Cultural expression in the workplace, Part I

Posted on December 12, 2011
Filed Under Attire, Corporate Policy, Employment, The Workplace | Leave a Comment

By Shun McGhee, Guest Contributor

In the early 90’s, fashion for me included sneakers, jean overalls, and an Africa medallion. Back then, I could still grow hair and wore a high-topped fade, also known as a box-Philly. My aunt told me not to go to job interviews wearing this hair style. Though she liked the hairstyle (she should have, as she was my barber), she feared that I wouldn’t be hired because they wouldn’t accept my appearance. This was based on what was happening at the time, especially since news publications were discussing the firing of an African American stewardess for wearing a braided hairstyle. I filed auntie’s advice away and decided to see for myself. Read more

A case for taking sick days

Posted on November 28, 2011
Filed Under Corporate Policy, Employment, Health, Keeping your Job, The Workplace | Leave a Comment

Every fall, a grand battle plays out. Imposing brigades of parasitic submicroscopic organisms barrage our body’s natural biological defenses. Like waves of enemy soldiers crashing upon a beach, their numbers enable this army of parasitic foes to progress forward and slowly march, as one united column thirsting for triumph, to victory. Although those mechanisms protecting our body’s delicate ecosystem are ultimately, with the help of modern medicine and rest, capable of beating back this powerful fleet, it does so only after the barrage of enemy forces punches holes in its defenses. Like Rocky, we battle back from a seemingly vulnerable state to claim victory. Before that happens, however, our body and the parasite become a unified whole. We become toxic—a parasitic ark. Each time we sneeze or cough, troops that are invisible to the naked eye come pouring out, and the war rages on. Got the picture? While sneezing and coughing in the company of others may seem like a rather innocuous event, the fact is, sneezing and coughing can be indicative of numerous things, not least of which is that you are housing throngs of tiny organisms hungry to enslave the immune systems of everyone around you. Read more

Workplace philanthropy

Posted on October 20, 2011
Filed Under Corporate Policy, Employment, The Workplace | Leave a Comment

An office, in many ways, is a microcosm of society—a self-sustaining, isolated, small-scale replica of society at-large. Although one could argue Americans are actually working less when compared to the amount of time Americans spent winning bread in the mid-19th-early 20th century, the workplace has, over the past two centuries, retained its status as a social center even if we’re no longer sleeping next to our workstations or forced to live in factory-supplied housing. Nevertheless, assuming an employee works over forty hours per week and sleeps an average of eight hours per night, that employee is left with only 72 hours per week—three days—of extra-office social interaction. The fact that most social interaction occurs within the workplace, makes the workplace the perfect place to engage in all kinds of social activities, including the solicitation of donations from coworkers for your favorite charities or the organization of benefit drives with your close professional friends. Or does it? Read more

The chain of command

Posted on October 18, 2011
Filed Under Corporate Policy, Employment, Keeping your Job, The Workplace | 1 Comment

Last year, a friend of mine interned at a corporate firm. Daily, I would hear horror stories about one of her fellow interns who projected an unprofessional attitude and whose lack of professionalism caused her to become an outcast of the workplace. Naturally, feeling that she had been unfairly targeted and treated by her coworkers—who, in reality, made good faith efforts to improve her stay, this intern’s indignation grew until she decided to take matters into her own hands. With the same unreasonable sense of entitlement and cavalier attitude for which she was notorious in the workplace, the intern ignored the usual chain of command, and left a letter on the desk of the firm’s chief executive officer. Contrary to her expectations, the letter, when put within the context of her repeated offences and carless self-serving behavior, resolved nothing, and only reinforced those uncomfortable negative perceptions her coworkers routinely tried to prove wrong. This intern violated an almost inviolable rule of any well-ordered workplace: the chain of command. Read more

How plagiarism could ruin your career

Posted on October 10, 2011
Filed Under Corporate Policy, Employment, Keeping your Job | Leave a Comment

Have you ever heard of Chris Anderson? No? How about Joe Biden? Or perhaps William Swanson? Believe it or not, each of these individuals—the first of which is editor-in-chief of Wired, the second of which is the United States’ current Vice President, and the third of which is Raytheon’s CEO—all have something in common beyond being figures of both immense power and authority: plagiarism. While Anderson may have successfully dodged allegations by admitting that certain citations in his book Free were removed during the editorial process, and all eventually recovered, each figure’s image suffered in incalculable harm. Anderson’s work and creditability as an author were ferociously scrutinized; Biden was forced from the 1988 Democratic presidential nomination race; and Swanson received a $1 million pay cut. Read more

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