As the 2008 elections creep closer and closer, the topic of politics seems to become more prevalent in workplaces across the country. Much like March Madness and the Super Bowl, politics has the potential to dominate water cooler and break room conversation, leaving some co-workers on the out. While it may seem logical to limit these conversations and tell the hot-heads to keep it to themselves, this can lead to some problems. According to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), employees who speaking about politics that deal with employment issues, are covered by section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act.
The Supreme Court has concluded that the “mutual aid or protection” clause protects employees when they engage in concerted activities “in support of employees of employers other than their own” or seek to “improve their lot as employees through channels outside the immediate employee-employer relationship.” In numerous subsequent cases, the Board has found that employee appeals to legislators or governmental agencies were protected, so long as the substance of those was directly related to employee working conditions.
In addition to addressing political conversation and speeches, the new guidelines also clarify what instances these employees can remain protected. For instance, if an employee is breaking company policy, such as attendance, then they are no longer protected. This means that unlike sports talk, you may not be able to completely eliminate politics, you can however limit it to specific times and places. The main thing to keep in mind with the new guidelines is to be cautious when disciplining an employee for political related actions.
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After the new ADA Amendments Act sailed through Congress, it is now up to President Bush, and all indications are, that after initial hesitations, he will be signing off on it shortly. This is a bold move by legislators that opens up employers across the country to many more disability and discrimination claims under the ADA. Earlier this year it passed with overwhelming majority in both the House and Senate.
The ADAAA would broaden the ADA’s reach by essentially reversing the United States Supreme Court rulings that narrowly interpret the meaning of the key phrase “substantially limits a major life activity.” There would be several major changes as a result of this legislation, including:
The ADAAA would define disability as any actual, past, or perceived physical or mental impairment that substantially limits a major life activity, and would define substantially limits a major life activity as “materially restricts a major life activity.”
The ADAAA would also, for the first time, provide a list of per se major life activities. The list includes, but is not limited to, caring for oneself, seeing, hearing, eating, sleeping, walking, standing, lifting, speaking, breathing, learning, reading, concentrating, thinking, communicating, working, and the performance of any major bodily function.
The ADAAA would also prohibit the consideration of measures that reduce the impact of an impairment on an individual. In other words, a hearing impaired person who can hear just fine with hearing aids who might not be covered under the ADA currently might well be covered if the ADAAA is passed into law.
The ADAAA would, however, would make clear that employers are not required to provide reasonable accommodations to persons who are “regarded as” being disabled but who do not actually have a disability.
There has been strong backlash from business owners who feel this will allow employees who are unhappy with their situation to use the bill as leverage in their favor even where no real disability exists. Opponents also state that this will significantly increase the amount of litigation under the ADA.
Supporters of the bill:
The chief sponsor of the bill, the House Democratic leader, Representative Steny H. Hoyer of Maryland, said the situation was now bizarre. “An individual may be considered too disabled by an employer to get a job, but not disabled enough by the courts to be protected by the A.D.A. from discrimination,” Mr. Hoyer said.
The chief Republican sponsor, Representative F. James Sensenbrenner Jr. of Wisconsin, said the Supreme Court had “chipped away at the protections” of the 1990 law, leaving millions of Americans with no recourse or remedy for discrimination.
If the ADAAA is passed, employers are likely going to face more instances in which they need to provide accommodations to employees who might not have been considered disabled in the past, but who are considered disabled under the new law. Employers should study the new law once the final version is passed and make the appropriate changes to their workplace policies and procedures. To get all federal and state laws/regulations updated daily, as well as desktop training for such hot-button issues, visit HRSentry.
I have been hearing requests lately for some tips on workplace safety policies that can be used in multiple settings. I have provided a sample safety policy from the HRSentry library for your reading enjoyment, To access more of the 100+ policies available, login to your HRSentry account, and using the search feature type in “policy”. If you do not have an account at this time and would like to see what policies are in the libraries, use the search feature on the homepage to get a list. And as always comments are welcome!
Safety Policy
XXX is committed to the safety and health of all employees and recognizes the need to comply with regulations governing injury and accident prevention and employee safety. Maintaining a safe work environment, however, requires the continuous cooperation of all employees.
XXX will maintain safety and health practices consistent with the needs of our industry. If an employee is ever in doubt about how to safely perform a job, it is that employee’s responsibility to ask his/her supervisor for assistance. Any suspected unsafe conditions and all injuries that occur on the job must be reported immediately to YYY.
Compliance with these safety rules is considered a condition of employment. Non-compliance will be treated like any other violation of established company rules and will result in disciplinary action up to and including termination. Therefore, it is a requirement that each supervisor make the safety of employees an integral part of her/his regular management functions. It is the responsibility of each employee to accept and follow established safety regulations and procedures.
Safety questions, concerns or suggestions should be forwarded to YYY.
Starting a new job can be extremely intimidating as new employees face the challenge of not only learning a new job, but adjusting to the organizational culture as well. The success of this adjustment is impacted greatly by the way both parties react to each other. I was thinking about this when I ran across a piece written on office politics by Bill Reynolds of CompEraser. The article provides some great pointers on what it takes to gain the trust and respect needed to take your career to the next level.
By realizing the subtle, pervasive, necessary, and often positive nature of organizational politics, you will be well on your way to developing political awareness. Each organization has its own political rules of conduct. By being patient, cautious, and observant, you can learn to recognize and employ behavior that is politically correct for your particular workplace. In addition, there are some general guidelines for practicing organizational politics in most any workplace:
Pay your dues. You should not expect to receive any favors or support until you have contributed in significant ways to your department organization. This is especially important advice for organizational newcomers. You earn credibility support, and the right to influence others by working hard and demonstrating your trustworthiness. By accepting unpleasant tasks, assisting others, and working extra hours initially, you build up a reserve of credit fro advancing yourself and your goals later on.
Listen and observe. Because the political atmosphere is implicit and subtle in most organizations, skills of listening and observing are important. By listening, you can notice who advances what ideas, who supports whom, what subtle suggestions are made, and what topics are awkward. Keen observation can reveal what projects receive high priority, where informal lines of communication occur, and the nature of alliances and animosities. The real power in organizations does not always lie with the visible power holders. By noticing the geographic placement of offices, seating arrangements in meetings, alternative meanings to statements, and the pattern of workplace friendships, you can begin to identify informal power, norms, and expectations.
Understand the people in your organization. In order to get along with and to influence others, you must pay attention to the personality traits and organizational interests of the political players. Being a good judge of character is an ingredient of political savvy that helps you determine allies and methods of influence. Who are the fence sitters? Who are the opinion leaders? Which colleagues make decisions based on tradition, evidence, cost-effectiveness, or majority sentiment? Some people need to be coaxed, praised, or reassured. Others welcome directness and debate. Some people are risk takers and others are cautious. Still others block every attempt to change. Remember that employees in an organization want to protect their self-interest. By identifying those interests and styles of behavior, you will become skilled at dealing with people.
Identify power sources. Because organizational politics is so closely tied to power, it is important to appraise the relative power positions of individuals and organizational units. Who makes what decisions? Who controls what resources? Who has influences with supervisors? Learn to recognize both formal and informal power. For example, those in legitimate positions with the ability to reward or punish others are obviously powerful. But so are those who possess valuable information, indispensable skills, or charismatic personalities. Sometimes the least obvious person wields the most power.
Build partnerships. Most people operate according to the principle of reciprocal favors. If someone helps, supports, or acts kindly towards you, you are likely to feel obligated to return the favor. Maxims such as “One good turn deserves another” or “Scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours” illustrate the reciprocity ethic. Politically wise managers build alliances based on this principle. By supporting each other, two colleagues have more strength as a team than they would individually.
Two points about the judicious use of this strategy are worth mentioning. First, it is rarely necessary to remind people that they owe you a favor. To make such an explicit statement is to bring the political process to an awkwardly obvious level. It also insults others to imply that they aren’t holding up their end of the bargain. Indeed, the best alliances are implicitly understood rather than fully expressed in the first place. The second caution concerns the overuse of predictable alliances. If the work group realizes that two people always side with each other regardless of the issue, the group will discount the partnership.
Never overuse power. Being blatant with power is a sure way to lose it. Power can be regarded as your ability to influence others minus the others’ ability to resist. It is a transaction between people, not an entity one person possesses. A manager who is tyrannical with power will create much resistance. A better approach is to avoid obvious displays of power. Managers, for example, who arbitrarily mandate new procedures for reports often get complaints, refusals, and sabotage from their staff members. By gradually and subtly influencing staff members to see the value of the new procedure instead, you will find compliance and support. Indeed, even in the absence of supervision, the staff will continue to do the reports in the new way because they have internalized your perspective on the issue.
Learn to negotiate. Politically savvy managers are good negotiators who know when to make concessions and when to hold out. By compromising several smaller points, they can often win on big issues. Effective negotiation involves careful listening, a sensitivity to nonverbal cues, the strategic use of questions, a knowledge of options, a sense of timing, and a confident style of communication. Negotiation is involved in many aspects of the managerial role. You may find yourself negotiating with supervisors, subordinates, colleagues, potential employees, unions, customers, citizens, or vendors. It is inherently a political process because it involves subtle attempts to influence others to gain power or achieve a goal.
Have any additional tips or pointers? Feel free to post them!
As an employer, you have a responsibility to maintain a workplace that is free of sexual harassment. Not only is this your legal obligation, it is good business sense. If you allow sexual harassment to flourish in your workplace, you will pay a high price in terms of poor employee morale, low productivity and lawsuits.
Strategies for Prevention
There are a number of steps that you can take to reduce the risk of sexual harassment occurring in your workplace. Although you may not be able to take all of the steps listed below, you should take as many of them as you can.
Adopt a clear sexual harassment policy. In your employee handbook, you should have an entire policy devoted to sexual harassment. That policy should: define sexual harassment, state in no uncertain terms that you will not tolerate sexual harassment, state that you will discipline or fire any wrongdoers, set out a clear procedure for filing sexual harassment complaints, state that you will investigate fully any complaint that you receive and state that you will not tolerate retaliation against anyone who complains about sexual harassment.
Train employees. At least once a year, conduct training sessions for employees. These sessions should teach employees what sexual harassment is, explain that employees have a right to a workplace free of sexual harassment and review your complaint procedure and encourage employees to use it.
Train supervisors and managers. At least once a year, conduct training sessions for supervisors and managers that are separate from the employee sessions. The sessions should educate the managers and supervisors about sexual harassment and explain how to deal with complaints. To learn more about dealing with employee complaints, see Guidelines for Handling Discrimination and Harassment Complaints.
Monitor your workplace. Get out among your employees periodically. Talk to them about the work environment. Ask for their input. Look around the workplace itself. Do you see any offensive posters or notes? Talk to your supervisors and managers about what is going on. Keep the lines of communication open.
Take all complaints seriously. If someone complains about sexual harassment, act immediately to investigate the complaint. If the complaint turns out to be valid, your response should be swift and effective.
The same laws that prohibit gender discrimination prohibit sexual harassment. Title VII is the main federal law that prohibits sexual harassment. In addition, each state has its own anti-sexual harassment law. The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is the federal agency that enforces sexual harassment laws. To learn more about sexual harassment, refer to the agency’s website or access HRSentry for your full breakdown of harassment definitions, laws, policies, and training programs.
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