EOC Week 9: Sexual Harassment and the NFL

The whole incident in the NFL and Ray Rice beating his girlfriend and now wife is upsetting, and I believe Ray Rice deserves to be put on suspension for a couple games. "The NFL goes to great lengths to preserve the image and integrity of the game, whether it's personal conduct or protecting competitive balance." Ultimately The NFL has a contract before you enter into the game that you must sign. So Ray Rice new what he was getting into, and he should have thought about his consequences before he decided to knock out his girlfriend in a public elevator on video camera.
"As an employee of the NFL or a member club, you are held to a higher standard and expected to conduct yourself in a way that is responsible, promotes the values upon which the League is based, and is lawful."  If you think about it the NFL's HR did not just put this in a contract for no reason. They understand that these people are public figures and public figures if you do not give them any consequences may get carried away and start to think they can just go around and hit and punch and treat others any way they want. This was what RIce had to say when news of the suspension came out.  "As I said earlier, I failed in many ways. But, Janay and I have learned from this. We have become better as a couple and as parents. I am better because of everything we have experienced since that night."

EOC Week 7: Minimum Wages

 "Minimum wage is the least amount of wages that employees covered by the FLSA or state law may be paid by their employers." I believe at this day and age minimum wage should be raised, and not just in Nevada alone, but around the U.S. In this day and age people cannot live off of $8.25 or less an hour, in this world, every home has a car, rent, internet, a phone, water, electricity and other bills that are needed to be paid. So by living off of that wage you’re conflicted by this because it’s not enough to pay all the bills and live to eat. There needs to be a balance for what we set our pay as, so they need to raise the minimum wage to help people get off the streets. " The Equal Pay Act (1963) requires that equal pay must be given to men and women for equal work, if the jobs they perform require equal skill, effort, and responsibility, and if they are performed under similar working conditions."Nevada's minimum is $7.25 an hour, the same as the current federal minimum wage, for those offered health insurance by their employers.  "Generally, employers may establish wages and salaries as they wish, but they also must comply with federal, state, and local laws that directly affect compensation programs."

EOC Week 6:Perform job analysis, write job descriptions, and job specifications

Visual Merchandiser: "Visual merchandising team members contribute to the advertising, marketing, and sales efforts of a retail location by designing, developing and taking charge of the visual look of the store and its merchandise."

"It is important that proper performance be clearly defined. Then staff members will know what is expected of them, and managers will know when performance is acceptable."

Job Responsibilities include, but are not limited to:

Strategy Development -

-Perform research and analysis of current trends and activities in design, fashion and color
-Lead the visual merchandising direction of the company
-Ensure compliance with standards and promote consistent image across all stores/products
-Conceptualize and implement Visual Merchandising Strategies for retail stores/brands
-Execute a visual merchandising strategy that provides clear, illustrated direction while executing a customer friendly merchandise presentation
-Create and maintain visual standards Manual to provide direction for all stores.
-Provide leadership and implementation support to the Stores
-Create photo documentation and communication to aide store set up of key displays
-Create visual merchandising packs, including plans and photographs
-Modify displays based on unique needs of stores/floor plans
-Visit stores to coach in-store visual merchandising techniques to execute the core VM concepts
-Work with internal buyers and 3rd party vendors to address product needs
-Liaise with internal teams such as buyers, design and marketing to create design themes and plans for window and in-store displays, signage and pricing concepts
-Create and implement build out of in-store fixture displays
-Enhance product presentation
-Adhere to budget constraints
-Provide solutions to problems
-Design window displays
-Cost and plan displays.
-Source vendors and materials
-Decide which props/products will be displayed
-4 + Years of Visual Merchandising experience with a combination of corporate and field responsibilities.
-Design experience, InDesign, Photoshop or other VM software experience
-Strong graphic design, fashion, color skills
-Costing, budgeting and vendor management experience
-Space planning or construction exposure
-Bachelor's Degree or equivalent work experience.

Developing Standards and Tools -

Product Merchandising -

Design and Plan Window and Fixture Displays -

Requirements:

"The main objective of visual merchandising is to increase sales and buyer attention, capitalising on the human tendency to ‘window-shop’. Displays are frequently changed to promote new product launches and reflect festive or seasonal themes, such as Christmas, spring or summer."

EOC Week 5: Marijuana in the Workplace

" Marijuana affects every user differently and those effects can depend on: the person- their mood, personality, size and weight; the amount taken and whether it is mixed with anything else; The environment in which the drug is used." 

Now and days, literally about 95% of people in the world are abusing substance, some for medical reasons most for other reasons, and with Marijuana starting to become more legalized in almost all of the states, its going to make it easier for others to access it. So what exactly are we going to do about "DRUG TESTING" how are we going to deny someone a job if they smoke marijuana, if its become less important than the other drugs. Maybe do the regular standard drug test, and if they are shown use of marijuana then maybe have them sign a document stating, that they will not use this substance around the work area, while on duty or on break, must wait until they are _____ (miles) away from the place they work. However, most employers won’t do that, they feel they must have a drug-fee work environment. Okay? What about "Medical Marijuana"

My take on the whole situation, and you don’t have to agree with me, is that if you have a visibly clear reason to why you use recreational drugs and have the proper requirements to use those drugs then you should most definitely be exonerated. Now if the employee was using at the workplace or doesn’t have the right requirements then of course they should be terminated for wrongful use in the workplace. A positive marijuana test doesn't necessarily mean the person taking the test is high, or has even used the drug recently. 

 The standard urine test most commonly used in employer drug testing measures the presence of THC — a psychoactive compound in marijuana that persists in the body for days, weeks or even longer. So a positive marijuana test doesn't necessarily mean the person taking the test is high, or has even used the drug recently.

EOC Week 3: This Charming Man

This week in Human Resource Management we watched a danish movie called This Charming Man. In the movie there was a lot of discrimination. The movie starts off with a man named Lars Hansen trying to find work, so he gets set up with a class that has nothing to do with him, instead his name got mixed up with someone else name, so Lars calls the immigration center and talks to the lady, he gets frustrated and calls the lady working a peasant who needs to go back to where she comes from. Managers should use zero-tolerance harassment policies to take action even for offensive conduct that does not meet the legal standard of a harassing environment. The reason is that even mild forms of harassment that go unchecked can disrupt an operation through decreased morale and productivity and increased employee turnover. (Chapter 10 pg. 356)Another act of discrimination was when a bar tender was saying a racist joke. For example he tells a joke to the guys sitting at the bar that a bomb went off in Pakistan,  and asks if they know how many died, then replies "No one because they were all here on welfare. " HR managers can take disciplinary action against employees who occasionally use obscene language or tell off-color jokes, even if that conduct would not generally constitute illegal harassment unless the employees engaged in it on an ongoing basis.(Chapter 10 pg.356) Another act of discrimination during the movie was the print shop did not hire immigrants because they prefer a danish male with blonde hair and a charming danish name. The following situations indicate activities that could lead the EEOC to conclude that age discrimination is present in a hospitality operation. The boss wanted younger-looking, more attractive females (or males) for front-of-house positions, so older workers were not hired. (Chapter 9 pg. 327)

EOC Week 2: Sweet Charity

Today in class we watched a movie called Sweet Charity from 1969 staring Shirley Maclaine. The movie is about a taxi dancer named Charity who continues to have faith in the human race despite numerous disappointments, and in hopes to finally meet the man to sweep her off her feet and take her away from her sleazy life. During the movie Charity has an interview with the Human Resources department, during this time of the movie there were some really good views on what you should do and should not do in an interview. For example, something she did wrong during the interview was she did not dress as appropriate and business professional as she should have, she also ended up breaking down and begging for a job which is something no one should ever do. Rehearse before training. Just as trainees must practice to learn a task, trainers should also practice to gain experience with their presentation. Be aware of appearance and hygiene.(Chapter 7 pg. 246) Also, she did not even introduce herself when she walked into the room, she should have gave him a handshake and introduced herself."We probably don't consciously remember a person's handshake or whether it was good or bad. But the handshake is one of the first nonverbal clues we get about the person's overall personality, and that impression is what we remember." (http://www.careerbuilder.com/article/cb-884-getting-hired-why-you-need-a-good-handshake/)  Despite all this, she did do something right, and that was maintaining her optimism. Some managers maintain that employee rating and appraisal systems must include the evaluation of subjective employee characteristics such as personality, attitude, appearance, demeanor, friendliness, and social behavior. Other managers maintain that these characteristics most often do not reflect a worker's ability to successfully perform a job.(Chapter 9 pg.328)

 

EOC: Week 1: Best and Worst Jobs

Through out my four years of employment I have had exactly four jobs, and out of those four one of them was the worst job you could think of, and the one I currently work at is the best job I could ask for at this time in my life.

The worst job I have ever worked at was at a retail clothing store. The store was managed by young girls, and the owner was originally from Korea, but I barley saw her, and when she did come around is was like Cruella Deville stepping into the building everyone feared her. I worked their for about nine months and throughout those nine months I noticed this company seemed a little racist. They would hire Korean people to replace management whenever a manger would get fired, and they even demoted a manger to assistant manager and had a Korean lady come and fill in her place. Mind you these people were great people, but they had no real experience with retail or how to even manage a store, they had us the employees who had been working there and the assistant manager training and helping out the new managers. I was even helping train new employees who got hired with better pay. "Hospitality and tourism organizations that implement valuing-diversity efforts move beyond race and gender concerns and attempt to provide an environment that is welcoming and rewarding for every staff member."(Chapter 1 page 16)  They just over all are a horrible company with poor management, and the owner is stuck up in her own world, which is why I believe they have not progressed in the past couple years.

The job I currently work at is one of the best jobs I could ask for. My job really appreciates their employees and they show it too. They start you off with good pay and room for growth in the company. I work at a ticket booth all up and down the Las Vegas Strip where we have such a diverse group of people in the workplace. The company offers benefits, 401k, bonuses, and raises. The company is really big on customer service and they are also really big on making their employees happy as well. We even get sick pay, and paid vacation! "The best of HR managers actually go one step further and use their compensation programs as an essential tool for attracting and retaining excellent workers, as well as maximizing profits for their employers."(Chapter 8 pg. 264) Not only that but since we sell the shows that play all up and down the strip they also comp the shows for us so we can go see them and experience the show itself so we can talk to our customers about them!