Are You Voting Employees off the Island?

If you want to be appalled at what happens in certain schools in our country, read this article. It may make your blood boil a little like mine did. Voting a kindergarten kid out of the class when you know he has a disability that effects his behavior is idiotic.

Now, we can all look at that and see lots of dollars in lawsuits and deservedly so. This is a case where discrimination, harassment, and just poor judgement will cost that school district big bucks.

How does this apply to your work environment? Could you be treating employees in similar ways? Certainly, you may not literally be voting employees off the "island", but allowing certain things to happen in the workplace or making life challenging for difficult employees can happen, even if you don't mean for it to.

Here's the deal...

Employment Practice Liability claims are getting more and more common and costly. You may not even realize that an employee is feeling harassed or discriminated by other employees or supervisors. That is until you get the subpoena!

Make sure that you are doing everything possible to monitor your employees behaviors and document areas of concern. Being sued is the last thing you want. Or being kicked off your own island.

Dan

100 Most Dangerous Days

Happy Memorial Day! In addition to firing up the BBQ or heading to the ball game (like I am tonight for the Mariners and Red Sox), you should keep one item in the back of your mind for the next few months.

Starting today and running through Labor Day are the 100 most dangerous days to drive for Americans. Pretty sobering thought to bring up on a holiday, but that's what we risk managers do. Why are the next 100 days so dangerous? You probably know most of the answers...

1. Speaking of sober, you guessed it - too much drinking and driving. All those summer, graduation, and wedding parties add up to too much alcohol on the road.
2. All those teenagers and college students are on the road again. Usually driving way too fast!
3. Vacation time means more people on the road. Unfortunately, when we as a society head for a break, we are usually in a hurry to get there. So we drive fast and are impatient. A bad combination behind the wheel.
4. We are in too much of a hurry. In our fast-paced world, it all has to happen now. We tend to be late all the time and trying to make up time.
5. Distracted driving. Cell phones, eating and drinking, reading the newspaper (you've all seen it), and other distractions are making us less focused. This happens all year round but can be exacerbated during summer.

Add to it that a consequence of many of these is the growing concern of Road Rage. When you mix all these factors together, you can see how dangerous it is every time you get behind the wheel.

Here are some tips to help you stay safe this summer...

• Leave early - wherever you are headed, give yourself plenty of time. Many of our accidents happen because we are trying to make up time.
• Don't get involved with an aggressive driver. Let them pass, don't make eye contact and don't stop. If they follow you, drive to a public place - never drive home.
• Don't drink and drive. Enough said!
• Avoid distractions like cell phones and eating in the car. There's too much to keep your mind occupied as it is.
• Be a defensive driver. Pay attention and don't make it a competition.

Whether its for work or pleasure, make sure you are safe not only these next 100 days, but always!

Dan

Are you ready to re-charge your batteries?

I just got done reading a blog from a good friend of mine, Pete McDowell. Pete is a business coach and has some valuable insight on re-charging those batteries this holiday weekend. To read his insightful article, click here...

Best wishes for a great weekend.

Dan

You Can't Make This Stuff Up!

I was at a coffee shop today to meet a client and discuss a business situation. We chose this particular coffee shop because it had free WiFi. I still don't understand why every coffee shop doesn't offer free WiFi yet. You'd think they would pick up on the point it could bring in more business. I digress.

My laptop was low on juice so I searched around to find a table that had an outlet nearby to plug in. After not finding any, I inquired to the barista behind the desk and she pointed straight up. The outlets were in the ceiling! You can't make this stuff up! Are you kidding me?

The only way to plug in my lap top was to climb on top of a chair, haul up the cord, and plug it into the ceiling.

Outside of being non-customer friendly, it's a HUGE liability issue. People like me, who don't want to pack up and search for another location will be climbing chairs every day to plug in their computers. Can you imagine a 63-year old executive teetering on a flimsy chair? Can you spell L-A-W-S-U-I-T? This is a liability claim waiting to happen.

Before you scoff this off as stupidity (which it is), take a close look around your office or business location. What potential hazards do you see? What may seem to us as routine, may be a teetering business man on a chair to someone else. Make sure you're taking care of your risk management issues before someone takes care of it for you.

Bottoms up!

Dan

I'm BACK!!!

I know it's been a full month since my last post on this blog. My apologies. In fact, not only will you see more blogging in the future, but you will see a new format. Like my Dan Weedin Presents blog for presentation skills - According to Dan - this blog will soon move to Word Press. You can expect this change within the month and I will be doing a much more thorough job of blogging.

To kick-off my return, you need to know some important information. The teleconference interview with Chris Madison has a time change. The date (May 14) is still the same, but the time will now be 10:00am Pacific. This is very important for the Toro Insiders who get this conference call for FREE, and to those who want to join. Chris will share strategies with you on how to better manage your life, disability, and long-term care insurance needs. This is important for all business owners and professionals. Don't miss it. To register, go to my web site store and sign up by clicking here...

Please keep checking back for more information about the changes I'm making.

Dan

P.S. Want to know more about how you can become a Toro Insider, click here...