Join me on June 3 at 3 pm Pacific time.  I will be the guest of Larry Kaminer, President of The Personal Safety Training Group (www.personalsafetygroup.com )for Blog Talk Radio Live Call in Program Managing Conflict in the Workplace. We will talk about:

Early recognition of tension, conflict, and potential violence in the workplace and the impact of gender on workplace conflict and resolution. Cool stuff that you really need to know.

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8. It takes an average of 2.5 times a person’s salary to find a replacement. Sharon Jordan Evans, Love ‘Em or Lose ‘Em

9. Companies that have a thriving employee recognition strategy are more profitable – outperforming S&P 500 companies by 30-40%. Contented Cows Give Better Milk

www.recognitionworks.net

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Danger, Will Robinson! Danger! Some of you may know that there are a ton of new federal laws going into effect. Americans with Disabilities Act has been amended. COBRA -the law impacting insurance coverage once someone leaves a job- has new provisions.

I spent the better part of the last two weeks attending seminars to get up to date-me and a whole bunch of Human Resource folks. We were the lucky ones. I have heard through the grapevine that employers are no long paying for HR to attend these seminars in an effort to manage costs. The consequence is that the key people within the organization don’t know what is going on or the best practices to implement the changes.

Here is the really scary part…

Employees rely on other employees or a trusted adviser such as a parent, spouse or union shop steward to learn about “the way things work.” unfortunately, the advise they get is often outright wrong or misapplied.

The reality is that employees-at all levels-get a little bit of information then “fill in the gaps” with a “common sense approach.” This spells danger for both the employer and the employee. First, the law does not care about common sense. The law cares about how a particular provision can be universally applied. Thus, the laws are written to apply to large corporations as well as smaller organizations. So one employee’s definition of “the common sense thing to do” is rarely what the law requires.

The scarier reality is that most employment discrimination claims- in my experience- arise from mid-level managers not knowing or understanding the intersection of the law and company policy. Most employees will not go to Human Resources with questions about ADA or FMLA leave. They will go to their lead or direct supervisor. If the employee misinterprets or the the lead/supervisor misinforms, what the respective obligations are under the law-there will be trouble.

Trouble = more filings with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission or State Human Rights Agencies.

So what to do? Have a campaign to make everyone smart on the rights and responsibilities of both sides of the employment relationship. If your are an employee-you should know what you are entitled to AND where that entitlement stops.

If you are an Employer-Tell the employees what you expect of them and what you will and will not do.

Here is a link to a Seattle Law Firm that talks generally about the New ADA.

http://www.schwabe.com/showarticle.aspx?Show=11444

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No surprise. News of recession will have a negative impact on employee morale. Disheartened employees mean disengaged employees. In the current economic climate if a business is to survive, the work force must be fully engaged-emotionally, physically, even spiritually.

The unfortunate reality is that many companies will go under because of failure to motivate, empower, and acknowledge their employees.

Instead of deliberately and consistently communicating with employees, employers will go into “shut down” mode. The result will be increased fear among employees and mistrust of management.

According to the Respectful Workplace Blog:

“Communicate constantly to minimize uncertainty. Uncertainty arouses the fear circuits in the brain and is an absolute killer to employee productivity. When people are unsure about the stability of their organization, their standing with their boss or supervisor, or a clear understanding of what’s expected of them, most assume the worst. The ensuing stress decreases the amount of a chemical called dopamine in the brain, a chemical that is critical for clear thinking and reasoning by the prefrontal cortex. Continuous uncertainty can also increase the levels of cortisol in the body, too much of which can permanently damage both the brain and the circulatory system.”

The morale to this story is that survival in the current economy will depend on EVERYONE in the organization bringing their best selves to work.

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1. Name the elephant in the room – yours & theirs. Acknowledge out loud that you and others are worried. It is a WASTE of emotional and psychological energy to either pretend the elephant doesn’t exist or to ignore it.

2. Avoid the blame game. Self-righteousness keeps feelings of victimization on life support.

3. Recognize that people really can’t compartmentalize their emotional states. Happy, sad, stressed – one area of our life will seep into others.

4. Stress, concern, and increased tension will cause people to have a short fuse. Expect more arguments and push back at work-but in strange and unexpected areas. Help peers and yourself. A re you angry at the person or task in front of you-or is it just a convenient target? (For action tools to address this check out The case of the convenient victim as well as the reply in the Feedback section of the next enews. )

5. If you are targeted, attempt to recognize it as the person’s way of expressing frustration.

6. Anger is an energy-redirect the energy. Take a walk. Take up kick boxing, write in a journal, have a 5 minute pity party, clean your workspace, jump up and down.

7. 60 second vent-write down everything that is pissing you off, irritating you or otherwise is “just not fair”. Cross out what is outside your immediate influence or it will take more time and emotional energy than you have this week. Determine what is within your circle of influence. Don’t ruminate over the rest.

8. Create best case-worst case & most likely case scenarios. Have an action plan for each.

9. Think of 10 things that you are grateful for – write those on 10 sticky notes and post them around your work space.

10. Then pick 1 thing that you can do something about and do just one small thing.

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