MMC, INC. E-Newsletter Volume IV, Issue No. 9 

September, 2008

Reinforcing Your Business Strength
 
Like many, you may find yourself evaluating your business resources, organizational mission and strengths as you aim efforts towards completing this year with as few financial upsets as possible.  Taking proactive step to assure financial fitness is key to managing business concerns during uncertain times.  To this, we at MMC commend you and your efforts to assure your workforce has all it needs to maximize organizational strengths.  We invite you to allow this edition of Client E-News and our personalized services work with you to create the best plan for your continued success.
 
For the past 25 years, MMC has enjoyed its role as a leader for innovative management solutions. Our turn-key solutions for Human Resources, Payroll, Employee Benefits, Risk Management and Compliance issues makes us an invaluable partner for your organization.  Always feel free to reach our team of helpful professionals at (800) 899-MMCI (6624).
 

In this issue

• Is Your Workplace Showing Signs of Disengagement?
• Career Success - What Is It And How Do We Attain It?
• Labor & Employment Law Update
  Inference Cannot Establish Gender and Age Discrimination 
• Independent Contractor Relationship Affirmed

Is Your Workplace Showing Signs Of Disengagement? Honing Your Emotional I.Q.

Surveys reveal that some 50 to 75 percent of employees say they will leave their current employer once the job market improves. Members of your own staff may be no exception.  How you identify who may be vulnerable to  "poachers," and what you do to reinforce loyalty in a work environment is key.

It is important to recognize that the lack of employee satisfaction is not always the motivation for employees to leave.  Many times, whether that employee feels engaged is critical.  

Keeping employees engaged in their work environment and providing feedback has been positively linked to making employees feel like their presence in an organization makes a true difference.  Engaging employees by facilitating a workplace that continuously provides opportunities for bettering oneself can make a difference that increased pay cannot compete. 

Another key ingredient for retaining superstars is providing them with regular praise for a job done well.  People remain engaged when they receive recognition and appreciation for their contributions.  They're satisfied when they experience open communication and demonstrated trust with their immediate supervisors, and they excel when they believe they've got longer-term opportunities available to them beyond their current role in the organization. 

Now that you are armed with tools of engagement, how can you identify the disengaged?  Aside from conducting workplace surveys, human resources professionals believe that the disengaged can be spotted in a number of common ways.  These may include identifying those who have suddenly adopted a  9-to-5 time clock mentality.  Signs of disengagement can also be revealed in individuals who demonstrate an unwillingness to participate in office social events, or in those who have a tendency to "fox hole" themselves apart from peers, or from a change in personality where, for example, someone who was normally outgoing and enthusiastic seems distant and has nothing positive to contribute. 

Whether change is obvious or intuitive, if you sense an unhappy former superstar, it is safe to assume that if an opportunity comes knocking that employee will likely consider leaving simply because your office  isn't rewarding or engaging anymore.  To consider other rules for engagement, see more tips for engaging employees.

Career Success - What Is It And How Do We Attain It?

In "What Do Proactive People Do? A Longitudinal Model Linking Proactive Personality and Career Success," Scott Seibert and others discuss the impact of proactive behavior on employee satisfaction with personal career success.  The authors argue that in a "boundaryless" career environment where work experiences can span many different employers, work arrangements and types of skills, individuals are responsible for managing their own careers, and individual behavior plays an increasingly important role in success/satisfaction. 

Thus, for many, the key to career success can often lie with the individual.  
 
Career success is believed to combine some variant of skill, motivation, determination, and personality to create that combine to result in personal  fulfillment and financial reward.  Truly, individuals are the masters of their own career success and satisfaction.
 
So what to do if you don't feel personally satisfied with your career?  Before you decide to walk away from your current employment, consider the following:

• How does what I am currently engaged in fit within my career goals?
• What are my career goals?
• What is the purpose of my current career objective?
• How does my current employment fit within my plan for making an impact on my family and community?  
• What are my personal strengths, talents, and skills? And how can I contribute those to my workplace and/or community? 
• How does my employment improve and refine my strengths, talents, and skills?

Finally, in the words of Ayn Rand, "The ladder of success is best climbed by stepping on the rungs of opportunity." With that, we say forge ahead towards personal satisfaction and success and understand that every career experience breeds an opportunity for personal growth. 

For more on this topic consider principles of career success.

Labor & Employment Law Update
Inference Cannot Establish Gender and Age Discrimination 

The First Circuit of the federal Court of Appeals concluded that apparent unfairness in the workplace does not always pave the way for establishing a discrimination case.  In Sabinson v. Trustees of Dartmouth College, the Court reviewed a lower court's decision to foreclose Sabinson a former college professor from bringing a gender and age discrimination case against her employer Dartmouth College for essentially making her journey to become a tenured professor especially tenuous and ultimately encouraging her early retirement.  Sabinson had allegedly demonstrated difficulties in getting along with staff and faculty, despite receiving favorable student evaluations.  Personality conflicts continued to underlie adverse employment decisions, which Sabinson attributed to unlawful discrimination which she had no direct evidence to support such claims.
 
Refusing to infer that Sabinson's difficult career at Dartmouth was motivated by unlawful discrimination, the lower court summarily adjudged that Sabinson could not meet her burden for maintaining a discrimination suit against the college.  The appeals court concluded that Sabinson did appear to have a difficult time in becoming tenured and had likely been subjected to a peer review that involved others who did not treat Sabinson favorably. Nonetheless, Sabinson's failure to identify direct links to her complaints to evidence of unlawful discrimination undermined her suit. Thus the lower court's decision to grant summary judgment against Sabinson was affirmed.  To read the full decision, click Sabinson v. Trustees of Dartmouth College.

Independent Contractor Relationship Affirmed

In Varisco v. Gateway Science and Engineering, Inc., a September 15, 2008 California Court of Appeal decision, further guidance on who is an independent contractor was provided.  In the Varisco case, an independent construction inspector (Varisco) was hired by defendant Gateway in January 2004 to assist Gateway with a construction bid it was awarded from Los Angeles Unified School District. 

In November 2004, subsequent to his regular and consistent reporting to work, Gateway sought Varisco's execution of a formal independent contractor agreement which clarified Varisco's role on the project as an independent contractor.  Varisco refused.  He was subsequently terminated from further work due to his refusal.  Varisco then brought a lawsuit against Gateway for wrongful termination and breach of an implied contract which he argued resulted from an oral promise of continuous employment.
 
While Varisco was able to show that Gateway had advised him in writing that their workplace relationship was "at will" and that Gateway exercised primary control in managing the manner in which Varisco worked and over the ultimate work-product of the project, significant other factors weighed in favor of finding Varisco was an independent contractor status. These [Borello] factors included:
 
      (a) whether the one performing services is engaged in a distinct 
      occupation or business; (b) the kind of occupation, with reference
      to whether, in the locality, the work is usually done under the direction   
      of the principal or by a specialist without supervision; (c) the skill
      required in the particular occupation; (d) whether the principal or the
      worker supplies the instrumentalities, tools, and the place of work for
      the person doing the work; (e) the length of time for which the services
      are to be performed; (f) the method of payment, whether by the time or
      by the job; (g) whether or not the work is a part of the regular business
      of the principal; and (h) whether or not the parties believe they are
      creating the relationship of employer-employee."   
 
Based on the totality of Varisco's work conditions and relationship, however, the Court of Appeal concluded that the lower court had rightly found an independent contractor relationship.  This case underscores the benefits of securing an executed Independent Contractor Agreement before engaging 1099 workers.  To read the decision in full, click Varisco v. Gateway.

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