One of my employment workplace pet peeves are evaluations improperly done. The problem all started with the employee manual. Someone, way back when, put a clause in the manual that stated that evaluations would be performed every year in January. This got copied by...
Workplace Issues
Smells At Work
When I do discrimination trainings, I always talk about smells at work. Maybe I have a sensitive nose, but smells at work can be a real distraction. Smells include the stinky ones like body odor but they also include the more subjective obnoxious smells such as...
When is Weight an Issue at work?
As a society today, weight is starting to effect the workforce more and more. Specifically, what happens when an employee gets so large (obese but “large” sounds better) that they can no longer effectively do their job. Are they really not able to do their job or is...
I Am Sick of People’s Nasty Voice Tones and Why it is so Damaging at Work and at Home
I had the TV on last night (just for the noise company) and caught one of the sitcoms talking about voice tone. A women, I think her name was Whitney, was complaining to her friend that her husband used a nasty tone of voice sometimes when he talked to her. She...
L.M. SIXEL’S FIVE WORKPLACE RULES
L.M. Sixel, the Houston Chronicle columnist, recently wrote an article about what makes a better workplace. She had five simple rules for creating a better workplace. I think her rules are excellent and I would like to comment on them further. The basis of Sixel’s...
What makes good people become bad supervisors?
What makes good people turn into bad supervisors? This is an interesting subject and unfortunately a common problem. In some ways it is similar to bad parenting. Although some bad parenting skills can be offset with lots of love,. people don’t come to work to be...
An EVALUATION FROM HELL
Recently I was at a local spa getting a beauty treatment (yes, I like to indulge myself). Mary, the sweet lady that was giving me a facial, confided that she was upset over a recent evaluation she had received from her boss. Mary apologized to me for venting, but...
SURFING PORN AT WORK–IS THERE A DOUBLE STANDARD IF YOU ARE UPPER MANAGEMENT?
Recently George Greanias, the President and CEO of Metropolitan Transit Authority (Metro) in Houston, Texas was caught surfing porn on his personal computer at work. I have no direct involvement in this matter but was surprised to see how it was handled by Metro....
What Bugs People at Work
I have found by representing Employers and Employees that many times people end up in a lawsuit over stupid little mistakes. Of course, there are instances of out and out discrimination. It does still happen, unfortunately. But many times it is the little stuff that...
A Habit That Shouldn’t Have Started
Somehow, somewhere, an employment lawyer suggested that when companies fire someone that should escort them out with a security officer. I think this is a terrible idea. Unless you have reason to believe that an employee is going to go postal (sorry, Post Office — I...