User:Ed Poor/Facts

Stuff to insert into articles

illegal discrimination
discrimination which is forbidden by law, usually on the grounds that the factor being considered, should not be considered - such as race in hiring.
 * based on a factor which the law requires to be ignored
 * deems irrelevant


 * such as race in hiring, promotions or school admissions

Note that reverse discrimination has been applied by law to remedy the broad effects of acts of discrimination which have been outlawed. See affirmative action, admissions quotas.

age discrimination Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967

In 1990, a 56-year-old was replaced with 40-year-old
 * 1996 - Supreme Court rules that statutes prohibit discrimination even when the replacement employee is within the same age group.
 * Scalia - "he lost out because of his age ... his replacement was substantially younger."

career ladder
Rungs:
 * entry-level
 * executive-level
 * executive-level

The Three Caballeros
 * Walt made it to bring people together, to help them recognize their similarities and celebrate their differences. See also It's a Small World.

Teamwork at Disney
 * Walt encouraged his employees to express ideas, take risks, and try new things. "Whatever we accomplish is due to the combined effort."

unethical conduct => business ethics or business conduct

workplace sexual harassment - a section of sexual harassment?

workplace discrimination => illegal discrimination

conflicts of interest => conflict of interest Typical conflict of interest policies are designed to ensure that employees' private interests do not influence or even appear to influence the business decisions they make for the company.
 * competing with the company
 * rendering services to a competitor
 * engaging in other employmante that interferes with your company work
 * receiving improper personal benefits because of your position or actions
 * having a material financial interest in a competitor
 * conducting company business with members of your immediate family
 * seeking to influence the company's relationship with a business in which you or an immeditate family member has a material financil interest
 * allowing an employee who reports to you to conduct company business with a member of your immediate family

Immediate family - needs a definition. A brother-in-law is "immediate family". How will this be affected by civil unions or "gay marriage"?

A gift:
 * should not seek to bring about an act that is contrary to the interest of this company or of the company by which the other individual is employed

email
Word your e-mail precisely.
 * Be precise in your use of language when you write e-mail messages. Don't allow the ease of using e-mail and its apparent informality to cause you to use careless, inaccurate, or exaggerated modes of expression. Keep in mind that you can never be certain who may actually read the e-mail message. Imprecise or careless statements can be misunderstood and could even be used in a lawsuit against you or your employer.

The importance of clarity
 * Because you won't be present to explain what you meant when someone else reads your e-mail, it's important to carefully word your message, expressing yourself in clear, understandable terms.
 * Avoid sarcasm, figures of speech, exaggeration, absolutes like "always" and "never," and language that your reader could misunderstand or misinterpret. Any of this can make the meaning of your message unclear and lead your reader to conclusions you didn't intend.

"Why Beer Is Better Than Women" and "A Girl's Guide to Condoms" are two titles of forwarded e-mail that got employees and their companies into trouble. In two high-profile lawsuits, juries agreed that these messages contributed to sexual harassment.

E-mail isn't always the best method When you're busy or in a hurry at work, it's often tempting to send off a quick e-mail without thinking much about it. But sometimes it's better to write a letter, pick up the phone, or talk to someone in person.

E-mail isn't always the best method One of e-mail's greatest shortcomings--its inability to convey anything more than typed words--is one reason why sending a message by e-mail isn't always appropriate.

When you talk to someone, it's easy to convey your emotions--but how about when you use e-mail? E-mail doesn't communicate your tone of voice, volume, subtle body language, or gestures. Therefore, the reader may not know whether you're serious or joking, frustrated or satisfied, happy or sad.

The idea that e-mail disappears when the Delete button is clicked is a dangerous misconception. E-mail can last forever in printed copies, backup tapes, or hard drives. Even if e-mail is erased from a hard drive, it may be reconstructed through sophisticated technology. In many ways, e-mail is even more permanent and less private than traditional letters or memos.

To form a contract, there only needs to be an agreement between the parties and an exchange of things of value. These things of value can include promises made by the parties to each other. And in some cases, you can have a contract even if only one party makes a promise to the other--particularly if the other party takes some action relying on that promise.

A trade secret is valuable information that is owned by a company and that is not common knowledge.

email abuse
Misusing e-mail can have severe consequences, so be careful what you write--you can get yourself and your company into all kinds of trouble, even when you don't intend to. Unless you're careful, your e-mail messages can be offensive, damage someone's reputation, or invade someone's privacy. And depending on what information you include in them, you can violate copyright law, commit fraud, violate antitrust law, form contracts, or reveal company secrets.

Is your e-mail infected? You have to be careful and vigilant with the e-mail messages you receive.

Before you open any message, you should ask: If the answer to any of these questions is no, you should tell your information technology department about the e-mail instead of opening it. Also, you should keep your virus-protection software up to date.
 * Do I know the sender?
 * Does the subject matter look work related?
 * Was I expecting the file that's attached?

Bandwidth
is a measure of the amount of data that can move through a network or an Internet connection over time. Data in a computer system will flow freely until the volume of data causes a slowdown.

Think about it this way. On a highway, cars can travel at the speed limit until the amount of traffic increases enough to force the cars to slow down. Computer networks function in a similar manner.

When writing an e-mail, you should


 * not use absolutes like "always" and "never" to make your point clear.
 * not be vague and imprecise so the e-mail can't be used against you.
 * be accurate and concise to avoid misunderstandings.
 * not use exaggerations to get your reader's attention.

Big company article guideline proposal
Put stock symbol in a taxobox, not in the first sentence. Taxobox is also a good place for the official corporate name. Some companies have an "Inc." at the end or "The" at the beginning of their name. WP needn't place their articles there:
 * The Walt Disney Company
 * Mammoth Stores, Inc.

distance learning
e-learning


 * very few people ever actually finish an e-learning course
 * the longer the e-learning track, the lower the number of participants successfully completing the program
 * Learning Tree, a national IT training firm, uncovered the problem when its e-learning development team designed a pilot course to test an e-learning program’s efficacy. The results surprised them – despite enlisting the skills of their very best instructors who consistently used email and phone messages to encourage participants, only 30 percent of students managed to complete the pilot course.
 * Learning Circuits, the on-line publication of the American Society for Training and Development (which claims to be the world’s largest association dedicated to workplace learning and performance professionals) published an article in which they identified a number of obstacles facing e-learning initiatives, including “resistance to taking on the responsibility for one’s own learning, preference for learning through social interaction, and desire for direct access to experts.”
 * How much excitement can you generate staring at a 17 inch computer monitor by yourself for hours on end?

Op-Ed Piece Roland Van Liew Ref: Training Magazine, January 24th, 2006