1.  Walking around with mistletoe and offering it to your opposite-sex colleagues.  This is a great idea if you want to get smacked or kicked in the nards..or slapped with a sexual harassment charge.

2.  Dressing up like the baby Jesus in the office.  Creative, yes, but I can’t imagine a way this can be executed without ill effects on your career prospects.  You can’t claim religious discrimination when you get canned for wearing a diaper to work and ..well..using said diaper for its intended purposes.  This also applies to lining your office floor with hay to simulate the nativity scene.  It’s a mess to clean up and you might get “presents” left for you from the cleaning staff.

3. Dirty dancing with your subordinates, colleagues, and/or boss at the office/company holiday party.  The office extends to outside functions as well, and this could get very dicey.  Read my lips, do not drink if you can’t control your inhibitions.  Nevermind, just don’t drink around work people.  Save yourself the trouble and reserve your drunken foolishness for your family who unfortunately cannot fire your ass.

4.  Bringing lingerie or some other inappropriate item for the grab bag party.  This almost always makes the recipient and everyone else in the room very uncomfortable.  Perhaps a nice full body covering snuggie or slanket will do?

5.  Giving naughty Christmas cards.  Sure, there are tons of dirty cards at innocent family box stores like Target and Wal-Mart but it doesn’t mean that you should give them to a colleague or subordinate.  Oh, and someecards are out.  This one in particular from Someecards should not be sent to a co-worker or your secret santa person through elfster.  Save those gems for your family who will appreciate your biting wit and your lack of concern for decorum and/or decency.

Got anything to add?  Feel free to add your “donts” in the comments below.

I wonder if we’ll see Andy Stern rescuing puppies and kittens from euthanasia.   That would be a terribly nice thing to see, but I still would never support an employee giving up their right to have a democratic election to choose whether or not they want to be represented.

In speaking with colleagues and other HR professionals at various networking functions, it abundantly clear that many HR professionals outside of recruitment don’t seem to find value in social media.  I explain to them that I use social media to help me do my job better, which in turn helps the organization that I serve.  Many people give me blank stares, look at me quizzically and nod and say, “yeah.”  However, there are no follow up questions, and you can tell they think you’re speaking a different language.  So I thought I’d explain just a few reasons why I think those in management, generalist and specialist roles should pay attention.

1.  Your employees are using social media, and so is your marketing team.  Your marketing/PR team knows how to reach out to prospective customers, but you are still baffled as to how to communicate effectively with employees.  Find a way to bring people in.  Post your events on Yammer, a corporate style twitter site, and make contact with those aloof Gen Yers you’re always complaining about.   Have a launch party for your own corporate social media sites and use it as an opportunity to explain your social media policy and have employees sign up for your own social media site.  Have random drawings for those who sign up and stay involved on the media platform.

2.  The information highway has become about the length of your driveway (unless you’re Donald Trump).  You can use social media find out what people are saying in Congress about the legislation that affects your organization’s future, now, live! Yes, those people you elected are tweeting from Congress.  You want to show that you are involved in current legislation?  Pay attention while the laws are being drafted, not petitioning with letters after they have already been written and signed.

3.  Best practices are out there, and the best way to find out best practices is not by Googling “Best Practices in Subject X.”  It’s by networking and talking to people who have actually lived through the change that you are trying to move through.  Often publications highlight all the good things that became of a particular initiative or change, and there is always another side of the story.  Talk to people, get to know how it really worked, and try to learn from other’s mistakes.  You’ll save yourself time, your organization money, and you a few hundred bottles of Exedrine.

While these are just a few things I’ve had success in with social media, there are many many more.  Get out there, don’t be afraid, embrace the change because you’ll eventually have no choice in the matter.

Currently, I’m working on developing a best practices model for the no-fault attendance policy.  Rather than edit an already confusing policy, I’d like to start from scratch.  As you know, no-fault policies would mean that employees who are out for any non-FMLA or pre-approved absences count against them in the attendance policy.  This policy is for a large organization, so scrapping the attendance policy all together would not be an option.

I’d like to build in 2 “free” days into the policy, so if you have any suggestions to that effect, I’d love to hear them!  I’d also like the language to be clear so folks are not getting confused over terms like incidents, occurrences, or what constitutes a “half” an absence.  Feel free to explain your organization’s best practice in the comment section!  If you’d rather email your policy, feel free to send it to me at: mona@froth.com

While it is impossible to weed out all workplace violence, there are things employers can do to educate and their managers on recognizing the warning signs before tragedies such as the Annie Le murder.  According to Environmental Health and Safety Today, these warning signs include changes in mood, personal hardships, mental health issues (e.g. depression, anxiety), negative behavior (e.g. untrustworthiness, lying, bad attitude), verbal threats and past history of violence.  I would have created a great list for you, but I found the suggestions from Environmental Health and Safety Today to be very inclusive. These suggestions include:

1. Management should conduct a thorough organizational risk assessment and develop workplace violence prevention policies and programs that address potential risks in environmental design (security cameras, key card access), administrative controls and behavioral strategies.
2. Programs should clearly define the spectrum of workplace violence (ranging from harassment to homicide), delineate employee responsibilities for recognizing and reporting signs, and be shared with every employee. All programs should promote zero tolerance.
3. Ask for and integrate employee ideas when developing and implementing a violence prevention program.
4. Create a confidential and seamless reporting system. Encourage workers to report any and all concerns to a single representative, such as an occupational health and safety professional or human resource manager.
5. Incorporate a variety of communications tools such as posters, newsletters, staff meetings and new employee materials.
6. When training employees, review common warning signs, behavioral traits and how to recognize potential problems. Employees should also understand that each case is different, and to not limit at risk behavior to a standard profile.
7. Involve all employees in workplace violence prevention programs. Training should be ongoing and mandatory for every employee.
8. As an employee, actively participate in all education and awareness programs. If you do not have a violence prevention program at work, request information from your occupational health department, human resource department or manager.
9. As an employee, if you recognize that a colleague exhibits at risk behavior, report any concerns to your human resources representative or occupational health professional.

Lastly, I think it would be prudent for large organizations to pay for a service to run conviction record on all current employees each year.  Smaller organizations may want to hire an intern to look up employees on their state’s public convictions record database (which are almost always online). Employers would be surprised to find that many of their long term employees have several convictions ranging from drug trafficking to felony assault.  You will want to decide in advance how you will deal with employees who are convicted of drug related or violent crimes.  This will be your hardest task in this equation.

When reviewing past cases of workplace violence, it often seems that there are numerous warning signs that people notice, but never report.  An employer should do everything in their power to protect their employees.   The most powerful thing they can do is not beef up security or add cameras, but add awareness and provide access to confidential reporting of suspicious behavior.

With the ADA Amendments Act  (ADAAA) signed into law in January 2009, most health conditions that you can dream up can now be considered a disability.  I never thought I qualified under the ADA until the exhaustive list of “major life activities” was released.  New additions include sleeping, reading, concentrating, thinking, communicating and the operation of a major bodily function, including but not limited to, functions of the immune system, normal cell growth, digestive, bowel, bladder, neurological, brain, respiratory, circulatory, endocrine and reproductive functions.  These were all additional activities to supplement those in the original ADA (i.e., walking, speaking, breathing, hearing).

So what are employers to do?  Do they cease disciplinary action whenever an employee brings up a medical condition?  Do they ignore performance deficiencies, attendance and behavioral issues?  The answer is yes and yes.  Unfortunately.  At least in my experience managers tend to feel this is a legal landmine and they would prefer avoidance.  Rather than beginning the dialogue and attempting accommodation, the employee now has a get out of jail free card for whenever there is a problem during their employment relationship.

Accommodation only has to be “reasonable” under the ADAAA, so an employer doesn’t have to deal with the employee who shouts obscenities at customers (Tourette Syndrome), the employee who steals (Kleptomania Disorder), or the employee who no longer wants to work night shift, because it interferes with their circadian rhythms (Shift Work Sleep Disorder).

Yes, I’ve heard all of the above scenarios.   Employers who haven’t yet trained their managers on the provisions of the ADAAA are running the legal risk that managers will connect impairment or a perceived impairment to an employment decision.  Educating managers in terms of their role in accommodation under the ADA will help well meaning managers learn to keep quiet about any perceived disabilities and to attempt accommodation when presented with an employee with a disability.  They will also know when to pick up the phone and get some professional assistance (yes, I mean HR).  Personally, I automatically assume that those who don’t use subject-verb agreement have a condition.

Ever since I was a child, I understood that there was a class system in America.  There were the “haves” and “have nots” and you knew which category you fell into.  I have always considered the middle class to be a large group with a lower middle class and an upper middle class with professional careers ranging from teachers and skilled tradespeople to attorneys.  It was a common theme amongst parents in my community to tell their children that “they” can take anything from you, but they can’t take away your education.  “They” were defined as those in society who may barrier or impede your success.  If individuals choose to abandon pursuit of knowledge, skill and/or education, why should it be society’s burden?  If someone chooses to quit their job, have 5 kids, and live off of state assistance, why must taxpayers bear the cost?  I know this sounds very Republican of me (Note: I am a registered Independent and I detest the GOP), but it seems as if every day American citizens are asked to shoulder more and more of the cost.  I’m in support of federal and state assistance for those who are not able-bodied or minded, but it boils me to see the system being used as a catch-all for those who have made poor decisions and don’t want to work for a living.

Personal accountability in our society has gone by the wayside, and now taxpayers have become the responsible parties.  Unions have now stepped in, demanding that the Employee Free Choice Act, which strips worker’s rights to a secret-ballot election, be passed in order to aid in the middle class restoration process.  Specifically, Unions are pitching it as a means to provide a “living wage” for entry-level workers that will allow them to provide for their families, oftentimes on one salary.  You’d be amazed as what is considered a living wage in communities across the country.   Pennsylvania State University has put together a living wage calculator which shows precisely how much it costs to live in different areas in the country based on your family size.  For a couple with two children in New Haven, CT, it states that the “living wage” is $28.76/hr.  This is more money than I made after my first job after graduate school in 2000.    I would never expect that I could abandon educational pursuits, pop out two or more children while working at Wal-Mart part-time.  I would also not have the expectation to receive fully paid health benefits at no cost to me with a pension that will allow me to afford a “dignified retirement” and retiree health insurance.   The entitlement culture that has been bred in America’s society only serves to deter people from the path to success.  It’s much easier to wait for someone else to give you the benefits that you have “earned” as a citizen.  As the great Homer Simpson once said, “If you really want something in this life, you have to work for it. Now, quiet! They’re about to announce the lottery numbers…”

I have a strong personality,I’m driven and passionate and as I’ve stated before, I have an opinion on just about anything.  I have high expectations of myself and others, which can lead to disappointment or great success.  This permeates both my work and personal life, so there are very few differences in this area.  The key difference, is that at work, I didn’t allow people to know “Mona.”  They knew Ramona, in a formal business setting and didn’t understand who I was as a person.  After I would move on to another position, the employees would invite me out to happy hour or other events and they were so surprised to see that I wasn’t this serious, “all business” person that they saw at work.  They saw a different person, and were pleasantly surprised.  However, it was too late to make amends with them professionally, as I had already left the organization.  They didn’t know me, and it was all my fault.  I put up walls and barriers, albeit unintentionally, and I lost the opportunity to develop a rapport with my work colleagues.

I’ll venture away from my personal story to help you understand my purpose of this blog post.  Most folks know that careers are about relationship building.  You have to show people who you are as a person (if that person is desirable at work, of course).  I thought it was ok to let people “in” in my personal life, but I didn’t really think that was important in my work life.  I have since changed my view as age and experience brings new wisdom.  It has also helped in my pursuit to be one happy person, both professionally and personally.  If you find yourself in a situation where you can’t be who you are in both environments, perhaps its time to pursue another job or career where you can develop your dual work/life personas into one.  It is harder in HR, where you are expected not to “mingle” with employees as you may one day have their professional fate in your hands, but many can find a careful balance and cultivate rich working relationships that will propel you to greater successes.  My goal is to manage and develop that balance.  I’m a Libra, it should come natural, right?

Successful negotiators (and managers) focus on the “it” which represents the crux of the conversation.  They don’t allow people to drift aimlessly from topic to topic without any apparent purpose.   Think of the employee who begins criticizing their own co-workers because they are being called to the carpet due to issues with attendance and punctuality.  It’s much easier to talk about Suzie’s attitude or James’ habitual lateness than focusing on one’s own issues.   Accountability sucks.  I get it.  Really, I do.

I find that as an HR professional, we often are unable to apply some of our own knowledge and skills to our own actions and behaviors either professionally or personally.  We counsel and advise managers to tread territory that we hope to never face in our own professional careers.  Honestly, its easier to tell someone how to handle an employee issue if you don’t have to communicate the message directly.  The manager is the medium, and we are often simply the coach helping the team to victory.  I on the other hand, not only apply my skills and expertise in my work life, it also seems to permeate my personal life.  The good news is that at least I don’t suffer from a dual workplace/home persona (which I’ll blog about later).  The bad news, is that I should probably draw the line somewhere.  I don’t think that commission hungry furniture salesmen who sell furniture at 400% markup is the place to start though, so I’ll have to rethink my approach in other circumstances that do not involve a financial impact.  So what is the “it” of this post?  Well, to sum it up, negotiations skills are highly valuable in many settings.  The Land of Bullshit is a crazy place that we go all to often.  And we should always strive to get to the “it” in our personal and professional lives but we should carefully consider our approach given the circumstances.