The Supreme Court hears arguments today in a case testing how managers may react after an employee complains about harassment or discrimination. But legal specialists say employers can take steps to minimize retaliation complaints through beefed-up training, investigations and follow-up efforts. The touchy issue confronts many companies. Complaints to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission that
Managers like to say employees leave companies because of bad bosses or lack of career growth. A new report suggests a more straightforward reason: money. In a survey of about 1,100 U.S. employees, 71% of top performers listed pay among the top three reasons they would consider leaving their employer. Yet in a sister survey
Psychology professor Richard Griffith is on a mission to stop “fakers.” To Dr. Griffith, of the Florida Institute of Technology, fakers are people who misrepresent themselves on personality tests increasingly used to screen applicants for entry-level jobs at call centers, retail stores and other customer-service positions. The tests typically ask candidates to agree or disagree
Two years ago, Rod Bond, an executive at a U.S. unit of French food-services company Sodexho Alliance SA, accompanied female colleagues to a meeting of the Women’s Food Service Forum, where he was a rare man among roughly 1,500 women. “That’s a profound experience,” says Mr. Bond, 57 years old. It prompted him to wonder
Developing strong ties with executive recruiters can pay off. Many organizations rely on them for help in finding senior talent and negotiating job offers. We asked Kimberly Bishop, senior client partner in the New York office of Korn/Ferry International, for advice on how to initiate and nurture lasting relationships with search professionals. Prior to joining
What’s in a name? Plenty. Just ask people who have to compete against their own names. These entrepreneurs can face uncertain, confused customers, as well as harsh competition from businesses they no longer own that still bear their monikers. Consider what happened to executive recruiter Russell S. Reynolds Jr. at a recent cocktail party in
At the end of its last term, the U.S. Supreme Court issued two rulings that offer insight about employer liability for sexual harassment. The decisions (Faragher v. City of Boca Raton, No. 97-282, and Burlington Industries Inc. v. Ellerth, No. 97-569) were both hailed and condemned-hailed for establishing new rules for such cases, and condemned
One key to a positive interview experience involves doing your homework on a potential employer. The goal is to find as much information about the company to give you a better understanding and appreciation for their business. Here are three major resources for locating information.
The messages law enforcement personnel sent one another — more than 5,000 — were crude, referring to people as animals, using profane terms as labels — and, worst, containing some horrifying jokes implying violence. They were fired. That was in Camden County, N.J., where 11 white prison guards lost their jobs for racially insulting texts
This is mainly a guy thing, but it affects women too. They retire, perhaps earlier than expected, and haven’t a clue about how to go about living the rest of their lives. Mickie Schroeder and Jeff Jans took early retirements in April 2008, got married in May 2008 and by September 2008 were sitting
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Many American workers don’t really leave work. Emails, phone texts, pager alerts and phone calls pepper what once was personal time. And that’s not including on-call shifts or beeper time, which require workers to be ready and able to work at a moment’s notice. When is it time to call
Q: A few months ago, my colleagues and I got a new manager who makes our lives a living hell. “Kristen” has no management experience and nitpicks everything we do. She gets angry about small stuff and talks to us like we’re in third grade. She has also allowed the office to get disgustingly
Given the tough competition that we have in the job market with fresh graduates still perky to grab the spotlight and early retirees updating their resume with more experience, grabbing the job of your dream becomes more challenging than before. Today, it’s a matter of who can amaze the employer more and make a memorable
The Winter Olympics are well under way and there’s one story line that just won’t go away: many people feel that Sochi hasn’t lived up to expectations. From high threats of terrorism to homeless canines running amuck, unfinished living accommodations to egregious human rights propaganda, the negativity surrounding this year’s Olympic host has been
Workers’ constitutionally protected right to free speech is generally checked at the doors of private enterprises. However, when it comes to social media discussions about inflexible schedules, ice-cold break rooms or obscenity-laden rants about mandatory overtime, employees have the right to post, share and like to their hearts content. “According to the National Labor Relations
SEATTLE — Expedia has laid off an undisclosed number of employees in the wake of its acquisition of one-time rival Orbitz. Expedia said in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing this week that employees will be cut from Chicago-based Orbitz as part of a restructuring resulting from a merger of the two companies. Expedia, based
Good news for summer job seekers: Jobs should be more plentiful this year and a majority of employers have jobs paying more than $15 per hour, according to a new report. The $15-per-hour wage has been highlighted this week by thousands of demonstrators at McDonald’s headquarters, where workers demanded higher wages for frontline employees at
WASHINGTON — Employers shrugged off worries about the U.S. economy downshifting, adding a whopping 271,000 non-farm jobs in October and raising worker pay in the process. The unemployment rate in October dipped slightly to 5 percent, and measures of stress in the job market continued improving, the Labor Department reported Friday in a solid monthly
WASHINGTON — A burst of hiring last month accompanied by strong wage gains suggests that the U.S. labor market remains solid and increases the likelihood that the Federal Reserve will make its first interest rate hike in nearly a decade next month. The Bureau of Labor Statistics said Friday that employers across a broad spectrum
The job search can be riddled with frustration. Believe it or not, some of this frustration may be tied to common job search myths. Several of these little monsters are floating around in dark clouds waiting to rain on your job search parade. Let’s shake a few of them out of the clouds, debunk them
