5 Simple Methods to Fight Tunnel Vision at Work

07/21/2016 |

5 Simple Methods I’ve Learned To Fight Tunnel Vision At Work

Find yourself getting sucked into your work? Here’s how to climb back out and stay grounded.

[Photo: Flickr user Paul Nuttall]
Adam Steele 07.13.16 5:00 AM

I catch tunnel vision like a virus, and it always has the same symptoms. I know it’s happening when I feel fatigued and disinterested. I begin to withdraw from important side projects and my social life, and despite the fact that I’m completely focused on one thing, I’m more susceptible to being blindsided by others that I should’ve seen coming.

Maybe it happens to you, too. Maybe, like me, you’re great at multitasking some of the time but find yourself swallowed whole by big projects and challenges other times—and then struggle to claw your way back out. I have to admit that I’ve actually made myself vulnerable to tunnel vision. I now run four companies, host a YouTube show, and serve as an administrator for a few entrepreneurs’ groups. Lots of things compete for my attention, and any one of them can lock me out of the others if I let them.

Here’s how I’ve learned to avoid giving in to all-consuming work at the expense of everything else.

1. Post Big Goals Where You Can’t Ignore Them

There’s more than one effective way to organize your schedule and track your goals. While I use many of the same apps that most entrepreneurs do, like Todoist and Evernote, sometimes you have to go a little old fashioned. Goals easily get lost when you need to swipe through screens or shuffle through Chrome tabs just to remind yourself what they are. That’s why I keep my all of my most important goals on a giant whiteboard that dominates a wall in my office.

You may not have access to a whiteboard that’s big enough to take up a huge chunk of your workspace, but you can achieve the same effect with big piece of paper and a marker. Whatever you do, scrap the tiny sticky notes and pocket-size notepad—those won’t grab your attention the way you need them to. Just make a large hard copy and put it right where you can’t ever ignore it. I like to keep mine just past my monitor, so that every time I look up from my screen, my goals are glaring right at me.

There’s something to be said for the tactile feeling of crossing something out on a hard surface versus tapping a screen. There’s also something to be said for listing goals in imposing, foot-tall letters that you can’t help but see constantly.

When your immediate goals are impossible to overlook and you’re confronted with success or stagnation every time you look up, your goals are more likely to be compressed into a diamond in your mind that can’t be easily dislodged.

2. Don’t Stop At Professional Goals

Getting fixated on a big project for too long can lead to burnout, which is why I’ve made sure that my goals include everything I want from life, not just the things I want in my career.

So remember to include experiences, pleasures, and things you find personally meaningful—not just achievements that will push your career forward or help your business grow. Reading certain books, visiting certain places, and sharing certain experiences with loved ones are all equally valid goals that can help you stay grounded and avoid tunnel vision when the pressure starts to build.

Keep in mind, too, that not all your goals have the power to make you happy. Some objectives are business necessities, others are personal necessities—sometimes they overlap, but not always. Make sure the goals that actually make you happy make it toward the top of your list, this way you can actually invest the same time and focus in them that you pour into your other major undertakings.

3. Keep Yourself Accountable—Or Have Others Help You

I’m a pretty competitive guy, and I know what stings the most for me: someone else knowing I’ve failed. That’s why I force myself to share my toughest goals with friends and colleagues. When a deadline passes and I know that they’re aware of it, I’m more determined not to let myself fail.

You may find different ways to keep yourself motivated and accountable, but if you like this approach your mentors should be your first stop. There’s no one better to judge you and hold you to your intentions than the people you’ve chosen to look up to, right?

Sometimes, though, I’ve found it works even better to share my goals with people who are more like “frenemies”—people I talk to and respect but still compete with in business. By playing into my competitive streak, I can remember to lift my head up from my own work now and then and refocus on the big picture.

4. Clean Up Your Workspace Daily

Remember that whiteboard I mentioned that “consumes” my office? That’s because my office is tiny by deliberate design. I’m a chaotic worker, and I need to force myself into a situation where I simply can’t use my workspace if I don’t make the effort to file everything where it belongs.

This routine forces me to break out of whatever intense focus I might’ve sunk into over the course of a day—to look up, take stock of things, see how far I’ve come, and get everything back in order before diving in again. It’s a great, regular “reset” button for tunnel vision.

5. Look For Easy, Routine Ways Expand Your Perspective

It usually costs, at most, $15 to change your point of view: That’s more or less what a book costs. It may sound silly just to be reminded to read, but professionals prone to tunnel vision tend to banish all other activities and pastimes in order to devote their full focus to their work. And that can be a mistake.

I’ve forced myself to read at least one book each month, and by turning that into a regular habit—as opposed to an occasional thing I need to make an effort to do every now and then—and it’s influenced my work and goals and has helped keep me grounded.

The best way out of tunnel vision is to expand your perspective. But you need to build excuses into your daily routine to actually do that regularly, and simply reading about others’ experiences can help you. It takes practice, though. Fighting tunnel vision requires constant vigilance. All the more reason to start right now.

Adam Steele is a builder of things, including Internet marketing agency The Magistrate and outsourcing solution Loganix, among others. He is a member of the Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC), an invite-only organization comprised of the world’s most promising young entrepreneurs.

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The Best Bosses Follow these 7 Rules

07/19/2016 |

The best bosses follow these 7 rules

Joel Garfinkle
July 18, 2016

There is huge pressure on you, the manager, to be a great boss, one who motivates and inspires people not only to stay in the company, but also to do their best every day. Employees place enormous value on their relationship with you. People place “a bad boss” as the No. 1 reason for leaving a job.

First, relax: know that great bosses are not born, they’re made. Most people end up in a management position because they did a good job in a subordinate role, not because they possessed some innate and undeniable leadership quality. If you practice your skills, and seek to follow these seven rules, you will be well on your way to being one of the best.

The book “How to Be a Great Boss” will help you acquire and use the seven hallmark qualities outlined below that all great bosses have.

1. Empower your people

Employees perform best when empowered and trusted to do well in their jobs. Think back to the times you felt most inspired to do your best. Chances are it was when you were trusted with real responsibility. To be set up for success, your people will need more than just a project handed to them. Make sure they can positively answer all the following questions. If not, you have more work to do.

Key questions for empowered success

  • Do I know how this work fits in the bigger picture?
  • Does my boss trust me without micromanaging?
  • Am I clear on what is expected of the project, and me?
  • Does my manager have my back?
  • Will my boss help me if I have problems, or if I fail?

2. Provide growth opportunities

Provide the kinds of opportunities that will really grow the talent on your team. Training is one thing — and often necessary — but growth is more than just learning how to do new tasks. Ask yourself how your employees can really grow their potential — should you challenge to provide creative solutions? Offer coaching? Encourage them to take the lead? Great bosses know how to develop talent, in addition to skill.

3. Train through feedback

Workplace surveys show time and again that what employees crave is continuous feedback. As a manager, you know that it’s easy to put off giving constructive criticism, but feedback is really only effective in the moment. Always follow the rule: praise in public, critique in private.

Created with PixTeller

4. Make the tough choices

Sometimes, the job of a great boss means more than just managing. Sometimes, it means letting someone go. Low-performance employees drag down the productivity of the company and undermine the morale of those around them. Hopefully, you can often turn a situation around before it comes to firing, but if, in the end, you have to let someone go, be empathetic, and treat the person firmly but kindly. Keep it brief but respectful, and know that however hard the choice is, you’re doing the right thing for your team and your company.

5. Give thanks

Great bosses make gratitude a habit. Often, it’s easy to get wrapped up in the work and forget the simple act of saying “thank you” for a nagging problem solved, a point well communicated, or a job well done. Don’t forget to make it public when appropriate (praise in public, critique in private) and make it specific. Thanks for a task done well is far more meaningful than a generic thanks for hard work. Make sure to brag about your team farther up the chain, too.

6. Create a positive workplace

Work doesn’t have to be a grind. The best workplaces do everything they can to make coming to work a positive, uplifting experience. Make yourself available and really try to engage with your employees — the simple question “How can I make your job easier?” is a powerful way to start a great conversation. Let them know you’ve got their back when they need your help or advice.

7. Show your people the future

Your job is to show your people the world. We each tend to view corporate decisions through the lens of how they will affect us and our jobs. As a manager, you likely have a larger view of the big picture. Some info will be confidential or sensitive, of course, but whenever appropriate be sure to bring that vision to your employees and help them to understand.

No one is born a naturally great manager; with dedication, you can make these skills an innate part of the way you interact with others. What habits have you already brought into your daily life? What skills do you find the hardest to practice?

Joel Garfinkle is the author of nine books, including “How To Be a Great Boss” and “Getting Ahead: Three Steps to Take Your Career to the Next Level.” He is recognized as one of the top 50 coaches in the U.S., having worked with many of the world’s leading companies, including Oracle, Google, Amazon, Deloitte, The Ritz-Carlton, Gap and Starbucks. As an executive coach, he recently worked with an SVP whose strategic responsibility increased dramatically and forced him to empower, delegate and increase the responsibility of his team. Sign up to his Fulfillment@Work newsletter (10,000+ subscribes) and you’ll receive the free e-book “41 Proven Strategies to Get Promoted Now!”

If you enjoyed this article, join SmartBrief’s e-mail list for our daily newsletter on being a better, smarter leader.

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The Overtime Rule

05/18/2016 |

The Overtime Rule

In 2014, President Obama directed the Secretary of Labor to update the overtime regulations to reflect the original intent of the Fair Labor Standards Act, and to simplify and modernize the rules so they’re easier for workers and businesses to understand and apply. The department has issued a final rule that will put more money in the pockets of middle class workers – or give them more free time.

The final rule will:

  • Raise the salary threshold indicating eligibility from $455/week to $913 ($47,476 per year), ensuring protections to 4.2 million workers.
  • Automatically update the salary threshold every three years, based on wage growth over time, increasing predictability.
  • Strengthen overtime protections for salaried workers already entitled to overtime.
  • Provide greater clarity for workers and employers.

The final rule will become effective on December 1, 2016, giving employers more than six months to prepare. The final rule does not make any changes to the duties test for executive, administrative and professional employees.

Overtime updates will extend protections to 4.2 million workers across the country.

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Companies adapt to recruit, retain millennials

03/24/2016 |

Companies adapt to recruit, retain millennials

Millennials were the first generation to have smartphones available before adulthood. Text messaging is often their preferred form of communication, and social media was part of many millennials’ high school experience. (Photo/Blue Acorn)Millennials were the first generation to have smartphones available before adulthood. Text messaging is often their preferred form of communication, and social media was part of many millennials’ high school experience. (Photo/Blue Acorn)

By Liz Segrist
lsegrist@scbiznews.com
Published March 24, 2016
From the March 21, 2016, print edition

Search online for “millennials in the workplace” and more than 500,000 results will surface on Google, including “how to train for and manage millennials,” “millennial characteristics” and “how to not irritate the hell out of millennials.”

Millennials are one of the fastest-growing generations in the workforce, and companies are looking for ways to recruit and retain them, according to Charleston-based recruiters and data from the Pew Research Center.

Millennials are defined by Pew as the generation born between 1981 and 1996, meaning adult millennials are now between 19 and 34 years old.

They were the first generation to have smartphones available before adulthood. Text messaging is often their preferred form of communication, and social media was part of many millennials’ high school experience.

Several human resources managers, CEOs and millennial-aged employees said millennials often seek flexible hours, the ability to leave for an appointment or gym class and a micromanagement-free environment.

They said millennials need to feel passionate about their work. They want to be challenged and valued for it. A strict environment can squelch a creative atmosphere, said Taylor Driesell, a millennial and talent acquisition specialist for Blue Acorn, a Charleston-based e-commerce tech firm.

Open floor space, pingpong tables and beer on tap help augment the office’s “cool factor,” but according to Jared Hellman, also a millennial and an optimization account manager at Blue Acorn, his generation desires a culture that truly supports work-life balance.

“I think at the highest level, what’s attractive to me is a place where I can be myself,” Hellman said. “I grew up watching both of my parents compartmentalize their lives so that they were one person at home and one person at the workplace. A lot of us are looking for a place where we don’t have to suppress our playful side at work. We want to be ourselves.”

Millennials in the workplace

When Peggy Frazier was recruiting employees to Apple, she worked a minimum of 60 hours a week, “and loved it.” Now, as vice president of global talent acquisition for Blackbaud, a Daniel Island-based tech firm focused on nonprofits, Frazier said she recruits millennials who want more balance between work and their life outside of it.

“My kids are millennials, and they grew up watching me work crazy hours, and they didn’t want to do that. … It’s a different view of what’s important,” Frazier said.

As the generation continues to become a larger part of the workforce, millennials are sometimes characterized as lazy or entitled. They also are seen as creative and efficient workers, as well as tech-savvy without training, said human resources professionals.

Keyana Cordano works with mostly millennial-aged students as the employee relations and career development director for the College of Charleston’s MBA program.

Cordano said the students often need to hone their verbal and written communication skills when applying for jobs, because “so many of them are used to texting and doing shorthand for everything.” Some of the millennials also need a push to take the initiative to pursue opportunities.

In her experience, nearly all job-seeking millennials want a mission-driven organization that aligns with their values, as well as the option for work-life balance and international travel.

“I don’t think these traits are a stereotype; I think it’s often their personalities. I can’t say it’s everybody, but I work with a very large group of millennials, and they all have similar traits and desires,” Cordano said.

Recruitment

Margaret Pilarski of the Charleston-based marketing firm SeaChange Consulting — and also a millennial — said good benefits, including a 401(k) and health insurance, and an interesting job description are important to her when she is looking for a job.

As the former senior editor of two Skirt publications, Pilarski was laid off when the magazine’s editorial department shut down. During her job search, she said she found mostly impersonal job descriptions that failed to explain the position or company culture well.

“I like a good fit for the place where I’m going to spend most of my waking hours, but so many job listings were dry and, frankly, sad. … I know I do my best work when I’m challenged and believe in what I get to do,” Pilarski said. “Those things aren’t usually apparent at first glance in a job post. … With fewer opportunities to ‘climb a career ladder’ at a place, I think we find value in day-to-day satisfaction rather than over years.”

Pilarski said she wants to see companies offer flexible scheduling. She said her generation is willing to work long hours, but not in a nine-to-five, desk-only environment when technology enables working remotely and after regular business hours.

“The 40 hours a week is just so old-fashioned now,” Pilarski said. “We are truly optimizing the rest of our lives. If I have something in the afternoon, like a doctor’s appointment, I do not want to have guilt for not being present at my desk at the moment.”

Cristy Jamison, a 27-year-old account manager with Touchpoint Communications, said a creative, collaborative office culture that fosters growth were crucial when she was job hunting.

“If leaders give them the ability to grow within the company — through title changes or perks, professional development opportunities, going to conferences or being part of different organizations in the community — that would help keep millennials longer,” Jamison said.

Retention

Tommye Priest, Blue Acorn’s human resources director, said the 130-employee tech firm has a mostly millennial workforce. She said having employees take anonymous surveys about the company and then implementing changes from the responses has been a good way for millennials to have their opinions heard.

“Our generation basically did what we were told,” Priest said of the baby boomers. “Millennials are very vocal; they know what they want and they are willing to fight for it. You have to be open to that.”

Priest said Blue Acorn has created training and mentorship programs to help millennials see a future for themselves within the company. She said learning different ways to reward millennials based on personalities helps instill a feeling of value.

“Turnover is painful. The question companies have to ask is: Do you want valuable employees to stay? These employees bring so much energy, and we need to help them want to stay here,” Priest said.

Five years ago, Virgil Virga said he did not understand the need to get buy-in from his employees on a project — he felt it was their job to do so. Virga, COO of Metronome, a Fairfax, Va.-based IT provider for the federal government with operations in Charleston, said he struggled to retain millennial-aged workers.

Virga said he has since realized millennials typically need to see the passion and reasoning behind why something needs to be done. They have a strong sense “to get their hands on a lot of projects” and “wear a lot of hats.”

“Millennials are not going to tolerate an iron fist. They will be gone, out the door. This forced me to become a much more thoughtful, caring leader. I’m the first one to show emotion, which gives everyone the freedom to do that,” Virga said. “We’re investing in this because nobody wants to lose good, institutional knowledge. It’s all about retention. You want to keep what you have.”

So Virga started baking that concept into his company’s culture. He hired a consultant and implemented a leadership program to help millennials scale and learn new skills. It also was meant to help them work better with employees from different generations, who often have different perspectives and experiences to pull from.

“In my last company years ago, it was like pulling teeth to have people wanting to do things,” Virga said. “Now we have people jumping in who understand the purpose behind why we want to do something, and people are excited for it. To me, that’s invaluable to know that people want to be involved.”

Frazier of Blackbaud said companies should focus on ensuring employees from different generations can work together, but she added that it is also important to understand what’s important to each generation to effectively recruit them.

Millennials often seek a coaching style of leadership from their managers, which spurred Blackbaud to eliminate annual performance reviews.

To keep millennials longer than the average of two to three years — her goal is at least seven years — Frazier said they need the company to invest in them, need to have opportunities to lead and grow within their roles and need to feel they have a voice within the company.

Millennials want a job that helps them make a difference, and one that has “a meaning bigger than themselves,” said Frazier, also the council co-chair for the Charleston Open Source talent attraction campaign.

“It’s all about understanding how to leverage all these different strengths, based on experiences and backgrounds, to create something special,” Frazier said. “The companies that are going to be successful in recruiting are the ones that figure this out.”

Reach staff writer Liz Segrist at 843-849-3119 or @lizsegrist on Twitter.

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American Businesses Struggling to Hire STEM Talent

02/27/2016 |

National Survey: American Businesses Struggling to Hire STEM Talent Due to Increasing Scarcity, Higher Costs and Government Fees

The American Competitiveness Alliance is a coalition of organizations dedicated to a modern immigration policy that ensures America’s global competitiveness by attracting and keeping talent and know-how here in the United States. 

WASHINGTON, Feb. 25, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — The American Competitiveness Alliance (ACAlliance), a coalition of organizations dedicated to advancing common-sense immigration policies, today released a national survey highlighting the increasing challenges businesses face when recruiting STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) and IT professionals, including scarcity of talent, climbing administrative and regulatory costs, and constricting wage pressures.

As a result of this scarcity, wages have steadily increased for high-paying, in-demand positions in STEM fields, with three in four executives reporting higher salaries for their STEM workers than in the previous five years. Further, many of these jobs go unfilled for weeks or even months due to the limited pool of qualified candidates and increasing costs associated with recruitment and retention of skilled employees. Subsequent economic pressures decrease productivity and limit expansion, negatively impacting the marketplace and hampering job growth.

The survey – conducted by the Benenson Strategy Group – analyzed responses from 400 hiring managers and executives from companies nationwide and found that:

  • 8 in 10 executives report their company is investing more in STEM recruiting as a result of IT hiring challenges;
  • 82 percent of business professionals report hiring a skilled foreign worker costs as much or more than hiring a U.S. worker;
  • 3 in 4 professionals say the costs associated with sponsoring and complying with the H-1B visa program are already too high for most American companies.

The recent doubling of H-1B visa fees for some employers is particularly troubling in light of these data. In December 2015, the U.S. Congress included a provision in the omnibus spending bill which increased the visa processing fee from $2,000 to $4,000 per application. Businesses without the resources to pay this and other increasing costs – typically, smaller, local businesses already struggling to compete against their larger rivals – will be hardest hit. Large businesses, meanwhile, may relocate operations outside the U.S., where a large base of skilled talent is readily available to ensure they remain globally competitive.

“These data make clear that we need a multi-faceted approach to tackling America’s SKILLS gap,” said Matthew Slaughter, Dean of the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth and Academic Advisor for the American Competitiveness Alliance. “While a robust investment in STEM education will help our economy in the long-run, we clearly need policies from Washington that support growth, not slow it.

A 2013 Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce report found that the U.S. is already on track to face a shortage of five million workers by the end of this decade, with nearly 80 percent of those positions requiring various levels of advanced education.

Additional details on the survey, the first of two to be released this year, can be found on the ACAlliance website at www.acalliance.org.

About the ACAlliance
The American Competitiveness Alliance (ACAlliance) is a coalition of organizations dedicated to advancing modern immigration policies that ensure America’s global competitiveness through attracting and keeping talent here in the United States.

The ACAlliance is led by co-chairs former U.S. Treasurer Rosario Marin and former New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson.  The ACAlliance works to educate and inform stakeholders of the positive impact immigration reform can have on our economy, while cautioning against proposals that would do our economy harm. Visit us online at www.acalliance.org or follow us on Twitter: @AC_Alliance

CONTACT:  Elysa Montfort, 410-916-1369, elysa@acalliance.org

Logo – http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20150331/195596LOGO

To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/national-survey-american-businesses-struggling-to-hire-stem-talent-due-to-increasing-scarcity-higher-costs-and-government-fees-300226285.html

SOURCE American Competitiveness Alliance (ACAlliance)

RELATED LINKS
http://www.acalliance.org

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Employers May Be Held Liable for Employees’ Cyberbullying

02/16/2016 |

Employers May Be Held Liable for Employees’ Cyberbullying

By Allen Smith  2/10/2016

If evidence of cyberbullying connects back to work, however tenuously, employers may be on the hook.

A stand-alone cyberbullying policy may not be necessary to address the problem, according to Nathan Pangrace, an attorney with Roetzel & Andress in Cleveland. But harassment policies and use-of-technology policies should clearly prohibit cyberbullying, he said. So should anti-discrimination policies.

While no federal law specifically prohibits cyberbullying of employees, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits a hostile work environment based on race, color, gender, national origin or religion, regardless of whether that environment is created in person or by texts or social media.

Make sure, though, that efforts to prevent cyberbullying don’t violate the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), cautioned Peter Gillespie, an attorney at Fisher & Phillips in Chicago.

Harassing Texts

Employers may be liable for harassing texts from a supervisor, even if they are sent outside of work hours.

Consider Isenhour v. Outsourcing of Millersburg, No. 1:14-CV-1170 (M.D. Pa. 2015). In that case, a female operations manager allegedly harassed a male accounts receivable representative in 2012 by, among other actions, sending sexually explicit texts. The plaintiff introduced into evidence one comment from the operations manager’s cellphone requesting him to send her explicit pictures of himself.

In this case, an account manager responsible for supervising the accounts receivable representative testified that she, not the operations manager, sent the text. The operations manager also testified that she witnessed the account manager send sexual text messages to the plaintiff and that the comments and messages were written only outside of work hours.

No matter. This, along with other evidence (for example, testimony that the operations manager touched the plaintiff inappropriately and made comments about his body), was enough for the court to rule that a jury could decide that the plaintiff was subject to a hostile work environment in violation of Title VII.

“Courts have found that online platforms were merely extensions of the workplace,” Gillespie said. “The fact that the conduct may have been occurring during off hours and online did not prevent aggrieved employees from bringing claims.”

Threatening Facebook Messages

Just as it was unclear initially who sent the text in Isenhour, sometimes it isn’t clear who authored a harassing social media message. But if it can be traced back to employees or the work premises, that may be enough for there to be employer liability.

In Maldonado-Cátala v. Municipality of Naranjito (D. P.R. 2015), an emergency medical technician with the municipality claimed that threatening Facebook messages sent to her contributed to a hostile work environment.

After the plaintiff alleged that an emergency management office director sexually harassed female employees, the director was forced out.

The plaintiff then received several hostile messages on Facebook. One message sent on Nov. 1, 2010, at 9:46 p.m., called her a “whore,” “snake” and “dike.” The message also said, “I will see you fall you dirty lesbian and every one of you one by one [for] what you did to that man, the one from emergency management. … Remember that you have children. … By the way, the boy is gay and the girl is a lesbo.”

Interpreting the message as a threat, the plaintiff filed a police report. The police traced the message to a computer in the municipality’s emergency management office that only its director and secretary could access.

The court denied summary judgment for the employer on the plaintiff’s Title VII hostile work environment claim, noting that the use of the word “whore” raised Title VII concerns. (The pejorative words about sexual orientation did not; the plaintiff did not argue that there was sex stereotyping.) A reasonable jury could infer that the director permitted one of the municipality’s employees to send the message, the court said.

But don’t take social media at face value, Gillespie cautioned. As a prank, a third party could create a social media profile purporting to be a company manager harassing subordinates, he said.

NLRA Violations

Employers also need to proceed carefully when trying to stem online bullying to ensure that they don’t run afoul of the NLRA, Gillespie said.

The National Labor Relations Board has ruled that many employer policies that could be used to prevent workplace cyberbullying may violate Section 7 of the NLRA, which protects an employee’s right to engage in concerted activity, he explained.

For example, while posting someone’s photo online is a common form of cyberabuse, the board has concluded that it is unlawful for an employer to bar employees from taking pictures of co-workers.

Policies should be drafted to clarify that they are intended to prohibit abusive behavior without interfering with an employee’s rights, he said.

Allen Smith, J.D., is the manager of workplace law content for SHRM. Follow him @SHRMlegaleditor.

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EEOC Releases Fiscal Year 2015 Enforcement and Litigation Data

02/12/2016 |

PRESS RELEASE
2-11-16

EEOC Releases Fiscal Year 2015 Enforcement and Litigation Data

Retaliation, Race Discrimination and Harassment Persist; Disability Charges Increase

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) today released detailed breakdowns of the 89,385 charges of workplace discrimination that the agency received in fiscal year 2015. Retaliation charges increased by nearly 5 percent and continue to be the leading concern raised by workers across the country.  Disability charges increased by 6 percent from last year and are the third largest category of charges filed.

EEOC resolved 92,641 charges in fiscal year 2015, and secured more than $525 million for victims of discrimination in private sector and state and local government workplaces through voluntary resolutions and litigation.  Learn more about our 2015 agency accomplishments.

“Over the past year, EEOC removed barriers to hire and obtained relief for thousands of people facing retaliation, unfair pay, harassment, and other forms of discrimination,” said EEOC Chair Jenny Yang.  “At the same time, we demonstrated our strong commitment to working with employers to voluntarily resolve charges of discrimination by achieving the highest mediation and conciliation success rates in our history.”

The year-end data shows that retaliation again was the most frequently filed charge of discrimination, with 39,757 charges, making up 45 percent of all private sector charges filed with EEOC. The agency is currently seeking public input on its proposed update of enforcement guidance addressing retaliation and related issues as part of its commitment to inform the public about the Commission’s interpretation of the law and promote voluntary compliance. Preserving access to the legal system, which includes retaliatory actions, is a national priority for EEOC.

The charge numbers show the following breakdowns by bases alleged:

  • Retaliation: 39,757 (44.5% of all charges filed)
  • Race: 31,027 (34.7%)
  • Disability: 26,968 (30.2%)
  • Sex: 26,396 (29.5%)
  • Age: 20,144 (22.5%)
  • National Origin: 9,438 (10.6%)
  • Religion: 3,502 (3.9%)
  • Color: 2,833 (3.2%)
  • Equal Pay Act: 973 (1.1%)
  • Genetic Information Non-Discrimination Act: 257 (0.3%)

These percentages add up to more than 100 because some charges allege multiple bases.

Charges raising harassment allegations-which span industries and affect our nation’s most vulnerable workers-made up nearly 28,000 charges, or 31 percent.  Preventing harassment through systemic enforcement and targeted outreach is also a national priority for EEOC.  Employees claimed harassment in charges based on race, age, disability, religion, national origin and sex, including sexual orientation and gender identity.   To address this pressing issue, EEOC launched a Select Task Force on the Study of Harassment in the Workplace in March 2015. Co-chaired by Commissioners Chai R. Feldblum and Victoria A. Lipnic, the task force will examine the various forms of workplace harassment and identify and promote strategies to prevent it.

The agency filed 142 merits lawsuits last year, up from 133 the previous year. The majority of the lawsuits filed alleged violations of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, followed by suits under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). This included 100 individual lawsuits and 42 lawsuits involving multiple victims of discriminatory policies, of which 16 were systemic. Legal staff resolved 155 lawsuits alleging discrimination.

The fiscal year ran from Oct. 1, 2014, to Sept. 30, 2015. EEOC enforces federal laws that make it illegal to discriminate against a job applicant or employee because of the person’s race, color, religion, sex, pregnancy, national origin, age, disability or genetic information. Further information about EEOC is available at www.eeoc.gov.

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When Does Off-Duty Use of Smartphones Result in Compensable Overtime?

02/09/2016 |

When Does Off-Duty Use of Smartphones Result in Compensable Overtime?

Foster Swift Collins & Smith PC
USA   January 26, 2016

As you may already know, the U.S. Department of Labor’s (“DOL”) salary requirements for the white-collar exemptions under the Fair Labor Standard Act (“FLSA”) will be revised in 2016, making millions of additional employees eligible for overtime protection. However, there is another issue lurking in the shadows, which is whether non-exempt employees who use their smartphones after regular work hours must be paid overtime.

As smartphones and other personal electronic devices become more common, the issue of employees using electronic devices after work hours has become a serious problem for employers.  Take, for example, the class action case of Allen v City of Chicago, which was decided in December 2015 after nearly six years of litigation.

In the Allen case, a police officer sued the City of Chicago for unpaid overtime related to the off-the-clock usage of his smartphone (a BlackBerry).  According to the officer, the police department issued electronic devices and required police officers to respond to work-related emails, text messages and voicemails while off duty.  Although the City had a policy in place to pay overtime for the officers who worked on their smartphones after work, the officers claimed there was an unwritten policy, or uniform culture or belief, that it was not acceptable for officers to turn in time slips for off-duty work performed on their smartphones.

In analyzing the potential liability for overtime, the court first addressed the issue of whether the activities pursued by the police officers on the smartphones constituted compensable “work” under the FLSA.  The court held that, to be compensable under the FLSA, the work must involve “substantial” duties pursued necessarily and primarily as part of a person’s job. Activities that fall below that “murky” standard – “de minimus activities” – don’t require compensation.

The court determined that some, but not all, of the activities performed by the officers on their smartphones after regular work hours were compensable.  What constitutes de minimus (non-compensable) work is not well-defined.  However, the court did provide some guidance. According to the court, the mere act of monitoring smartphones did not constitute an activity compensable under the FLSA, so long as the plaintiffs could still spend their off-duty time primarily for their own benefit without persistent interruptions. The court, citing a case from the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals (which covers Michigan), also noted that an employer’s requirement that employees carry a radio and respond if necessary did not result in compensatory time under the FLSA, unless monitoring the radio prevented an employee from using the free time for the employee’s own benefit. However, activities such as immediately responding to witness tips or emergency situations, did constitute compensable work.

Despite finding that some activities by the officers were compensable work, the Allen court nevertheless dismissed the case. Again, citing decisions from the Sixth Circuit, the court held that under the FLSA, if an employer establishes a reasonable process for an employee to report uncompensated work time, the employer is not liable for non-payment if the employee fails to follow the established process. However, having such a process in place will not necessarily shield an employer from liability if employees can show an unwritten policy to deny overtime compensation.  Since the court held that the police officers failed to prove that the city knew or had reason to know that the officers were not receiving compensation for any particular period of overtime the officers may have worked, it dismissed the case.  The officers intend to appeal.

The DOL will likely implement new rules related to non-exempt employees’ use of smartphone and other electronic devices outside of normal work hours.  In the interim, employers should take proactive steps toward complying with the impending rules concerning white-collar exemptions and to guard against overtime liability for non-exempt employee use of smartphones outside of work. With respect to the latter, employers should update or implement policies addressing the issue. Two types of policies are needed:

  • A wage and hour policy that must say that if employees perform work that is not recorded in the usual way, there is a procedure by which they can report and be paid.  The established procedure must be reasonable.
  • A personal electronic device policy that clearly states when employees may and may not use smartphones or other electronic devices. This policy must inform employees that, in the event they use devices for work purposes that are not minimal outside their normal work hours, they must report the time using the procedures set forth in the wage and hour policy.
Foster Swift Collins & Smith PC – Michael R. Blum
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Summertime Blues? Solicitor of Labor Eyes July Publication of Overtime Regs

02/04/2016 |

Summertime Blues? Solicitor of Labor Eyes July Publication of Overtime Regs

By Seyfarth Shaw LLP on February 1st, 2016
Posted in DOL Enforcement
Authored by Alex Passantino

Pinning down a publication date for the DOL’s final revisions to the white-collar exemption rules has proven difficult for anyone outside of the agency’s headquarters. Sometimes, the answer seems to elude even those inside the Frances Perkins Building. From statements from the Solicitor last Fall that the rule would be out in “late 2016” (subscription) to the Department’s regulatory agenda setting a target date of July 2016 to Secretary of Labor Perez’s confidence that the rule would be out by Spring of 2016, we’ve seen a fairly wide range of expectations out of DOL.

At a recent meeting of the New York State Bar Association, we got yet another, although this one is in line with the Department’s official target: the Solicitor of Labor told a group of attorneys that the overtime rule would be issued in early July.

The Department proposed to increase the salary level required for exemption to $50,440, and the salary required for the highly compensated employee exemption to $125,000. The Department also proposed to automatically increase the salary on a regular basis, based on inflation or other factors. DOL inquired into a number of issues related to the duties tests, including the propriety of changing the standards for determining an employee’s “primary duty,” but did not afford the regulated community the opportunity to comment on any specific proposal.

DOL received nearly 300,000 comments in response to its proposal. It is in the process of reviewing those comments and finalizing the rule. Once DOL has finalized the rule and publishes it in the Federal Register, employers likely will have between 60 and 120 days to come into compliance with the new standards. Given the short timeframe, employers should be starting to review their potentially impacted positions now.

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Fed’s Mester prefers a bit quicker U.S. rate-hike pace

01/06/2016 |

Fed’s Mester prefers a bit quicker U.S. rate-hike pace

Markets  |  Sun Jan 3, 2016 10:36pm EST

SAN FRANCISCO  |  By Jonathan Spicer and Ann Saphir
Reuters/Lucas Jackson

One of the Federal Reserve’s hawkish officials said on Sunday that while she prefers a slightly more aggressive approach, she is not opposed to her colleagues’ view that the U.S. central bank needs to raise interest rates only four times this year.

Loretta Mester, president of the Cleveland Fed, told Reuters in an interview she does not need to see clear evidence of inflation to back more policy tightening after an initial rate hike in mid-December. The Fed could act at any policy meeting, including one later in January, she said.

After lifting rates for the first time in nearly a decade, the Fed said further moves would be gradual and dependent on how the world’s top economy performs. The central bank last month forecasted four rate hikes in 2016, based on the median projection of its 17 top officials.

“I’m pretty comfortable with the median path … I think that’s not a bad description,” Mester, who votes on U.S. monetary policy this year under a rotation, said on the sidelines of an American Economic Association meeting.

“I’m probably a little steeper than that in the near term, just because I have a higher growth forecast.”

Mester expects the U.S. economy to grow at a 2.5 percent to 2.75 percent pace this year, slightly stronger than the 2.4-percent rate median forecast of her colleagues. That optimism allows her to view more than four rate hikes as appropriate, she said.

The comments from Mester, one of 10 voters on policy, suggests that while she leans toward marginally tighter policy than Chair Janet Yellen and others at the Fed, she may not be compelled to dissent.

“I think it’s reasonable to move on a gradual path, and I’m going to look at the data that comes in between now and the next meeting,” she said.

Last month’s rate hike from near zero was much anticipated but could yet upset world financial markets as the Fed weighs when to make another move. Traders in futures markets are predicting only two or three hikes this year.

Like most Fed officials, Mester, who has run the Cleveland Fed for a year and a half, expects inflation to rebound as the effects of weak oil prices and the strong dollar wane.

“I don’t see anything in the data that has changed the dynamics of inflation,” she told Reuters.

Evidence of inflation is not necessary for her to back another rate hike as long as her forecasts hold, Mester said. “Right now my forecast is that we will gradually see inflation move back up to 2 percent.”

The Fed’s target for inflation, which has been below target for years, is also 2 percent.

(Reporting by Ann Saphir and Jonathan Spicer; Editing by Dan Grebler)

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