Showing posts with label Enforcement. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Enforcement. Show all posts

October 28, 2019

Card Ya

Thought this was novel in the store. 

They have a digital calendar with the date from 21 years ago.

It says:
To Purchase Tobacco Products You Must Have Been Born On Or Before This Date.
 Thank you for showing you I.D.

Ah, easy to match the DOB on the I.D. presented to the date on the calendar.  

Nothing to calculate, no mistakes. 

They raised the age for smoking (cigarettes and vaping) in Maryland to 21 on October 1, so it's the same requirement as for drinking alcohol.

Luckily for me (even though I'm over 21), I don't really do either--definitely not the smoking, and the drinking limited primarily to the Kiddush prayer on Shabbat. ;-)

(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
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October 19, 2018

Parking Lot Full of Ideas

So conducting large meetings is not often easy. 

People have their own concepts as to where they'd like the discussion to go.

Yes, agendas help keep the meeting focused. 

And a good facilitator enforces meeting discipline. 

Some people think that any deviation from the agenda is like taken a sudden left turn or driving off the cliff. 

But you don't want to throw away the baby with the bath water. 

It's important to jot down good ideas or follow up questions that come out in the discussion even when they are not immediately relevant. 

That's where the "Parking Lot" comes into play. 

A flip chart or whiteboard to capture the important thoughts for follow up afterwards. 

While parking lots are needed to take certain things off the table immediately in order to focus on accomplishing the meeting's objectives, they are not junk yards for people's input. 

Instead, they are a place to park the stray thoughts and then to actively follow up on these after. 

No question is a dumb one, and no idea isn't worth considering. 

Parking lots can be full of these and they should be parked and then taken for a spin around the neighborhood.  ;-)

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
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September 23, 2017

Screwing The American Worker

So someone came to me today complaining that their company was messing with them. 

The employee was earning above minimum wage after several years in their line of work

And now their company wants to cut their salary claiming tight budgets. 

But get this:

- Instead of speaking with the employee, they send the employee a text message telling them they are going to cut their salary, and when the employee tries to call them, they don't even pick up the phone or call back. 

- The company decides unilaterally that they will cut the employee salary by $1.50 an hour or a whopping 12.5% to this person!

- And this company is going to actually pay the employee below minimum wage!

Apparently, this company hires a lot of immigrants who don't know the law and are only here for a short time, so this company disgustingly "gets away with it!"

But this employee is an American citizen and he is rightfully furious--as we all should be.

So Montgomery County, Maryland--a very liberal county--just raised the minimum wage to $11.50 effective July 1. 

Do you know what that comes out to at 40 hours per week--less than $24,000 annually.

That's less than the poverty level for a typical family of four. 

Imagine what this person has left after taxes and carfare to get to work--not much!

I have gotten to know this person and they are a good, decent, hardworking human being, and they have suffered in their lifetime--why do they need to be treated like this and forced to earn even LESS THAN minimum wage. 

They are worried that if they say anything then they will be even worse off--they don't want to be seen as trouble. 

How many times does this or a similar situation happen to innocent workers where they are mistreated, taken advantage of, abused, harassed, or even worse--but because they need the job and the money they are afraid to say or do anything to protect themselves.

We are the United States of America--one of the wealthiest and most powerful nations on Earth--is this how we treat our citizens?

People deserve to work and earn a decent days pay for a honest days work--a genuine living wage!

They also deserve core worker benefits like health care and a decent retirement. 

And they should be able to do their work free from workplace harassment and abuse. 

There must be not only fundamental laws that protect people, but also the enforcement mechanisms to make it really work. 

This gets to the heart of America--do we still have one? 

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
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June 8, 2014

Solve That Problem Simply

I have always been intrigued by simple solutions to complex problems.

Bloomberg Businessweek has a great example of how a Fulbright Scholar studying in Beijing solved the smog problem for many people wanting to reduce the danger to themselves and their families.

Air Filters that purify the air can cost around $800, and often one is needed for each room. 

But Thomas Talhelm founder of Smart Air Filters found he could do the job with a simple HEPA filter, fan, and velcro strap to hold them together for just $33/kit. 

He tested the results and found that he could remove 90% of particles 2.5 microns and above in the room. 

Talhem's biggest problem now are copycat DIY air filters hitting the market. 

If only inventors could come up with a simple solution to protecting intellectual property in places where either there aren't rules or they aren't strictly enforced.

When innovations are so easily copycatted, there is less incentive to problem-solve and think out of the box, and that's a problem for society where the s___ really hits the fan. ;-)

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
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August 17, 2012

Let The Handicapped In

We can build "the bomb" and sequence human DNA, but we still are challenged in caring for and accommodating the handicapped. 

Some of the major legislative protections to the disabled are afforded under:

-  The Rehabilitation Act of 1973 that prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability in federal programs, and 


-  The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990, which covers things like employment, public programs (state and local) and transportation, public accommodations (housing) and commercial facilities, and telecommunications. 


Despite these protections, our world still remains a harsh place for many disabled people--and we see it with older facilities that have not been retrofitted, broken elevators in the Metro, managers being obstinate to providing reasonable accommodations, and people not getting up from seats designated or not, for the disabled.  

In yet more extreme cases, some people can show their worst and be just plain cruel toward the disabled:

On the Metro recently, there was a near fight between two young male passengers squeezing onto the train; when one tried walking away, deeper into the belly of the car, the other guy pursues him, and literally jumped over a guy in a wheelchair--hitting him with his shoe in the back of his head.  

On yet another occasion, also on the Metro, there was a wheelchair with it's back to the train doors (I think he couldn't turn around because of the crowding). A couple gets on the train, apparently coming from the airport, and puts their luggage behind the wheelchair.  At the next station or so, when the wheelchair tries to back out to get off the train, the couple refuses to move their luggage out of the way. The guy in wheelchair really had guts and pushed his chair over and past the luggage, so he could get off.

To me these stories demonstrate just an inkling of not only the harsh reality that handicapped face out there, but also the shameful way people still act to them. 

Today, the Wall Street Journal (17 August 2012) had an editorial by Mr. Fay Vincent, a former CEO for Columbia Pictures and commissioner of Major League Baseball, and he wrote an impassioned piece about how difficult it has been for him to get around in a wheelchair in everywhere from bathrooms at prominent men's clubs, through narrow front office doors at a medical facility for x-rays, and even having to navigate "tight 90-degree turns" at an orthopedic hospital! 

Vincent writes: "Even well-intentioned legislation cannot specify what is needed to accomodate those of us who are made to feel subhuman by unintentional failures to provide suitable facilities."

Mr. Vincent seems almost too kind and understanding here as he goes on to describe a hotel shower/bath that was too difficult for him to "climb into or out" and when he asked the CEO of a major hotel chain why there wasn't better accommodation for the disabled, the reply was "there are not many people like you visiting the top-level hotels, so it does not make business sense to cater to the handicapped."

Wow--read that last piece again about not making business sense catering to the handicapped--is this really only about dollar and cents or can decency and compassion play any role here? 

Yes, as Mr. Vincent points out, "modern medicine is keeping us all older for longer," and many more people will require these basic and humane accommodations for getting around, bathing, going to the toilet, and more.  Let's make this a national, no a global priority--every one deserves these basic dignities. 

I am not clear on the loopholes, exemptions, deficiencies in guidelines, or insufficiencies of enforcement that are enabling people to still be so callous, cruel, and just plain stupid, but it time to change not only what's written on paper, but to change people's hearts too. 

(Source Photo: here)

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