The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine has just concluded a major study on sexual harassment. It offers some interesting new insights relevant to California employers and employees. According to the study, the strongest predictor of whether sexual harassment will occur (or not) in the workplace is the “organizational climate” of the organization. In… Read More
Posts Categorized In: General Business
What Makes a Company “Culture”?
In the current job market, especially in the San Francisco Bay Area, good employees are more valuable now than perhaps ever. Almost every one of my clients is looking to hire, and almost every one looking is complaining that that they “can’t find anyone good.” It’s a seller’s market, and recruits are asking potential new employers hard… Read More
CA Supreme Court Delivers Bombshell Ruling — Even Harder Now for Employers to Classify Workers as Independent Contractors
Determining whether a worker should be classified as an employee or independent contractor has always been a challenging task that frustrates our clients. There are a variety of legal “tests” that are used in different contexts in order to make that determination. A worker can be considered an independent contractor by one state agency but… Read More
And the Winner for Worst Boss is…the Absentee Leader!
A recent article by Marcel Schwantes in Inc. Magazine summarizes new research on the key traits of bad bosses. Guess what key trait makes for the worst type of boss? Absentee Leadership Absentee leadership is harder to detect and does not fall into one of the classic leadership patterns considered “bad” for the workplace: the bully,… Read More
San Francisco Issues New Lactation Regulations for Employers
In June 2017, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors passed the “Lactation in the Workplace Ordinance.” This was the nation’s first-ever law requiring employers to have a workplace lactation policy that ensures employees get lactation breaks and have access to a “lactation accommodation space.” This new ordinance, which goes into effect on January 1, 2018,… Read More
How Good Leaders Get Valuable, Candid, and Critical Feedback
Today I came across a short but interesting article from Harvard Business Review about how effective leaders get honest, critical feedback from their co-workers. The article’s author, Ron Carucci, argues that you don’t need to have a formal 360 evaluation system to get valuable feedback; in fact, the author argues, due to anonymity a 360… Read More
The Toxicity of Office Politics to High Potential Employees
Despite the fact that science has given us robust tools to identify, measure, and evaluate indicators, organizations often make employee evaluation mistakes.
Governor Signs SB 396 to Protect Transgender Employees and Combat Discrimination
According to a 2016 study by the Williams Institute at UCLA, there are over 220,000 transgender adults in California. California has just taken a major step towards protecting their employment rights. On October 15, 2017, California Governor Jerry Brown signed SB 396. Known as the “Transgender Work Opportunity Act,” SB 396 makes California the first… Read More
Governor Signs AB 450 Prohibiting Employers’ Cooperation with Federal Immigration Officials
On Thursday, October 5, 2017, California Governor Jerry Brown signed AB 450 — and, in the process, put California employers squarely in the middle of the federal immigration debate. Known as the “Immigrant Worker Protection Act,” AB 450 was part of a package of bills signed by the Governor declaring California a “Sanctuary State.” Among… Read More
Harvard Business Review: Employer Vacation Policies Are “Broken”
According to a recent article in the Harvard Business Review, employer vacation policies are “broken” and “don’t work.” Analysis of Typical Employer Vacation Policies The typical employer policy allows an employee who has accrued paid time off to submit a request for vacation. That employee then has to “cram extra work into the week(s) before… Read More
