Kevin LaBelle, a lab technician for mining company Cleveland-Cliffs, took occasional days off from work for approved intermittent FMLA leave for flare-ups related to a shoulder injury.
His employer noticed that LaBelle seems to always take his FMLA leave by combining it with scheduled days off and vacation days.
Noticing the pattern of suspected abuse, the company hired a private investigator to watch LaBelle during his FMLA leave, and twice found him playing golf. The employer concluded that if LaBelle was experiencing a shoulder flare-up that prevented him from working, he would not be able to golf, and that if he could golf, he could work. Accordingly, it fired him for FMLA fraud and abuse.
The 6th Circuit affirmed the trial court’s dismissal of LaBelle’s FMLA retaliation claim:
There is no evidence in the record to show that Cliffs’ proffered reason lacked a basis in fact. Cliffs approved LaBelle’s request for intermittent FMLA leave for two reasons: (1) attending medical appointments and (2) taking three days off per month for a “flare-up.” Even crediting LaBelle’s explanation of why it was ok for him to golf, or why he “stacked” his leave, LaBelle did not take FMLA leave for “flare-ups” or medical appointments. He took FMLA leave because he was in constant pain and would take leave around vacations or weekends to give himself as much rest as possible. But occasional rest to alleviate low-level background pain is not what his FMLA leave was for.… If LaBelle had constant pain that required occasional long weekends to mitigate, he should have requested FMLA leave for that purpose.
Intermittent leave is (one of) the biggest FMLA-management problems for employers. And the “stacking” of intermittent leave against other scheduled days off is one of the biggest intermittent-leave management problems. This case gives employers a great tool to combat this form of FMLA abuse.
Barbara Fisher recalled a time one of her remote workers traveled to Hawaii yet called in to four meetings over two days.
“I asked, ‘How are you recharging? Why did you even take your computer?’ As a remote worker, it’s an extension of what she does,” said Fisher, chief operating and people officer for digital health company Aduro Inc. who previously was a vice president for Intel Corp. working in human relations and talent management.
“The reality is that weighs on you. You’re never able to refuel.”
Remote work has become the new normal for companies responding to workers’ desire for flexibility. In its “State of the American Workplace” report, Gallup polling found 43 percent of employees worked remotely in 2016 compared to 39 percent in 2012.
In its 2019 “Employee Benefits” report on leave and flexible working released in June, the Society for Human Resource Management noted that remote work continues to rise in popularity as a benefit. Telecommuting of all types is increasing as a result. Part-time telecommuting — now offered by more than 40 percent of organizations — is up 5 percent from 2018 and demonstrated the greatest increase.
Ad-hoc telecommuting is offered by 69 percent of organizations while full-time telecommuting is offered by more than one-quarter of organizations, SHRM reports.
“From a remote worker’s perspective, some of the positive aspects are flexible job schedules, work-life balance and the freedom to work from almost anywhere,” said Tina Garrell, director of the annual HR Florida Conference for the HR Florida State Council, a SHRM affiliate.
For companies, it means extending a footprint beyond its headquarters, saving on office space costs and keeping employees happy.
Tina Garrell
“But employers are sometimes faced with different challenges arising with their remote workforce, such as the health and well-being of those employees who do not come to the office every day,” said Garrell.
Studies show remote workers struggle with loneliness, isolation, an inability to unplug and ongoing distractions.
“Global Work Connectivity,” a recent study commissioned by Virgin Pulse and HR advisory and research firm Future Workplace, concludes many remote workers feel isolated.
“While remote workers gain freedom and flexibility, the study found they are disengaged and less likely to want a long-term career with their company because of their lack of human contact,” said Dan Schawbel, a partner with Future Workplace.
The survey of more than 2,000 managers and employees in 10 countries found almost half of an employee’s day is spent using technology to communicate. Slightly more than half always or very often feel lonely as a result.
Men, introverts and younger generations indicated a greater need for work companionship. Leaders can support employee relationships by encouraging connection in person over online, researchers said.
“Remote workers in some organizations are among the most stressed, which can seem counterintuitive. The perception is they have more time and are free from office politics, getting dressed up and commuting,” said Mary Marzec, senior health strategy scientist for Virgin Pulse, a part of Richard Branson’s Virgin Group that designs technology cultivating positive employee lifestyle habits.
Mary Marzec
With most employees’ waking hours spent on work, the work culture has a significant influence on adopting and sustaining healthy habits, Marzec said. While technology has paved the way for more employees to work remotely, it also has contributed to that sense of isolation, leading to mental and physical health challenges.
“Technology has created the illusion that workers are connected when in reality they feel isolated, lonely, disengaged and less committed to their organizations when overusing or misusing it,” said Schawbel, who also authored “Back to Human: How Great Leaders Create Connection in the Age of Isolation.”
“Most remote workers have the flexibility to work in different areas — a coffee shop or the beach — and they still choose to work at home,” said Fisher. “The convergence of work and home into one space underlies the struggle to unplug.
“You have to be able to recharge. Not doing it definitely weighs on an individual’s health and how they show up.”
Remote workers can feel left out of key decisions, leading to stress, frustration and unhappiness, said Fisher.
Distractions are another challenge.
Barbara Fisher
One of Fisher’s employees who asked to work remotely later expressed frustration that home tasks were distracting her from work.
“When you are a remote worker, it actually is more work because you have to think about how you balance your time to get things done and make sure you’re still connected,” said Fisher.
That necessitates discipline in meeting work milestones and personal goals, she added.
Air in the at-Home Schedule?
The perception that remote workers have more time at home to take care of family responsibilities essentially is false, said Marzec.
“Drawing boundaries can be very difficult,” she added. “If somebody sends you an email, there is internal pressure to answer that right away to show you’re working. Somebody in the office can be in a meeting for two hours, go to lunch, and even stop at the bank on the way back. A remote worker doesn’t feel that freedom.”
Lack of face time with team members is another challenge.
“You can’t just stop over to somebody’s desk or bump into someone in the hall and ask them if they’ve followed up,” Marzec said. “Emails and communications have to be constructed much more clearly because you’re not there to back it up in person. Communication can start a downstream spiral of lack of productivity.”
Remote workers don’t have the feeling of support one gets by standing around the office water cooler and soliciting ideas on how to deal with professional and personal struggles, Marzec added.
Feelings of isolation and lack of social support are linked to anxiety and depression, she added.
“Even though you think remote workers are not working longer hours, often that sense of being present at work is on their mind and can contribute to depression and anxiety,” she added.
Remote workers also don’t feel they have the freedom to work out or take a walk, said Marzec.
“When you work remotely, you’re not getting in the extra energy like walking from a parking lot to work,” said Marzec. “Someone who works remotely could have as few as 1,500 steps in a day. Whereas in normal workday walking, you’re going to put in 5,000 to 6,000 steps. It isn’t the 10,000 recommended steps, but it’s a lot more than 1,500.”
Health implications depend one’s go-to for dealing with stress when working alone and not able to walk over to peers to get advice on how to move a project forward, said Fisher.
“Whatever your vice is to manage stress is where you’re going to go. That’s just human nature. When you’re alone, going to that vice is likely easier than when you’re in an office where you can reach out quickly to the person sitting in the cube next to you, tell them you’re having a rough day and try to figure the problem out.”
Companies have a responsibility to take care of the workforce and remote workers have to put themselves out on the radar more, said Fisher. That entails remote worker access to wellness initiatives.
“Part of that responsibility if you decide to have a blended workforce is figuring out how what you offer at your headquarters is also what you offer to your extension sites as well as to your remote workers,” Fisher said.
While remote workers may not be able to access the gym at company headquarters or enjoy a healthy lunch at the in-house cafeteria, inclusive team challenges such as walking or drinking enough water “are a lot of fun and help everybody feel included no matter where they work,” said Marzec.
Technology makes implementing wellness programs for remote workers easier, said Garrell.
“These programs offer a variety of options both remote employees and employees who physically come to the office can participate in,” she said. “An example of a program that would work well for a remote workforce is providing partial or full reimbursement for various fitness activities in which they choose to participate.”
That can include sports leagues, gym memberships, yoga classes and other activities available in the remote worker’s area that keeps the employee active and engaged. By allowing them to choose activities in which they are interested, it helps ensure higher participation rates and long-term engagement, said Garrell.
Brian Rhonemus, CEO of Sanford Rose Associates — Rhonemus Group, said he encourages everyone on the recruiting firm’s remote team to manage distractions by being as disciplined in their work hours as they would if they physically drove to an office with a more structured schedule.
Brian Rhonemus
Rhonemus also said some of his company’s remote workers use stand-up treadmill desks to address the struggle with scheduling fitness time.
“We also schedule blocks of time out of the office to meet people face-to-face to fulfill the need for social interaction,” he said. “We encourage participation in coaching and other outside activities and allow time for that away from the office. We share our personal and professional success in our weekly update call.”
Joey Frasier, CEO of Shortlist, a San Francisco-based freelancer-management platform, suggested that hosting events in remote locations can ensure remote workers feel connected to the office community.
“We constantly remain in contact with our remote staff to make sure they are happy and have all of the support they need,” he said.
Frasier said his company helps its customers manage about 70,000 workers, nearly all of whom are remote.
“Remote workers are encouraged to participate in wellness programs in their areas or online using apps like Calm or MoveWith. HR managers also can provide access to places like One Medical, which provides wellness and mindfulness services.”
Management support is critical. A manager can discuss with a remote employee how to set up their work schedule in such a way they can block off time to engage in physical exercise, said Marzec.
“It relieves that pressure that if I take a walk and don’t answer that email within an hour, I’m not going to be punished for it,” she added.
Virtual Teamwork
Garrell said she ensures that the three remote workers in her business are included in as many office activities as possible through daily sales team conference calls, video conferencing training programs and a group messaging chat program to communicate with management throughout the day.
“This helps make them feel like they are truly a part of our organization as well as having a positive impact on their mental health, productivity and overall wellness,” she said.
Fostering a strong work culture that helps remote workers feel supported can be done through team-building activities, social events and workstations where workers can get to know each other on a personal level, said Schawbel.
An investment in the remote workforce yields positive returns.
“When you give greater autonomy, flexibility, responsibility but also greater support for employees, they feel it,” said Fisher. “We talk a lot about ‘I want to have a loyal employee who doesn’t want to leave.’ It’s a balance. The company needs to show how invested they are in the person and the person shows how invested they are into the company based on that relationship between the two of them.
“There is so much research that employees are looking to be heard and valued. When an employee feels that, they’re able to reach full potential because they’re being challenged and rewarded in ways that inspire and motivate them. The impact to productivity and the bottom line starts to improve.”
When a company addresses physical and mental health challenges faced by its remote workers, those workers stay committed, Marzec said.
“The manager doesn’t have to replace that talent,” she added. “Many times, companies focus on health care costs when it comes to health and well-being and overlook the important factor of employee satisfaction and intention to leave the company.
“Once somebody leaves, that impacts other people on that team who now need to work more to fill the gap of the person who left. The manager needs to put in time to hire somebody else. The training may take up to a year before a new person is really folded into the organization. In some cases, knowledge is lost when somebody leaves and we have a very knowledge-based economy. There can be client loss. Protecting against unwanted turnover is an important goal of health and wellness programs.”
Leading companies today embody the concept of “disruptor.” They are fast-growing, digital players that are introducing innovative new business models and revenue streams and forcing incumbents to rethink their businesses.
Businesses are on track to spend nearly $1.2 trillion on digital efforts this year as they seek a competitive edge over their peers, according to IDC research. These top companies typically have leaders at the helm who are helping redefine how businesses and customers interact.
It’s time we stop focusing on what disruptors are doing and instead shift our attention to how other companies can compete. Legacy companies with the right leadership and stakeholder priorities supersede disruptors. In fact, traditional players have a significant opportunity to transform their companies and their C-suite to make a lasting impact and respond to the disruptive forces around them.
As with any big reward, risk is required. It requires a new way of thinking and a new way of doing things from the top down. The C-suite, the most crucial piece of the puzzle, must leave status quo leadership styles behind and learn new skills to compete in this age of disruption.
Where Is the Pressure Coming From?
Beyond introducing new business models and harnessing innovative technologies, disruptors have changed the playing field of consumer expectations. According to research by my organization, Accenture Strategy, 74 percent of C-suite leaders say the disruptive impact of constantly shifting customer demands has increased and has added considerable complexity to the business landscape.
Coupled with these shifting customer expectations is a set of stakeholders with specific expectations of company leaders, according to a recent report from Accenture Strategy titled “Whole-Brain Leadership: The New Rules of Engagement for the C-suite.” The report, released this past June, is based on interviews with 200 C-suite executives and surveys of more than 11,000 employees and consumers globally.
Changing the C-Suite DNA
With these disruptive forces converging on the C-suite, leaders must respond to the tides of change both by doing things differently and doing different things. Reskilling to change the DNA of leadership is now crucial to building enduring businesses and achieving competitive agility.
The majority (89 percent) of today’s C-suite leaders hold business, science or technology degrees and have honed “left-brain” skills — like critical reasoning, decision-making and results-orientation. Furthermore, 65 percent say their “right-brain” skills are weakest and recognize the need to strengthen their right-brain skills — including empathy and intuition — for a well-rounded “whole-brain” approach. Not only is adopting a progressive whole-brain leadership approach good for building diversified thinking and decisions, it’s also good for the bottom line. Our research shows a correlation with stronger financials — 22 percent higher revenue growth and 34 percent higher profitability growth (as measured by EBITDA) — for those companies using a whole-brain approach today.
Adopting a Whole-Brained Approach
C-suite leaders can unlock a whole-brain approach to leadership that applies new, richer depths of left-brain skills with more tangible applications of right-brain skills and secure the future of their companies by:
Addressing the skills gap: Changing the mix of leaders at the top of companies will help address the current skills gap. Today, 9 in 10 C-suite executives are already taking action by using organic and inorganic ways to tackle the problem. Over half (55 percent) of leaders are currently reskilling C-suite members, and 46 percent are bringing in new C-suite talent from outside their organization.
Redefining traditional leadership: Customer expectations demand a new type of leader, as this group has a clear view of what they think are important skills and behaviors for C-suite leaders to possess. Leaders need to pivot and develop a leadership style that balances traditional, left-directed skills, right-directed skills and human-centered capabilities.
Driving change deep and wide: Proactively ingraining right- and left-brain skills into the leadership of organizations is crucial to longevity and competitiveness. The C-suite must build these balanced skills and use them at both the organizational and individual level. They also need to plant seeds for the future by building this required skillset into their recruiting strategy.
Disruptors are forcing incumbents to challenge the status quo, pushing them to look outward to unlock growth and value, all while surviving waves of disruption. Through a new leadership mindset that balances left-led analytical thinking with a right-led human centered compass, it’s possible for incumbents to disrupt the disruptors.
It’s been a decade since the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act went into effect, with the goal that insurers and health plans offer mental health and substance abuse benefits comparable to coverage of medical and surgical care.
Despite progress made since the law’s passage, some barriers to equality still exist. As vital as behavioral health care is for people with substance abuse and mental health disorders, unlike their physical health needs, employees with employer-sponsored coverage may face challenges in accessing and affording quality mental health care coverage.
The current environment sees employers, employees, the government and individuals spending more money on behavioral health than ever before, but the results just aren’t there, said Henry Harbin, a psychiatrist with over 40 years’ experience in the behavioral health field.
Harbin, whose experience includes senior positions at public and private health organizations, said that while fatality rates for many medical issues are decreasing, fatality rates from suicide and opioid overdoses — two major issues in behavioral health — are increasing. Between 2004 and 2014, the death rate for heart disease decreased by 16 percent and for stroke by 19 percent. In the same span, the death rate climbed by 17 percent for suicide and over 200 percent for opioids, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
For employers, genuinely caring about their employees’ mental health issues is a good start, but providing quality coverage is important as well. Behavioral issues among employees are prevalent. According to the National Institute of Mental Health, 1 in 5 adults in the United States have a mental health disorder. Meanwhile, 1 in 22 adults have a serious mental illness like schizophrenia, major depression or bipolar disorder, the study noted.
Access Issues
There is a national shortage of seasoned behavioral health professionals in the United States, which can “constrain access to essential care and treatment for millions of individuals with mental illness of substance use disorders,” according to the Health Resources and Services Administration report “Behavioral Health Projections, 2016-2030.” The agency, part of the Department of Health and Human Services, focuses on improving access to health care services for individuals who are uninsured, isolated or medically vulnerable. The report stressed the fact that certain areas of the United States have few or no behavioral health providers available.
The shortage of behavioral health care providers impacts a majority of employer-sponsored health plans, according to Mercer’s May 2019 “10-Minute Survey on Behavioral Health” that surveyed 523 employers. Sixty-three percent of respondents reported that they lack adequate access to outpatient behavioral health care in some or all of their locations.
Some 74 percent of employers said they are taking action to improve employee access to quality behavioral care. Most commonly, 49 percent addressed this by enhancing their employee assistance program services or changing their EAP provider. Only 12 percent of these employers conducted a network analysis to identify gaps in behavioral health care.
Early intervention can be vital for behavioral health, especially for patients with a severe disorder, Harbin said.
For a patient with schizophrenia, for example, screening by one’s primary care physician or pediatrician can help identify the problem early on. The patient can then see a specialist sooner and will likely see better outcomes, Harbin said.
Tom Sondergeld, vice president, global HRIS, benefits and mobility at global pharmacy giant Walgreens Boots Alliance, said that one of the biggest priorities in their carrier analysis was to evaluate access. Employees with a behavioral health issue often face long wait times to see a behavioral health specialist such as a psychiatrist. “To me, that’s not parity,” Sondergeld said.
Walgreens has been pushing hard on its insurance carriers in recent years so that employees can find coverage for the care they need in a timely manner, Sondergeld said.
While larger organizations may have more resources to negotiate with insurance carriers, he suggested that small organizations can join coalitions such as the National Business Group on Health, allowing their voice to be heard within that larger pool of companies.
He also said that using data to tell a powerful story is a way smaller organizations can influence their carriers. Employers can get this information through their health plan, which can use its data to analyze utilization and costs across the various benefits to get a better picture of the overall spend and areas to concentrate on to improve spend.
For example, if a third of the workforce needs access to behavioral health care for themselves or their loved ones, but the data show that a majority of people can’t access care in a timely manner, that’s a powerful, data-supported story.
The human impact of mental health problems is notable, as mental illness impacts how people handle stress, how they relate to others and whether they make healthy choices, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Still, HR can use the business case to support the need for better access.
Poor mental health and stress can impact an employee’s job performance, their relationship with co-workers and their physical capabilities and daily functioning, according to the CDC. Depression interferes with a person’s ability to complete physical job tasks about 20 percent of the time and reduces cognitive performance about 35 percent of the time, the agency notes.
“When [employees] can’t find the care they need, the business suffers because they aren’t engaged,” Sondergeld said.
Network Issues
A host of issues exist even when an employee does access care for behavioral health problems. A majority of people with behavioral conditions are screened and treated through primary care and not a specialist, Harbin said. The quality of this behavioral health care is often low, with many people not necessarily even getting a diagnosis but getting a prescription for a psychiatric drug. Harbin noted that the patient’s response to the drug may not be tracked efficiently, the drug and dosage may remain unchanged, and this may help lead to low efficacy outcomes.
Employers should urge employees to use specialists if they want improved outcomes, he said.
Patients accessing out-of-network providers is another issue, he added, citing a 2017 Milliman Inc. report, “Addiction and Mental Health vs. Physical Health: Analyzing Disparities in Network Use and Provider Reimbursement Rates.”
Patients seeking behavioral care more often need to use an out-of-network provider than patients seeking medical or surgical care, according to the report, which also found that medical and surgical providers are paid at higher rates than behavioral providers. The lower reimbursement rates are one reason for low network participation rates among behavioral health providers, making it difficult for patients to find more affordable in-network care.
Employers can work with their providers or vendors to understand if there are places where there are more complaints about access issues than others, said Mandie Conforti, a licensed clinical social worker and senior consultant at Willis Towers Watson.
Even though the mental health stigma is lifting, it’s still there, she said. Many employees hesitate to call HR to complain about not being able to find a behavioral health provider.
“We’ve been asking behavioral health centers to do more customized networks, enhancing the network in locations where employers may have a larger base of employees,” she said.
Quality Control Issues
It’s difficult for a patient to find the right provider for their unique situation or one who can get them the best results.
Employers have historically not asked their insurers many questions about behavioral health or the quality of these provider networks, said Sandra Kuhn, Mercer’s national lead for behavioral health consulting. This is an area in which they have potential to be more proactive and really push for more information from their insurers.
Questions can include: What quality measures do you use to bring carriers in and keep them in-network? Can you share with us at the end of the year a data set to show how many people were in treatment and the average length of time people stay in treatment? Also, did people improve while they were in treatment?
“Tools exist to measure those things, they’re just not being uniformly applied,” Kuhn said.
She also suggests that employers look for specific data points as indicators of whether the health plan is adequately addressing behavioral health, starting with data on what the employee population looks like. Then, look at EAP utilization. If utilization is low but a lot of people are using the behavioral health network in the health plan, then perhaps employees aren’t aware of the EAP services. That knowledge could give employers the opportunity to close the gap.
Data can also educate employers on how much out-of-network behavioral health care employees are getting. Maybe employees are having access issues, or maybe they’re unsure of how to go about finding care. They could be relying on friends’ referrals rather than something more evidence-based.
“If [employees] don’t have a clear way to obtain information about the network, the types of providers and what provider is good for what types of challenges, they’re just randomly picking, and that’s problematic,” she said.
She continued that quality metrics are “reasonably established” for certain areas of the behavioral health system. The type of care people may need ranges from outpatient care for mild or moderate cases to more complex and higher levels of care for more severe conditions. This inpatient care is where quality metrics are consistent, but most people come into contact with behavioral health services at the outpatient level, Kuhn said.
There are some insurance carriers and tech solutions like Ginger.io and Lyra Health that are using their own measures, but these aren’t consistent with each other, she said. This can lead to inconsistency and member confusion.
“They don’t know if they’re going to a quality provider or not, and oftentimes they don’t know how to judge if they’re improving,” Kuhn said. That may lead to people thinking that if they go to their friend’s therapist, they’ll get the best care.
“There are all sorts of wives tales that come out of there not being a good way to determine quality,” she added.
Employers can also push vendors on how they assess quality, said Conforti. Many times providers self-report quality to behavioral health centers. Whether they actually have the competencies to do so, they could simply check the boxes that they can work with any disorder.
“There has to be a better way at assessing and making sure that providers are doing good, sound, evidence-based care,” she said.
Jared Dennis was employed as a deputy in the Summit County, Colorado, Sheriff’s Office. He’s also an alcoholic. While on administrative suspension following his wife’s allegation of domestic violence, Dennis got drunk at home the night before his criminal arraignment. The following morning, he failed his intake breathalyzer. Thereafter, the Sheriff’s Office terminated him for, among other rules violations, conduct unbecoming of an officer and being impaired while on duty.
Dennis sued his former employer for disability discrimination, claiming that it fired him because of a protected disability — his alcoholism.
The court disagreed, and dismissed Dennis’s lawsuit.
It is generally recognized that alcoholism can constitute a disability entitling the employee to protection under the ADA…. The more difficult question is whether Deputy Dennis has come forward with evidence that his termination resulted from his disability, rather than his conduct.…[W]hen the disability at issue is alcoholism, the ADA … draw[s] a distinction between “having a disability” and “disability-caused misconduct.”
It is undisputed that the SCSO based its decision to terminate Deputy Dennis’ on the fact that he reported for his arraignment in an intoxicated state. Thus, there is no dispute that SCSO’s decision arose from his unsatisfactory conduct on the morning of July 28, not from his abstract status as an alcoholic. As noted, the ADA … do[es] not extend protection to actions of alcohol-influenced misconduct, even if the employee’s alcohol use is related to the disability of alcoholism. Accordingly, Deputy Dennis has not come forward with evidence that indicates that his termination was based on his status as a disabled person (as opposed to his conduct).
Addiction is a protected disability. But it does not mean you have to permit its use to accommodate the disability. Under the influence at work does not equal a disability, ever.
A recent study suggests that there has been a backlash against the #MeToo movement.
According to the Harvard Business Review, men are treating their females co-workers differently because of #MeToo.
19 percent of men said they were reluctant to hire attractive women.
21 percent said they were reluctant to hire women for jobs involving close interactions with men.
27 percent said they avoided one-on-one meetings with female colleagues.
This isn’t a #MeToo problem. It’s the problem that #MeToo is trying to fix. Indeed, Harvard Business Review could rewrite its headline to read, “More than one in four men admit to discriminating against female co-workers.”
Can women falsely accuse their male colleagues of sexual harassment? Absolutely … just as they could before the #MeToo movement. And just as men can falsely accuse women, and women each other, and men each other.
False accusations of harassment are not a #MeToo problem. They are systemic in any system that relies on employees to self-police and report misconduct via complaints. The remedy isn’t sexually segregated workplaces. The remedy is thorough and complete investigations of all complaints of harassment, and appropriate punishment for those who are found to have lodged false complaint.
The risk of false harassment complaints is not an excuse for sexual segregation at work. Instead, the risk of sexual segregation is the reason to double down on efforts to root out and end sexual harassment and other sex discrimination.
Color choice can help enhance the mood of an office setting.
Boosting productivity and wellness is a challenge for which organizations are looking to more creative solutions.
Color choice of the office is one relatively simple yet impactful tool that organizations from hospitality to tech are implementing to elevate the level of productivity, wellness and experience in their spaces.
“People are starting to see the psychological effects that color has on us, especially in the workplace,” said PPG Color Design Manager Vanessa Peterson. “It can really spark certain emotions and spark certain responses from people because they’re integrated into a space for so many hours.”
This reaction, Peterson said, has to do with what certain colors communicate in a space and how that communication works with other elements of office design to create an overall atmosphere. For this reason, blue is often chosen over others for interior design.
“Many of the colors that we find in nature, specifically blue, have caused a lot of really great health and mental benefits because of its serene and peaceful nature,” Peterson said. “It reminds people of the sky, or it reminds people of the ocean, in a very calm and tranquil space.”
Even within the color spectrum of blue, slight variations in shade can communicate different things, which in turn affects how people might feel in a space.
“One of the great things about blue is that for the most part, each version of blue has an identity of its own but also reflects the idea of either calmness or wellness. That idea of wellness can be integrated into an atmosphere where it gives you this feeling of power and it can feel very regal,” Peterson said. For example, a stronger blue such as cobalt is often used in sports companies’ marketing and darker shades of navy that exude a sense of maturity are used by universities.
The design industry is also seeing a heightened interest in color choices for products, Peterson said.
“Not only are you having desk and wall colors and furnishings go into this more serene setting, but you’re having tech companies do this with their products as well,” she said. “They’re going into a lot more beiges and a lot more soft corals, mints and blues, even into the actual technology to give that overall feel.”
The search for the equilibrium of office color and design is also about more than just improving productivity. Creating a sense of serenity in a space that people go to everyday can improve mood, too.
A study conducted by the University of Texas found that more bland colors such as beige, gray and white induced feelings of sadness and depression, particularly among women. This was in contrast to colors like blue and pale green, which produced feelings of productivity and peace in study participants.
PPG also named “Chinese Porcelain” its color of the year, which is a rich, natural blue and was selected with the idea of serenity and clarity in mind.
“With everything that we’ve been seeing happen socially and culturally around the world, we really felt that that shade of blue emoted that sense of serenity that people are looking for in this day and age,” Peterson said. “They want to have that sense of wellness, that sense of peace and they want to see a color and feel something that’s outside of that idea of intensity or anything that would make you feel disturbed.”
Editor’s note: This post contains extremely graphic language in the context of the case described here.
“Bob is such a NASTY MOTHER FUCKER don’t know how to talk to people!!!!!! Fuck his mother and his entire fucking family!!!! What a LOSER!!!!”
“Hey, did you bring enough KFC for everyone?” “Go back to Africa, you bunch of fucking losers.” “Hey anybody smell that? I smell fried chicken and watermelon.”
You’d think that if any of your employees lobbed any of these bombs at a supervisor or coworker, you’d have no legal issue if you fired them. And you’d be right … usually.
Except, in the first example, the employee ended his obscene tirade with, “Vote YES for the UNION!!!!!!!”
The latter example was directed by striking workers walking a picket line to African-American replacement workers crossing that picket line. According to the National Labor Relations Board, the employees’ rights to engage in protected concerted activity trumps all.
The NLRB, however, might be changing its mind on these rules. Last week, the agency invited briefs on the issue of how far the law should go to protect profane or obscene workplace statements.
The National Labor Relations Board requests briefing on whether the Board should reconsider its standards for profane outbursts and offensive statements of a racial or sexual nature. In a notice issued today, the Board seeks public input on whether to adhere to, modify, or overrule the standard applied in previous cases in which extremely profane or racially offensive language was judged not to lose the protection of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA).
In the specific case at issue, a union committeeperson, while arguing about employee cross-training, told a supervisor that he did not “give a fuck about [his] cross-training” and that he could “shove it up [his] fucking ass.”
Specifically, the board is looking for input on five issues:
Under what circumstances should profane language or sexually or racially offensive speech lose the protection of the Act?
How much leeway should employees engaged in section 7 activity be given, when their language if profane or otherwise offensive to others on the basis of race or sex?
Should the Board continue to consider the norms of the workplace, particularly whether profanity is commonplace and tolerated, in judging the legality of these profane or obscene outbursts?
To what extent, if any, should the Board continue to consider context — e.g., picket-line setting — when determining whether racially or sexually offensive language loses the Act’s protection?
What relevance should the Board accord to anti-discrimination laws such as Title VII in determining whether an employee’s statements lose the protection of the Act?
I find all of the examples above to be abhorrent. The NLRB’s current rules require employers to suborn the worst degree of insubordination, or permit horrific racial or sexual harassment, all in the name of “protecting” employees section 7 rights under the NLRA.
These rules must change, and I am very optimistic that the board will craft a much fairer and equitable rule on this issue.
Mani Mueller is one of the millions of Americans who has cared for an elderly parent or children while working a full-time job. Photo by Paulius Musteikis
When Mani Mueller landed a plum job at a biotech firm in Wisconsin in 2013 she brought her parents from Pennsylvania to help care for her two young daughters while she found her footing at work.
The timing was perfect. Her mother had just retired and her father, who suffered from Parkinson’s disease, was doing well and looked forward to spending time with his granddaughters. But what promised to be a dream scenario fell apart within a few months as her father’s condition declined and her mom couldn’t keep up with his care.
Parkinson’s is a progressive nervous system disorder that affects movement, and her father began falling frequently, requiring constant supervision. Soon, Mueller was tackling not only the demands of a new job, but also working a second shift as her father’s primary caregiver and power of attorney, shuttling him to doctor’s appointments, researching treatments, and learning to navigate the Medicare and Medicaid systems. Since her father, a Laotian immigrant, spoke little English she also became his translator.
At 37, Mueller had joined the ranks of 44 million adults in the United States who provide unpaid care for a loved one who needs support, according to AARP. She also became a member of the “sandwich generation,” caring for both a parent and children. Like many caregivers in the workplace, she never told her employer for fear of damaging her career. Instead, she used her vacation and personal days to meet the demands of caregiving.
In January 2018, five years after she placed her father in a nursing home, her company, Promega, introduced a caregiver leave benefit that provides employees with an additional two weeks of paid time off a year to care for a sick parent, spouse or child, or to welcome a new child. But even then Mueller was reluctant to come forward.
Mani Mueller was the primary caregiver for her father. Photo courtesy of Mani Mueller.
“I didn’t want to advertise that I was dealing with all of this or put on paper that my dad has this condition and my kids have that condition,” said Mueller, now 43 and a manager in supplier quality at Fitchburg, Wisconsin-based Promega. “I keep everything to myself. I thought sharing this information would negatively impact my career. I’m very quiet and private, but internally, I thought ‘How much more can I deal with?’ I was exhausted and stressed out.”
Mueller’s story illustrates the dilemmas faced by many caregivers who must choose between what’s best for their families and what’s best for their careers. It also sheds light on the complexities of caregiving in a time of great demographic change. Older people will outnumber children for the first time in U.S. history by 2030, traditional family structures are changing with families getting smaller and more geographically dispersed, and thanks to medical advances people are living longer with disabilities and chronic conditions.
This is resulting in a caregiving crisis that many employers are failing to acknowledge or understand, according to a Harvard Business School studyreleased in January. “The Caring Company” report highlights a disconnect between the kinds of supports caregivers in the workplace need and what most companies provide.
Fear Factor
One reason that employers don’t understand the impact of caregiving on their businesses is that many employees are afraid to tell them, according to Linda Roundtree, an HR consultant who specializes in the aging workforce.
“When people don’t feel free to come forward, they have to make an excuse for why things happen or why they’re distracted at work,” she said. “There’s fear about hurting their careers. You see that fear when women are afraid to disclose that they’re pregnant.”
Only 28 percent of employees who care for a loved one were willing to admit that their family responsibilities harmed their careers, according to the Harvard Business School report. Around half of caregivers surveyed were afraid of being overlooked for challenging assignments, or missing out on salary increases or bonuses. And while 80 percent of employees admit that caregiving has affected their productivity, less than one-fourth of employers said that caregiving influences employee performance.
Mueller said that if Promega had a caregiving benefit when she started there it’s unlikely that she would have taken it. But by 2018 Mueller had been a manager for two years and was confident in her position. So, when her dad’s condition worsened again that May and her daughter was diagnosed with a kidney infection she signed up for time off under the company’s caregiver leave policy. Her father died the following November.
“Exceptional caregiving” is the term that Roundtree uses to describe the new realities for caregivers who are caring for loved ones with a host of cognitive impairments, physical disabilities and chronic conditions.
“There is a huge chunk of the workforce that will be taking care of a child with special health care needs or an elderly parent,” said Roundtree, who co-authored a 2018 paperon the changing nature of caregiving for Boston College Center for Work and Family. “Today even young, single people understand that complex things will happen either to themselves or to a partner or spouse and they need employers that know how to support them.”
The Young Caregivers
While the typical caregiver is a white woman in her late 50s, about one-fourth of all caregivers are between the ages of 18 and 29, according to AARP. They are also the fastest growing and most diverse demographic in the workplace. Employers need to understand that caregiving affects workers of all ages, Roundtree said.
The scope of the problem came as a surprise to executives at Promega when the company surveyed its own workforce in 2017 to better understand the caregiving needs of its employees.
It looked at all kinds of situations from parents of newborns to parents of children with special needs to children caring for parents and adults caring for a spouse, according to Promega benefits manager Diana Clark. She said that everyone was surprised by the variety and intensity of the demands on employee caregivers. They discovered a hidden population of employees who were spending about 29 hours a week on caregiving duties, basically working a second unpaid shift.
Also a surprise was the average age of their caregivers: 33 years old.
Promega Benefits Manager Diana Clark
“I would have thought three years ago that average caregiver is 55 or 60 years old and nearly retired, but it’s a parent with kids and an elderly parent who is struggling with cancer or some other health condition,” Clark said.
“When you talk to people in those roles they will tell you that’s just what they do and that it’s not a burden. They’ll say that ‘dad just needs me to get groceries, or he can’t drive, or I have to make sure that mom takes her meds.’ There so many tactile details involved that we couldn’t help but see the strain.”
This led Promega to launch caregiver leave benefits in January 2018 that provide employees with an additional two weeks of paid time off a year to care for a sick parent, spouse or child, or to welcome a new child. The benefit can be used in daily increments or all at once. So far, 120 employees, or 12 percent of Promega’s 1,400 employees, including subsidiaries, have used the benefit.
Employees Open Up
Clark said that the program has taken on a life of its own with employees coming forward to share their stories and even launching their own initiative called Circle of Caring. The initiative connects caregivers and employee volunteers willing to help with meals, shopping, lawn care, transportation and other errands. One group of volunteers even planted a garden for an employee who was an avid gardener but was unable to use his arm after a surgery.
This year, the company also began offering free onsite psychological counseling one day a week for caregivers and plans to offer health care navigation services, among other supports for caregivers, such as bereavement support and financial counseling.
Deb Notstad, right, cares for her son Adam, who is physically and developmentally disabled. Photo courtesy of Deb Notstad.
Deb Notstad, 57, a complaint investigations specialist at Promega, is grateful for the benefits, even though they came too late to help her. In 2016 her elderly mother was dying and she was caring for her 28-year-old son Adam, who is physically and developmentally disabled. Notstad, a single mother, is also the legal guardian for her brother who is a critical diabetic and is developmentally disabled. While she thinks that two weeks of paid leave is great, it’s not nearly enough for those with complex caregiving needs.
“When they introduced the benefit I had already spent weeks in the hospital with my son,” she said. “My first reaction was, ‘Are you kidding? This is a drop in the bucket.’ But I don’t know too many businesses that offer something like this.”
While a growing number of companies including Starbucks, Cigna, Best Buy and Microsoft offer caregiver supports such as extended paid leave, long-term care insurance for parents and grandparents, and counseling, the vast majority do not offer benefits that are valued by caregivers, according to the Harvard Business School study.
The top reasons that caregivers quit their jobs is the high cost of paid help, the difficulty in finding trustworthy support, and the inability to manage the demands of work and home — all areas where employers could provide support,the study found.
Those that fail to address the problem will pay the price in “hidden costs” such as turnover, loss of institutional knowledge, absenteeism and other factors that are difficult to quantify, according to the study.
Katie Boer cares for her mother who suffers from dementia. Photos courtesy of Katie Boer.
Katie Boer, 31, never thought that two years after landing her dream job as a broadcast journalist she would be quitting to look after her 71-year-old mother. In 2016, shortly after she began working at a Las Vegas television station, Boer’s mother, who lives in Seattle, was diagnosed with Lewy body dementia, which can cause hallucinations and Parkinson’s-like symptoms such as body rigidity, tremors and balance problems.
At first, Boer handled things by phone and took paid time off for regular trips to Seattle, but as her mother’s condition worsened the situation became unmanageable. Her mother would call her at work several times a day confused and agitated, often minutes before she went on the air. Eventually, Boer installed a video camera in her mom’s apartment to keep a closer eye on her. But when she saw her mom lying on the floor in the middle of the night crying out Boer’s name for hours, she reached a breaking point.
“I’d be lying in bed watching her not sleeping with tears falling sideways down my cheeks,” she said.
“I’d cry all night and go to the bathroom and throw up. Even though I had a dream job I felt like I was selfish for not being there. So I sacrificed my job and moved to Seattle.”
For employees at smaller companies without caregiving supports or benefits like flex time or paid time off the burden of caregiving can be especially crushing.
Amanda Smith, 34, works at a small nonprofit arts foundation on the East Coast that is not required to provide leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act. With a toddler who has cerebral palsy along with other disabilities and requires round-the-clock care, managing a career is an enormous challenge.
While her boss was initially accommodating, allowing her to work from home one day a week, he has become impatient with the lack of flexibility in her schedule, she said.
“He’d like me to come in without any warning but our lives our very, very choreographed because of all the doctor’s appointments, services and nursing care that my son needs,” she said. “We can’t just call a babysitter. My husband would have to call in sick or my mother-in-law would need to come because she’s the only one besides us who knows how to take care of him. I don’t think employers really understand how complicated caring for a child with a disability can be.”
But many are trying, according to LuAnn Heinen, vice president at the National Business Group on Health, a coalition of large employers.
“It’s definitely on their radar,” she said. “We did a survey in 2017 and 88 percent of employers think caregiving will be a big issue over the next few years. Paid leave is important but we know that it won’t solve the problem if you’re caring for someone over a number of years. There must be more supports like flexible work arrangements, health care navigation, and services to help employees find caregiving services. Employers realize this.”
For those that fail to address the needs of caregivers, Clark warned that companies like Promega will be happy to hire their employees away.
“Unemployment is low and there are great people out there who are not getting their needs met and will want to work for an employer who recognizes them as a whole person,” she said. “You lose so many aspects of what that person can bring to the table when they are trying to take care of their families and are not supported.”
If you rely on social media to paint for you a full and complete picture about your job applicants and employees, you are going to be very disappointed.
According to a recent survey, 43 percent of workers use privacy settings to keep material hidden from employers, and 46 percent have searched for their own names and taken further measures to conceal their social media presence based on what they found.
What types of information are they hiding?
70 percent are shielding their personal lives.
56 percent their unprofessional behavior.
44 percent their political views.
50 percent have deleted entire profiles or old posts to protect their professional reputations.
What do these numbers tell us about social media background checks? That you cannot rely on them as your lone pre-hire check of employees.
Yes, there is lots of valuable information you can discover on social media about a prospective employee: how they present themselves; whether they post inappropriate photos, videos, or statements; if they are sexist or racist; are they good communicators; do they have good judgment.
But, if candidates are hiding this information behind privacy settings, or deleting it altogether, then if you only rely on social media, then you are missing most or all of the relevant information. If you want to check a candidate’s background on social media, do it only as part of a more holistic screening process that includes a more traditional background check.
“Not only are you having desk and wall colors and furnishings go into this more serene setting, but you’re having tech companies do this with their products as well,” she said. “They’re going into a lot more beiges and a lot more soft corals, mints and blues, even into the actual technology to give that overall feel.”
“I’d cry all night and go to the bathroom and throw up. Even though I had a dream job I felt like I was selfish for not being there. So I sacrificed my job and moved to Seattle.”