San Francisco has increased its minimum wage from $9.36 to $9.79 per hour. This new rate applies to any and all employers doing business within city boundaries.

Needless to say, employers are not thrilled. From SFGate:

“Business is down everywhere. Down, down, down,” said Saad Benchra, owner of Mythic Pizza at 551 Haight St. “This is not the right time for this. Business owners have so many costs and paying almost $10 an hour just makes it worse.”

Right time or not, it’s here and it’s probably better to face it head on. It also may be a good idea to hang the poster below in an area where employees can see and appreciate it. I’ve always found a good place to be the lunch room in close vicinity to the microwave oven. Employees will usually read them while heating up their respective lunches. Otherwise, it’ll probably be ignored.

Happy New Year!

Can you guess which one?

Today’s the day that all SF employers should have a commuter benefit program in place per the City of San Francisco.

Don’t say I didn’t warn you…

(Thanks Scott)

First the unemployment rate goes up to 8.4% and now the Governator is ordering furloughs and layoffs for state workers which will only continue to pad the aforementioned unemployment rate. This information was relayed to employees via email beginning, “Dear State Worker”.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger told state workers Friday he will order two-day-a-month unpaid furloughs for state employees and impose layoffs beginning in February to help the state save cash amid its budget crisis.

The furloughs would begin Feb. 1 and continue through June 30 for all rank-and-file employees, which unions estimate to be the equivalent of a 10 percent pay cut. Managers and non-union employees will receive an equivalent pay decrease starting the same day.

Schwarzenegger has instructed his Department of Personnel Administration to “initiate layoffs, reductions and other efficiences” to reduce costs by 10 percent starting in February. To do so, he will give one-fifth of state employees — those with the least seniority — notices that inform them they are at risk of being laid off, though it does not necessarily mean they will lose their jobs.

Of course it doesn’t really help that the State of California is going broke, a fact that seems not to be lost on our esteemed Governor who has vowed to veto any budget bills brought to him by the legislative committee:

I was very disappointed. I thought that when we negotiated that we negotiated a very balanced kind of a compromise where we agreed to raise revenues and increase revenues and also make the necessary cuts and also have a very, very strong economic stimulus package, or recovery package, right along with a bill that will help people stay in their homes for an extra 90 days, those that have to go into foreclosure. And really, the whole idea was that we help the people as much as possible in these very terrible times.

But this proposal that they have sent down and this package that they are sending down does really only one thing and this is punish the people of California. We are asking the people of California, they are saying, you pay more fees, you go and we make the cuts and you will go and have to suffer the consequences of those cuts. But we are not willing to look inside government and make the necessary changes so we can create a stimulus package, an economic stimulus package and an economic recovery package so we can put people to work and have public-private partnerships and make the necessary cuts in all of those things.

So it fell short on every single level…

With that, Mr. Schwarzenegger sent them all back to the drawing board, tasking them to work through the holidays if necessary.

Well, on the bright side, at least the legislative committee won’t be adding to the aforementioned unemployment rate.

A San Diego woman is suing the California Department of Parks and Recreation alleging ongoing harassment over the course of six years.

From SignonSanDiego.com:

Jennifer Donovan, in a lawsuit filed in San Diego Superior Court, said that sexually explicit material was regularly posted in locker rooms and elsewhere in her workplace. They included sex toys, obscene drawings, women’s underwear and material containing negative comments against homosexuals.

Donovan, who is a lesbian, said she also was forced to work in a sexually charged workplace where supervisors routinely made disparaging and offensive remarks.

Parks and Recreation department spokesman Roy Stearns declined to comment on the lawsuit or on Donovan’s allegations, saying department lawyers have yet to review them.

In her lawsuit, Donovan said she was “subjected to constant sexually explicit jokes, pictures, gestures and comments and expected to participate or at least not complain, among other things.”

She also said she was passed over for promotion in favor of other rangers with less experience, including one man who was under investigation for posting nude pictures of himself on a state computer.

Ms. Donovan is also alleging that she was denied vacation time, given undesirable shifts and subject to anti-gay slurs. Ms. Donovan also claims that when she complained, she was rebuffed and not taken seriously.

This case seems chock full of what-not to-do-in-the-workplace allegations.

Definitely one to watch.

This email was forwarded to me by a person very close to me. This person was laid off from his job in November. While the company didn’t handle his termination 100% correctly, he was at least afforded his termination in person. The rest of his former co-workers weren’t as lucky per this email from the company CEO :

SUBJECT: Important Announcement

Employees:

All of you are undoubtedly aware that the US economy and most parts of the World are in the midst of a major economic recession. While the ultimate length and depth of the recession is unknown at this point, it is clear that this is the most severe US economic challenge in at least 80 years. The [redacted] industry has been particularly hard hit as the recession has been led by a major upheaval in the financial, capital and credit markets. [Redacted] projects requiring financing are being cancelled [sic] or delayed. Projects related to consumer spending [redacted] have largely been cancelled [sic]. Most corporations have found it necessary to significantly reduce staff to better align costs with revenues.

Company], unfortunately, is not immune from this process. Over the past month we have been looking closely at our US business and see the need for some substantial changes. These include a price increase, new product offerings, more emphasis on pushing for full implementation and reducing our costs to better match reduced revenue expectations. Our costs reduction plans are now finalized and will include a staff reduction and compensation adjustments.

Staff Reduction

• All those impacted by the staff reduction will receive an email around 8:30 tonight. Please check your emails by no later than 9:00 pm to see if you are impacted.
• If you are impacted please come to your office between 8:30 and 9:30 am this Friday to hand in your phone, PC, security card and anything else belonging to [Company].
• You will be paid your normal salary until the end of December and you will be granted options…
• Please keep in mind that these reductions are not performance based and simply reflect the realities of a very harsh economy.
• If you do not receive an email, you are not part of the staff reduction.

Compensation changes

• Commencing January 1st all employees including the executives will have their compensation changed as follows:
• Monthly salary will be paid at the rate of 80% of current compensation.
• The 20% balance will be paid in equity - common stock units of [Company Name Redacted] at the rate of $3 worth of shares for each dollar of compensation.
• Your target bonus remains unchanged.
• There will be a meeting at 2:00 pm this Friday to explain more of the details.

All of us regret the need to take these steps but they are critically important for [Company]’s long term future.

[Redacted]
Chairman and CEO

Needless to say, my jaw hit the floor when I read this. I thought the days of email terminations went out in 2006 with Radio Shack. When will these executives ever learn how important it is to allow employees the same amount of dignity on the way out as they did on the way in.

Maybe it’s just me, but “check your email by 9:00 PM” on a Friday night is not one of the most dignified ways to let employees know whether he/she has a job come Monday. And while I do commend the company for scheduling a meeting for the remaining employees, perhaps they could have offered that consideration to those who were exiting as well.

Shame, shame, shame on them.

Note: This company is not in California.

It’s very rare that a columnist is so honest so as to protect her readers from engaging in inappropriate conduct in the workplace, but my dear friend Violet Blue, in her column today, went above and beyond with the best “NSFW” disclaimer I’ve ever seen:

Note: Many of the links in this column lead to images of sex toys of varying levels of realism. If having a picture of a dildo on your computer screen when your boss walks in isn’t a problem, that’s great. But if it is, be smart and save these links for when you’re not on company time and equipment.

Thanks Violet! You’ve made my job just a little bit easier today!

Just announced, Yahoo is going to be eliminating at least 10% of their workforce by the end of the year. According to reports, HR is going to be one of the hardest hit departments.

I realize that this is a tough decision, but I question why HR, particularly at this time. Though I know that many people are blaming HR for how this situation has been handled, it is HR that ensures that terminations are done properly. One time when I got laid off from an HR position, the company didn’t give me any EDD information, addressed the letter to the wrong person and forgot to sign the final checks.

In other news, the City of San Francisco is facing a major financial shortfall and will be laying off 400 city workers by the end of the week.

Sing along with me - It’s the most wonderful time of the year.

UPDATE: Valleywag has posted the Yahoo “Manager’s Guide” to the above mentioned terminations. Pay particular attention to the “Yahoo! Confidential: Do Not Forward” line in the upper right hand corner. Perhaps a point of concern there?

UPDATE 2: Looks like the San Francisco based Yahoo Brickhouse is also set to close by the end of the year.

UPDATE 3: Real time layoffs from Twitter here. (Thanks for the tip Scott!)

Many of you have already heard about the horrible case in which an employee by the name of Taneka Talley was working her shift at a Dollar Tree store in Fairfield, CA when she was killed by a stranger. This stranger admitted that he stabbed her solely because she was black. The employee was a single mother working to support her young son and herself.

Adding insult to this incredible tragedy was the fact that Dollar Tree’s insurer, Specialty Risk Services, LLC, did not consider this incident to be a valid workers compensation case and would not pay as such to her survivors. According to the insurer, ” Workers compensation death benefits can be denied if there is a personal connection between the attacker and the victim, meaning, the crime is not related to employment. The insurance company for Dollar Tree Stores, Specialty Risk Services, says a hate crime also makes the crime personal, not workplace related and therefore not subject to compensation.”

Well, today Dollar Tree has offered to pay the full amount allowed by California Workers Compensation on a voluntary basis. From SFGate:

In a statement Monday, Dollar Tree said it was acting voluntarily because “we feel this is the right thing to do.” But a lawyer for Talley’s mother and guardian of her 11-year-old son said the company was clearly responding to the public anger that followed news coverage of the case.

“I think they would like this to be done with,” attorney Moira Stagliano said. “The media helped settle this claim.” Stagliano said she’s optimistic about resolving the case but isn’t there yet. “What they have offered is not quite the full value,” and negotiations are continuing, she said.”

It’s pretty clear that Dollar Tree is acting, or should I say reacting, to community anger and pressure. Even so, it was the right thing to do in the face of such a tragedy.

I hope that the case gets settled, if not only for the sake of her poor son.

My husband and I are taking a long deserved vacation on the Gulf of Mexico. Words can’t even describe how beautiful it is here. Perhaps some pictures will help.

See y’all next week!

A couple of days ago, I wrote about a recent tragedy that affected both the Bay Area and the business community. An employee who had been fired the morning of November 14, came back to the office with a gun and shot down the CEO, COO and the HR Manager.

I had expected an outpouring of sympathy from the rest of the world, but instead found myself subjected to headlines such as “Murdered HR Manager was a Classic Valley Workaholic“. While this title wasn’t too bad (for Valleywag, that is), the comments on the aforementioned post ranged from inane to completely insulting.

One person blamed HR: “There’s good reasons why HR has no respect in tech and it has little to do with whether they have to handle firings or how much they love their job.”

Another commenter stated: “When I was still a hot sh*t techie the head of HR was universally hated by the company personnel (including the top local folks as he was installed by “headquarters”). His meddling in technical matters, such as relative staffing levels for department which did things he didn’t begin to understand was only the tip of the iceberg.” And yet another one stated that he never met an HR person who liked their job.

This was my response to these snarky trolls:

First off, this HR person loves being in HR. It seems that those who are the first to denigrate HR are also the ones who don’t cooperate with HR when it comes to the workplace. Don’t you think that we want to recruit the right people for your open reqs? Yet when we ask you for job descriptions or creative ways to recruit, we get turned down or ignored. Same goes for compliance, policies, and management. When we ask you to manage your people, it becomes HR’s problem to handle because you won’t. When you act like an immature asshole foregoing all professionalism, blame it on HR being in the room. It’s easy to point the finger, but try cooperating instead.

I didn’t know Marilyn Lewis, but I think that it is truly tacky to insult her memory by insulting the career she loved.

RIP Marilyn.

I know it was a little preachy, but I needed to speak my truth. It really does seem that the first ones to insult HR are the ones who never seem to find the time to do the things HR asks of them. Granted, there are some HR people who are better suited to other careers, but this is not about them. This is about the HR professional who attempts to act as a business partner only to be rebuffed or ignored. And then be denigrated time after time.

I realize that one cannot always be responsible for one’s commenters. I’ve even approved snarky comments here. But when a post, no matter how questionable the title, intends to be a memorial of sorts for someone who died a violent death as a direct result of his/her profession, one would think that the trolls stay in their caves and out of the conversation just this once.

That being said, there were a few commenters who did seem to get it. One even told the author of the first comment above, “Rot in hell, dude“.

Couldn’t agree more.

They’re here, they’re here, the new FMLA regulations are finally here! Now what does it all mean?

According to Jackson Lewis:

The regulations provide employers new tools to administer FMLA leave more efficiently, including improvements in the area employers have identified as the most problematic — potential abuse of intermittent leave rights. However, to leverage those tools, employers must update FMLA policies and forms and communicate more effectively, both verbally and in writing, with employees.

In other words, there will be clarification where there once was none in the areas of documentation, disability payments, bonus determination and notice. I again point you to this Jackson Lewis article as I found it to be the most comprehensive explanation of the new regs. (Thanks Derek!) As you can probably tell, I’m getting tired and I see no need to re-create the wheel.

Nighty-Night. Or as my latest hero, Keith Olbermann would say, as would another hero of mine, Edward R. Murrow would say, good night and good luck.

On Friday, November 14, a former employee entered the offices of SiPort, a Silicon Valley semiconductor manufacturer, and opened fire, killing three people. The employee had been fired that day. One of the lives cut short that day was that of Marilyn Lewis, the HR Manager.

This awful situation got me thinking about what we face in HR when we have to deliver bad news to employees. My personal experience includes employees who have yelled, screamed profanities, threatened my life and on one occasion, a pair of hands around my throat. No kidding.

Violence HR in the workplace is not all that rare. An insightful article by Shari Caudron enumerates how often these situations arise for HR. One HR Director was stabbed to death by an employee with whom he met that afternoon, an HR Administrator was gunned down in her home, a VP of HR shot. Its frightening how vulnerable we are.

During an average week, 20 people are murdered while at work and 18,000 more are assaulted, according to the National Institute of Occupational Health and Safety in Bethesda, Maryland. In fact, homicide is the second leading cause of on-the-job fatalities. While the majority of these tragedies are the result of robberies caused by members of the general public, a good 10 percent of them are perpetrated by disgruntled employees seeking revenge.

It shouldn’t be surprising that HR is often in the literal line of fire. Whether or not HR made the decision to terminate someone’s employment, HR is often the one to deliver the message to the distraught employee who has nowhere else to vent his/her anger at the situation.

How a termination meeting is handled is key to how an employee reacts in any situation, but particularly in those situations where the employee is agitated or ashamed. The best terminations are those who allow an employee as much dignity on the way out that the employee had on the way in.

I personally strive for those terminations where I never hear from the employee again. Not because I don’t want to, but rather, that I don’t have to because all of his/her needs have been met. Even so, as the article states, hanging on to a bit of caution is always necessary.

In the end, the only way to avoid becoming a target is to think seriously about how easily you can become one. Don’t wait until a situation gets out of hand to start planning for violence. That’s like searching for the water main in your house after a pipe breaks. Instead, recognize the threat exists always.

In the meanwhile, my heart breaks for Marilyn and her family. While this is little comfort, It seems that she made her mark on the world and was doing what she loved, as demonstrated in this statement by SiPort:

Marilyn Lewis served as the HR manager ”and was the glue that held the company together. She managed a variety of human resource and administrative functions including recruiting, payroll and vendor management. Marilyn joined the company in 2005 and was a key contributor to the growth of SiPort,” according to SiPort.

Rest in Peace Marilyn. The HR community will miss you.

The San Francisco daily online newspaper, SFGate, from which I garner much local information, is now going to host a database of layoffs (really job eliminations) within companies doing business in California.

Per SFGate:

Beginning today, a database of such news will be available at SFGate.com, consisting of a list of companies doing business in California that have announced major layoffs, plant closures or relocation of workers.

State law requires a 60-day notice of plant closures, layoffs or relocation of 50 or more employees under the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act.

The list of WARN notices is going up on The Chronicle Web site less than a week after the announcement that the nation’s unemployment rate reached a 14-year high of 6.5 percent in October, and about three weeks after the state Employment Development Department reported that the September unemployment rate held steady at 7.7 percent.

The WARN notices can be found here.

It’s deja vu all over again. Only last time we read about things like this on Fucked Company. Oh wait, didn’t TechCruch acquire them in 2007?

Where’s Pud when we need him?