing the pro-worker voice in public policy debates is as viable as it has ever been in a workplace environment that is becoming ever more inhospitable to workers. I will be working with the WF Board of Directors to ensure the organization is again able to be a leading voice for workers in this country by continuing our programs, revitalizing our website, and maintaining financial stability.