The HR Team March 2008 Newsletter

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Happy March. Forget Friday the 13th. Ignore ladders, black cats, broken mirrors, and spilled salt. But remember the ides of March (also known as March 15) and beware!

As superstitions go, being wary of March 15 is somewhat unusual. Yet the day does have its staying power. It lives on partly because of Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar." In Scene 2, Act 1, the soothsayer cautions Caesar to "Beware the ides of March!" Caesar, of course, ignored the warning, and was murdered.

Note that in their calendar, the ides fell on the 15th in March, May, July and October. In other months, they fell on the 13th. If that seems odd, just remember that the Julian calendar, established by Julius Caesar, gave us the basis of our system of 365 days a year and 366 in a leap year.

The ides of March continues to be remembered as unlucky, so marked because of Julius Caesar's assassination in 44 B.C. But there is another reason it was frowned upon by all. On March 15, of the Roman calendar, all debts from the previous year were supposed to be settled.

On a more positive note for the month, I am pleased to announce that I was named one of the "2008 Maryland's Top 100 Women" by the Daily Record. The award ceremony is May 12th and tickets will be available in April at www.mddailyrecord.com/events.cfm .

Until next month.

FMLA

In last month's issue we mentioned that FMLA has changed to allow leave to care for a member of the armed forces. As a result of this change, the Department of Labor has issued a poster insert that can be downloaded at: http://www.dol.gov/esa/regs/compliance/posters/fmla.htm .

Other changes to FMLA are also in the works, so stay tuned.

Too Much Email?

Too much email forwarding is making today's workers less productive says Basex, a technology science organization.

For many years, they have named a product or person of the year in technology. Instead, for 2008 they have chosen the problem of the year, "information overload." The problem continues to grow.

Basex analysts say workers get disoriented each time they stop to reply to an email or answer the phone. They spend 10 to 20 times the length of the interruption trying to get back on track.

The Eternal Optimist Could Face An Unpleasant Truth Or Two

Do you have a pessimist on your staff, someone who seems to pour cold water on your plans?

Pessimists can be a pain as they point out possible problems. But after the optimists have all spoken, it pays to keep the nay sayers in mind.

No project or operation will ever be perfect. The pessimist can remind you to make contingency plans to be put in place if a project is put off course by a bump in the road.

Optimistic bosses sometimes feel that they can delegate their way out of an unexpected and unpleasant situation. Their staffers, however, think the boss is denying unpleasant realities and placing the responsibility on them, say experts quoted in The Wall Street Journal.

You may have considered all the what-ifs before beginning a project, which is good. Knowing what steps you can take in a pinch is a big plus.

The objectors are rarely applauded for their doubts. But psychologists at the University of Michigan say they should be. Academic research shows that active pessimists can more accurately predict success or failure than those who just see the brighter side.

Defensive pessimism, they say, is also highly motivational. It drives people to achieve goals.

The most optimistic bosses may think that even contingency planning looks like negativity. Then their staffs find they have to fix things mid-project and troubleshoot on the fly.

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