Category: Human Resources

Keenly focused on employee value to the customer and balancing the economic realities for small business.

Fred the Fish

living In The Ocean

Fred was a fish in the big ocean. Real big ocean. Fred lived with other fish in his school (fish term for family of like fish). Life was OK, but you had to swim around and find food while you avoided the bigger fish who ate the smaller fish like Fred. Sometimes you were not smart enough to get away in time and became fish food for another fish.

The Bait

One day, a strange thing dropped into the ocean. The fish all asked what this new thing was. Then some started to shout (in bubbles, of course, fish can’t shout), “There’s food over here!”.  OK, free food was a very odd thing in the ocean. Some fish began to question why was there this new free food in the center of this new thing that just dropped into the ocean. Some of the fish were not so enlightened and raced towards the free food. Yum, it was good, so it had to be OK, right?

Free Food

Some fish wandered in, took a nibble, and raced back out of the thing where the free food was. If it is that good, it must be bad.
Some fish shouted that the free food was a trap, and to be strong, stay away for the new thing that dropped into their ocean. Fish like Fred listened and followed the fish that said to avoid the new thing and the free food. Many however were weak in character and followed the others into the center of this new thing to get the free food that tasted so good.

Trapped

Then the new thing began to close up, trapping the fish who were just looking for the free food. As it closed, it began to raise up out of the ocean. By now, the fish who had thought the free food was a good thing we’re afraid of what was happening. Up out of the ocean the net went, and the fish disappeared. They were emptied into a pot of boiling water where they were cooked and canned.

Rules Aren’t So Bad

Fred saw that the free food was not a good thing. Life was supposed to be a balance of difficult and rewarding. Sometimes things were easy, but most of the time, life was about following rules and working to be a better fish.
Sounds familiar at all?
Dave Tay

Your Work Is Meaningful

Economics of Work and Salvation.

Work makes us work together. It’s in this that we can show our humanity to each other, or not. Have you been at work and seen behavior that steals another person’s dignity? Think of it this way, have you seen a coworker bullied, put-upon, made to work to excess? Or, is your workplace a place where humanity thrives and the business does as well?

What makes one place of business one way, or another?

Economics of people working together, HR, employee benefits, and faith are what I write about, someone passed along this informal classroom pole. 40% of Students admitted they have witnessed broken workplaces.

Workplaces are human places first. People do stuff, solve problems and make things together. It’s all done to promote family and community, that’s what work does.

Work is Part of God’s Original Design

Matthew Kelly’s lenten video where he says,

Work is part of God’s original design.

We Must Bring Meaning to Our Work

Matthew Kelly’s lenten video on bringing meaning to your work.

For 98% of us our work is not intrinsically meaningful. Like the work of a Cancer doctor whose work is by its nature intrinsically meaningful, most of us must bring meaning to our work.

How do you bring meaning in every moment of your workday?

Katherine Drexel, A Saints’ Work

Giving up the worlds hold on us makes it possible to see a reality seldom recognized in the daily grind. Trading the world’s promise of fame, fortune, power, honor, privilege for God’s promises means recognizing the workplace as a human place.

It means, doing things like Katherine Drexel did, it is to move your heart from doing for yourself, do doing for others. Katherine Drexel gave up Millions and look what her choice created, a link to her story of starting Xavier University and so many other good works.

What is your place of work like? What do you bring to your workplace? Comment or share your own view.

Healthcare, Trumpcare Won’t Lower Your Premium

Experts have had 40+ years to solve it

It seems to me, the Americans suspended their worry about Healthcare premium hoping Trump and his experts will fix it. They won’t. The experts, right or left, can’t solve Healthcare because they refuse to examine their own practices. Experts always point to others to change instead of themselves. Sound harsh? Maybe it is, Continue reading “Healthcare, Trumpcare Won’t Lower Your Premium”

IRS Filing Relief Clarified

A Story About What It Takes To Get ACA Right

Once in a while, after thirty years of service to the benefits community, a question challenges me. Anyone who knows me knows, I love the detail and a challenge.

The unread 2,500 pages of ACA has been a challenge since the beginning and the question I received about it this time, made me dig for the right answer.

A friend and business owner asked, Continue reading “IRS Filing Relief Clarified”

Consumed by Money, Sex and Power?

Can we stop the nonsense about how to solve violence in the workplace?

Violence is a symptom of an American Culture that has been shaped by the momentum of the decades of the last century. Today, you might find yourself the victim of violence at work, home or in public. Do you avoid someone in the halls, elevators or public and work areas? Is the fashionably decorated workplace a disguise for a dark place where frustration, bullying, stress, expectations of doing more with less, nothing but rushing and hurrying, anger, exist instead of peace and joy and celebrating a job well done together?

There are many reasons for violence in the workplace but in this post, I’d like to make one comparison, what if we compare to an extreme opposite of violence in the workplace. Continue reading “Consumed by Money, Sex and Power?”