Random Workplace Thought: My Weird Restroom Paranoia

A few months ago, the Strategic HR Lead was telling me a story about a man he once worked with who would spend 30 – 45 mins stinking up the restroom, with his pants all on the floor. And the worst part: everyone knew who was always doing the stinkin’ up. How? Precisely the point to my Lead’s story: Because his coworker’s pants were on the floor, everyone saw his badge.

Typically, I clip my badge to one of the loops on my slacks, khaki’s, or whatever I am wearing to cover myself up during the day. And my badge just hangs. So now when I go to the restroom, and I drop my pants to sit, I’m always afraid the person next to me can see my badge, which means any noise I make (aside from tinkling) is so very out in the open. The result? I end up *tucking* my badge on the inside of my pants so my badge isn’t exposed to the peeping poopers next to me. How’s that for goofy restroom paranoia?

Do you have any weird restroom paranoia stories? Let’s hear ‘em!

New Method of Posting

I have totally been out of the loop on blogging. I haven’t lost interest or anything, just feel lazy and like I have a perpetual case of writers block.

That said, I downloaded WP’s app for my less than 1 month old iPhone. I find that I spend entirely too much time on this thing!! But since I do, I want to see if it will help stimulate my love for writing… and to get my opinions going again, since that was this blogs main intent.

So good luck to me as I try to get back into blogging again.

Conference Call Etiquette

I am taking my Capstone course for my Master of Business Administration. The Capstone entails creating a business plan authored by our group members.  Our group only has about 5 weeks to do this project and signs are not looking all that great for a strong finish.  So far, our efforts have been filled with miscommunication after miscommunication.

Now, my team and I are required to meet on a weekly basis via WebEx.  And if you don’t know, WebEx is a web conferencing software that allows you to connect and do presentations over the web.  It’s a great technology and makes our “virtual” group feel more cohesive.  Honestly, when you virtual team, there’s nothing like putting a voice to a name or face. 

But let me say that, my experience contained what I deem, unacceptable and unprofessional behaviors.  Based on this and past experiences I’ve had with conference calls on the phone and on the web, here are list of things that I think are unacceptable anytime you are on a call: 

1. Do not overtake or interrupt the host of the call. Let him or her speak, and then you may speak.

2. As the host of the call, please keep to the specified time. WebEx, as well as other web presentation software, allow you to input the duration of the call. If you go over the allotted time, the meeting abruptly ends.

3. Also, for the host, be organized and have, at a minimum, a framework of what you are going to speak to. Otherwise, participants can and will ramble on items that are off-topic.

4. THE MUTE BUTTON IS YOUR FRIEND. It is unprofessional and disrespectful to:

• Yawn into the mic or speaker. Yes, it may be early or late, but not everyone got 2 hours of sleep last night.
• Slurp in someone’s ear. Everyone on the call does not need to hear you drinking your soda, water, or beer. (Yep, my experience includes someone drinking a beer and he announced it was his 3rd one!)
• Along those lines, do not crunch in my ear. Eat before or after the call!
• Have excessive and annoying background noise. This includes putting your guitar away and focusing on the material at hand; not standing next to your squawking cockatiel when going over the week’s agenda; and please, please, please, be a team player and SILENCE YOUR CELL PHONE!! A consistently ringing or beeping cell phone is unbelievably distracting.
• Carry on a side conversation with someone physically next to you while a presenter is speaking. We get it. You’re not paying attention. But, shut up! I’m trying to listen!

5. Do NOT under any circumstances; address anyone in the group as “young lady,” “young man,” “old man,” “old fart,” or any other age-related phrase. It comes across as sexist and derogatory.

Please be mindful and respectful of others on the call.  Quite frankly, I think most of these guidelines are simple common sense.  This isn’t a long list and therefore, should not be hard to integrate into your next web or phone conference call.

Thoughts?

The Four-Day Workweek

A four-day workweek is also termed a “compressed workweek.” I think it has several advantages for both the employer and employee. 

– Save money on gas! Even though gas prices are low, I wouldn’t count on them staying low. You also save time commuting and sitting in boring traffic. 
– More flexible work/life balance. If you have kids, you can spend more time with them. If you’re like me and are working on a MBA, it allows you more homework time. Maybe you can even fit in a second job or pour your soul into a weekend hobby. 
– Higher engagement and employee satisfaction. Let’s face it; if you knew you had Friday off, would you not be happy? When I was allowed to work a compressed workweek, I gave 110% the days I was there and really enjoyed my 3 day weekend.
– This schedule could be used as a recruitment tool.
– Employers, have you thought about closing your office for a day? Depending on your industry, there might be a real cost benefit to closing one day out of the week.

Are there disadvantages? Well, yes. There are disadvantages to everything. 

– The obvious: Work burnout and fatigue. Working 10-hour shifts is physically draining. Lack of rest leads to poor health and lower productivity. Decreased alertness can also lead to workplace accidents. 
– For some industries, a compressed workweek just is not operationally feasible. Handle with caution if offering the compressed workweek to some positions, but not to others. This can create resentment among staff. 
– Clients or customers can complain if staff is not available. 

Do you have any additional thoughts? What does your employer allow? I personally love the idea of compressed workweeks. Unfortunately, this option is not afforded to me because of contractual agreements we have with our clients. Perhaps in the future that will change for me.

Job Seekers: Be mindful of what you post online.

I am a MBA candidate and I recently took a required, but very interesting, business law class. One of my projects was to pick a topic and explore the ethical and legal implications of this topic. I chose to explore Recruiting and the use of Social Media Networking Sites, such as MySpace, Facebook, and of course, LinkedIn.

The biggest question I had to ask was: Is your life outside of work really outside of work?
The answer is: Not anymore.

According to a study done by Harris Interactive on behalf of CareerBuilder.com, one in five employers utilizes social media networking sites to help make employment decisions. You can read the article here.

I am fine with the use of LinkedIn, as it is a professional site. It is highly business and alumni focused. It also has limitations and does not give room for much personal information aside from anything work related. It is the ultimate “online resume,” if you will. Further, not everyone can randomly add him or herself to your network. And while it allows the use of 1 personal photo, it limits the size making it difficult to see much detail and you can control who sees it. For example, if you are not in my network, you cannot see my photo.

It is shocking that Recruiters, knowing the level of confidential data they have access to, would use MySpace or Facebook to recruit candidates. Know that the ISO 27001 business certification addresses Data Privacy. Any informed business would not allow access to these sites via the company portal.  However, if Recruiters do use the company portal to search these sites, know that A) they are overly saturated with media and would therefore bog down any business bandwidth and put the business at risk for hacking and B) open the candidate up to several forms of discrimination protected under Federal Law. Let’s take Facebook for example. What types of information (just about yourself) do you post? Do you post your marital status, political views, religious views?  Do you post pictures (in good or poor taste) of yourself?  All of these can be used as basis for discrimination. Additionally, if you do post this type of information publicly about yourself, who is to say you will not be that open about client data?  

Another risk for the business – Productivity. Are recruiters really recruiting when they are surfing these sites? Creative Capital showed some older metrics regarding how long people actually spend on these sites. In December of 2007, MySpace users spent THREE hours on the site per visit. That’s nearly half the workday! LinkedIn weighed in at a puny 7 minutes, however, I would like to see updated numbers on this.

I will leave you with this very personal story of mine. A few months after I got married, my husband went in for a job interview with a new firm. One of the first things the two bone-headed managers kicked the interview off with was to inform him they “Googled” him and found our wedding announcement in the newspaper. Technically, they were not supposed to know he was married; but by the same token, he and I also voluntarily placed the announcement in the very public newspaper. However, *I* was not applying for the job; he was.  And the context in which it was found (to find “dirt”) really left me with a violated feeling.  Also, it is very apparent in the picture that I am not fully Anglo. Maybe this company doesn’t like men who marry half Asian women and has a retired Army Lieutenant Colonel for a father. And because we are newlyweds and possibly want to start a family, they decided they didn’t like him because he’ll most likely be taking some time off.  Funny, he didn’t get hired.

Not necessarily true, but a definite possibility.

Be careful what you post online. You can bet someone from work is watching. And if it’s not work, it’s someone looking to get information on you. Do what you think is in your best interest to protect yourself and your online persona.

New Blog

I’ve decided to do more of a “professional” blog and leave my Blogger for friends. It’s mostly personal and doesn’t have real HR situations I encounter on there. So I created this one instead. Will post stuff later. It’s Saturday and I have some MBA homework to catch up on…

Ciao.