Blocking Websites at Work: Smart Move or a Blow to Morale?

Many businesses these days have noticed a growing problem centering on what should be the undivided attention of their employees to the work at hand.  If you haven’t heard of social networking, you can probably walk by the desk of any random employee and get a lesson as they update their Facebook profile, post to their Twitter feed, or follow any number of weblogs or newsfeeds that are totally unrelated to whatever they’re being paid to focus on.  This growing problem with web surfing has been a thorn in the side of many a business, and some have taken the drastic measure of blocking certain websites in order to discourage employees from wasting the company dime.  But is this really a smart move?  Or are companies that are looking to crack down merely sending a vote of no-confidence to employees and forcing them to get creative with their deceptions? Read more

Justifying Travel Expenses During a Recession

These days it seems like every dime a company spends is being carefully scrutinized for any hint of misappropriation.  With the public opinion of corporations at an all-time low after the rampant misuse of money that occurred prior to the housing market fiasco (and the bailouts that left many people angry at not only iron-clad executives, but also the governments supporting their irresponsible actions), this is a bad time to be seen as a company with a wasteful attitude.  In fact, with businesses large and small feeling the crunch from the recession, perpetrating layoffs to bolster the bottom line, and doing everything they can just to stay afloat, it seems like the idea of travel wouldn’t even be on the table due to the major expense of sending employees offsite (not only paying their salary plus overtime, but also footing the bill for airline tickets, hotel rooms, transportation, and sundries).  And yet, many companies have done nothing to cut their travel budgets.  The question is: how can they justify such an oversight? Read more

District of Columbia incidence of Sexually Transmitted Diseases

Using data from Sexually Transmitted Disease Morbidity on CDC WONDER the above graphic shows the District of Columbia having a far greater number of Syphilis cases per 100,000 population than any other State.

Whilst the above chart shows Syphilis cases, DC is top in almost every sexually transmitted disease that can be charted.

Utah’s Boiler Room Attorney General

The Salty Droid, a one robot task force against the worst of the corrupt and despicable Multi-level marketing world has a post discussing Mark Shurtleff, Boiler Room Attorney General of Utah.

City Weekly show that in 2008 he accepted contributions totalling $187,500 from various boiler room call centers.

The problem with these call centers is that they prey on the vulnerable and use intimidating techniques when trying to close the deal. Worse still is that many of the offers are get-rich-quick schemes and they exploit the poor with fake scarcity offers and imminent price rises.

The Significance of Team-Building

One of the major problems facing many companies today is a woeful lack of communication and cooperative effort due to compartmentalization, specialization, and large numbers of employees that rarely (if ever) meet.  In a small business, everyone knows everyone else.  People wear multiple hats and the ability to work together is necessary to maintain and expand the company.  It feels like a family.  When corporations begin to grow, workers become separated into groups and into individual functions.  Ideally they are all like cogs in a machine, doing their parts, interacting with the few people in their group, but never really touching other parts of the machine (or knowing what they do).  Unfortunately, when enough parts stop working correctly, the machine grinds to a halt. Read more

Good Jobs: They Challenge Your Mind, Not Your Morals

Finding a “good job” is a rather subjective pursuit.  All of us have different ideas about what type of occupation will bring fulfillment to our lives (not to mention the right size of paycheck).  And it’s not always easy to tell if a job is the right one from the outset.  Even a position that seems like it’s custom-made for you can quickly turn out to be something completely different from what you expected (or you may just end up not liking it).  And of course, you need something that is challenging enough to keep you interested, involved, and satisfied without working you so hard that you burn out.  The problem is, many jobs provide the wrong kinds of challenges.  You need the type of problem that’s going to keep your mind agile and help you grow as a professional individual.  What you don’t need are trials that test your moral integrity and ethical viewpoint.  These do not a good job make. Read more

Discourse Ethics: Starting the Conversation

Even if you are familiar with the concept of ethical business practices, having no doubt discussed it in one of the many courses you took for your degree (you may have even taken a semester-long class devoted to the topic), you might be unaware of a branch of thought known as discourse ethics.  According to Cornelius von Baeyer, former chair of the Ethics Practitioners’ Association of Canada, in “The Importance of Dialogue in Applied Ethics”, discourse ethics “sets out a procedure for arriving at ethical conclusions based on reasoned argument among concerned participants” rather than attempting to simply determine the parameters of ethical actions.  In this way, the issue of ethics becomes a discussion rather than simply a set of regulations that may or may not accurately represent the pressures of conducting business on a day-to-day basis.  In short, discourse ethics allow for the voicing of opinions that lead to a rational consensus. Read more

Putting a Stop to Office Politics

If you’ve worked in the corporate world, then you are probably well acquainted with the concept of office politics.  Although you may not have personally participated in supporting certain factions, working to further your own agenda (at the expense of others or even the company), or promoting based on favoritism rather than merit, you have likely turned a blind eye to such goings on, preferring not to get involved in what doesn’t concern you.  Unfortunately, the corruption and damage that often results from office politics is the concern of every employee, and it can pose a serious detriment to both the integrity and success of the company as well as the morale of everyone it touches (directly or indirectly).  In short, office politics should be strongly discouraged and even stopped whenever possible.  But how can this be accomplished? Read more