Surviving the Workday

The title is perhaps an overstatement. Perhaps.

In Generations Declare War at Home and on Work Fronts, we learn that the generational issues among Boomers, Gen X, and Gen Y exist in Australia too. The survey, authored by Mark McCrindle, interviewed small focus groups and reached these conclusions:

“Generation X, now entering their forties, is waiting their turn for senior leadership roles and may have to wait longer as the older generation of baby boomers is still going strong,” Mr McCrindle said.

“People are retiring later in life and generation X-ers are feeling frustrated at their lack of advancement up the career ladder. But baby boomers don’t like the idea of being dismissed.”

The older members of gen Y (aged 13 to 27) are struggling to get a stable foot in the workplace.

Forty per cent of working gen Ys are employed on a casual basis and resent their elders, who grew up in a “job for life” environment. If that wasn’t complicated enough, the baby boomers and gen X are getting riled by gen Y’s demands for more flexible conditions and increasing work-life balance.

I have to say that I hear these sorts of descriptive statements a lot when I talk to people about their work: frustration on all sorts of levels.

In Ex-Employee Alleges Religious Bias in the Concord Monitor, we learn about a Christian who feels discriminated against by her workplace, which, she claims, favors gays and lesbians over Christians (and what of gay Christians? I ask). The case is now at the state Superior Court, and the article reads like a script for The Daily Show. I rather enjoyed it, and then felt guilty about it.

In the Kansas City Star, there’s an editorial promoting the Employment Non-Discrimination Act quoting a recent poll that 77% of Republicans think firing someone for being gay is wrong. Again, I’ll say that the United States consistently polls far more socially liberal than you would ever guess from watching the news.

In the Chicago Tribune, Employers Get Tough on Health explores the disturbing trend of employers regulating employee behavior after hours to cut health insurance costs. I’m of two minds here. On the one hand, it does tick me off that I can be healthy, normal weight, no illnesses, and have to pay an extraordinary amount for health insurance. Would this reduce my own payment (I think selfishly)? On the other hand, I get a very creepy sensation at the thought of taking a nicotine test before work. Or having my body fat measured in the workplace.

In the Sun Sentinel, Transgender Community Works to Protect Freedoms in South Florida explores how to support transgender people in the workplace at the county-wide level. This is called the potentially “broadest imprint by affording civil rights to people for their gender identity or expression.” Clearly something to watch.

We began the week discussing codes of ethics, including a rather basic one proposed for scientists in GB. Only one person, David, articulated a code of ethics in his workplace, and I’m afraid that was winks and nods. Speaking of ethics, later in the week, we learned that people think that “steal” has an unclear denotation. I’m still processing that one. Possibly on stolen Post-It notes with stolen pens.

We continued to discuss gossip in the workplace. At least I did.

Maryanne and I identified painfully with a quote from Didion on alienation from the self. Just say no to requests for more of your time. I’m trying.

Comrade Kevin and I agreed that the Transgender Job Expo is a step in the right direction, and wished for a couple more steps too.

Southwest Airlines gave the world’s lamest apology. Hot flashes. Ha, ha. That’s so funny, Southwest.

I began to see that my paranoia about the End of Times (a.k.a End of Civilization as I Know It) has actually a great deal of basis in fact (petroleum geology, at least). Peak Oil is the idea that we have already peaked in terms of how much oil we can extract and it’s all downhill from here, kids.

We discussed the prevalence of slave labor in the United States, slackers in general, and we have an author comment by John Bowes!

In Negotiating Religious Accomodation we discussed how to get what you want in terms of religious accomodation in the workplace without getting canned. I appointed Chalice Chick the official lawyer-in-training on the issue. She didn’t object.

The Neglected Children Posts (in which no one commented and I wondered if I just bored you):

7 Billion in Sales of Natural Makeup
Chandeliers of Plastic Bottles as Office Decor
Exploring Abandonned Mines for $15/hour (Boy, I’m glad I have a degree in earth science!)
Working in the Shadows (about ENDA)

What fascinating results from my stealing of office supplies survey! It looks like the majority of people thought there was some wiggle room in the word “steal.” I couldn’t really clarify what I meant in the question because of space issues, but basically, if you steal office supplies, you remove office supplies from work for personal use.

I asked the question because of a few recent surveys about the majority of workers admitting to stealing office supplies. From Plants, Decor, Furniture among the items workers admit to stealing:

Turns out the majority of office workers (58%) have taken office supplies for their personal use…. Among those who admit to taking office supplies for personal use, the most commonly stolen office supplies include pens/pencils (77%), followed by self-adhesive “sticky” notes (44%) and paper clips (40%). Some employees (2%) are even taking decorations like plants, paintings and office furniture (2%).

Another survey gives 67% as the percent of workers who have stolen office supplies. And in a third survey concerning stealing office supplies only within the last year, nearly a quarter of younger workers admit to stealing office supplies while only 13% of workers over 50 admit to stealing. And, also interesting to me, only 1 in 5 younger workers (18-24 years old) don’t think it’s stealing to take office supplies for personal use.

So where does this leave us? I think some of the stealing of literally 50 billion dollars worth of office supplies in the U.S. each year is related to workers feeling mistreated and as if they deserve a pen or post-its from work. Just a hypothesis. I’m open to hearing your own hypotheses.

Maud posted this great advice from Joan Didion in Slouching Toward Bethlehem, a collection of essays published almost forty years ago:

If we do not respect ourselves … we are peculiarly in thrall to everyone we see, curiously determined to live out — since our self-image is untenable — their false notions of us. We flatter ourselves by thinking this compulsion to please others an attractive trait: a gist for imaginative empathy, evidence of our willingness to give. Of course I will play Francesca to your Paolo, Hellen Keller to anyone’s Annie Sullivan: no expectation is too misplaced, no role too ludicrous…

It is the phenomenon sometimes called “alienation from self.” In its advanced stages, we no longer answer the telephone, because someone might want something; that we could say no without drowning in self-reproach is an idea alien to this game. Every encounter demands too much, tears the nerves, drains the will, and the specter of something so small as an unanswered letter arouses such disproportionate guilt that answering it becomes out of the question. To assign unanswered letters their proper weight, to free us from the expectations of others, to give us back to ourselves — there lies the great, the singular power of self-respect. Without it, one eventually discovers the final turn of the screw: one runs away to find oneself, and finds no one at home.

Maud offers it as advice to writers with day jobs, but I think it’s broader advice to those of us in helping professions.
Via Maud Newton

Every time the list from Working Mother of 100 Best Companies comes out, I peruse it and am shocked to find former employers on there. Why am I shocked? Because they were not great places for the working moms I knew.

So I’m not hugely surprised to see in the report from the Institute for Women’s Policy Research that the bar from Working Mother to be a Best Company has been set pretty darn low in the first place. The best places to work barely offer paid leave. It’s better than nothing, but it’s not a lot.

…nearly one-quarter (24 percent) of the best employers for working mothers provide four or fewer weeks of paid maternity leave, and half (52 percent) provide six weeks or less. Nearly half of the best companies fail to provide any paid leave for paternity or adoption. While more than one-quarter of the best companies (28 percent) provide nine or more weeks of paid maternity leave, many of the winners’ paid parental leave policies fall far short of families’ needs.

Ask a new mom if she’s ready to go back to work at 4 weeks. Paltry paid benefits aside—the reason I’m surprised to see some of these companies on the list is that they systematically disclude employees from benefits by making them long-term temporary employees. That means no real benefits. And that certainly does not benefit women who have children.

Via Feminist Daily News

This seems like just about the perfect option for medical care for me post-college and pre-old age. I pay a doctor to be “my” doctor. He’s accessible in person, over the phone, by email and IM. And I’m not gouged by a health insurance company hundreds of dollars a month for health insurance I use once or twice a year. I like this.

This model is not without some challenges and questions (What if I’m actually hospitalized? What if I get pregnant? What if I get cancer?), but it seems a big improvement over any of the health insurance I’ve ever had, which seems to penalize me when I use it and not cover anything of substance. This model has been around for a while, but was offered only to wealthy patients with a substantial buy-in fee. This is the first time I’ve seen it targeted to younger folks.

I don’t think that everything labeled as gossip in the workplace is necessarily gossip and therefore bad. Some information is simply information (and often management does not share information as readily as it should).

During my gossip research, I have run across some words of wisdom that may help you decide whether to repeat information that you’ve heard at work.

Sufi wisdom: Is it true? Is it necessary? Is it kind?*

The Golden Rule: Treat others as you wish to be treated.

*I don’t have a Sufi source for this. If you happen to, please post in comments. Thank you!

Arbitrary Marks asked in a recent post how many rejections it would take to re-think a career. I started to respond, but couldn’t. Writers get a lot of rejection and most of it isn’t very nice. My most recent rejection via email? Simply: We will not be pursuing this further.

All right then. Don’t. I only asked once.

So I especially appreciate A Writing Year’s Rate the Rejection series in which rejections from literary journals are rated. Because many rejection letters lack any compassion or taste. My primary gripe is that the wording of rejections suggests that the writer is crap. Period. Not that this is one editor with one opinion on one piece of work. No. The. Writer. Is. Crap.

For example, here’s journal I like very much: Tin House. I’ve written glowingly about their conference, I’ve bought their journal, and the work of the writers in it, but their rejections have as much class as….I’ve erased my metaphor for your own protection. Really. You might look at some other rejections to compare (click on the journal name).

I actually think turning rejections into some sort of a game is a good idea. It gives you a small sense of control and fun over a process that is out of control and no fun.

Via Perpetual Folly via Katrina Denza

The article, Religion and the Workplace, is an attorney’s advice on how to negotiate religious accommodation in the workplace as the employer.

The tricky part of religious accommodation (under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964) is that it can’t cause financial hardship for the employer. What sorts of activities have been judged by the courts to cause hardship?

In ruling on Title VII religion cases, the courts have held that employers aren’t required to accommodate employees’ religious activities when it involves increased financial costs, transferring supervisory personnel or employees from other departments resulting in inefficiency, or discriminating against other employees or violating seniority systems.

What sorts of activities have been judged by the courts to be acceptable?

Accommodations that don’t constitute undue hardship to the employer include voluntary substitutions or employee “swaps,” flexible work schedules, floating or optional holidays, staggered work hours, and allowing employees to make up lost time. Transfers and job changes also are options if they don’t cause reduced efficiency or other disruptions.

Consider this a word to the wise if you need religious accomodation. Plan ahead. Talk to your employer. Don’t make any assumptions about what hardship is.

so it’s time for a quiz.

Ms. Kitty found the What Time of Day Are You? quiz.

You Are Sunrise

You enjoy living a slow, fulfilling life. You enjoy living every moment, no matter how ordinary. You are a person of reflection and meditation. You start and end every day by looking inward. Caring and giving, you enjoy making people happy. You’re often cooking for friends or buying them gifts. All in all, you know how to love life for what it is - not for how it should be.

Feel free to post in comments if you wish.

Natural cosmetic sales topped 7 billion worldwide. It’s a good thing. Let’s ignore the fact that no one ever agrees what “natural” means. In general, it’s a very good thing to see natural cosmetic sales boom.

Much of what is sold as a cosmetic or beauty product is simply not good for you. Makeup is absorbed by the skin and swallowed (if it’s lipstick), but there are little to no federal regulations on it. Many cosmetics and beauty products contain parabens, which are linked to breast cancer, and pthalates, which are linked to endocrine disruption.

Last month when I went to the dump to dispose of my hazardous e-waste, I was given a checklist of what sorts of hazardous materials they accepted:

Used motor oil
Paint
Batteries
Electronic waste
Household cleaners
Pesticides/herbicides
Makeup

That’s right. The dump processes makeup as a hazardous material.

During one of the workshops at the sustainable energy fair in Crestone, we took a meditation break. Now before you snort with laughter, let me say that I see the same technique suggested on p. 158 of The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Spirituality in the Workplace:

Spirit Tip

Our work ethic tells us that if things aren’t going the way we want them to, the solution lies with working harder. Not true. Stop, step back from what you have been doing, and look at the whole picture. From this perspective, reassess your efforts. Consciously involve your Self, asking, “How can I move forward and be in balance?” Work balanced, not harder.

Argh! * Most workplaces have enough plastic water bottles to do follow St. Petersburg’s lead and do this sort of decorating, even for inside.

Ah, St. Petersburg. One day I will win the Summer Literary Seminar contest and visit you.

*Talk like a Pirate Day

Yar.* While I cautiously respect the right of medical staff not to personally distribute Plan B to rape survivors because of religious reasons, eliminating the option entirely is totally offensive to me. Two-thirds of state hospitals in Wisconsin do not currently provide Plan B, over the counter emergency contraception, to rape victims. And now a bill would exempt hospitals from civil liability for withholding care from rape victims. It’s one thing to have a nurse swapped for another because one objects to dispensing Plan B. It’s another thing to withhhold care entirely. That’s repugnant.

On a separate and broader note, if you do not want to be pregnant, you should probably have Plan B at home because it is far more difficult to get than any other over the counter medicine. Skip trying to get it at Wal-Mart. Here it is for $40 at Drugstore.com

*Talk like a Pirate Day

Apparently to Bangladesh. Ahoy!*

A photo essay in Foreign Policy Magazine examines how supertankers are disassembled.

*Talk like a Pirate Day

According to sources, it’s Talk like a Pirate Day. Here are some pirate phrases with which I’ve already annoyed my coworker:

Bring me one noggin of rum, now, won’t you, matey?
Avast, there!
Dead men don’t bite.
Shiver me timbers!
Fifteen men on the dead man’s chest — Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum!

Working collaboratively with the Nevada Division of Minerals and Bureau of Land Management, the Great Basin Institute is recruiting a team of Minerals Specialists to conduct an inventory of approximately 600 abandoned mines in Clark County, Nevada, for physical safety hazards and risks. Data will be collected using GPS and paper data sheets, which are then entered in to a GIS database. The results of the inventory will help land managers determine the appropriate method of closure and eliminate potential physical hazards and risks. Contract dates are September 2007 - April 2008, with potential for extension; $15 per hour, plus field/travel per diem; health/dental benefits; paid personal leave.

This isn’t actually from Craig’s List, but ecoemploy.com Still it seems like it should be on Craig’s list. Abandonned mines! Physical safety hazards and risks! $15/hour. I hope there’s some exposure to carcinogens!

In John Bowe’s Nobodies: Modern American Slave Labor and the Dark Side of the New Global Economy, Bowe describes the prevalence of slave labor in the United States through three case studies in Florida, Oklahoma, and Saipan.

I was struck by Bowe’s thoughts on our interconnectedness in his interview on Treehugger:

Modern America and ancient Greece both articulated beautifully about freedom and democracy. But in order to do that, you need a leisure class, sitting around, pontificating, and in order to have that, you need a ton of other people doing the actual work work. I’m not just talking about Bush or neo-conservatives or free marketers or whomever. Look at the guys in that movie Knocked Up. None of them did anything all day but loaf. How many millions of similarly slacker-y twenty-somethings are there in the US? What enables them to slack, of course, is the fact that millions of people around the planet work for pennies an hour. I don’t wanna reconcile that, I want people to wake up and realize that if anything, globalization means that soon, we, too, might be working for pennies an hour.

This definitely captures my own recent realizations about work.

Via Treehugger

Last night, Jim and I saw Crude Awakening (available through netflix), which explores the concept of Peak Oil. Now I hadn’t heard of peak oil before, which is disturbing in that I majored in earth science, the field that should be discussing this. Peak Oil is the idea that we have discovered most of the oil available to us on earth and that extracting the remaining oil is about to become much more expensive.

What happens when the cost of oil increases? The cost of just about everything increases, including food, gas, and everything plastic, which is petroleum-derived.

For those of us who study workplace issues, the implications of peak oil are significant. We live in a country of suburbs, in which commuting is built into our lives. How do we commute to the workplace if gas is $15/gallon? Will there be a shift toward working at home? What is the tipping point at which it becomes too expensive to drive to work?

Crude Awakening a great geopolitical film, which everyone should see, and it present solutions, including re-localization.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) just published a report, Working in the Shadows, with detailed stories about workplace discrimination for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people in the United States. I urge you to read the stories, which hopefully will cause you to email your congressperson and urge him or her to support the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA). It is legal to fire or refuse to hire someone in 30 states because he/she is gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender. Here is one of the stories from the ACLU’s report:

Single mother Jacinda Meyer worked as a licensed insurance agent in Southern California. During her first nine months on the job, the company gave her positive feedback about her performance and a raise. But soon after her boss learned that she was a lesbian, she was fired. She later applied for a job with a “sister company” and after several interviews and personality and placement testing, they made her a verbal offer. The next day, she received a call rescinding the offer.

It would be nice to believe in equity and justice in the workplace, but equity and justice need your support. Here’s an ENDA toolkit and a way to contact your representative.