Alexandra's Annotations
Special Edition
Part 1: I AM DISGUSTED AND OUTRAGED!! That's quite an opening line for this post but I have to express my incredible disappointment with the Chicago Blackhawk organization with the way they botched a sexual harassment/assault allegation in 2010. For those of you who know me, you know I have been a passionate Hawks fan (bordering on obsessed sometimes), following in the footsteps of my dad who...
Your Business Doesn’t Have an Employee Handbook or Policy & Procedure Manual: Are You at Risk?
Most small business owners don’t think of HR documentation as an essential function of their company. What is on most owners’ minds is hiring the right personnel, ensuring quality products and services and making a profit. Makes perfect sense! But when HR functions are ignored or put on the back burner, it sets up the company for liability. I recently worked with a suburban company that did not...
A Leader’s Responsibility
I recently read an article that stated “leaders have a responsibility not only to invest in and promote well-being, but also to commit to it by designing well-being into work and making well-being a consideration as important as any other factor that affects the bottom line.” (Deloitte, Diving Deeper: Five Workforce Trends to Watch in 2021, December, 2020) Those of you who have read my blogs and...
Adding More Zing to Zoom
If you’re like the millions of people who’ve spent more time on Zoom than you have the toilet, you’re sick of virtual meetings. Depending on the view of the audience, you can feel like you’re in some sort of Brady Bunch twilight zone. Meetings can be so uninteresting, you’ll die of boredom before you die of COVID. Don’t even get me started on the technical difficulties with virtual platforms –...
COVID Policies & Procedures: Are You Compliant?
COVID has changed how companies conduct business. Once upon a time, handshakes were the norm, large conference rooms were filled with employees and travel was a weekly thing. Now, we wear masks, keep our distance from our colleagues and customers and interact with others through Zoom and other virtual platforms. We used to be able to just waltz into a business and shop and now, our temperatures...
Dear Employees
It’s the middle of June. The pandemic is still wreaking havoc but the economy is starting to pulsate again. Businesses are slowly reopening and employees are returning to work, albeit reluctantly. We’ve just been through the war - that’s what it sure feels like. This pandemic is traumatizing. If you: contracted the virus, or had someone close to you catch it or even die from it; were furloughed...
Dear Employers
Those of us working from home haven't seen our offices and colleagues in months. It will be a very strange feeling to walk in the doors again once the stay-at-home requirement has been lifted. We long for the familiarity - to see our office spaces and coworkers and get back to work in our usual routines. But what that might look like may be very different than what we're used to. Most likely, we...
Coping Emotionally During a Pandemic
The news is disheartening. You can’t turn on the tv, log on to the internet or listen to the radio without hearing something distressing about our current state of affairs. The virus has permeated every aspect of our lives. It has infiltrated each of us, some more than others. As of this writing there have been over 300,000 COVID-19 deaths worldwide since December, 2019. Over 33 million...