Employee Terminations: Self-Audit Tips from Hiring to Firing…..okay…I know personnel management and especially employee firings are NOT desired or enjoyable subjects for most of us…but it is reality. You can read my partial list of recommendations on the hiring process, the management and supervision of employees and the termination of them when things just don’t work...
Many firms are still reeling and trying to survive the economic tornado we’ve all experienced the past couple of years. Others may be in the midst of defending allegations of ethical violations or malpractice. Still, others may be grieving over the death of a beloved co-worker or trying to stabilize after a valued employee’s or partner’s departure.
Paralegals, legal...
Click here for one of my articles on these two runaway problems in today’s law firms and other offices. Workplace bullying and verbal violence poison (dilute at best) any other steps taken to reduce office stress and they are serious productivity and morale thieves. Sadly, too many leaders allow these destructive behaviors to continue without any efforts to stop them.
It doesn’t...
Gotta get vent a bit about one of my pet peeves in the professional office. I cringe when calling a professional business, doctor’s office, law firm, etc. only to hear voice mail messages by receptionists or female assistants that appear to have intentional sexual drippings….you know the ever-so–soft, ssslllooooowww, melodic, sometimes raspy female voice. Sorry if I sound...
Many things can bring workplace morale spiraling downward. Some all-too-common Morale Busters in law offices (and other offices as well) include:
Rules applied sporadically and unfairly among employees (e.g. starting time, length of lunch breaks, # of vacation days)
An ongoing frantic pace — day after day — caused primarily by a supervisor’s poor planning and organizational...
I just sent the suggestions copied below to an attorney looking for merger tips to pass along to a client law firm about to merge w/another firm. Doing so made me realize how often in mergers (whether law firms or other businesses) there’s too little attention paid to our employees and what they are going through (e.g. the culture shifts, fast changes occurring in their workplace and...
Greetings!
I’ve previously blogged about telecommuting in regard to handling in-house employees who may be disgruntled over remote working employees (http://lawbusinesstips.com/2009/06/24/telecommuting-disgruntled-co-workers/) and experiences shared by other companies (http://lawbusinesstips.com/2009/07/08/telecommuting-cost-savings-cisco/). Today, I found this blog post that...
Hello and Welcome! My very heavy summer business travels and client visits to our farm lately have prevented me from posting as often as I’d like. I will do better come September, but in the meantime, grateful for all the business, my GREAT clients and our wonderful farm, family and friends!
Be on the lookout within the next month or so for a totally new look to my blog. ….going...
Just got the link for my most recent column for Lawyers USA (click here) which I first wrote about in my blog. Wishing everyone a great day in spite of any one or thing that may try to louse it up for you! Don’t let’em!
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Ongoing business success stories can only be achieved with certain cornerstones in place. One of these critical foundations is feeling and showing respect for your employees. If it’s genuine (and not just the politically correct thing to say), leaders and managers consistently demonstrate this in many ways including:
RESPECT IS 24/7 ….. you appreciate, value and genuinely respect...
Alcoholism, substance abuse and depression; these three afflictions usually receive the most attention at CLE programs and in legal publications. This makes sense in light of the continuing (and alarming) rise in the numbers of attorneys suffering with these impairments.
What we don’t hear as much about, statistically or otherwise, are the more subtle impairments that many people have. A few...
Further to my prior post re tips on handling co-workers who are disgruntled over their telecommuting peers (http://bit.ly/Frk8W), I just found this blog (http://bit.ly/Jz09T)on tech giant, Cisco’s, telecommuting cost savings and other data. Let me know what experiences your office has had with telecommuting…allowed, not allowed, cost savings data, other benefits, disadvantage? Thx...
Good Afternoon…here’s an informative (quick reading) blog post on telecommuting: http://bit.ly/ZFF0N entitled: “Telecommuting: How to Approach Your Boss.” A few words re my two cents worth on this subject….it’s been my experience that it’s often more difficult dealing with disgruntled co-workers who are NOT telecommuting than it is to convince your...
A couple of Twitter “tweets” I saw today referenced a lawyer disciplined for allowing “non-lawyers” to do something that only a licensed attorney should have done. I really dislike the “n-l” word so suggested in my reply “tweet” that surely we could all find more respectful words to use when referring to someone who does not practice law for a...
Do you suffer from ’seminar syndrome shame’?
As Republished in: St. Louis Daily Record & St. Louis Countian , Oct 9, 2008 by Nancy Byerly Jones
Most of us have suffered from seminar syndrome shame (“SSS”) — the “lost opportunity disease” that occurs when we expend valuable time and money on educational seminars only to...
