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WORKPLACE PRODUCTIVITY
After bulletin board services were used successfully at institutions like Duke University, Stanford and CERN, the world wide web was introduced to the public. While increasing workplace productivity and information access, having an "office in your pocket" suggests that not everyone can leave work at the end of the workday increasing stress and workplace demands. -
POLITICAL INFLUENCE AND SAFETY
Representing a changing organizational landscape, attendees at the First International Conference on Transgender Law and Employment Policy are at the very forefront of legal changes for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer (LGBTQ). Public policy discourse has shifted, but people with gender identity disorder now have more workplace protections including how supervisors interact with employees, and sometimes, how bathroom facilities are identified. -
WORKPLACE PRODUCTIVITY
Modern telecommuting officially began with AT&T's Employee Telecommuting Day. Employees can use the World Wide Web and software to communicate, as needed, from home, presumably creating a more positive environmental impact and working framework. As telecommuting has grown, and international access, meetings can now happen at any time during the day, again leading to employees have unusually long or oddly timed workdays as they communicate directly with people around the world. -
SAFETY
Columbine taught us that no institution is safe. People are trained across the country today in institutional safety. I am grateful to work in a school system that has been at the forefront of developing safety protocols for students and families, but no one wants this for their children. These shooting incidents continue today inflaming the 2nd Amendment political debate. -
WORKPLACE SAFETY
In one of the most spectacular, widely publicized commercial failures, Enron metaphorically imploded in the winter of 2001 declaring bankruptcy in December 2001. Loose regulation, and Enron creating new markets like new commodities markets (natural gas) made the new e-commerce aspects of its business challenging to regulate therefore making its fraudulent activities even harder to recognize. New regulations were legislated affecting organization accounting and conflicts of interest. -
WORKPLACE PRODUCTIVITY AND SAFETY
Human beings cannot create something without finding a way to criminalize that something. Such is the case with the World Wide Web. Within a two decades, viruses and worms that transmitted over emails were warned of at NASA in relationship to a space shuttle launch. Many cyberattacks have occurred since this time including attacks on governments, voting systems, media companies, etc. If the organization uses the internet, there has most likely been some kind of internet attack or scam. -
WORKPLACE PRODUCTIVITY
Apple, Inc., announced plans to create an inclusive worksite, so that employees, instead of telecommuting never needed to commute. With restaurants, gymnasiums and entertainment facilities, employees never need to leave the complex that opened in 2017. Popularized in Dave Eggers' book, The Circle, the concept seems to remove the loss of work/life balance through constantly having one's computer in his or her pocket. Controversial. -
WORKPLACE PRODUCTIVITY
All organizations require energy to work. How organizations get that energy and at what cost has been a point of conflict for over a decade now as a political climate change debate rages at the national level. The US EPA suggest that a market driven resolution will offer the best solutions, reacting to Supreme Court decisions stemming from 2007. Controlling pollution has been at the forefront of regulatory activity, but that tide is changing based on political changes in the US. -
WORKPLACE SAFETY
In a complete reversal of previous economic policy, the Bush administration offered corporate bailouts for companies considered "too big to fail" in the soon to be devastated US economy during the 2008-2009 recession. (This recession led to my career change out of non-profit management.) Banking and employment laws changed in a reflection of the very poor economic climate in the US. Corporations came to be protected in a way they had not previously been in the US. -
POLITICAL INFLUENCE
It is challenging to describe the lasting impact of Citizens United versus Federal Election Commission. This Supreme Court case overturned previous campaign finance limits by allowing corporations to act like private citizens. Notably, in West Virginia, this has led to increased influence from outside interests in local politics. Many employee workplace protections have been legally changed through corporate campaign influences while employees work harder for fewer benefits. -
SAFETY
Joe Paterno, beloved Penn State University coach, was held accountable for his assistant coach's incident of sexually abusing 8 boys. While there have always been propriety clauses in public educator's contracts, this incident, among others, has led to stricter regulation and enforcement relating to how students and faculty interact. If a person works in a position of public trust, like a coach or a minister, that person must behave appropriately with those in subordinate positions. -
WORKPLACE PRODUCTIVITY
Employee rights groups are beginning to put into words the challenge of never being able to leave work. While laws currently address shift predictability and not expecting employees to work "clopenings" (closing and then opening the next day), this will soon address the concept that telecommuting employees may work from 6 am to 9 pm or later to accommodate meetings in different time zones. Shift predictability advocacy may be the new minimum wage battle.
