11 minute read
Opinion
CAREER CORNER
Praise in public
Advertisement
By Angela Copeland
angela@copelandcoaching.com
We're at an interesting point in time when it comes to business culture. People with many backgrounds and experiences are working together more now than ever before. Some team members are young and have never worked at an in-person job and have always had a cell phone. Others are older people who started working before laptop computers or the internet even existed. Some employees have only worked at big corporate companies, while others have been at startups. These people all have different working styles. They are now collaborating together, via the tiny camera on their computers.
Variations make communication differences quite interesting to observe. You probably have some coworkers who will only call you if there's a scheduled meeting on your calendar. Others may send you an unplanned message, asking if you have time to talk, even when there's no meeting scheduled. And, then there is a handful that will call with no notice. These differences are driven by multiple factors, including generation and work experience.
Similarly, people have different habits when it comes to written communication. Some people prefer email, while others like Slack. Within the email, there are fairly distinct differences. Some emails are sent from one person to another single person. Others include many extra people as a carbon copy, for informational purposes. Some emails will have recipients included as a blind carbon copy, to reduce the number of replies. And, other emails will add additional people to existing email chains.
Over the years, I've started to believe that there is an inverse relationship between email and the size of the company. In other words, the smaller an organization is, the more recipients will be included in a single email. People at startups tend to copy many people at once. This keeps everyone up to date and is seen as being more efficient. Within a large company, it's more common to see email chains that include only the bare minimum number of people. The sender doesn't want to involve anyone who doesn't need to be on the email.
The same trend seems to also be true in meetings between two companies. A small company will bring many attendees to a meeting in an effort to show that the company is legitimate. A large company will send one or two representatives, who serve as the sole points of contact.
No matter the venue, one thing hasn't changed. Praise in public, and criticize in private. Calling someone out in a meeting in front of others does nothing but hurt your relationship with them. If you're asking a colleague for something via email and aren't getting the results you want, call them or email them -- directly. Don't copy additional people. Even if you aren't trying to put them on the spot, this is how it will likely feel. No one wants their shortcomings to be pointed out in front of others. Adjust your approach, and you'll get better results.
Photo Of People Doing Handshakes. | Photo courtesy of Fauxels/ Pexels
Send your letters to tmiller@beaconmedianews.com - Please be brief.
“‘Off Kilter: Power and Pathos’ exhibit on view at USC Pacific Asia Museum” (July 28 issue)
Art’s loftiest mission, in my opinion, is to include all of mankind’s emotions and experiences. It must be honest and should not conceal life’s pain, sorrow, and despair.
Yes, lovely landscapes and seascapes, beautiful women, enchanting children, and adorable animals are banquets which art offers to our eyes. And how deprived we’d be without their company.
But when art registers inner desolation by someone afflicted with severe depression, like the Norwegian artist Edvard Munch, we have the opportunity to experience an intense catharsis when we gaze at his art, as if we sailed with him during a turbulent storm in the frail vessel of his tormented mind.
David Quintero
Monrovia
Judge: 17 Cedars-Sinai vaccine objectors must arbitrate claims
By City News Service
Most of the 21 former Cedars-Sinai Medical Center workers who sued the hospital, alleging they were wrongfully denied requests for religious and medical exemptions to the hospital's coronavirus vaccine mandate and then subjected to retaliation and harassment, must submit their claims to binding arbitration, a judge has ruled.
On Friday, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge William F. Fahey agreed with hospital lawyers that 17 of the plaintiffs signed employment agreements saying they would arbitrate all legal claims regarding their work at the hospital.
Each plaintiff's desire to be excused from the vaccination order was reviewed on an individual basis, according to the hospital attorneys' court papers. "Their exemption requests were considered and, ultimately, denied," the hospital lawyers stated in their court papers. "Their employment was terminated after they refused to be vaccinated."
In the plaintiffs' suit brought Jan. 31, they allege Cedars-Sinai's "malicious and reckless actions are causing intense undue stress" for the plaintiffs, who were "forced to choose between keeping their jobs, which they love, and honoring their most deeply held religious beliefs about life, purpose, and death."
The hospital's "obstructive and cavalier handling" of the plaintiffs' exemption requests is "escalating the stress of these former employees each day," the suit states.
Each plaintiff requested an exemption from the hospital's COVID-19 vaccination policy and all were told, "Denied because it would be an undue hardship to accommodate your request based on the nature of your job responsibilities. Please understand that you must comply with the COVID-19 vaccination program or face termination," according to the suit.
The sincerity of an employee's stated religious belief is usually not in dispute and is generally presumed or easily established, the suit states. "Employers are not and should not be in the business of deciding whether a person holds religious beliefs for the proper reasons and they should limit the inquiry to whether or not the religious
View of the north and south towers of the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. | Photo by Jorobeq/Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.5)
The law provides protection for sincerely held religious beliefs even when some members of the same religious organization, sect or denomination disagree with
the beliefs held by an individual, according to the suit.
The plaintiffs cannot accept any of the three currently available COVID-19
vaccines because they are developed and produced from aborted fetal cell lines, the suit states. "Thus, while there may be some faith leaders and other adherents whose belief of scripture is different, and who may be willing to accept one of the three currently available COVID-19 vaccines despite their connection with aborted fetal cell lines, any CSMC employee is entitled to interpret the scriptural commands differently" the suit states.
The hospital, in claiming that granting the plaintiffs a religious exemption would create an undue hardship, "completely fails to provide factual evidence to support its claim," the suit states.
CSMC also turns a "blind eye to the current state of the science, which clearly indicates that vaccinated individuals spread COVID-19 just as unvaccinated individuals," according to the suit, which says the plaintiffs suffered harassment and retaliation for their religious stands.
Hospitals statewide provide testing and masks as reasonable accommodations for those objecting to the vaccine mandates, which is consistent with state Department of Public Health guidelines, the suit states.
The plaintiffs are Rashunda Pitts, Ohara Aivaz, Katrissie Alexander, Glemma De Castro-Voungnassou, Daniela Bandera-Rojas, Kara Boyer, Marlon Bustamante, Maria Cabili, Lindsey Green, Matthew Green, Rose Lane, Mercedes Mendez, Leilani Miranda, Cherise Mosiman, Elmar Park, Reynaldo Paz, Irina Prystupa, Monique Resnick, Daniela Shamsaeirad, Mihaela Te Winkel and Asuncion Viray.
The plaintiffs held a variety of positions. Aivaz was employed as a physician, Pitts as an ICU care coordinator, Lane as an MRI technologist and Winkel as a nurse practitioner. Many of them worked as clinical nurses.
The plaintiffs whose claims will proceed to trial are Prystupa, Alexander, Viray and Mendez and the judge scheduled a status conference for Dec. 1.
belief system is sincerely held; and should not review the motives or reasons for holding the belief in the first place," according to the suit.
3 Myths About Today’s Real Estate Market
The real estate market is shifting, and when that happens, it can be hard to separate fact from fiction. Here are three common housing market myths you might be hearing:
Myth 1: Home Prices Are Going To Fall
The fact is, experts aren't calling for a decrease in prices. Because of higher mortgage rates and increased inventory they forecast appreciation will continue, just at a decelerated pace. That means home prices will continue rising and won't fall.
Myth 2: The Housing Market Is in a Correction
The housing market isn't in a correction because prices aren't falling. It's just moderating compared to the last two years, which were record-breaking .
Myth 3: The Housing Market Is Going To Crash
Experts say today is nothing like 2008. During the last housing bubble, it was much easier to get a mortgage than it is today. Lending standards have tightened significantly, and purchasers who got a mortgage over the last decade are much more qualified than they were in the years leading up to the crash.
In this shifting market it’s more important than ever to work with an expert. If you plan to sell, let’s talk!
Real Estate Cooked to Perfection!
Coroner ID's carjacking suspect shot dead by Pasadena police
By City News Service
Help name the new sea otter pup at Aquarium of the Pacific
By City News Service
| Photo courtesy of Pasadena PD/Facebook
An armed carjacking suspect shot to death by Pasadena police Saturday at the end of a vehicle pursuit was a Montebello resident.
Adam Youines was 35 years old, according to the coroner's office.
Officers pursued Youines at about 2:25 a.m., with the chase ending in the 600 block of North Lake Avenue, where the suspect was shot dead, the Pasadena Police Department reported. "Detectives from the Pasadena Police Department's Robbery/Homicide Unit responded to the crime scene to commence an immediate follow-up investigation," police said in a news release. "The investigation is very preliminary at this point and more details will be provided as soon as possible."
Youines might have been connected to an earlier crash involving a sheriff's deputy in Rosemead.
Deputies in South El Monte spotted a stolen vehicle at about 1:50 a.m. in the area of Rosemead Boulevard and Garvey Avenue, which triggered a four- minute pursuit that ended on the northbound San Gabriel River (605) Freeway at the San Bernardino (10) Freeway in Baldwin Park, according to a watch commander at the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department's Temple station.
A deputy in a patrol vehicle, en route to assist in the pursuit, was involved in a two-vehicle crash at Rosemead Boulevard and Glendon Way in Rosemead, she said. The deputy suffered minor injuries and was taken to a hospital, where he was expected to be released sometime Saturday.
The motorist in the other vehicle suffered minor injuries and was not hospitalized.
The watch commander at the sheriff's Temple station referred all inquiries to the Pasadena Police Department when asked if the suspect in South El Monte was the same man who was shot dead at the end of the pursuit in Pasadena.
Police urged anyone with information regarding the investigation to call them at 626-744-4241 or Crime Stoppers at 800-222-8477. A sea otter pup who was abandoned by his mother in the Carmel-by-the-Sea area has taken up residence at Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach, officials announced Wednesday, and aquarium staff are looking to the public for help choosing a name for their newest denizen.
The male pup was found April 12 and taken to the Monterey Bay Aquarium, where the staff had hoped to pair him with a surrogate mother and eventually release him into the wild. But that effort proved unsuccessful, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service determined the pup could not be released.
As a result, the pup was brought to Aquarium of the Pacific, where he was paired with an adult sea otter named Chloe so he could acclimate to his new home. The 4-monthold pup is now in a regular rotation in the Sea Otter Habitat -- along with four other pups who have come to the aquarium since December.
Aquarium officials are now looking for a name for the pup. Through the aquarium's Adopt an Animal program, people who contribute a minimum of $100 can suggest a name. If it is chosen by the aquarium staff, the person who proposed it will be invited to take part in a feeding and training session with one of the animals at the facility.
Details on the program are available at pacific.to/ adoptpup.
The arrival of the pup comes just weeks after the death of an aquarium sea otter named Betty in honor of actress Betty White. The otter came to the aquarium as a pup in 2012, and met White when the actress and long-time animal advocate visited the aquarium to mark her 90th birthday that year.
