Millions of Americans contend with a toxic workplace where bullying is rampant. However, employers can take several steps to help reduce that toxicity. So report Forbes.

Employers must be proactive in taking action, Heidi Lynne Kurter, a leadership coach and human resources consultant, writes for Forbes. The Workplace Bullying Institute’s 2017 survey found that bullying impacted 60.4 million Americans and that 61% of bullies are managers.

“By acknowledging toxic behaviors, leaders can take action to cultivate a greater understanding of what’s appropriate and what won’t be tolerated,” Kurter writes. “Some elements of a toxic culture include micromanaging, inflexibility, negative gossip, unhealthy levels of competition, bad attitudes and office cliques.”

Bringing in a third-party may be necessary in some cases to ensure that the root causes of the toxicity are properly addressed. “Outside parties are able to see toxic individuals for who they really are instead of who they try to portray themselves to be,” Kurter notes. “After careful observation, the third party creates a solution to address negative behaviors and hold those accountable for contributing to the toxic culture.”

Read the full article from Forbes.

A zero-tolerance flirting policy may seem like the safe bet for most employers, but some experts say such an approach could hurt worker productivity. So reports MarketWatch.

Allowing for flirting in the workplace that doesn’t turn into sexual harassment could be a positive experience, according to new research. “When flirtation is enjoyed, it makes the recipient feel good about themselves—it makes them feel attractive, included and powerful,” lead study author Leah Sheppard, an assistant professor of management at Washington State University, tells MarketWatch. “These are all psycho-social resources that lead to the reduction of stress.”

Sheppard, however, says the research should not be seen as a green light for coworkers to flirt, and especially in cases where the interaction is between a superior and subordinate. The research notes flirtation is OK when it happens organically among colleagues who already have an established positive relationship.

While having a zero-tolerance policy against sexual harassment is highly recommended, extending the same to flirting could lead to awkwardness and fear. “It could have long-term implications for how happy your employees are,” Sheppard says. “In that kind of environment, I would probably feel very fearful, like any little thing that I do can be misconstrued.”

Read the full article from MarketWatch.

Amazon threatened to fire at least two of its employees after they publicly blasted the e-commerce giant’s environmental policies. So reports The Washington Post.

The Post reviewed an email sent by a lawyer for Amazon’s employee-relations group to two workers in October. The letter alleged the employees ran afoul of the company’s external communications policy. Further violations could “result in formal corrective action, up to and including termination of your employment with Amazon,” the letter notes.

The employees--Maren Costa, a principal user-experience designer, and Jamie Kowalski, a software development engineer--told The Washington Post in October that Amazon was acting irresponsibly because its cloud computing operation helps oil-and-gas-company exploration. Also in October, Costa met with Amazon’s human resources department about her concerns.

“It was scary to be called into a meeting like that, and then to be given a follow-up email saying that if I continued to speak up, I could be fired,” Costa said. “But I spoke up because I’m terrified by the harm the climate crisis is already causing, and I fear for my children’s future.”

Amazon spokeswoman Jaci Anderson said the company is not trying to silence its workers, noting that employees are “encouraged to work within their teams,” including by “suggesting improvements to how we operate through those internal channels.”

Read the full article from The Washington Post.

Starting a new job at online retailer Zappos means recruits get to work for four weeks before deciding if they want the job. And if the company decides the new hire is not a good fit or the recruit decides they don’t want the job, the company will pay them for the month and wish them well.

While this way of onboarding new hires is not the norm, Zappos has found this approach to be successful in attracting and retaining recruits, Hollie Delaney, head of human resources at Zappos.com tells Business Insider.

When Delaney came to interview at the firm more than a dozen years ago, she remembered the person interviewing her saying that one of the firm’s core values is to ‘create fun and a little weirdness.’

While a small number of new hires do decide they don’t want to stay after four weeks, “we’ve found that it’s actually cost effective, because we’re not just hiring people,” Delaney said. “We’re hiring the right people. People who have a service-first mindset,” she said. “People who want to be here because we fit them, too, and who, in most cases, are going to stick around for the long haul… and hopefully make our company better for the hard work we all put in early on.”

Read the full article from Business Insider.

Leaders or those aspiring to lead can help their own development by learning how and when to forgive those who have wrong them. So reports Northwest Indiana Times.

Shawne Duperon, founder of The Project Forgive Foundation, spoke to a recent gathering of the Northwest Indiana Chapter of the Society for Human Resource Management last month.

"There's the notion of giving an apology and there's the notion of receiving an apology," Duperon says. "There's distinction between, 'I hear that I really hurt you. I'm so sorry I hurt you' versus 'You're upset. I'm sorry.'"

Duperon also suggests that business leaders learn "how to accept apologies they'll never receive" in order to create peace with people they don't agree with or who they don't like.

Read the full article from Northwest Indiana Times

Starbucks wasted little time trying to minimize damage stemming from alleged racism at one of its locations by ordering all its U.S. shops to undergo racial-bias training.

The coffee mega chain is shutting down more than 8,000 U.S. stores on the afternoon of May 29 for a racial-bias education session for its 175,000 employees, Yahoo Finance reports. Globally, the 8,000 locations represents 29% of its stores.

The push to educate its U.S. workforce came after two black men were arrested at a Philadelphia Starbucks. An employee asked the men, who had come to Starbucks for a meeting, to leave after they did not order anything and when they asked to use the restroom. A manager cited the store's policy that prohibited non-paying customers from using the restroom.

A video of the men being arrested went viral and forced Starbuck to deal with the fallout, including nationwide protests. The employee who called police was fired and CEO Kevin Johnson came out with a strong video apology where he called the store's actions "reprehensible."

Johnson also personally met with both men to apologize, the Chicago Tribune reports. But Johnson deemed it wasn't enough.

"Going into this, no matter what Starbucks did, it would be deemed to have been a misfire, not only because of the emotions involved, but also because of the utter impossibility of controlling social media and because you have legitimately aggrieved parties," says Eric Dezenhall, a crisis management expert and CEO of Dezenhall Resources, according to Yahoo Finance. Dezenhall adds that Starbucks "has done the best they could do under terrible circumstances."

Johnson accepted full responsibility and promised, in his video apology, that "we're going to learn from this."

"This is a management issue, and I am accountable to ensure we address the policy and practices and the training that led to this outcome," Johnson says in the video.
Dezenhall notes that Johnson took the right approach in "understanding that the game is damage control--not that damage never happened."

Starbucks will pay a steep price for the hours it shuts down later this month, with losses estimated at $12 million, notes Jeff Sonnenfeld, dean of Yale's School of Management. "This move goes far beyond the playbook of what a normal crisis response would be," says Andrew Gilman, president of CommCore Consulting Group. Gilman made his remarks to The New York Times.

The challenge for Starbucks is to act fast to deal with a major societal problem, while understanding that the underlying issues that led up to the arrest have a long history. "Think of it like a trauma surgeon--if someone is wheeled in with chest pains, you can't begin giving them a lecture on history of health," Dezenhall says. "You have to solve the problem at hand."

For Starbucks, which has long promoted itself as a friendly meeting destination, "they need to focus not just on customer service, but on people care," says Daniel DelCastillo, a managing partner for San Diego-based Best Human Resources Consultants. DelCastillo made his remarks to the San Diego Union-Tribune.

"How do we care for people the moment they walk in the door, whether they buy anything or not?" says DelCastillo, also an adjunct professor at San Diego State University's Fowler College of Business Administration. "They need to measure the diversity of their clientele and get feedback from customers about how they have been treated. And they need to bring accountability to diversity management. When you make the diversity element part of (the employees') performance, people pay attention."

To be most effective, bias training should focus on how people make decisions,  says Howard Ross, founder of Silver Spring, MD-based Cook Ross business management consulting. Ross' remarks were reported by the Society For Human Resource Management.

"The training is a beginning," Ross says. "It can bring awareness and point people in the right direction, but training by itself will rarely have any long-term impact" unless there is change in the company's culture and employees are held accountable for their actions.

Starbucks should include training that gives it employees an understanding of what it is like for people of color to live in a society "where they must always be aware of the suspicion others have for them, to be profiled and watched because crime or disruption is expected of them," says Steve Humerickhouse, executive director of The Forum on Workplace Inclusion at the University of St. Thomas in Minneapolis.

"Starbucks can go a long way in educating 175,000 employees about what it means to be a person of color in the U.S., especially if those employees take that training to heart and share it with their extended friends and family," Humerickhouse says. "The impact can ripple out from Philadelphia to the whole country."

While human resources must equip employees with a solid grounding in compliance and other legal requirements, it is important to go beyond rote training. So reports Forbes.

In the world of HR, training is geared toward areas that are crucial for employees to understand, including policies on harassment, anti-discrimination and safety. "Training follows a formula consisting of three primary components: instruction, retention, repetition," according to Tyler Koch, a senior human resources consultant and member of Forbes Human Resources Council. Koch penned his thoughts in a recent Forbes article. "Training follows a specified course of action in a way that has been deemed appropriate or effective."

But learning takes training to another level of engagement. "Learning is focused on the process of passing information in such a way that the recipient engages (in) a level of critical thinking and is equipped with the ability to apply certain aspects of the information to achieve an optimal result," Koch writes. "Learning isn't accomplished via mere repetition of skills in a given scenario; it's driven by strategic and creative application across a variety of situations."

Read the full article from Forbes. 

Suncorp Group has allowed workers who are part of volunteer organizations that are fighting to stop Australia’s massive bush fires to take paid-time off. So reports Human Resources Director.

The paid-time off is unlimited, with Suncorp also offering counseling and paid leave to employees who have personally been affected by the fires.

“This recovery is going to take a long time,” Suncorp Group CEO Steve Johnston said. “As one of Australia’s largest insurers we understand the role we need to play in that process. We are committed to continuing to do everything possible to help people and communities get back on their feet.”

Read the full article from Human Resources Director.

Women surgeons are more than twice as likely as other women to encounter fertility issues stemming from having to work in operating rooms. So reports stuff.co.nz, citing a new study.

The study, conducted by researchers in Australia and the U.S., finds that radiation, surgical smoke, anesthetic gases and toxic substances may harm female surgeons’ chances of having a healthy baby. In New Zealand, 12% of surgeons are women.

Read the full article from stuff.co.nz.

Some Korean consultants are targeting nervous job recruits, touting how they can help those recruits better deal with artificial-intelligence-hiring-robots. So reports WION.

The consultants promise to help recruits learn how to keep their composure and ensure their facial expressions are interpreted as positive by the bots. One consultant, Park Seong-jung, says he had conducted 48 lectures last year that included more than 700 university students, graduates and lecturers.

“AI is becoming a trend,” Park says. “South Korea also has a serious youth unemployment problem and competition among students is very fierce. We help students overcome and succeed in AI interviews by preparing them for job analysis, introducing themselves, and gamification.”

Read the full article from WION.

Thailand’s government plans to send 100,000 of its citizens abroad so they can bolster their work expertise and then come home to help grow the local economy. So reports Human Resources.

The Minister of Labor Chatumongol Sonakul has asked the Office of Labour Abroad to key in on five areas. These include making sure citizens working abroad receive all the benefits as promised in their employment contracts; helping these workers boost their work knowledge and skills; develop technology skills and have a good quality of life.

The expectation is that these workers will come back to Thailand with their newly acquired skills and help to uplift the country’s labor talent pool. Taiwan, South Korea, Japan and Israel are the top countries the government has targeted.

Read the full article from Human Resources.

Rolls-Royce, a manufacturer of aero engines, has decided to eliminate more than 4,000 jobs that will include human resources, finance and purchasing positions. So reports The Guardian.

The goal is to boost profits by cutting out mid-management jobs.

"We are proposing to move to a considerably simplified staff structure, with fewer layers and greater spans of control across the group," a company spokesman said.

The company is expected to cut 4,600 positions globally, HRM Asia reports, with one-third of those cuts expected to be carried out by year-end. The firm has a global workforce of 55,000, with 26,000 in the UK.

The former CEO of France Telecom and six other executives will face trial over allegations that they had a role in at least 19 employee suicides. So reports BBC News.

The executives are accused of "moral harassment." Former CEO Didier Lombard and the other executives deny that restructuring efforts they undertook in 2006 led to the suicides. Lombard had tried to eliminate 22,000 jobs and retrain at least 10,000 workers.

"I'll get them out one way or another, through the window or through the door," Lombard was quoted telling senior managers in 2007. Starting in 2008, at least 19 workers killed themselves,12 attempted suicide and eight suffered depression. Guilty verdicts could result in two years in prison and $35,000 in fines.

France Telecom, a multinational telecommunications corporation, became Orange in 2013. "As it has always said, Orange rejects the accusations and will make its case during the public hearing which will be scheduled in the coming months," an Orange spokesman said.

Read the full article from BBC News. 

A London court sentenced a UK financial analyst to 16-weeks in jail in May for harassing a colleague and posting porn photos purporting to be her. So reports CPS.

Davide Buccheri, 25, was convicted of harassment stemming from actions that lasted eight-months long from September 2016 to May last year. The harassment began after the colleague refused to go on a date with him.

Buccheri then uploaded photos of the woman he took from her social media site onto an adult porn website alongside actual pornographic photos. Actresses in those pornographic images resembled the coworker.  

Buccheri then reached out to managers at his firm, M&G Investments, and reported the photos in an effort to get the woman in trouble.

"This was a sustained campaign of harassment against a young woman beginning her career in the financial services industry," says Aimee Emby, from the Crown Prosecution Service. "Not only did Buccheri's actions cause this victim considerable distress and anxiety, his denial of guilt forced her to relive her ordeal."

Buccheri also was ordered to fork over US$6,705 in compensation to the woman.

Read the full article from CPS. 

Breakfast cereal giant Kellogg's is allowing the 420 workers at its Salford headquarters to clock out of work by noon on Fridays this summer as long as they finish their work. So reports Metro.

The summer hours are designed to improve productivity and give workers more flexibility with a longer weekend.

"Flexible working is something we take very seriously and we encourage all our UK office-based employees to make the most of the summer hour scheme," says Sue Platt, Kellogg's UK human resources director. "Summer hours is part of a package we offer to ensure we provide work-life balance opportunities to all employees."

Read the full article from Metro.