While I no longer have school age children, I DO have grandchildren. And, one of them has already expressed interest in taking over the business “after his professional baseball career because all Gammy does is sit on her butt all day.” Carson Leib – age 11 (12 by the time you read this!)

Take our Daughters and Sons to Work Day

The official event is April 26, 2018 this year. The event actually started in 1993 (where were YOU when it started?! I was working for International Paper Company and still remember us planning a 1/2 day event.) Take our Daughters to Work was the brain child of Gloria Steinem and the Ms. Foundation. The title was changed in 2003 to be more inclusive. I honestly don’t remember employers limiting it to just girls even in the way back. Continue reading →

For the last couple of years, it’s been a trend among the Baby Boomer generation to mock Millennials. Endless comments about how they’re lazy, entitled, ‘the generation that needs safe spaces,’ etc. Many insults have been hurled at Millennials but they certainly didn’t take it sitting down, at least not when it came to the twitter war sparked by #HowToConfuseAMillenial. What started out as a way for Baby Boomers and others to levy insults and ‘witty’ barbs turned against them shortly after Millennials started using the hashtag in sarcastic and ironic ways.

That right there should illustrate that while they have no problem fighting back, we’re the problem—not them. Continue reading →

One of my first jobs actually required participation in a community service group. Since then, I’m always amazed to hear about other companies who’ve instated similar practices—and what that’s done to further employee engagement. You see, volunteerism has a fairly large impact on employee engagement, and that’s true for a number of reasons. Continue reading →

If you’re like me, you’re probably a little tired of hearing about employee engagement, mostly because the things businesses have been doing to engage with their employees didn’t offer long-term solutions. Morale would go up and down in the same month, and everyone would be back at square one. Continue reading →

Remember the company picnics of yesteryear? The large outings where employees and their families would come together, and for a few hours, you’d feel that you were all part of the same family? That kind of culture, the one that celebrates togetherness and teamwork, that is what separates the average company from a great one. Continue reading →

If you have even one employee on your payroll, you are subject to more federal, state, and local employment laws than you probably realize. Quick: if you have an employee, can you answer any of the following questions?

• Do you know if you’re in compliance with the law?
• If one of the many local, state, or federal agencies comes knocking on your door, do you know how to protect yourself?
• Is your paperwork in order?
• Do you even have paperwork?

Continue reading →

Whether it’s seasonal affective disorder or you’re simply bummed out because of the cold, gray skies, and snow, winter can be a tough time to stay productive in the workplace. We all handle the season differently but injecting a bit of fun into the workday can certainly help beat the winter doldrums. Continue reading →

If you were to look around your office right now, could you identify the different types of employees you have? I’m not talking about identifying their roles or positions. You’ll be able to name the accountants versus the sales team. Instead, I’m referring to the three different types of employees as identified by the Gallup organization: engaged, not engaged, and actively disengaged.

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In my years of experience, the one thing I’ve learned is that a company’s culture can be the determining factor if employees stay at their jobs. But what exactly does that even mean? By definition, corporate culture refers to “the beliefs and behaviors that determine how a company’s employees and management interact and handle outside business transactions.” Your company probably has a written code of conduct for how you interact with your customers, and there may be some guidelines for how you interact with colleagues as well, but culture goes beyond just the written rules.

Continue reading →