Florida limits teens to 30-hour work week | Talent attraction an ongoing struggle in energy sector | Study: Cyber security for staff costs firms up to $200k yearly
Starting in July, 16- and 17-year-old Florida residents will be limited to a 30-hour work week when school is in session, unless a parent, guardian or school superintendent signs a waiver. The legislation signed this week by Gov. Ron DeSantis also gives teens a 30-minute break every four hours. Full Story: WTLV-TV/WJXX-TV (Jacksonville, Fla.) (3/28)
Recruiting & Retention
Talent attraction an ongoing struggle in energy sector As North America's energy industry continues to expand, attracting skilled workers for new and existing projects remains a significant challenge, particularly in areas such as geoscience and construction, panelists said during a discussion at CERAWeek. Initiatives to address this issue include the development of a specialized training curriculum by the American Petroleum Institute and Bechtel's efforts to promote vocational careers to high school and community college students. Full Story: Hart Energy (3/27)
Women's household income drops after "gray divorce" A 2022 study published in The Journals of Gerontology found divorce for adults age 50 and older doubled from 1990 to 2019 and tripled for those over age 65. Other studies found that women's household income generally drops, up to 40%, during the year following the divorce. Full Story: CNBC (3/23)
The HR Leader
Women, more than men, are uncivil toward female peers Incivility toward women in the workplace tends to come more from other women than men, according to Allison Gabriel of the Center for Working Well at Purdue University’s Mitchell E. Daniels, Jr. School of Business. Employers can help reduce this behavior by establishing a zero-tolerance harassment policy, addressing complaints promptly, making sure all employees have a safe way to offer feedback and celebrating female employees' accomplishments, HR leaders say. Full Story: Society for Human Resource Management (tiered subscription model) (3/25)
Workplace Chatter
AI suggested ways to make beer tastier A team of researchers in Belgium trained an AI model with information from expert beer reviews, public rankings and chemical makeup that can predict flavor profiles and propose ways to make brews taste better. After tweaking some of the Belgian beers based on the model's suggestions, scientists found that they were ranked much higher by a panel of tasters. Researcher Kevin Verstrepen says the model is more of a tool to fine-tune beer rather than produce it, and also it could be used to make more palatable nonalcoholic brews. Cheers to that! Full Story: New Scientist (3/26)
SmartBreak: Question of the Day
Giving and eating candies is a common spring tradition, and Peeps happen to be the candy world's reigning champ, the numero uno, the chart topper for type consumed around Easter. How many would you guess are eaten each spring?
Mean girls are a rash on the backside of humanity. Our HR Leader story today talks about how, in the workplace, women deal more with incivility from other women than from men. Unbelievable. I had a short bout with a workplace mean girl several years back. I was new in a company, and on my first day in the office, a woman came storming through my area, furious about a decision another female colleague made. My boss quickly took her into his office to hash things out. She didn’t trouble to keep her voice down so I heard most of their conversation. It didn’t involve projects I was working on, so I ignored it, but was still intrigued. Shortly after, I had a run-in with her, though I didn’t realize it at the time. I was working with some department heads on some new initiatives. I reached out to the group -- which included her -- via email. Everyone but her responded. I assumed she was busy and didn’t give it a second thought. But when she ignored me again at a company event a few later, I knew I wasn’t imagining things. She was intentionally dismissing me. My feelings weren’t hurt, but I was annoyed. She finally came around one day, during a product meeting. She raised some questions about the product and since I was leading its development, I responded. Respect crept into her eyes as I spoke. Later, after the meeting, she went out of her way to compliment me on the product. We never had another issue. My way of addressing the mean girl worked for me. Others would have to take a more direct approach, such as learning how to have difficult conversations or advocate for oneself. Organizational leaders may need to assess their culture to make sure it has zero tolerance for toxic behavior. Have you ever dealt with this -- as an employee or manager? Let me know! And if you enjoy this brief, tell others so they can benefit also.
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