Making the Grade: Employers make jobs conditional on physical fitness.
Risk & Insurance, Roberto Ceniceros: “Increased nationwide hiring, the rising cost of treating workplace injuries and a less physically fit job applicant pool are driving more employers to employ the practice known as post-offer employment testing.
Post-offer employment testing, or POET, involves simulating the lifting, pushing, pulling and other physical activities that make up a job’s essential functions. Employers are increasingly making employment offers conditional upon a job applicant’s physical ability to perform those activities.”
Those Corporate Trust Exercises Aren’t Working
Wall Street Journal’s At Work blog:
“U.S. employers have a trust problem.
Only about half of U.S. workers feel their employers are open and upfront with them, according to a survey about work and well-being set to be released this week by the American Psychological Association. And one-quarter of Americans say they simply don’t trust the companies they work for.”
How to Track Your Employees’ Productivity Without Becoming Big Brother
Daniel Enthoven at Inc.: “The Quantified Self movement has tremendous potential in the workplace–just don’t use data analytics technologies to monitor people’s bathroom breaks.”
The Ins and Outs of Changing Culture – Robert Pater in Occupational Health & Safety: “The title of my book, “Leading From Within,” reflects our view that no matter how effective an outside resource might potentially be, change ultimately has to be driven and sustained internally–whether within an individual, site, business unit, or an organization overall. No matter how “positive” it may seem, external methods have to become part of a company’s cultural DNA; otherwise, an intervention likely won’t take, and it actually can set up another round of internal disappointment or (further) erosion of management credibility. Ideally, an outside resource helps shift the culture into one-step-ahead territory, not just give out more of the same (in effect actually hunkering down the culture). In other words, it has to go beyond providing more refined ways to basically do the same old things.”
Study: New fathers struggle with depression, need interventions, too = The Pump Handle, Kim Krisberg: “Women aren’t the only ones at risk for depression and in need of screening services when a new baby comes into their lives. Young fathers face significant mental health challenges as well, according to a new study.
Published in the May issue of Pediatrics, researchers found that fathers who live in the same households as their children experience a decrease in depressive symptoms in the period immediately before their children are born. However, depressive symptoms among young fathers, who were around 25 years old when they became fathers, increased an average of 68 percent throughout their children’s first five years of life.”
April 28 – April 28 is Workers Memorial Day, dedicated to reminding us that every death, injury, or illness on the job represents a human tragedy. For a toolkit or list of events, see the AFL-CIO Workers Memorial Day site.
Short Takes
- Liars Should Always Be Fired
- 12 bizarre excuses for being late to work
- Do certain people bug you? Try these tips
- 6 CEO Productivity Tips to Steal for Yourself
- Can’t Ask That? Some Job Interviewers Go To Social Media Instead
- Should Employees Use Social Media at Work?
- Making Sure the Boss Is the Right Fit
- A Reality Check on Women’s Progress in the Workplace
- Unprofessional employees? Re-evaluate your hiring process
- New York City Earned Sick Time Act Expanded Before Taking Effect
- When an employee can’t return to work after an FMLA leave
- Could Telecommuting Be Deemed a “Reasonable Accommodation” Under the ADA?
- Men more optimistic than women about future technological changes
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