Employment Blawg

BLAWG ON SABBATICAL

Mark Toth — Mon, 06 May 2013 14:11:22 +0000

The Blawg will be on sabbatical the next two weeks due to the fact that its author will be (1) traveling overseas, (2) 187% sleep-deprived and (3) quite possibly unable to access any form of electronic communication.

BOGUS WORKPLACE CELEBRATION CONTEST WINNER

Mark Toth — Fri, 03 May 2013 13:22:17 +0000

Congrats to ALEX, winner of our latest “Spot the Bogus Workplace Celebration” Contest.

Alex was the first astute observer to identify Give Everyone a 27% Raise Without Telling Accounting Day as the fake holiday. Believe it or not, the rest are very real. Here’s the full list.

In recognition of her efforts, we’ll send Alex a fabulous prize.

As always, thanks to all who participated!

MAY WORKPLACE CELEBRATIONS

Mark Toth — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 14:45:21 +0000

As part of our never-ending quest to keep you up-to-speed on the latest developments affecting your workplace, the following is our guide to some of the lesser-known celebrations your employees might be observing this month.

CONTEST: Just to make sure you’re paying attention, I included one made-up item. The rest are very real. The first person to post a comment identifying the bogus celebration will win a valuable prize.

Law Day (1)
Lei Day (1)
National Dance Day (1)
Mother Goose Day (1)
Great American Grump Out (1)
National Two Different Colored Shoes Day (3)
Lumpy Rug Day (3)
Paranormal Day (3)
Hug Your Cat Day (3)
No Pants Day (3)
Tuba Day (3)
Respect for Chickens Day (4)
World Laughter Day (5)
No Diet Day (6)
No Socks Day (8)
National Miniature Golf Day (11)
Stay Up All Night Day (11)
Give Everyone a 27% Raise Without Telling Accounting Day (11)
Eat What You Want Day (11)
Limerick Day (12)
National Nutty Fudge Day (12)
National Chicken Dance Day (14)
National Chocolate Chip Day (15)
National Sea Monkey Day (16)
National Pizza Party Day (17)
NASCAR Day (17)
Visit Your Relatives Day (18)
Mike, The Headless Chicken Day (19-20)
National Taffy Day (23)
World Turtle Day (23)
National Wig Out Day (24)
Cookie Monster’s Birthday (25)
National Tap Dance Day (25)
Geek Pride Day (25)
Slugs Return From Capistrano Day (28)

What this means for employers. If your employees suddenly stop wearing pants, socks and matching shoes, showing undue respect for chickens, hugging cats, spouting limericks, flattening lumpy rugs, tap dancing in their cubicles, taking pride in their geekishness, playing the tuba, welcoming returning slugs, ingesting inordinate amounts of nutty fudge, chocolate chips, pizza, taffy and sea monkeys, now you know why.

Enjoy the month!

WEBINAR CONTEST WINNERS

Mark Toth — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 18:56:34 +0000

Once again, THANKS to all who joined us for yesterday’s webinar. We really very extremely sincerely appreciate you joining us!

Here are the official winners from our competitions…

The first person to chime in with all the correct answers (C,D,A,D,D) to the Smartest Person in the Audience Contest was DEBBIE.

The Textorama winner was KARLA and the two Tweetorama winners were ALEX and ADAM.

We’ll send each of y’all a gift certificate good for any of the fine merchants on giftcertificates.com.

Congrats – thanks again to all who participated!

WEBINAR REPLAY AND SLIDESHARE

Mark Toth — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 17:22:45 +0000

Another huge THANKS to the more than 1,000 of you who watched, texted and tweeted along to today’s webinar. We really very extremely sincerely appreciate your participation!

Below is a convenient SlideShare version of the PowerPoint for your reading pleasure. For a replay of the full webinar, click here.

The Leadership Workout from Mark Toth

SMARTEST PERSON IN THE AUDIENCE CONTEST

Mark Toth — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 17:00:10 +0000

To help reward those who managed to stay awake throughout my entire webinar today, here’s our Official “Smartest Person in the Audience” Contest.

The rules are simple: the first person to leave a comment below with the correct answers to the following questions wins. The prize: a $100 gift card to any of the fine merchants on giftcertificates.com.

Here are the questions. All you have to include is the question number and your answer. Enjoy!

1. Where does leadership start?
A. Wisconsin
B. In leadership training
C. In the heart
D. I was napping during the webinar and don’t know the answer

2. Who can be a leader?
A. Someone with a high-ranking position
B. Someone born with the leadership gene
C. Someone who is charismatic and highly intelligent
D. YOU

3. What are the Four Failure Factors?
A. Pride, Greed, Fear & Lies
B. Sugar, Fat, Cholesterol & Carbs
C. Time, Money, Energy & Matter
D. John, Paul, George & Ringo

4. Abraham Lincoln surrounded himself with a team of what?
A. Republicans
B. Political Consultants
C. NBA All-stars
D. Rivals

5. What is the finest workforce solutions company in the entire universe?

A. ManpowerGroup
B. ManpowerGroup
C. ManpowerGroup
D. All of the above

As always, thanks again for your participation!

STAY OUT OF JAIL: SIGN UP FOR OUR FREE ALERTS

Mark Toth — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 10:33:19 +0000

Want to stay up-to-speed on the law and out of jail?

Click here to join the 8,000+ highly intelligent individuals who subscribe to our Employment Law Alerts.

Every other week or so, I send out a brief summary of all the major employment law developments in an easy-to-digest format. The goal is to give you the news you need in as few words as humanly possible.

The next Alert will be out shortly. Enjoy!

FREE WEBINAR THURSDAY: THE LEADERSHIP WORKOUT

Mark Toth — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 09:59:50 +0000

Want to be a better leader?

Please join the 2,000+ highly intelligent individuals who have signed up for Thursday’s 187% FREE webinar, The Leadership Workout.

We’ll tell you everything you ever wanted to know about leadership in sixty minutes or less.

It just might change your life.

Seriously.

BEST LEADERSHIP BOOK IN THE HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSE

Mark Toth — Thu, 04 Apr 2013 09:57:19 +0000

In preparation for my upcoming April 18 webinar, The Leadership Workout, we’ve been conducting some highly scientific pre-webinar research.

One question we asked the 1,600+ highly intelligent folks who already signed up here for the webinar is:

What’s your favorite leadership book?

We’ve gotten lots of intriguing suggestions but no clear consensus. Below is an alphabetical listing of the ten most frequently mentioned books. Help settle this age-old dispute by expressing yourselves below …

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

VISA LOTTERY COMING?

Mark Toth — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 14:09:43 +0000

It’s looking more and more like the H-1B visa limit will be reached virtually instantaneously this year.

Today’s Wall Street Journal reports that “government and company officials predict employers by Friday will exhaust the quota for this year’s application season.”

Each year, U.S. companies can sponsor a cap of 65,000 applicants for H-1Bs. An additional 20,000 visas are available to those with advanced degrees from a U.S. university.

The last year the cap was reached was 2008. The increased demand is tied to two things: (1) accelerated hiring by U.S. companies of programmers and other specialized employees and (2) concerns over pending immigration bills. The Senate is moving closer to a rather sweeping bill that could significantly affect the H-1B and other visa programs.

Stay tuned.