Free Republic

Employees who take long spells of sick leave more than once in three years are at a higher risk of death than their colleagues who take no such absence, particularly if their absence is due to circulatory or psychiatric problems or for surgery, concludes a study on bmj.com today. Previous research shows that medically certified sickness absences may well capture the full range of illnesses employees experience and that they could be a good global measure of health differentials between employees. It has been suggested that the specific reasons for absence such as psychiatric problems or heart disease may improve...

I was talking politics with an attorney recently who, pondering the possible outcomes of the Obama-McCain election, sighed “I can’t wait ’til this is over.” “Are you kidding?” I replied. “I haven’t had this much fun doing talk radio since Bill met Monica under a White House desk!” “Yeah, well, your job is different,” he answered. And he’s right. Partisan politics is a talk show host’s bread and butter. But for my attorney friend, workplace debates about the presidential race had become so common - and so heated - that a recent conference meeting he attended began with a warning...

Political debates have a way of raising blood pressures and decibels among co-workers as much as candidates. Whether you're a rabid Republican, a diehard Democrat or an intense independent, you can't help but overhear or take part in political banter that inevitably surfaces around watercoolers, cubicles and in the lunchroom. Conversations seem especially lively this year, given the historic proportions of this election. That's OK say some, just as long as conversations don't turn into heated debates that disrupt productivity or create a tense work environment. A 2008 survey by the American Management Association shows that 40 percent of business...

Bosses in general can be a pain in the ... well, you know, but a new study finds that your boss' gender can affect just how much pain he or she seems to inflict. Researchers at the University of Toronto used data from a 2005 national telephone survey of working adults in the United States and compared the stress levels and physical health problems of men and women working in one of three situations: for a lone male supervisor, a lone female supervisor, or for both a male and female supervisor. The study found that: * Women who had only...

President Nicolas Sarkozy's key electoral promise to allow the French to "work more to earn more" has hit a major snag: most have no desire to put in extra hours to raise their wages, a poll has found. With the economy floundering and the French consistently complaining that falling purchasing power is their main worry, only a quarter are prepared to work more to raise their standard of living. Almost six out of ten have no desire to increase their working hours, according to a poll in Le Parisien newspaper. Some 13 per cent would like to work less, even...

Americans are changing the game plan for retirement, with millions laboring right past the traditional retirement age and working into their late 60s and beyond. For 64-year-old John Lee, "retirement" bears a strong resemblance to his full-time working career; full of 40- and 50-hour weeks as an IT technical support specialist. He's not strapped but likes the extra cash and the feeling of being needed. But for Melissa Fodor, a retired travel agent who works part-time as a caregiver for the elderly, the extra work "keeps my head above water" and there's no end in sight to that financial need...

[I]t is now the rich who are the most stressed out and the most likely to be working the most. Perhaps for the first time since we’ve kept track of such things, higher-income folks work more hours than lower-wage earners do. Since 1980, the number of men in the bottom fifth of the income ladder who work long hours (over 49 hours per week) has dropped by half, according to a study by the economists Peter Kuhn and Fernando Lozano. But among the top fifth of earners, long weeks have increased by 80 percent. This is a stunning moment in...

In proclaiming this gospel of work, John Paul developed a theme that is rooted in the Sacred Scriptures, expounded upon at length in the Christian Tradition and is desperately needed in this age. In 1981 he authored an Encyclical letter entitled “On Human Work” which beautifully presented this Christian vision of the dignity and meaning of human work. We live in an age that has all but lost this Christian vision of the meaning of work. This is not a new problem. It is a part of a larger social and individual malady, a bad fruit of the rupture of...

WASHINGTON, Aug. 22, 2008 – The U.S. Labor Department launched a Web site called “America’s Heroes at Work” this week to help veterans afflicted with traumatic-brain injury and post-traumatic stress disorder succeed in the workplace. “America’s Heroes at Work really focuses on the employment challenges of our returning veterans from the war on terror, if they are living with a brain injury or living with a stress disorder,” Charles S. Ciccolella, the Labor Department’s assistant secretary for Veterans’ Employment and Training Service, told bloggers in a Aug. 22 teleconference to discuss the new Web site. Ciccolella said the Labor...

This gave me occasion to observe, that when Men are employ'd they are best contented. For on the Days they work'd they were good-natur'd and chearful; and with the consciousness of having done a good Days work they spent the Evenings jollily; but on the idle Days they were mutinous and quarrelsome, finding fault with their Pork, the Bread, and in continual ill-humour. Benjamin Franklin (Autobiography, 1771) "I'm a great believer in luck and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it." Thomas Jefferson "To cherish and stimulate the activity of the human mind, by multiplying...

WASHINGTON, Aug. 11, 2008 – A California group is offering active-duty servicemembers the chance to secure a key component to finding a job before they reenter civilian life: experience. The group, Military Civilian Experience, created by active-duty servicemembers for their fellow troops, was partly inspired by the military’s practice of thoroughly training servicemembers before sending them to the battlefield, according to the organization’s Web site. The group’s officials feel it shouldn’t stop there, and they’re working to give servicemembers a head start on finding their civilian careers. “In our spare time since 2006, we have helped 96 servicemembers obtain...

4-Day, 10 Hour Work WeekReported by: Robin Thibault, KARK 4 NEWS Friday, Jun 27, 2008 @04:43pm CST The state of Utah's doing something that Arkansas state leaders are considering. Beginning in August, state employees in Utah will work four, ten hour days per week. That means dozens of buildings will be closed on Friday, saving energy and money. Back at home, a legislative panel agreed to look at a similar proposal by state senator Tracy Steele. Steele says a four day work week would save gas, cut down on emissions and improve productivity and morale. The legislature would have the...

Is there someone in your workplace -- a domineering manager, a difficult coworker, or maybe even a demanding client or customer -- who drives you crazy? Are there people at your job who make you feel inadequate, unworthy, or just plain miserable? Difficult people exist at work as in all facets of life, and they come in every variety. Dealing with these types is easier when the person is just generally obnoxious or when their behavior affects more than one person. But it is much tougher when they personally attack you or undermine your professional standing. While you probably can't...

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - One in three information technology professionals abuses administrative passwords to access confidential data such as colleagues' salary details, personal emails or board-meeting minutes, according to a survey. U.S. information security company Cyber-Ark surveyed 300 senior IT professionals, and found that one-third admitted to secretly snooping, while 47 percent said they had accessed information that was not relevant to their role. "All you need is access to the right passwords or privileged accounts and you're privy to everything that's going on within your company," Mark Fullbrook, Cyber-Ark's UK director, said in a statement released along with the survey...

(Bo (woof) In Commentary: We all wonder at times what owners do when they leave the house for nine hours out of the day, only to come back stressed and mentally drained. What are they doing, and why are they doing it? It’s called work and this week you may be lucky enough to find out what goes on. (Take Your Dog to Work Day is June 20, which leaves you little more than a week to convince your boss to let you spread a little interspecies cheer - not to mention dog hair - around the office. If you...

President Bush has signed an executive order requiring contractors and others who do business with the federal government to make sure their employees can legally work in the United States. Mr. Bush signed the order Friday and the White House announced the order Monday. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez planned an afternoon news conference to discuss the order and other ways the administration has stepped up its crackdown on illegal immigration. The order says federal departments and agencies must require contractors to use an electronic system to verify that the workers are eligible to work...

A federal judge today blocked enforcement of employer-related provisions of the state's controversial immigration law, ruling it likely interferes with federal regulations regarding the hiring of unauthorized workers. Several business groups challenged House Bill 1804 — which has been called the toughest immigration statute in the nation — in federal court in Oklahoma City. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, The State Chamber, the Oklahoma City and Tulsa chambers of commerce, and the Oklahoma restaurant and hotel and lodging associations contend the law places unreasonable burdens on businesses, according to the lawsuit filed Feb. 1 by the National Chamber Litigation Center....

Ryan Boughen was terrified when the Regina-bound Compass Airlines Flight he was on had to make an emergency landing on May 7. Now the Regina resident is angry that one of the plane's flight attendants has been charged with setting a fire in the plane's rear bathroom. "It's pretty upsetting to learn that the people that you put your trust in when you get on that airplane is the guy who (allegedly) caused the fire in the first place -- it makes you look at everybody in a different light," Boughen said Friday.... Late on Wednesday night, FBI agents from...

The process becomes more important than the product. You don't see anything wrong with attending a meeting on a subject you know nothing about. You feel you contributed to the meeting just by being there. You stop raising issues/problems because you know you will be the one answering them. You fly first class across the country to attend a conference with 100+ people to discuss the fact that the project does not have enough money. You work for an acronym, on an acronym, and your job title is an acronym. You understand the rationalization of an acronym composed of acronyms....

During the last years of his service to the Church and the world, the Servant of God John Paul II addressed an assembly of the leaders of the “Catholic Action” movement in Italy on the “gospel of work”. His words echo on this day when much of the world commemorates “International Workers day.” He proclaimed a theme that was one of the many profound contributions of his extraordinary pontificate. It is one that is rooted in the Sacred Scriptures, expounded upon at length in the Christian Tradition and is DESPERATELY needed in this age of secular pursuits, the true meaning...

TALLAHASSEE — Employers and business owners can no longer bar workers and shoppers from bringing guns onto their property and leaving the weapons locked inside their vehicles under a bill signed into law today by Gov. Charlie Crist. The new law allows employees and visitors who have concealed weapons licenses to leave their weapons locked in or to vehicles. But concealed weapons license records are not available for public inspection so businesses would have no way of verifying if employees actually have the licenses. The business community objected to the bill, backed by the National Rifle Association, saying property owners...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MwCyVku1HvI Video: 5 Reasons Not To Go To Work By Rizzuto Mon Apr 14, 2008 - Apparently, this is what passes as a government PSA in Canada. This has got to be one of the most disturbing group of videos I've ever seen, I just had to share it. The screams in the first video are blood curdling. Enjoy!

I have been approached by my company to be relocated. In the company, it is considered detrimental for your career to turn down a job transfer. The relocation is to an expensive place and a "blue state". The cost of housing is expensive. I am looking at relocation money. One of the conditions to receive relocation is I have to sell my current house. With a bad real estate market, not a good time to sell. Other parts of the relocation is they give money to move my personal items but it is not enough for packers to do it....

Millions forced to work in benefits shake-up By Andrew Porter, Political Editor Last Updated: 2:51am GMT 27/02/2008 Millions of benefit claimants will be forced back to work in the biggest shake-up of the welfare state for 60 years, ministers will announce. Large parts of the benefits system are to be privatised, with companies hired to find jobs for the unemployed, The Daily Telegraph can disclose. The proposed reforms are based on recommendations by government adviser David Freud(Just another mean White guy) Private firms will be given incentives of up to £50,000 each to get people back to work and reduce...

As we each search for our personal pot of gold, many of us wonder whether the rainbow leading us to a six-figure paycheck has to be so long. We want financially rewarding jobs, but not everyone is eager to commit the time and money necessary to complete a medical or law degree. The good news is that, even though statistics have shown that more education translates to higher earnings, there are still plenty of six-figure salary jobs for those of us who have decided not to take the seven-years-and-a-stethoscope route. The following is a list of seven lucrative fields in...

Make the Tax Cuts WorkBy LEN BURMAN Published: January 23, 2008 Washington SINCE 2001, Washington’s answer to every policy question has been the same. What should we do with a big surplus? Tax cuts. How do we beat back global terrorism? Tax cuts. Increase energy independence? Rebuild New Orleans? Expand health insurance coverage? Tax cuts, tax cuts, tax cuts. Now comes another question that becomes more pressing each day that the markets lose ground — one to which taxes have long been at least part of the answer. How do we stimulate the economy to prevent or shorten a recession?...

An improvised explosive device emplacer digs a hole for his explosives during a practical exercise conducted at the KirkukPolice Academy. Photo by Staff Sgt. Margaret Nelson, 115th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment. KIRKUK — “Upon entering our academy…you are no longer Turkman, Arab, Christian, Kurd…you are an Iraqi,� Col. Samir Murshed Khushid, commandant of the Kirkuk Police Academy and former Peshmerga Soldier, said. He tells his recruits that they are there to serve their fellow citizen. “Protect them: ethnicity does not matter.� That sentiment is built into the screening process. Ministry of Interior (MoI) standards are based on the ethnic make-up...

GREENBURGH, N.Y. - Audrey Davison lives alone, gets a $620 Social Security check each month and worries about the sharply rising taxes on her four-bedroom house. Davison, 76, raised her family there and after 43 years, she really doesn't want to leave Greenburgh. Greenburgh doesn't want her to leave, either. The town is pushing a program that would let seniors work part-time, for $7 an hour, to help pay off some of their property taxes. "People shouldn't have to sell their house, move away to a place with less taxes, leave behind their family and friends," said Town Supervisor Paul...

Mitt Romney, campaigning for the Republican presidential nomination with a name less known than Rudy Giuliani, says he will win his party's nod the old-fashioned way. The traditional campaign strategy of focusing on the premier contests in Iowa and New Hampshire is a proven recipe for success, Romney says in an interview with the Associated Press. Writer Liz Sidoti reports from Sioux City, Iowa, that the former Massachusetts governor believes he is "just following the same path that every nominee for president has followed.'' ...snip... ""I'm outworking them. That's what I'm going to do," Romney said of his Republican rivals....

SIERRA VISTA — Fort Huachuca and the Bureau of Land Management were awarded Saturday for their roles in protecting a tributary of the San Pedro River from future development. The Nature Conservancy gave the Morris K. Udall Outstanding Conservation Achievement Award in the public sector to both the agencies for their work in conserving more than 1,400 acres and 4.6 miles of river to the east of Fort Huachuca. The land is a part of the Babocomari Ranch, nearly 28,000 acres between the Mustang and Huachuca mountains, owned and operated by the Brophy family since 1935. The Babocomari River, one...

(2007-10-27) — After Democrats on Capitol Hill announced that they plan to reduce their work week to four days so members can spend more time in their home districts, President George Bush proposed that Congress “go even further in their lives of legislative leisure by returning to the work schedule specified in the U.S. Constitution.” The president noted that Article I, Section 4 of the “little-known historical document” calls for Congress to meet “at least once in every year, and such meeting shall be on the first Monday in December.” “Making laws can be exhausting. You must be bushed,” the...

In a letter to the Pentagon, Republicans Frank R. Wolf and Thomas M. Davis III and Democrat James P. Moran Jr. said they had been contacted by “numerous constituents gravely concerned” about their 2008 pay raise under the new program, called the National Security Personnel System or NSPS. “We must keep our promises to our employees,” the three wrote in the letter, sent last week. “It would be difficult if not impossible to recruit or retain employees if they knew they could not rely on their promised salaries.” The Pentagon, in a memo last month, said that about 110,000 employees...

OTTAWA (Reuters) - A sick Canadian bakery worker has been fined C$1,000 ($970) for ignoring an order to stay at home until he recovered from symptoms of salmonella poisoning, medical officials said on Thursday. Health inspectors in Edmonton, Alberta, had told Adam Duerr to stay at home until tests showed he had recovered. But Duerr, 20, failed to have himself tested and went back to work. He appeared in court on Wednesday. In addition, the bakery was fined C$1,500 and the owner C$1,000. Gerry Predy, the medical officer at the local health authority, said the case was highly unusual. "We...

How Britain put Nazis' top men to work By Stewart Payne Last Updated: 2:11am BST 30/08/2007 German scientists and technicians were abducted at the end of the Second World War and made to work in Britain as part of a secret programme to plunder the defeated nation's trade secrets and intellectual assets, declassified government documents have revealed. The V2 was invented by Nazi Germany's scientists An elite British Army unit captured hundreds of Germans in possession of Nazi scientific and technical know-how and transported them across the Channel to work in government ministries and private companies. Others were forced to...

A married couple in Kinda in the south east of Sweden have lost a court bid to retain their current level of welfare payments. For almost ten years the husband and wife pair have asserted their right to opt out of the rat race and live on a combination of state support and their own crops. Östergötland county court disagreed however, ruling that there were no health issues preventing the pair from taking up employment and that their benefits should therefore be reduced, Corren.se reports. In a letter to the county court, the husband had argued for a reversal of...

Ten Things Your IT Department Won't Tell You By VAUHINI VARA July 30, 2007; Page R1 Admit it: For many of us, our work computer is a home away from home. It seems only fair, since our home computer is typically an office away from the office. So in between typing up reports and poring over spreadsheets, we use our office PCs to keep up with our lives. We do birthday shopping, check out funny clips on YouTube and catch up with friends by email or instant message. And often it's just easier to accomplish certain tasks using consumer technology...

By his own admission, Christopher Doyle has “trouble disengaging from work.” Last year he didn’t take at least a week’s worth of paid time off due him from his job at American Century Investments. Welcome to the growing membership in the I’m-not-using-all-my-vacation club. Although about one-fourth of U.S. workers have no paid vacation days at all, most workers do. And a survey released last week by Yahoo HotJobs indicated that 46 percent of those workers didn’t use all their paid time off last year. Doyle, who leads the communications group at American Century, said the company’s generous holiday and paid-time-off...

Japan's elderly are urged to work By Chris Hogg BBC News, Tokyo The elderly should be seen as a resource, the government says Japan's government says the nation has to work harder to encourage elderly people to remain in the workforce. They need to see them as a resource not a burden - invaluable manpower instead of people who just need support and care. In a White Paper published on Friday, the government says the transformation to an ageing society is unprecedented. In 50 years time, more than two-fifths of the population will be over 65, twice the current figure....

GENEVA (Reuters) - More than 600 million people worldwide work excessively long hours, with Peruvians topping the list and Britons the worst offenders amongst rich nations, the International Labour Organisation reported on Thursday. In a report on working trends in 50 countries, the United Nations agency said progress towards a maximum 48-hour week was still uneven nearly 100 years after the standard was agreed by ILO members. More than half (50.9 percent) of Peruvians work more than 48 hours a week followed by South Koreans (49.5), Thais (46.7) and Pakistanis (44.4). In developed countries, where working hours are generally shorter,...

Finding farm workers not that easy Updated: May 17, 2007 06:20 PM By ANNE SCHIEBER HART - Even though Michigan has one of the highest unemployment rates in the country, finding workers to fill farm jobs is not that easy. At a Michigan Works office, 24 Hour News 8 found no shortage of workers who wanted the farm jobs. But many workers are in the same boat as Sam Williams. They don't have a car to get to the jobs up north. "I guess, how you would say, someone to come pick me up at a designated spot, I'd be...

-- I GIVE A SHOUT OUT, IN HONOR OF ADMINISTRATIVE PROFESSIONALS WEEK --  Event History and Objectives   This annual event was originally organized in 1952 as "National Secretaries Week" by the National Secretaries Association (now known as the International Association of Administrative Professionals) in conjunction with public relations executive Harry Klemfuss and a consortium of office product manufacturers. It was established as an effort to recognize secretaries for their contributions in the workplace, and to attract people to secretarial/administrative careers.In the year 2000, IAAP announced a name change for Professional Secretaries Week and Professional Secretaries Day. The names were changed to...

WASHINGTON, April 4, 2007 – The hard work U.S. troops are doing in Iraq is “laying the foundations of peace for generations to come,” President Bush told soldiers and family members today at Fort Irwin, Calif. “The work that you have volunteered to do will have a lasting impact on the world in which we live,” the president told the troops. By helping Iraq become a country that can sustain, defend and govern itself -- and become an ally in the war on terror -- the U.S. military will have delivered a significant blow to those who want to...

HAVANA (AFP) - Fidel Castro, who has been recovering from intestinal surgery almost eight months ago, could resume a more active role in government work "soon," a top cabinet member said Tuesday. "What we are expecting is that we will have him back (at work) with us, in a more active way, soon," Communist Party Politburo member and Basic Industry Minister Yadira Garcia told reporters. Castro, 80, handed over power for the first time in more than four decades in July to his brother and regime number-two Raul Castro, 75, following the surgery. "Our comandante is recovering, his recovery process...

Though the fastest growing form of slavery is trafficking (recruited or forced transport of people into various types of oppression), the most common form of slavery is debt bondage, which ensnares tens of millions of people in loans they can never pay off. Debt laborers The slope to debt bondage (also known as "bonded labor") begins by the simple slip of one assuming some form of debt as a term for employment. Once employed, the terms change and become more restrictive, the debt grows, and the employer takes coercive advantage over the employee. As time progresses, so do unfair work...

Evangelicals' Work in Africa Criticized By KATY POWNALL (Associated Press Writer) From Associated Press March 01, 2007 2:51 PM EST ALER, Uganda - "Telephone to Jesus. Hello?" the children of Aler refugee camp sing, their bare feet thumping the ground as they dance wildly in their concrete chapel. Most camp residents have never used a phone, but they are learning about Jesus. The Rev. Franklin Graham, son of famed evangelist Billy Graham, smiled as he watched the children - members of a club run by Samaritan's Purse, the Christian missionary organization he leads. Christian evangelicals have been coming to Africa...

While employers are required to give time off, the United States is one of just five countries that does not guarantee pay to new mothers, according to a new study. The United States is one of only five countries that does not provide or require employers to provide some form of paid maternity leave, placing it behind a majority of the world when it comes to instituting family-oriented job policies, according to a new study. In a study from McGill University's Institute for Health and Social Policy, the United States, Lesotho, Liberia, Swaziland, and Papua New Guinea were the...

After days of airplane flights, a shot of hepatitis vaccine at a Texas base and a 100-mile shuttle drive down from Phoenix, Jonathan Paton arrived home to Tucson Thursday. The state legislator who made international news last summer for voluntarily enlisting to go to Iraq was greeted by his father after a grueling six months in Baghdad, where he worked as operations officer at a major intelligence operation for the U.S. Army. But now what? "I didn't have anything to do today and that was sort of an odd experience," the Army reservist said Thursday. "It's just a big adjustment,...

BAGHDAD — The spokesman for Multi-National Force – Iraq held an operational update here today to discuss the push to secure Baghdad and other pressing issues. Maj. Gen. William B. Caldwell IV spoke to reporters at the Combined Press Information Center in the International Zone, specifically addressing the need to allow the new security plan to take hold. “It would be a mistake if expectations are raised so high that people give up on the new strategy prematurely,” Caldwell said. “The enhanced iteration of the Baghdad Security Plan needs to be given time to work.” “Operation Law and Order,” announced...

WASHINGTON, Feb. 1, 2007 – President Bush’s new strategy for Iraq can work and set the conditions for the Iraqi government to deal with sectarian and ethnic divisions that are hurting the country’s fledgling democracy, the top U.S. general in Iraq said here today. The new strategy is really an enhancement of the previous policy and retains a strong focus on transferring responsibility to Iraqi security forces, which is the key to success, Army Gen. George W. Casey Jr., commander of Multinational Force Iraq, told the Senate Armed Services Committee at his confirmation hearing to become Army chief of...

you work hard and play by the rules in America do you have a good chance to succeed? Yes No Not Sure