Week 10 EOC: Evaluation

I've had many evaluations at my jobs. Fortunately, I've all positive observations in my experiences. My most memorable was when I was working at the Nordstrom in Sacramento, CA. My department manager came to tell me how my performance was. She told me that it was outstanding and was the best of the trend accessories department. My duties included (but were not limited to) assisting customers, finding the appropriate products for them, providing outstanding customer service, initializing and finishing transactions and opening accounts. I was fulfilling all of these duties as well as going above and beyond for my customers. My manager told me I had received the opportunity to attend an invited-only meeting of the company. The meeting consisted of revealing the new and upcoming event exclusive to our store. What I got to do was take notes and ask questions and bring it back to my coworkers in the department to let them know how to prepare for it. I was temporarily in job rotation, as I was required to train my other department co-workers in how to get ready for the exclusive sale event. “Intrinsic rewards can be powerful employee motivators. In addition to mandatory and voluntary benefits and other financial incentives, many companies complete their compensation programs by including intrinsic rewards designed to enhance workers' positive feelings about themselves and their jobs.” (Hayes, D. and Ninemeier, J. (2008). Human Resources Management in the Hospitality Industry. Wiley, pg. 288) It was intrinsically rewarding to know that I was doing my job and was chosen to complete such an important task. I was honored because the managers could have easily done the job and trained us themselves, but they chose the best employees of their departments to take on the responsibility. That evaluation was indeed my most favorite.

                          

Week 6 EOC (Absent)

The most ideal job for me after college would be a Fashion Editor. Editors work closely with writers, photographers and advertisers to give readers the most up-to-date information. There are strict deadlines that require diligent work to uphold the reputation and style of the magazines requirements. Editors must oversee print space for a story, text, illustrations and photos. Other duties include quality of work and meeting budgeting requirements. It is a highly competitive and challenging position to maintain.The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) show that the careers for editors are expected to increase only by 1% from 2010-202. That growth is die to an increased presence of online magazines. The average wage for this position is $62,440 since 2012."Everyone has been made for some particular work, and the desire for that work has been put in every heart." (brainyquote.com, Rumi) The most common educational background for an editor is Journalism. Fashion editors may also process degrees in design or merchandising. A B.S. in Journalism offers coursework in editing and revising, creative and technical writing, literary criticism, research techniques and mass communications. Many universities have the choice of mastering in Journalism as well. "A good job is more than just a paycheck. A good job fosters independence and discipline, and contributes to the health of the community." (brainyquote.com, James H. Douglas, Jr.) A graduate degree offers a more in-depth training in the field of print journalism. Degrees in fashion design or merchandising focuses on courses in product development, principles of marketing, fundamentals of fashion and public relations. This offers experience with all aspects of the fashion world and gives an aspiring fashion editors a solid base knowledge. "A good job is a means to provide for the health and welfare of your family, to own a home, and save for retirement." (brainyquote.com, James H. Douglas, Jr.) A degree in fashion design or merchandising focuses on courses in product development, principles of marketing, fundamentals of fashion and public relations. This 4-year degree plan offers experience with all aspects of the fashion world and gives an aspiring fashion editor a solid base of knowledge.

Job requirements

• Minimum BA/BS, probably in English or some social science (field of study isn’t critical)
• Experience centered around writing, editing, design, production, proofreading, and quality controlof printed materials and, to a lesser extent,electronic content
• Heavy experience withlong documents with multiple heading levels and manytables, figures, and citations and references
• Significant experience working in a production environment involving hard deadlines
• Ability to maintain consistently high performance oncomplex publishingprojects with multiple concurrent deliverables
• Extensive experience withChicago style, experience with APA style
• Writing skills
• Strong proofreading skills; use common proofreader’s marks correctly and efficiently
• Neat, legible, confident handwriting
• Extensive experience editing both on hard copy and electronically
• Extensive experiencewithMicrosoft Word track changes and Adobe AcrobatPDF markup
• Proficiency with Macintosh, competency with Windows
• Extensive experience withMicrosoft Office (highly proficient with Word, can get around in Excel, PowerPoint), Adobe Creative Suite/Cloud (proficientwithInDesign or FrameMaker, can get around in Illustrator, Photoshop, Acrobat Professional)
• Knowledge of table formatting basics
• Familiarity with technical art norms and practices
• Ability to create simple technical illustrations, take and crop screenshots
• Familiarity with advertising copywriting/marcom norms and practices
• Familiarity with commercial printing and prepress norms and practices
• Familiarity with principles of design, typography, page layout, text formatting
• Experience or interest in psychology or psychological/educational testing
• Some acquaintance with statistics, or interest in learning

The successful candidate will:

• submit a well-written cover letter and résumé that are entirely devoid of errors;
• score well on copyediting and proofreading tests;
• convince us that you are a team player with a serious work ethic, willing to do whatever it takes to produce at a consistently high level while meeting deadlines;
• provide evidence of self-motivation;
• have a history of productive collaborationwith PhD-level colleaguesas well asauthors/SMEs/developmental editors; and
• have a track record of improving processes and procedures.

Week 9 EOC: Sexual Harassment In the NFL

Ray Rice is a running back for the Ravens NFL team. He has recently been indefinitely suspended from the team specifically for a personal incident that happened between him and his, then girlfriend, now wife. A few days ago a video of Ray Rice hitting Janay Rice in an elevator surfaced. It was unclear what started the altercation. All that mattered was that there was domestic violence. In the video, you can see the two before they go into the elevator. Footage shows Ray most likely spitting on Janay while she walks past him. They get onto the elevator and as Janay begins to push the buttons, Ray starts brushing up against her and this causes her to react by pushing him off. He hits her, then backs up. As she comes toward him he slaps her forcefully as she hits her head against the wall and blacks out. Ray is then seen trying to pick Janay up and drag her out of the elevator. He is seen by hotel security and over the 3 minutes span of the video, more people show up to the incident.
The NFL has gotten involved and has suspended Ray Rice, indefinitely. The problem with this is that Ray Rice is an NFL entertainer to the public. Everything he does will be automatically connected to the Ravens and therefore the Ravens will be pressured to get involved. This is why it is probably still under investigation, why he is indefinitely suspended. It is clear the Ravens do not want to get involved because of this bad press and still want to keep their player. "The league has denied that anyone in its office had seen the video before Monday, when it was posted online. When asked about the AP report, an NFL spokesman said the league will investigate the validity of the story."(cnn.com) I would tell you that what we saw in the first videotape was troubling to us, in and of itself. But what we saw yesterday was extremely clear, is extremely graphic, and it was sickening." (abcnews.com, Roger Goodell) If it seems like they aren't taking any precaution to the incident, people will outrage. In situations like these, if the incident occurs outside of the job and has no relation to the workforce, that profession should not be involved. It would be different if Ray was perhaps wearing a Ravens jersey or on NFL property. But he wasn't. It was within the privacy of a public elevator and therefore this situation should have been strictly dealt with by the hotel he was at and then the police. After the incident, just one month later Janay and Rice said their vows and were married. It seems that for whatever reason, Janay has decided to stay with Ray and that is her business. "Rice had been charged with felony aggravated assault in the case, but in May he was accepted into a pretrial intervention program that allowed him to avoid jail time and could lead to the charge being purged from his record." (abcnews.com)

Week 8 EOC: The Power Behind the Throne

In the movie 9 to 5 starring Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin and Dolly Parton, there were a lot of HR issues going on. The 3 women worked at an office with a power-hungry boss, played by Dabney Coleman. He took advantage of the women in his office, he was egotistical, and did not have respect for others. He attempted to carry on an affair with one of the characters in the movie. This is a big problem in the workplace today that many people in HR and management ignore. "Human resources managers should know about additional challenges related to the legitimate measurement of employee performance." (Hayes, D. and Ninemeier, J. (2008). Human Resources Management in the Hospitality Industry. Wiley, pg. 310) Dabney's character continually made personal compliments to some of the girls about their appearance and took it a bit too far, when he shouldn't have. It showed he was more interested in getting to know them in other ways besides professional. He even went as far as to try to have an affair with one of the characters, while they were both married but failed. In the training aspect of the movie, Lily Tomlin's character was supposed to train Jane Fonda's character for her first day. Lily's character openly expressed her feelings and opposition towards her new task. When she was training Jane Fonda, she exposed a lot of confidential information that was inappropriate for other employees to have knowledge of. She also left Jane Fonda's character unattended when she asked her to print copies. The copying machine went out of control, and Dabney walked in. He proceeded to belittle Jane Fonda, which was another issue with his character. His lack of respect. Going back to Dabney's character, he was doing some illegal things behind the company and employees' backs, which in later, the girls will try to expose. He also hired a man instead of Lily Tomlin's character because she was a woman. He based the position on discrimination when Lily was clearly more qualified. While the girls tried to expose Dabney and get him out of the company, they thought of ways to kill him. While not killing him and instead kidnapping him, their attempts were at first unsuccessful. Later they got the hang of it and was able to kidnap Dabney while they uncovered his dirty work and transformed the company in the process. With this, they had an accidental success. The chairman came to the office and was delighted with what he saw. Dabney had no knowledge of any of the new changes but still took credit for it. Then the chairman asked him to come with him to Brazil and Dabney was dumbfounded. The girls were able to get Dabney's character out of the office and successfully run it themselves, discrimination free. "The goal of any effective management program should be to attract, motivate, and retain competent employees." (Hayes, D. and Ninemeier, J. (2008). Human Resources Management in the Hospitality Industry. Wiley, pg. 266) They created a work environment that thrived 20% more than before. "People are attracted or leave for career advancement, new challenges, lack of appreciation by the company, inability to have an impact, coworker conflict, job insecurity, family matters, and a variety of other factors." (Hayes, D. and Ninemeier, J. (2008). Human Resources Management in the Hospitality Industry. Wiley, pg. 264) The 3 women, reduced these factors. 

Week 7 EOC: Minimum Wage

"38 states introduced minimum wage bills during the 2014 session; 34 states considered increases to the state minimum wage." (NCSL, State Minimum Wages) Minimum wage on the average is $7.25, in the United States. This means that if a person receiving $7.25 an hour "which means that depending on the city you're in, 60 minutes of work will just about buy you a Chipoltle burrito (without guac)." (Th Atlantic, Should We Raise Minimum Wage?), works an 8-hour shift, for 5 days a week, they will only make $15,080 and that is BEFORE taxes. In Nevada, one can find an apartment for as low as $510. The disadvantage to this is the area that person would be living in. The living conditions will probably be a low grade comparing to the nicer areas where average rent for a 1-bedroom apartment is $800. The cost of an apartment for monthly rent doesn't even cover the other bills that come along with it. It also doesn't include car insurance, school loans, gas, groceries, cable, furniture and more. The $7.25 earner would have to live with a roommate or family just to ease up on their expenses. This goes to show that the cost of living is nowhere compared to what minimum wage earners are earning. "Employees that earn the minimum wage tend to be young, and work in businesses that keep a few cents of each sales dollar after expenses." (Minimumwage.com, About the Minimum Wage) Major businesses such as McDonold's, Burger King, Walmart and so on, can definitely afford to accommodate workers with higher compensation. They just don't want to. Profit is everything to these companies and losing money to compensate existing and future employees? It's not realistic to them. Little do these companies realize, such a sacrifice will only improve the brand. When giving employees the right compensation to live on, they will be less stressed and more reliable to do their jobs. They will be better employees, give better customer service and this will have a better effect on the company. Customers will then want to come around more and spend their money, simply because the customer service is excellent. And for many, customer service makes or breaks the experience. Ever heard, "I don't get paid enough for this?" Well it's true for most! And this is the reason why turnovers are so high, why employees don't care about the well-beings of their customers and why a good worker is so hard to come by. Companies then have to rely on the hope that whoever they hire is genuinely just a good person, when in fact all they needed to do was lift the minimum wage and problems would be less frequent. Minimum wage has been statistically proven that it is NOT realistic and needs to be lifted. It is almost as if we are like manufacture workers in sweat shops working for $.50 a day, knowing it won't take us anywhere. The United States is one of the richest countries in the world, but yet our poverty levels are high, our crime-rate is embarrassing and our people are in crisis. It is all a dominio-effect and money is always the root of the issue. The U.S. needs to set an example and value it's citizens.

Week 5 EOC: Marijuana In The Workplace

Brandon Coates was a quadriplegic employed by Dish Network LLC. He used marijuana for pain relief and had a medical marijuana card issued by Colorado. For a drug test, Brandon tested positive which resulted in termination. He was said to be in violation of Dish Network’s anti-drug policy. “Coloradans who use medical marijuana off the clock can be fired from their jobs for doing so even if they aren't impaired on the job, an appeals court ruled.” (Denver Post, Colorado court upholds firing for off-the-job medical marijuana use) In the state of Colorado an employer can terminate an employee tested positive for marijuana even if they have the marijuana card.

Brandon then filed suit claiming his termination violated a Colorado statute called the Lawful Activities Statue. It prohibits an employer from discharging an employee for “engaging in any lawful activity off the premises of the employer during nonworking hours”.  Dish claimed that medical marijuana was not a “lawful activity” because it remains illegal under federal law. 

“The court held that for an activity to be a “lawful activity” under the Lawful Activities Statute, it must be permitted by, and not contrary to, state and federal law.”(Fwlaw, Colorado Court of Appeals Rules Employers May Terminate Employees Who Test Positive for Marijuana)

 The court said because Mr. Coates’ state license for medical marijuana use was at time of termination, considering federal law, his use of marijuana was not a “lawful activity” for the purposes of the Lawful Activity Statute. “A trial court upheld the firing, but, in doing so, cited a previous court ruling that said the state's medical-marijuana law only creates exemptions from prosecution and not rights. (Denver Post, Colorado court upholds firing for off-the-job medical marijuana use)

 So his termination was not in violation of the Lawful Activities Statute and the case was dismissed.

Laws regarding marijuana use may change one day, but that probably won’t happen for awhile.