Business Up Front - November 2004

Business Up Front

Give It to Me Straight

Employees and their managers agree on one thing: A lack of open, honest communication takes a heavy toll on morale. Fifty-two percent of executives and 30 percent of workers gave this response when surveyed recently about factors that negatively affect the workplace mood. Failing to recognize employee achievements was the second most common answer among both groups. The surveys were developed by OfficeTeam, a staffing service specializing in administrative professionals.

Survey respondents were asked, "Which one of the following has the most negative impact on employee morale?"  Their responses:     

		Executives		Employees
Lack of open, honest communication		52%		30%
Failure to recognize employee achievements		21%		27%
Micromanaging employees		17%		16%
Excessive workloads for extended periods		7%		23%
None of the above		1%		2%
Don’t know/no answer		2%		2%
		100%		100%

Next Generation Has Seen the Enemy, and It is Us

A new organization called FirstJobs Institute has compiled research showing that young adults are starting their first jobs lacking critical information about bank accounts, checkbook reconciliation, credit cards, and business concepts such as job advancement. FirstJobs officials say this lack of information feeds a growing mistrust of business and business leaders. "We are faced with the possibility that our next generation will not be capable of making the economic decisions required to lead a community, or support the free enterprise system," notes the group’s Web site, which also contains the following statistics:

Three out of four males surveyed do not trust corporations (and often cite news of business scandals as the reason).

About 69 percent of Americans feel that "the economy is not doing better than it is" because top executives are paid too much.

Nearly two-thirds of those surveyed did not know that in times of inflation money does not hold its value.

Fully 74 percent of parents feel unprepared to teach their kids about personal finance.

Most Americans believe that corporations make over 46 percent profit, when in fact the average is 8 percent.

Confidence in "Big Business" ranks next-to-last among 15 American institutions.

Looney Lawsuits in the News

A Web site maintained by the American Tort Reform Association lists what it calls "Looney Lawsuits." Here are just a few examples:

An Indiana man says cable service caused him to become addicted to TV, caused his wife to become overweight and his kids to be lazy. He wants $5,000 or three computers, and a lifetime supply of free Internet service to settle the claim.

The city of Chicago has settled a class action lawsuit filed on behalf of the city’s panhandlers. The city will pay each of the 3,000 panhandlers $450. It’s small change compared to what panhandlers’ attorneys will "earn" in fees: 375,000 taxpayer dollars. The panhandlers allege that their civil rights were violated when Chicago law enforcement officials ticketed and arrested them for begging on sidewalks. The panhandlers did not accept the city’s first settlement offer: free clothes.

A Florida couple is suing the franchisee of a McDonald's restaurant for more than $15,000, claiming an improperly prepared bagel damaged the husband’s teeth and their marriage. They contend in the suit that the husband broke teeth and bridgework when he bit into the bagel. The suit alleges the wife "lost the care, comfort, consortium and society of her husband."

In San Antonio, Texas, an angry man rammed a couple’s house after an argument, hard enough to knock the house off its foundation. Instead of suing the man who rammed their house (who had little money), the homeowners sued the engineer who designed the foundation. Although the foundation was built according to city requirements, the judge found for them to the tune of $40,000.

A self-described milk-a-holic is suing the dairy industry, claiming that a lifetime of drinking whole milk contributed to his clogged arteries and a minor stroke. Norman Mayo, 61, believes he might have avoided his health problems if he had been warned on milk cartons about fat and cholesterol. "I drank milk like some people drink beer or water," he said. "I've always loved a nice cold glass of milk, and I’ve drank a lot of it." No word yet on what he used for a chaser.