Vt. Grapples With Social Worker Safety
Montpelier — For eight months before a social worker was gunned down, a labor-management committee in the Department for Families and Children warned that too-heavy workloads were hurting relationships between social workers and families and contributing to increasing danger, a legislative committee heard Tuesday. “Relationships are really important with respect to worker safety. That does relate to caseload,” DCF Commissioner Ken...
Office Coach: Get co-workers to join your complaint or drop it
The woman in the next cubicle is driving me crazy. “Helen” is a heavy smoker, so she coughs all the time. Her cellphone rings constantly with calls from her kids, and she conducts these conversations in a very loud voice. She also eats breakfast and lunch at her desk every day. I have started wearing headphones, but I can’t escape the smelly food that Helen brings to work. Since we don’t have a break room, there’s not much I can do...
Office Coach: Get co-workers to join your complaint or drop it
The woman in the next cubicle is driving me crazy. “Helen” is a heavy smoker, so she coughs all the time. Her cellphone rings constantly with calls from her kids, and she conducts these conversations in a very loud voice. She also eats breakfast and lunch at her desk every day. I have started wearing headphones, but I can’t escape the smelly food that Helen brings to work. Since we don’t have a break room, there’s not much I can do...
Next Labor Fight: Shifting Worker Schedules
Washington — If there’s one labor issue that’s come to the forefront of political agendas over the past few years, it’s the minimum wage: Cities and states around the country are taking action to boost worker pay, as federal efforts seem doomed to fail. But a new wave of reform is already in the works. Instead of how much you earn, it addresses when you work — pushing back against the longstanding corporate trend toward timing shifts...
