Would you bike to work if you had access to a shower?
Take the Treehugger survey, and let me know in comments if The Shower Issue is what’s holding you back.
It looks like there’s a small tax credit that you may be due through your employer.
How can you help a friend or family member who has been laid-off?
Here are a few ideas for helping friends who are out of work, which include helping with networking, childcare (if needed), and providing food. The ideas are good, but it’s also interesting to see helping others framed as a moral obligation for the employed.
I keep wondering where exactly my bailout package is (Answer: I’m not getting one). I have a small business. It’s gone from great to okay to not okay in the past year. But no bailout. Meanwhile the bankers continue to party. Except sometimes when the public is alerted they have to stop the party.
I realize my inability to see sweatshops as a good, necessary evil may be left over from college, but sometimes good things happen in college protests:
A major supplier of college apparel has brokered a unique deal, promising to pay more for garments produced by a factory in the Dominican Republic if workers there are paid a living wage. While not publicly announced by the company, the plan proposed by Knights Apparel is already drawing support in higher education. Officials at Duke and Pennsylvania State Universities have confirmed that their bookstores will be buying from the Knights Apparel factory, and a committee at the University of Connecticut is considering participation as well.
For more on what a “verified” living wage means, read No Sweat.
This exchange between the Director of Public Relations of Petland and an animal rights protestor has me wondering when snark became acceptable in public relations (or has it always been?). Is it really acceptable to be rude to people who criticize you? Especially what seems like legitimate criticism (to me)? Can’t you acknowledge a mistake (or a difference of opinion), correct it, and move on?
A related anecdote: In October, I wrote briefly about alleged discrimination in diamond sales involving a major jewelry chain and female sales associates, who were reportedly paid less and promoted less often. Since then, I’ve had comments on the blog just about weekly from the major chain jewelry store (I see their ip addresses) calling me dumb, a poor researcher, and suggesting that I don’t know all the facts. Now I’m sure I don’t know all the facts. I know only what was in the articles here and here and here. But the entire matter has left me wondering about strategy. Is it really in your best interest if you’re accused of discriminating against women to seek out a woman that writes (briefly!) about your company and insult them? Granted, it’s not the same as the Director of Public Relations being snarky, but what’s the strategy here? I’m not going to let the comments post to that piece. Period. And my opinion of the company has certainly not increased.
Articles in the New York Times (Return to D.I.Y Ethics Erodes Service Businesses) and Los Angeles Times (Gardeners Reap the Pain of Recession) describe the decline of outsourcing of simple services, such as beauty treatments, animal care, and house cleaning.
I don’t actually hire people to do these sorts of things (I did consider hiring gardeners though—we seem to be the only house without them, and I’m afraid it’s quite obvious, and once our dog went to a dog space—she liked it), but many people do, and they are a considerable source of jobs as described in the New York Times:
These small, service-oriented businesses are run in storefronts on urban streets and in suburban strip malls, or sometimes just out of pickup trucks. Responsible for roughly 18 million jobs nationwide, according to 2006 Census Bureau data, these companies have long been seen as engines of America’s economic growth. Yet after years of explosive expansion, many beauty salons, dry cleaners, landscapers, dog walkers, nanny services and restaurants experienced slower sales growth or even decline in the final months of 2008.
And from the LA Times:
Gardeners, like housekeepers and pool cleaners, are seen as extras when people’s houses go upside down or when they lose their jobs, said John Husing, an economic consultant based in Redlands.
“You can cut your lawn. You can clean your house,” Husing said. “These are those little extra goodies when you are feeling flush. They are also some of the first to go away when you are not.”
I swear that some of these “budget” articles exist solely for me to make fun of them: Spaghetti Meal with a Twist and on the Cheap.
The “cheap” part is that it cost $35 to make. How is it possible to make spaghetti cost $35? You’ll have to read it to find out. It’s three courses, and from ingredients that I’m guessing many of us don’t have on hand (e.g., chevre and blood oranges). And, of course, there is no spaghetti in the spaghetti meal, just rigatoni. But, honestly, given the state of the economy, you’d think something more practical could be featured. You’d really think so.
The best thing about the article is that I got to use scare quotes several times as did the subtitle featuring a “shoestring” budget.
You may recall that I hate individualized health plans. It is by far the worst part of being self-employed. You can’t get health insurance like everyone on a group plan. You have to buy one of these crappy plans.
Blue Shield was sued, along with other major insurance companies, by the state of California because they dropped people who purchased policies after they got sick. I mean, you wouldn’t expect them to actually pay for any medical expenses, would you? That would live up to their agreement. The process of dropping insured people when they get sick is called rescission.
However, now Blue Shield will now restore coverage to 700 folks that it dropped, and pay for their medical expenses incurred in the meantime:
Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner said he hoped the settlement would “make whole” 678 consumers dropped by Blue Shield and “put an end to rescission practices that were hurting consumers.”
“People pay their insurance premiums and expect to be taken care of,” Poizner said. “Canceling someone’s insurance can have devastating medical, emotional and financial impacts. I will continue to take action against those insurers who do not live up to their agreements.”
Thank you.
I have to admit that I order occasionally from Amazon. I know they’re a giant store. I know they effectively force others out of business. But they are so freakin’ convenient! At least I used to order from them until the Diaper Incidents, but that’s another story. (Needless to say it involved cases and cases of diapers I didn’t order arriving at our door, prompting remarks like, “Oh My God, it’s more diapers. And more diapers. And, look, more diapers.” It was quite problematic to get rid of them. Quite.)
So setting the Diaper Incidents aside for a moment, which were probably just a computer glitch (or someone thinks we smell like poop), it turns out Amazon has some really squirm-inducing labor policies, particularly (or at least documented) in Great Britain). So Revealed: Amazon Staff Punished for Being Ill sort of made me ill too. The Sunday Times found the following:
– Warned that the company refuses to allow sick leave, even if the worker has a legitimate doctor’s note. Taking a day off sick, even with a note, results in a penalty point. A worker with six points faces dismissal.
– Made to work a compulsory 10½hour overnight shift at the end of a five-day week. The overnight shift, which runs from Saturday evening to 5am on Sunday, means they have to work every day of the week.
– Set quotas for the number of items to be picked or packed in an hour that even a manager described as “ridiculous”. Those packing heavy Xbox games consoles had to pack 140 an hour to reach their target.
– Set against each other with a bonus scheme that penalises staff if any other member of their group fails to hit the quota.
– Made to walk up to 14 miles a shift to collect items for packing.
There is far more in the article, but I see my least favorite first world labor violation in full swing (hiring more vulnerable folks as temporary workers to work them to the bone).
If I were awarding prizes for useless office equipment, the prize would go to the Lemon Clock. It’s cool as modern art. As office equipment…not so cool. I’m pleased that someone figured out how to power a clock with a lemon, but I’m left wondering what the point is. I mean, I have almost unlimited access to lemons and I consider this a waste of a lemon.
If the office party is in decline (at least the catered part of the party), what is your favorite dish to bring to a potluck? And why? Assume it’s a workplace potluck with a fridge, but not necessarily an oven.
I have to admit that I always try to bring dessert, and most often cookies, using the Famous Amos/Nordstrom’s recipe. They are easy to transport and I don’t worry about them falling into the “danger zone” when food becomes poison.
What do you bring?
We’ve been rearranging our home, and I’ve been looking for small temporary office spaces. This desk above might do the trick.
It seems very precarious though. I’m thinking I wouldn’t want to put anything hot on the desk. Or heavy. On the other hand, I could easily move it around the house, and it could be stored in the closet.
I’m seeking suggestions for calendars and planning systems for 2009.
For years I had a Franklin Planner (a gift from my dad), but eventually found it too bulky and became wary of the Stephen Covey associations. I’m not into the 7 Habits. Possibly because I’m not a highly effective person.
And then I tried the Hipster PDA for more than a year. And while I like the non-electronic nature of it, and the index cards, I found it a very hard system to maintain and even more difficult to reference past material. Also, if I had back pockets the Hipster PDA might be more appealing.
This year, I shifted to a handbound planner from Etsy. It’s compact, but it’s too small for all the notes I need to include.
Any ideas? I use my calendar/planner to keep track of appointments and meetings, but also client conversations and informal time sheets of how my day is spent (3 hours on Client X, 3 hours on Client y, 2 hours on Client Z). I also use the address book that is usually included. I’ve considered making something, but I’m not particularly crafty and don’t feel compelled to become so any time soon.
What do you use? Why does it work for you?
I might be able to accuse the LA Times of beating a dead horse because they do write about individualized health care plans quite a bit. But as a small business owner who has had one of these terrible plans, and participated in this particular health care racket, I think the more attention brought to them the better.
Why are these plans so bad?
Here’s my personal list:
a. the deductibles are much higher (e.g., $5000+) than for plans through employers
b. the benefits are lower (and often non-existent) than for plans through employers
c. insurance companies cherry pick who they cover and reject the rest (God help you find insurance once you are rejected by one company—it’s the equivalent to being blackballed for life. And remember if you’ve had a C-section, you will be automatically rejected.)
d. the rates increase drastically as you age (e.g., I had the nerve to turn 35. God help me.)
e. insurance companies charge more if you disclose conditions (e.g., I saw a therapist three times four years ago as I left a terrible job. I got charged 25% more for the premium because of this. Three times, mind you. Three times.)
f. insurance companies will cancel your policy if you actually dare to use the insurance (e.g., pregnancy, cancer, migraines, indigestion)—it’s illegal to do this, and yet they do it all the time.
g. these plans are scarcely regulated at all (smart, huh?)
And on an electoral vote, when I evaluate how a candidate supports small businesses, the primary way I do that is not by how much they want to tax me, but how much they want to help with my health care problem.
Read more stories about individualized health care plans here.
A while back, someone asked me about labor conditions in Turkey, so I’ve been on the look out for related stories. Here’s one: Workers in Turkey who sandblast jeans are at risk of contracting silicosis.
Hundreds of workers in Turkey are exposed to the deadly disease silicosis simply because they were hired to manually sandblast denim in makeshift illegal workshops where the health and well-being of laborers were disregarded and safety gear ignored, activists say.
Industry analysts put the number of people who work or had worked in the past in sandblasting jobs at around 10,000 to 15,000. Most workers who landed in denim workshops came to big cities in search of jobs and were forced to work in hazardous conditions. Aged between 15 and 25, they primarily came from Turkey’s central, eastern and southeastern cities of Bingöl, Ad?yaman, Diyarbak?r and Sivas.
This seems like a very familiar story. Change the product, change the country, but the working conditions for those who are poor and desperate seem not to change.
I consider this yet another reason not to buy diamonds: EEOC sues Sterling Jewelers for discrimination against women:
The EEOC found that Sterling Jewelers “pays its female retail sales employees less than male employees performing equal work and denies female employees promotional opportunities for which they are qualified.”
“Sterling Jewelers intentionally discriminates against female retail sales employees by maintaining a system for making promotion and compensation decisions that is excessively subjective, and through which Sterling Jewelers has permitted or encouraged managers to deny female employees equal access to promotion opportunities and the same compensation paid to similarly situated male employees,” the EEOC stated in its lawsuit.
I suppose we’ll see what happens in court. You may not have heard of Sterling Jewelers, but they are the parent company to Kay Jewelers and Jared the Galleria of Jewelry (Has anyone heard of Jared? That’s a strange business name).
If you’re a long-time reader, you may recall that sometime around March of last year, I tried to stop buying products from China. I’m still committed to this notion, mostly around issues of workers’ rights, but there are significant safety concerns when it comes to food (including dog food, as you’ll remember) as well.
Now part of the problem with products from China is that they have not been labeled as such in the market. Sure, clothes were. And consumer electronics were. And this made those products easy to avoid. But food was not necessarily labeled.
U.S. Food Country of Origin Labeling (COOL) falls short describes how labels on meat, poultry, produce, and peanuts will now be required. There are loads of exceptions, but this is a very big step in giving consumers information in the food marketplace.
One of the recurrent surviving the workday issues for office workers seems to be All Things Kitchenette. Or at least related to a communal fridge. Now here’s an idea for keeping your lunch from being pilfered by a hungry coworker: an anti-theft plastic bag. Now I don’t really like all things plastic, but this actually seems like it might work. After all, it’s usually the good lunches that get eaten. Not the ones covered in mold. For purchase here.
So here’s a good example of how “productivity” data can be used badly and lead to poor morale. In 12 Confessions of a Home Mortgage Collector, we learn that Wells Fargo Home Mortgage Collectors were supposed to be on the phone with clients 98% of the time as that seems to be how “productivity” was rated. But, as we all know, simply being on the phone with a client does not mean you are productive (and read the other 11 tips, and you’ll see how non-productive any phone call to Wells Fargo can be).
With big life events, it often seems that there is a spending spree that ensues. And so it goes with going to college. Greening Your Dorm Room is a helpful introduction to avoiding some of the spending pitfalls. Plants rather than air fresheners, water filters rather than bottled water. You get the idea.
Any other ideas for greening a dorm room (or new apartment) for that matter?