Consider another scenario: You’re the not-so-new-employee at a small firm. Your career has stalled, and you’ve taken some unexpected turns. But you’re still smart, skilled, and hungry. How can you get your slice of the corporate pie?

As an old saying goes, “In order to have, you must be.” Oddly enough, many career experts dispense this sage advice to help plan for a promotion. Whether you want to take the lead position in a prominent division or simply make your talents known and valued within an organization, you must beworthy of a promotion in order to achieve it.

Define Your Goals

“Think strategically”, says Mary Foley, author of Bodacious! An AOL Insider Cracks the Code to Outrageous Success for Women. Once an $8/hour customer service worker with Quantum Computer Services, Mary became head of its corporate training department–and Quantum Computer Services became AOL. What’s her secret? She started “charting a career path from day one.” Patrick Lennahan, Director of the Career Center at Roger Williams University in Rhode Island, often gives graduating students the same advice: “Begin preparation as soon as you start work. Promotion is an ongoing process that starts on your first day and continues endlessly.”

Assess Yourself

Self-assessment is another critical tool to use to prepare for a promotion, whether starting a new career or a new career path. Try to improve on your current capabilities, and thus increase your chances for a promotion. Do you need certain skills to perform well in your desired position? If so, then try to acquire them. While a sparkling personality is a nice asset, companies depend on people with concrete skills (communication, handling multiple projects, technical, and teamwork skills) to get important jobs done.

As Emory Mulling, executive coach and chairman with The Mulling Companies in Atlanta, says: “If you know you’re lacking skills in a certain area, [just] ask for training.”

LaVerne L. Ludden, author of Job Savvy, agrees. “Always seek to improve your skills,” Ludden advises. “Identify the skills that are required to achieve the promotion you want. Engage in training opportunities and projects that will help you acquire these skills and identify peers and managers that are willing to help you acquire [the skills you need].”

Know Your Role

How do your abilities help the organization? You can answer this by understanding your supervisor’s standards, expectations, and values–as well as the values of the overall organization. “Pay attention to these things as you set goals and priorities for your work,” Lennahan says, “so that you can tailor your job to what they consider important. Then, do your best to consistently exceed your boss’s expectations on the job. In this way, you will show that you have the ability to handle greater responsibilities.”

Inform, Don’t Advertise

Market yourself. “Share how you’ve helped contribute to the organization’s goals via your accomplishments,” says Foley. And Mulling stresses doing this with written reports–it’s also an excellent way to keep a record of your accomplishments for any performance evaluation or professional portfolio.

“Write up summary reports,” Mulling adds, “detailing your activities on a project. Distribute the report to the project team and copy key management personnel.”

Be Prepared

Finally, says Mulling, one must “always plan for the next step. Use the tactics mentioned above long before a promotion is expected. Don’t start doing these things once a new position is announced and expect to be chosen for the role. Career advancement is something you work on consistently, so when a promotion is available, you’re picked for it.”

If things don’t go as planned, at least you’ve honed your skills and gained more knowledge about your job and your company. You’re now more prepared for career success than ever before. So, if you don’t get that promotion, don’t worry. Armed with an impressive list of accomplishments, you’re ready for the success that you deserve.

Sometimes those looking for employment can get faulty guidance. The following myths can keep jobseekers from finding a great job after graduation.

Myth #1: I need to take the first job I am offered. Don’t allow those school loans force you to make a hasty career move.

• For each job offer you receive, write out a pro/con list. Carefully evaluate every offer.
• Don’t take a job you have a bad feeling about or with work you don’t want to do. Also think about how the job will fit in with your skillset. If it doesn’t, remember other offers will come along.
• An inflated salary or title can cloud your reasoning. While one job may pay less, you may get more hands-on experience. This will prove more valuable in the future.

Myth #2: My college activities will score me a job. This is one of the most widely-believed myths. While getting involved in activities may boost your experience level, can they really get your foot in the door? They can if you network with the people in the activities. Here are some tips to make the most of your activities:

• Network with your classmates. They may know someone who is hiring. And reciprocate–when you have a hot tip on a job, let your friends know.
• Get to know your professors. Not only can they be a terrific reference, they can give you job leads.
• Be a participant. Don’t just go to meetings and sit there. Volunteer for events, take leadership roles, and be active!

Myth #3: I can temp while I figure out what I want to do. Unless you are faced with an eviction notice, try to avoid temping. While it may temporarily pay the bills and give you something to do, it might muck up your resume. Employers want to see that you’ve been consistently taking jobs that further your career. If your resume is spotted with temp assignments, they may wonder why you aren’t working in your career field. Here are some alternatives:

• Internships. Internships provide a paycheck, steady work environment, great contacts, and help you figure out your career path.
• Volunteer work. It won’t pay the bills, but it will count as “real world” experience.
• Part-time jobs. If you want to work full-time in a certain career field, but aren’t sure if you’ll like it, try going part-time.

Myth #4: I will advance quickly in my first job. While some of your classmates may by lucky enough to be promoted within the first year, most won’t. Here are some advancement tips:

• Accept that entry-level jobs sometimes mean menial work. Everyone has to start somewhere. Smile and do your work cheerfully. Soon you’ll move up the ladder and be able to focus on work that’s meaningful.
• Find a mentor. They can give you the inside scoop on the company and help you navigate the first crucial years of work.
• Volunteer for projects. This does not mean trying to head up every social or volunteer event. Choose projects that show off your strengths.
• Get to work early, stay late. This is one of the easiest keys to success.

Myth #5: I shouldn’t waste my time at a job I don’t like. Even if you don’t like your first job, stick it out for at least a year. When you start looking for a new job, 12 months is your golden number. A potential employer may form an opinion of how good a worker you are by how you treated your prior job. Staying on the job at least a year shows that you can follow through on your commitments. Here are some ways to cope with a difficult job situation:

• Evaluate why you took the job in the first place. Did you believe Myth #1? Were you desperate for a job? While it may seem unfair to have to live with your choice, try and make the best of it.
• Look for jobs online and in your newspaper to get a feeling for what is out there. A few months before your planned departure, start sending out resumes. It will take that long (or longer) to find a job you’ll be happy doing.
• Network with family and friends–let them know what kind of job you are seeking.
• Take on projects at work that will boost your resume.
• Keep doing a good job at work. Remember, your current employer will be a future reference.
• Don’t tell anyone at work you’re thinking of leaving. And who knows, you may change your mind down the road and start to like the job.
• Focus on those things in life that make you happy. A job is just a job. Don’t let it get you down.

The first few years after college are critical to your long-term career success. Now that you know the myths, banish them from your mind and have a happy and successful career life!

What Are Work Habits?

Work habits? What the heck does that mean? you wonder. Sure, you’ve come in around 9:20 as opposed to 9 a.m., but they know traffic is murder that time of day. And you’ve been reprimanded once or twice for getting back late from lunch, but everyone’s stood in those mile-long cafeteria lines. And who knew your daughter would catch the flu and get sent home from daycare twice this month? Your reports are always on time. In fact, many times, they’ve been early, allowing you to take it easy at the end of the month.

These are thoughts that go through the minds of many employees who are surprised to find that their work isn’t as outstanding as they thought. Work habits are a very large part of the overall performance of every employee. And even though you aren’t in elementary school anymore, your work habits are still being watched, still being graded, and, like in the story above, can still stop you from being promoted.

But what are good work habits? “It is so much more than completing tasks on time,” according to David Carter, a career consultant in Detroit, Michigan. “It is your workplace behavior, the very way you do things, from the time arrive at work until you leave, that demonstrates your level of professionalism, and your understanding of your employer’s standards of performance.” These things, coupled with your ability to complete tasks correctly and on time, is what increases your value as an employee.

Good Behavior

Here are some of the universal standards of good work habits. How do your current “workplace behaviors” stack up against the checklist below?

• Attendance and punctuality. Be on time, or early if possible. If arrival times are a problem, try changing your route to work, eating breakfast earlier, or preparing your clothes on the night before. Take only your allotted time for lunch. Try not to take personal days on Mondays, Fridays, or whatever the busiest day is at your job. 
• Personal obligations. If your children are in school, try to arrange an alternate daycare source (grandparent or trustworthy neighbor) in case they get sick. Be sure you know your bus route to work, in case of car trouble. 
• Relationships/communication. Getting to know your co-workers creates a pleasant work environment. Make an effort to plan or attend events, especially company-sponsored ones, with your peers. 
• Teamwork. The person in the story above mentioned the ability to complete assignments early, freeing up leisure time at the end of the month. If this sounds like you, try pitching in to see who needs help getting things done, or what other projects are waiting to be started.

Keeping Track
When you read this list, were you able quickly to assess your behavior, or did you have trouble remembering what you’ve done? How can you find ways to measure your work habits and keep yourself on track? Here are some suggestions:

• Develop “co-worker habits.” Find a peer in your company to help you monitor your daily habits. Make an arrangement to alert each other to any displays of bad work habits you observe. 
• Keep a checklist, like the one above, and use it to keep track of days where you observe things in your habits that you don’t wish to repeat, or that could use improving. For example, if lateness has been an issue for you, keep a record of the times you arrive. Try some different morning routines and routes to work, tracking your arrival times for improvement. 
• Be open and interactive when receiving criticism. Don’t just walk away from a reprimand without input. Let your supervisor know that you are working on solving the problem. 
• Find a mentor. Ask for a meeting once a month to get their observations and to share any concerns you may have.

Whether or not these suggestions can address your specific work habits issue, they are good ways to develop your level of professionalism. You can set a standard for yourself that your co-workers and employer will appreciate. Before you know it, a new title will be waiting for you. But remember, after changing the way you do things gets you promoted, don’t break your good work habits.

Great leadership demands gender-neutral skills.

Do women make better managers than men? Are we beyond the stage when we should even be posing this question? Touching on gender stereotypes that persist in the workplace, this is the kind of debate that makes employers squirm.

Indeed, many women entering the ranks of management still face criticism on opposing fronts: Either they are presumed to be “too feminine” for effective leadership, or they are denigrated for more “masculine” behavior. (Just think of some of the criticism heaped on former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.) And while recent studies give high marks to women as managers, some see these studies as creating stereotypes of their own.

Of course, in the workaday world, many employees say it’s really a manager’s competency, and not gender, that’s significant.

Studies Back Women Managers

A number of studies in recent years have proclaimed women as the better managers. The most comprehensive—by Michigan-based Lawrence A. Pfaff and Associates in 1999—showed 2,400 managers rating women above men in 17 out of 20 skill areas. Another, by the California-based Hagberg Consulting Group, had more than 400 executives rank women above men in more than 80 percent of skills. In these and other studies, women scored well in areas such as mentoring, productivity, and decisiveness. They were also noted for a gentler touch in dealing with work issues, in contrast to the allegedly more autocratic style of men.

Yet subordinates say their main concern is not the gender of their boss, but their style. “My current boss is fantastic,” says Kelly Thomas, who works in the publications division of a scientific society in Philadelphia, “but the qualities that make her great aren’t necessarily related to her sex: knowledge of both the type of work and people management, flexibility, and sense of humor.”

Ironically, Thomas’ only concern about working in a female-dominated business like publishing is that she has seen something of an “old girl” network. “If you aren’t part of that loop,” she says, “you could lose out professionally.”

Ability Unrelated to Gender

Ida Byrd, a senior specialist at a major New York City insurance brokerage, agrees that gender does not matter as much as individual management skills. “I’m not sure that what makes a good manager is as much learned as it is a natural ability to lead people, while being compassionate and self-assured all at the same time.”

Her current boss is a woman who “asks questions about what we do, and then actually listens to our responses, even taking notes when necessary.” But clearly not every person is suited for management. At a law firm in Boston, where Byrd was formerly a legal secretary, her office manager had a confidence problem and “frequently looked as though she might burst into tears at any time,” Byrd recalls. “If she was an effective manager, it was only because those of us who were under her felt sorry for her.”

Dropping the Neo-Stereotypes

Sheila Reines is a senior human resources officer at the Washington, D.C.-headquartered World Bank, which has implemented successful internal programs to push women into higher management positions. She confirms that looking through gender-tinted spectacles is no longer considered helpful.

Reines says that in the mid-1990s studies identified the “unique” characteristics that women bring to work in general and to management in particular. Many of the qualities attributed to women—for example, a more holistic approach to problems, better listening, and teamwork skills—were those identified as key to the World Bank’s becoming a more effective development institution.

“However, we moved away from attributing these characteristics to women,” she continues. “Doing so created a new form of stereotyping, implying that all women possessed these characteristics. By extension, it created expectations that women would be responsible for these behaviors. And it subtly suggested the creation of a new ‘sell’ for women—that is, it’s not enough that they are excellent economists, they also need to be good listeners.”

Most of all, though, she says the bank wanted to show that it didn’t matter whether women or men demonstrated these behaviors. “The key,” she concludes, “was to value and nurture them in all staff, as business assets.”

For example, a supervisor knows one of his staff will be laid off. He also knows that the worker plans to make some expensive purchases. The supervisor’s boss, however, asks him not to warn the employee to avoid disruption. McNamara points out that this situation, like most ethical problems in the workplace, requires a choice among conflicting values with equally justifiable alternatives and significant consequences for all parties.

Ethical decisions in the workplace involve relationships among people with different degrees of authority, trust, empathy, risk, and benefit, as Daniel Brass points out in a January 1998 Academy of Management Review article. When you hand your keys to a stranger at valet parking, Brass says, you rely more on an established system than your trust in the valet. When you share confidential information with a co-worker, the level of trust may be a greater factor than the organization’s rules.

How do you solve ethical problems at work? The quiz below may reveal when you rationalize (for example: “I’ll work better if I take home this proprietary software”), and when you choose the wisest “good.” You’ll also find actual situations combined with a dash of “social network analysis,” as described above by Brass.

Read the following situations; after each scenario, determine what you would do. (Need we tell you? No peeking!) After you’ve determined your responses, compare them to the responses of people who were really in these situations. Are your answers more or less ethical than the actual responses, or equally ethical? (If you’re reading this on company time, get back to work and finish the article later!)

Situations

1. The principal’s secretary at a public school noticed that petty cash kept disappearing. She suspected her new assistant but didn’t have proof. She wanted to maintain harmony within the small school while preventing theft.

2. A computer systems designer was promised a $5,000 bonus when she joined a particular company. Her attempts to collect the bonus failed, even after another co-worker received his bonus. She discovered that he got the bonus only after he agreed to return half of it to the manager who had authorized it.

3. A history professor perked up classroom discussions by sharing incidents from his life. The technique worked so well he considered passing off invented stories as actual experience.

4. Library assistants collected fines for overdue books at a large university. One assistant thought that students needed the money more than the library did, and in the spirit of Robin Hood, was tempted not to collect fines at all.

5. A national retail chain required lengthy procedures if a cash drawer did not tally with receipts. On nights her drawer was a bit low, one cashier considered putting in her own money to avoid the paperwork.

Responses

1. The secretary rearranged responsibilities so the assistant had no access to cash.

2. The systems designer stopped demanding her bonus. Her co-worker exposed the kickback scheme to top managers when he left a year later. Nothing changed.

3. Joseph Ellis, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian, regularly spiced classroom discussions of the Vietnam War with stories of his own military experiences there. He stopped in June, when the Boston Globe revealed he had never served in Vietnam. Thousands of former admirers are angry.

4. The library assistant waived the fines and was fired for “excessive generosity.”

5. The cashier put in her own money and went home on time with no regrets.

Keeping in mind that this quiz is unscientific, tally your response ratings. If all are “more ethical,” you’re either a saint or fooling yourself. If you rated your responses as more ethical than the historian’s only or less ethical than any of the other responses, get some ethics training now! If your responses fared better than the historian’s and the library assistant’s, and about the same as the other responses, your ability to do the right thing is probably adequate.

You may find that two wrongs don’t make a right—but three just might. See if your employer provides confidential help with ethics. Or ask a librarian or search the Web for professional associations that can provide education.

You can be fired for wearing a red shirt to work, for preferring the Yankees to the Mets, or for not attending a piano recital featuring your boss’s daughter. Sound ridiculous? Under the employment-at-will doctrine, workers may be terminated at any time “for good reason, bad reason, or no reason at all.” If you are an “at-will” worker, you should reassess this risk.

There are innumerable reasons for which an employer can legally fire someone, according to David Larson, Law Professor and Senior Fellow at Hamline University School of Law. “At-will means that I can arbitrarily choose” to fire someone, he says, “so long as I don’t violate any of the expressed prohibitions. Very few Americans understand how broad this rule is.”

Workers just don’t know much about this practice. “They say, ‘You’re kidding! I can be fired because I didn’t show up for my boss’s son’s soccer game?’ The reality is that, yes, you can,” adds Larson. People tend “to feel more secure than they are.”

One reason so few people understand this concept is that labor unions have not done a particularly good job of educating American workers, Larson believes. Since unions have a presence in the workforce at large, he thinks unions should educate the public on this issue.

Legal Protection in Place

Joseph Z. Fleming, resident partner at Ford and Harrison, LLP, and a national resource on labor and employment law, reports, “The concept of at-will employment, which favored employers, has been eroded over the years–first by collective bargaining laws, and second by unions which have pushed for workplace reforms so that people have protection.”

You can be fired for almost anything today. But if you maintain that you are in a protective category, the burden then shifts for the employer to prove that they didn’t terminate you because you were in such a category, Fleming adds. As an employee, you have protection because of your:

• Race
• Sex
• Minority status
• Religion
• National origin
• Age (under the federal law, if you are over 40)
• Disability (mental or physical)—or the perception that you have a disability or communicable disease
• Injury (If you have worker’s compensation and are fired, you can sue for retaliation)

The at-will concept is riddled with statutory exceptions, and these exceptions really challenge this rule. “At-will termination sounds like it would be protective of the employer but it’s a little bit elusory–people who think that they can just fire people and don’t have to worry about it should take another look at the workplace laws and be careful,” Fleming says.

Fleming sees the “glass ceiling” for women as a limit that was created by some of the workplace laws. “We have a lot of minorities and women entering the workplace but the positions at the top are standing still. As people get older, they can work longer–you have a gridlock,” he explains. “When you begin to lay off by reverse seniority, the younger people go first so you may be eroding the groups that would be lasting in the workplace and that would be full of a different sex and minority than 20 to 30 years ago.”

Termination Policies

An employer terminating someone should always make sure that they have acted correctly, that they have documented why they are terminating the person, and that they give the person an opportunity to complain if he or she feels the firing is unfair (that could be a defense for the employer).

If you are thinking of starting a new job, pay some attention to what the termination procedure is like at the company. Is it literal, absolute employment-at-will or are there some termination or discipline procedures? For example, there may be progressive discipline where if something goes wrong or you make a mistake, you are entitled to a warning and the next step is suspension.

When you have a job offer, Larson suggests that you say to the potential employer, “I’m really excited about working here. I’m wondering whether you have any workplace management rules?” The answer will help determine how flexible the environment really is

Craig Intorcia recalls his last sales job where he and 25 other reps were subjected to a boiler room method of cold calling. “The VP of Sales tied our hands to the phones to cold call,” Intorcia told me. “We were also subject to occasional slaps on the wrists if this boss was agitated.” Intorcia sold stocks for this New York City firm, which went bankrupt last year.

So are incidents like this, and more serious violence on the rise in the workplace? “Yes, as are harassment, intimidation, angry outbursts, rudeness, and other inappropriate behaviors,” reports Dr. Lynne McClure, a leading expert in managing anger and high-risk employee behaviors and President of McClure Associates, Inc.

Timothy Dimoff, President of SACS Consulting & Investigative Services, Inc., has witnessed a ten-fold increase in these types of altercations over the last dozen years. “There is a lot more cattiness, competition, back-stabbing, and a lot of low-level altercations which escalate into more prominent types of violence,” he says. Much like the song lyric, “why can’t we be friends?”

Bad Behavior Too Common

McClure sees several factors contributing to this increase–role models and social norms, self-centeredness, a lack of consequences and high stress. “Violence, as well as other inappropriate behaviors, is exhibited regularly on TV shows, in movies, in sports games, etc., so it has started to look like ‘the’ way–or, at least, a common way–to resolve problems,” McClure told me. “This is particularly true for the youngest generation of workers, who were surrounded by these examples all their lives.

“Along with the role models and norms, our society has nurtured extreme individualism and self-centeredness–to the point where it’s ‘okay’ for adults to act like two-year-olds in terms of thinking only of themselves.”

McClure attests there are few repercussions for bad behavior. Sports figures still play, even if they’ve beaten their wives. At work, management often fails (for many reasons) to discipline managers or employees for any of these behaviors. “Management focus has not been on that level; it’s been on the higher-end level and we’re just now realizing that it’s getting out of hand,” Dimoff attests.

Stress on the Rise

Stress itself does not automatically lead to violence, but it can push a high-risk individual to the point of hostility. “With layoffs, mergers, stock market issues, as well as long work hours and family problems, people who are prone to violence are more likely than ever to carry it out at work,” McClure says.

Dimoff points toward a “pressure-cooker environment” at both work and home as the instigator. “There’s more pressure to succeed, to possess more and to provide a better environment for ourselves and our kids,” he admits. “We’ve got parents who are living longer; we have to take care of the parents and try to raise kids and pay bills. We want bigger homes, more cars.” At work, more people are wearing more hats. Customers expect jobs done faster. We’re more technologically sophisticated but somehow more exhausted than ever.

Assault Stats

Workplace violence, as defined by McClure, is any physical contact that hurts or injures another person: homicide, assault, aggravated assault (weapon involved), and rape.

Attacks and violent threats against American workers number nearly two million a year, according to the Department of Justice’s National Crime Victimization Survey. Altercations can affect anyone nowadays in several ways, according to McClure:

• An employee might be the target of a disgruntled worker, happen to be in the area when violence occurs, or become a ‘symbol’ to someone seeking revenge.
• Individuals considered high-risk (more prone to violence than most people) can become violent when their stress levels are high enough.
• A person might be neither a physical victim nor a perpetrator, but he or she can be traumatized after witnessing assaults at work.

Preventing Aggression

The U.S. Department of Labor estimates about 500,000 employees will lose close to 1.2 million workdays due to violence, and lost wages cost employers more than $55 million each year.

If we don’t get control of it from the beginning, we see a certain percentage of people escalating or increasing their [violent] activity, Dimoff believes, and it almost becomes an unofficial norm in the workplace.

Companies should be implementing workplace prevention policies to protect themselves against liability. If managers are trained on how to handle low-level altercations, they can deter possible crises from happening.

What is a family? Is it a small group of loved ones, bound by time and common experience, or is it a legal and biological construct, meant to draw the line between our “official” and “unofficial” relationships? Most of us prefer the former definition, despite living by the rules of the latter. In some ways, however, those rules are changing.

Certain benefits have always been extended to the spouses and children of employees: medical insurance, relocation expenses, and so on. Those in committed homosexual relationships–lacking the legal sanction of marriage–are left out. Instead of rewarding valuable employees with baseline benefits, the policy tended to further marginalize gays and lesbians.

Now, companies seem to be embracing diversity initiatives, such as domestic partner benefits. “The trend is definitely real,” says Daryl Herrschaft, “and it mirrors broader changes in society.” Herrschaft manages the Worknet project for the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the largest national gay and lesbian political organization. “Just take a look at the new Census data, for example. The number of unmarried partners has dramatically increased.” Thus, it stands to reason, companies eventually have to reach out to this talent base.

Has this change in corporate attitude been driven by competition or compassion? “Probably a little of both,” Herrschaft says. “Competitive benefit packages help companies recruit and retain the best people.” If a benefit package is fair, inclusive, and truly beneficial in real life situations, then people will be interested.

Both Parties Benefit

The Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, a national advocacy group devoted to the civil rights of gays, lesbians, and people with HIV/AIDS, goes further than that. It offers a number of convincing arguments for the inclusion of partner benefits in any employment package:

• The relatively low cost of implementing such a benefit.
• Fears about HIV-related costs and adverse selection (“less healthy spousal equivalents enrolling at a higher rate than healthy spousal equivalents”) have been proven unwarranted.
• A fair and equal benefits package promotes morale and company loyalty.
• Employees are more productive if their families are secure and if they have the full backing and respect of their employer.
• Companies with such benefits project a positive public image.
• Employer benefits like this lessen the public burden of health care costs for those who are uninsured.

But there are still a few problems to overcome. Employees who are legally married, for example, must only provide a marriage certificate to qualify their spouse. Domestic partners are routinely required to furnish extensive documentation of their relationship. And, despite avoiding the marriage penalty on federal income tax, domestic partners are swamped in other expenses. According to Lambda: “With domestic partner benefits, employees pay for coverage with post-tax dollars, and then must pay taxes on the employers’ share of payment for the benefits as added income. Married employees pay no taxes on benefits they receive.”

Ahead of the Curve

Which companies have been real pioneers in this area? “IBM is a good example,” Herrschaft says. “They have been moving toward a standard of full spousal equivalency across the board.” Meaning, all rights once reserved for legal spouses (medical, insurance, retirement) are being extended to domestic partners. A move like that–by such a major American player–only helps to prove its real value to employers.

“The number of companies offering these kinds of benefits has more than doubled,” according to the HRC. And companies are doing more than just legitimizing domestic partnerships–they’re fostering corporate diversity in unique ways:

• Supporting diverse volunteer groups and organizations
• Donating funds to more inclusive charitable giving programs
• Supporting federal anti-discrimination law
• Sponsoring employee resource groups, awareness days, guest speakers, and counseling sessions
• Training managers and supervisors in diversity issues

There are 3,600 private companies now offering domestic partnership benefits, including more than 120 of the Fortune 500. Besides IBM, the list includes many of the biggest names in corporate America: Coca-Cola, Disney Corporation, Ford Motor Company, Microsoft, RJR Nabisco, and Xerox, to name just a few. You can also find diversity benefits at major labor unions, insurance companies, universities, and state, county, and municipal government offices.

Sometimes, good business also makes good sense. Employers may argue the legitimacy of your family, but fewer and fewer of them are withholding benefits because of it.

While tax cuts and environmental issues have dominated coverage of the early Bush administration, today’s desktop-dependent professional may want to look closer. Governmental regulation of–and remedy for–repetitive stress injuries is on the wane.

According to Workers Warmups, a repetitive stress-reduction company, they are the fastest-growing ailments in the workplace today. Individual cases cost an average of 25 days of lost work time, or more than any other employee injury.

High Cost of Compliance
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), working with the White House, proposed major policy changes affecting ergonomics at the end of Bill Clinton’s second term. The rules would have required that injured professionals be compensated with 90 percent of their wages. Also, injured workers reassigned to other tasks would be paid 100 percent of earnings, regardless of the value of the work they perform.

OSHA estimated more than 650,000 Americans suffer from these disorders because of poor working environments, accounting for more than 34 percent of all work-related injuries and costing an estimated $15 to $20 billion annually.

Congress and the Bush administration, however, have reversed these proposed rule changes. The potential cost of implementation was a major concern. OSHA estimated the new ergonomics laws would cost businesses $5 billion annually. But other organizations said it would cost much more. The Small Business Administration, for example, projected $18 million. The Employment Policy Foundation pegged it at $126 billion.

Also damaging for proponents of the new rules: A January report from the National Academy of Sciences indicating that musculoskeletal disorders are caused by more than work-related injuries. Age, gender, obesity, lack of exercise, vitamin deficiency, stress, and lifestyle are all contributing factors. There is no ‘magic bullet’ available to cure these disorders, the report concluded.

Major Implications
Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill argues that all OSHA standards, including ergonomics, should be replaced by one voluntary standard. He’d like to see no more than two workdays lost due to injury for every 100 employees, every year. Currently, the nation’s workplaces average 3.5 workdays lost annually for every 100 employees.

Workplace experts remain divided on the impact of rule changes for desktop-driven professionals. John Domenech is chief operating officer of NetCompliance, an online workplace training and compliance firm that monitors OSHA policy. He sees the new administration as being fairer to both employee and employer.

“The Clinton administration created incentive for a claim,” says Domenech. “A person with an injury could claim 90 percent of their salary, tax-free. In essence, they end up with more money with an injury than if they keep working. And how do you define how that injury came about? If the person works in a cube, but then surfs the Web for five hours a night at home, did the job cause the problem or was it the Web surfing at night?”

Josh Kerst is vice president and ergonomics engineer at Humantech, a Michigan-based human performance firm specializing in occupational ergonomics. He believes that workers shouldn’t fear any policy shifts.

“There are sunrise companies and there are sunset companies,” Kerst says. “Sunrise companies see the benefit of health and safety efforts for all the right reasons–low turnover, communications within the organization, etc. Sunset companies are too busy going out of business with systems in disrepair and financial problems. They do the minimum to get by. Professionals shouldn’t fear health and safety regulations going away. They should fear sunset companies.”

Linda Walker, founder of OSHAstuff.com, a San Diego-based workplace safety compliance resource, thinks the scuttled OSHA rules won’t really affect impact today’s professional. “In most cases,” she says, workers “can easily control the layout of their workstation in ways that will make the most difference to their comfort. They can put their monitor directly in front of their keyboard. They can learn to adjust chairs and monitors. They can get in good physical condition, eat right, take breaks, and walk as often as possible.”

But Jim Walsh, editor of OSHA in the Real World, believes the policy shift is a major setback. “The recently-departed ergonomic standard was designed to give federal regulators a tool for cracking down on carpal tunnel syndrome. It would have given OSHA a reason to inspect offices as well as factories. The reality is that, unless there is a serious or fatal injury in the office, there isn’t much of a chance of OSHA getting involved in office issues. Some economists will argue that this is one more step toward a modern workplace. But new economies and modern workplaces don’t matter much when your wrist is throbbing. When that starts,” he adds, “you’ll have to look to state workers’ comp systems for help.”

Employers may want to regulate your romance.

Besides raising a few eyebrows, office romances can jeopardize your job security and put employers and co-workers on edge. If you find yourself drawn to an attractive co-worker, be aware of company policy and relatively new trends in office romance management.

Lester Jones, attorney and law partner with the law firm of Littler Mendelson in Los Angeles, says employers have been approaching labor and employment law firms for years about work romance issues. Many companies now ask “involved” employees to sign Consensual Relationship Agreements, more commonly known as “Love Contracts.”

Love and the Law

“These types of contracts have been around for about six or seven years,” Jones says. Before you consider another date with your new office partner, give some thought to what you might want to do if asked to sign one of these agreements. “Basically, it’s an agreement to not pursue litigation against the employer if the relationship goes bad,” Jones adds. Once two employees stop dating, one person may believe that the former partner no longer treats them fairly or ignores them when a promotion should be considered.

It’s at this point that the less senior employee could claim that a “hostile work environment” has evolved–and pursue litigation against the employer. According to Jones, “Most employers realize that it’s unwise to try and ban all office romances. However, they are very interested in preventing these relationships from having a negative impact on the workplace.” By having both parties sign a Consensual Relationship Agreement, the two parties will be put on active notice of their separate rights and responsibilities, both during the course of the relationship and after its possible demise.

Though some employees may be fearful of waiving future legal rights, Jones says, “Many people actually feel a bit relieved when asked to sign these contracts. They realize that others will be watching and try to help them protect their legal rights.” Fortunately, most employers have not found it necessary to intervene once these types of contracts have been signed.

Whose Business Is It?

Other questions still remain. For example, when can you expect an employer to approach you–after a few lunch dates with your new friend, or when office gossip circulates about the relationship? “Once a relationship has become open and notorious,” Jones says, “employers are likely to approach two employees with one of these contracts.”

The term ‘open and notorious’ is ambiguous; it doesn’t necessarily imply any improper workplace shows of affection or overt signs of favoritism. Instead, it’s simply a legal term indicating that the employer believes that the relationship has become common knowledge in the office. Employers may choose to restate their expectations for respectful and responsible behavior on the job.

The Bottom Line

When approached about signing a Consensual Relationship Agreement, many employees wonder if they can refuse to sign it. These are voluntarycontracts; employers should tell both parties that they will not be penalized if they decide not to sign. However, it may be in your best interest to accept the terms.

Signing one of these agreements does not cause either party to waive all of their rights regarding sexual harassment or other wrongful behavior that may evolve at a later date, Jones says. However, these contracts normally include an arbitration provision. If any adversarial action is later contemplated, the matter must be resolved through arbitration proceedings–not the public court system.

In light of this, it’s always important to ask yourself if the relationship is really worth it. If you think it is, just be prepared to have a personnel officer or managing partner of your company approach you with one of these agreements. Hopefully, your romance will either have a happy ending or at least end amicably, regardless of whether you choose to sign on the dotted line.