Workplace violence – In the aftermath of the Tucson shooting, a story in the New York Times reminds us of the lingering effects of violence on its victims: Tucson attack reawakens pain from Virginia Tech. Four years after the Virginia shooting, this article talks about the long and ongoing process of healing for one of the families who lost a loved on in the shooting.
In another follow-on to the Tuscon events, Evil HR Lady Suzanne Lucas makes a timely and excellent post about what a company can do with a dangerous employee? She offers guidance for what managers need to do if they face an employee that scares them.
Related: Preventing workplace violence
The case for hiring the overqualified – in Human Resource Executive, Katie Kuehner-Hebert talks about why conventional wisdom about hiring overqualified candidates may be wrong. Employers generally shy away from overqualified candidates, thinking they will jump ship at the first opportunity, but according to a recent study published in the Journal of Applied Psychology, this is not necessarily the case. The study was based on analysis of the labor-force behavior of more than 5,000 U.S. adults over a 25-year period. “The authors found that, in positions with low cognitive demands, such as garbage collectors or car washers, employees with higher cognitive ability were less likely than others to voluntarily leave.” The authors suggest that in evaluating overqualified candidates, employers should dig deeper. Candidates may want to trade in for a lifestyle or health issue, or because they have a particular interest in the company’s mission or values.
State of the Unions – Jeffrey Hirsch gives us the latest report on union density for 2010: “Overall union density went down from 12.3% to 11.9%; in the private sector, union density went down from 7.2% to 6.9%, and in the public sector, it went from 37.4% to 36.2%.” See more at his post on Workplace Prof Blog. To delve beneath the numbers and take a look at the current status and views of labor, see State of the Unions, authored by James Surowiecki in The New Yorker.
More on the NLRB Facebook case – the Social Media Employment Law Blog weighs in on the NLRB Facebook complaint: Following The NLRB On Facebook Firings.
Winter Wellness – Studies show that a sedentary lifestyle is unhealthy so make sure that you take those extra steps to add physical activity, even in the dead of winter. Why not kill two birds with one stone? Add a little creativity to your winter fitness regime and get rid of the snow in your front yard at the same time with a A do-it-yourself bicycle powered snow plow? If you decide to clear the snow in a more traditional fashion, these snow shoveling and snow removal safety tips might come in handy.
Cool Tech Tool – If you’ve ever had trouble working on multiple computers or accessing files, DropBox might be the right tool for you. It descibes its service as “..software that syncs your files online and across your computers. Put your files into your Dropbox folder on one computer, and they’ll automatically appear on any of your other computers that also have Dropbox installed. You can even download Dropbox apps for your smartphone or mobile device (iPhone, iPad, Android, and Blackberry). Everything in your Dropbox is available from the Dropbox website, too.”
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