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Work / Life Issues

8 N.J. employers named to ‘100 Best Companies’ list

11/01/2006

Looking for ways to boost your recruiting efforts and retain the best talent? Take a cue from the eight New Jersey companies chosen for Working Mother magazine’s list of the "100 Best Companies" for women to work …

Must we report employees’ domestic abuse?

11/01/2006

Q. As an employer, do we have an obligation to alert authorities about at-home physical abuse of an employee? We have an employee who has been open about abuse at the hands of a spouse, so we know it’s going on. —S. R., Wisconsin

Boring Benefits? Perk ‘Em Up With 10 Real-Life Solutions

11/01/2006

When you rattle off your employee benefit offerings to prospective employees, what raises their eyebrows? It’s probably not the basics: People have come to expect health/life/dental, 401(k), etc. What really catches a prospect’s attention are the creative perks that prove your organization has their interests in mind …

Employee: Leave! Encourage workers to use vacation time

11/01/2006

As the year-end approaches, take an inventory of employees who haven’t taken their vacations yet, and suggest they book a getaway. Vacation skipping has become an epidemic …

Web site helps managers evaluate telework requests

10/01/2006

The key to making telework and flextime part of an organization’s everyday business practices is making sure managers understand them, says Kathryn Oliver Kadilak, work/life program manager at the U.S. Department of Justice …

Call center staff belongs to same union as the callers

10/01/2006

Work/life professionals who staff the Workplace Options UnionSelect call center in Michigan have a special understanding of the unionized employees on the other end of the phone who are seeking help with child and elder care. Reason: They both belong to the same union …

9 ways to celebrate National Work & Family Month

10/01/2006

October marks the fourth annual National Work & Family Month, an honor that Congress commissioned in 2003 because, it said, "supporting a balance between work and personal life is in the best interest of national worker productivity" …

Breast-feeding: The next employment right? Some in Congress want the feds to follow states

10/01/2006

If Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) has her way, employers would have to comply with yet another federal employment entitlement: the right to breast-feed or express milk for infant feeding. Her bill would make it illegal to discriminate against breast-feeding moms and would give tax incentives for companies to establish sanitary places for employees to breast-feed …

Domestic violence and employees: Your role, Responsibility

10/01/2006

Domestic violence isn’t always domestic. It comes to the workplace as lost productivity, excessive absenteeism, employee depression, increased health costs and, in the worst-case scenario, as violence at the workplace …

Can you tell an HR assistant whom to socialize with?

10/01/2006

Q. I’m the HR director of a 45-employee company and have one assistant. Due to the firm’s growth, I’m considering giving my assistant more responsibility. My concern: The assistant is very friendly with about 10 other employees. Two are her roommates. What’s to stop her from divulging information to her friends? I have said nothing to her about my concerns yet. What can I express to her without overstepping her legal rights? —M.I., New York