Author: Site Staff

Where did you hang up your office’s Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) poster? Is it in a location used by everyone? According to the U.S. Department of Labor, you must put the poster up in a conspicuous place, regardless of whether or not you have any eligible employees. The Labor Department also says:

• The poster and the test must be large enough to be easily read and contain fully legible text.
• If you violate the posting requirement you may be assessed a civil money penalty.
• If you fail to post the required notice, this prevents you from taking any adverse action against an employee, including denying FMLA leave.
• When applicable, you have to provide the notice in a language that your employees can read.

Source: U.S. Department of Labor, Washington, D.C, August 1998. Check with your state department of labor for more information.

Follow these links to Amazon.com…

The 21st Century Intranet
Written by Jennifer Stone Gonzalez
CD-Rom edition
Published by Prentice Hall Computer Books, January 1998

Building an Intranet for Dummies
Written by John W. Fronckowiak
CD-Rom edition
Published by Idg Books Worldwide, September 1997

The ABCs of Intranets
Written by Peter Dyson, Pat Coleman, Len Gilbert
Published by Sybex, April 1997

Intranet Resource Kit
Written by Prakash Ambegaonkar (Editor)
CD-Rom edition
Published by Osborne McGraw-Hill, February 1997

Building the Corporate Intranet
Written by Steven L. Guengerich (Editor), Douglas Graham, Mitra Miller, Steve Guengerich
Published by John Wiley & Sons, November 1996

Intranet Business Strategies
Written by Mellanie Hills; Paperback
Published by John Wiley & Sons, September 1996

Ouch! As these excerpts from actual performance appraisals show, some managers pull no punches in assessing work and character. We assume these people weren’t promoted.

Since my last report, this employee has reached rock bottom and has started to dig.

His men would follow him anywhere, but only out of morbid curiosity.

I would not allow this employee to breed.

This associate is really not so much of a “has-been,” but more of “definitely won’t-be.”

Works well when under constant supervision and cornered like a rat in a trap.

When she opens her mouth, it seems that this is only to change whichever foot was previously in there.

He would be out of his depth in a parking-lot puddle.

This young lady has delusions of adequacy.

He sets low personal standards, then consistently fails to achieve them.

This employee should go far—and the sooner he starts, the better.

This employee is depriving a village somewhere of an idiot.

SOURCE: The Daily Dose, Yasha Harari, July 22, 1997

Workforce, September 1998, Vol. 77, No. 9, p. 23.

Follow these links to Amazon.com …

CareerXRoads: The 1999 Directory to the 500 Best Job, Resume and Career Management Sites on the World Wide Web
Written by Gerry Crispin, Mark Mehler
Published by MMC Group, November 1998

Finding & Keeping Great Employees
Written by Jim Harris, Joan Brannick, Phd.
Published by Amacom, February 1999

Topgrading: How Leading Companies Win by Hiring, Coaching and Keeping the Best People
Written by Bradford D. Smart
Published by Prentice Hall, February 1999

Employers’ Guide to Recruiting on the Internet
Written by Ray Schreyer, John McCarter
Published by Impact Publications, June 1998

Complete Manual for Recruiting, Hiring and Retaining Quality Employees
Written by Joseph D. Levesque
Published by Prentice Hall, December 1996

Recruiting and the Art of Control: How to Fill More Jobs in a Candidate-Driven Market
(audiocassette and workbook)
Written by Bill Radin, Betsy Smith
Published by Innovative Consulting, September 1997

Staffing the Contemporary Organization: A Guide to Planning, Recruiting, and Selecting for Human Resource Professionals
Written by Donald L. Caruth, Gail D. Handlogten
Published by Greenwood Publishing Group, November 1997

Now Hiring: An Employer’s Guide to Recruiting in a Tight Labor Market
(A BNA Special Report)
Edited by Linda Fernandez
Published by Bureau of National Affairs Plus, June 1989

Workforce, August 1999, Vol. 78, No. 8, p. 91.

What you probably don’t know about e-mail is that it’s permanent—it really can’t be deleted in the traditional sense. Several copies of your e-mail are usually stored or archived within the system and may be found if needed or looked for.

Consider your business e-mail as being sent to a company bulletin board. And your message or documents can be stored for years on back-up disks and tapes.

To prevent yourself from doing anything that can hurt you or your organization, consider these helpful hints:

• E-mail should always be considered public, not private. Don’t ever write anything you wouldn’t want everyone in your office to see.
• When replying to someone’s message, check the list of recipients before you respond. Oftentimes, e-mail is automatically copied to a pre-programmed distribution list. Your messages can be forwarded without your knowledge.
• If a message you’ve received is personal or even informal, let the sender know you’ll be forwarding his or her message before you pass it along to someone else.

SOURCE: American Media Inc., West Des Moines, Iowa

Workforce, July 1998, Vol. 77, No. 7, p. 38.

Use these Web sites as a jumping off point in your online research…

The International Human Resource Information Management site. The “Resources” section includes white papers, conference speaker handouts and related links.

The Intranet Journal site offers information about intranets designed for managers with little or no computer expertise. It also includes discussion groups, a seminar calendar and related links.

Follow these links to Amazon.com . . .

Building and Managing the Corporate Intranet
By Ronald L. Wagner and Eric Englemann

Building the Corporate Intranet
By Steven L. Guengerich, Douglas Graham, Mitra Miller and Skipper McDonald

Corporate Intranet Development
By Steve Griswold

Intranet as Groupware
By Mellanie Hills

Be careful about what you and your employees write. Memorize these facts to help your company stay out of trouble:

• Legally archived or deleted messages can be acquired by a court of law or government agency in regard to antitrust, discrimination, termination or copyright infringement investigations.
• E-mail is not the place for discussing sensitive issues, such as suspicions, employee performance, hiring or firing. If you do use this venue for such issues, always consider it a formal and permanent form of communication.
• Stating a negative opinion or feeling about an employee while using e-mail lends merit in a legal proceeding related to discrimination or termination.
• Prosecuting attorneys count on the fact that your e-mail archives will be ripe with incriminating information. They want you to be careless with your e-mail—disappoint them.
• Certain comments, suggestions and even graphics delivered by e-mail to others can give merit to a harassment claim.
• Be careful what you write about others. You can’t control who will read your documents.
• Downloading and viewing graphics that are personal in nature are not appropriate at work.
• Common sense will usually tell you what you should or should not do. If you even wonder if something is inappropriate—don’t do it.

SOURCE: American Media Inc., West Des Moines, Iowa

Workforce, July 1998, Vol. 77, No. 7, p. 40.