What do you call the process by which an employer who offered flexible work arrangements to employees for years suddenly decides to retrograde flexibility?

Unflexing.

I decided to give it a name because it seems to be a small but growing trend in Corporate America. First Bank of America announced late last year it would be scaling back its flexible work arrangements; and just last week Yahoo threw its hat in the unflexing ring by sending out a memo to employees saying telecommuting is soon to be a perk of the past.

The memo was included in an All Things D article. Here’s an excerpt:

We need to be one Yahoo!, and that starts with physically being together.
Beginning in June, we’re asking all employees with work-from-home arrangements to work in Yahoo! offices.

It’s a disturbing trend that doesn’t seem to make a lot of business sense if (more…)

Let’s face it, most employees use their company-issued pagers, phones, laptops for personal reasons sometimes. It’s just the way life is now — the lines between work life and personal life are becoming more and more blurred as workers seem to be working round the clock these days.

But if you do use these devices for a message or text you want to remain private you’re out of luck. That’s the message the U.S. Supreme Court sent today when the justices unanimously ruled your boss can snoop, even if your manager tells you it’s okay to use such devices for personal reasons. (more…)

For some reason, Ben Stein has had a long-time platform to pontificate on one of my favorites TV shows — CBS Sunday Morning.

Yesterday, his commentary on job creation was particularly disturbing. (more…)

Family friendly policies will bankrupt a company and a nation, right?

Wrong!

A new comprehensive study finds that being nice to workers by offering them programs such as paid sick days and parental leave actually helps competitiveness. (more…)

It’s a bad economy so don’t expect too much from your paycheck.

That seems to be the refrain from many workers out there. Many of you never really liked asking for more money anyway and are now relieved you don’t have to make a case for a raise.

Well, that’s a cowardly career move.

Believe it or not, there are some employees out there who are asking for the big money even in the face of a recession. And they don’t even care if they work for a company that’s receiving bailout money from taxpayers.

They have balls, and they have fat wallets as a result.

There’s even a government official, aka pay czar, whose job it is to keep companies from paying these ballsy employees obscene wages.

This from today’s Wall Street Journal:

Treasury Department official Kenneth Feinberg, who has authority to oversee pay for the 100 highest-paid employees at those companies, has been meeting regularly with the seven firms to help them fix a level and structure of compensation that the government deems proper, say industry and U.S. officials.

I’m not going to get into the debate over whether they should be paid a lot of money or not. If you’ve read my blog, you probably know where I stand on the issue. The growing disparity in pay among the head honchos and rank and file employees is indeed sickening.

What I’m focusing on now is the sheer audacity of certain workers when it comes to negotiating for money and benefits, especially during tough times when employers use the economy as an excuse to squeeze their employees.

Talk about the audacity of hope. Or is it just common sense?

If you’re working for a company, or in a division, that’s clearly hurting financially, loosing tons of money and laying off a chunk of workers, you probably should not expect a fat raise this year. But what if you know your firm or unit is doing just fine, and that you were a pivotal part of its success? You deserve a piece of the action, no?

And maybe even that company that saw financial losses and cut employees is now making a turn around.

There is nothing wrong with you going into negotiations with your boss and asking for what you’re worth, even in this economy people.

When I took some time off last week and unplugged from the work Matrix, I thought a lot about whether I am in control of my job, or my job was was controlling me. Unfortunately, we all become victims of our work at times and let employers gain control over us. Often we hand over that control without a fight.

When you don’t stand up and ask for what you’re worth, that’s handing over control. When you convince yourself that there are no other options for you out in the work world then you hand over control.

Most employers don’t want to part with money in any economy. You may not get what you ask for but you need to make your case.

Coincidentally, when I was out last week, I got a great email on this very topic from Bahaudin Majtaba, associate professor of management at the Huizenga School of Business at Nova Southeastern University. He just wrote a story for HR Review titled “Getting a Raise By Asking For It.”

“Instead of seeing a recession as an impediment, you can see this as an opportunity to do more work in a creative or cost-saving manner which can enhance your opportunities for getting a raise,” he says.

Here are some of his tips for getting more money:

*Assess your value. “You get paid based on what your expertise and time are worth to others in the market,” he says. “Assess your situation to make sure you have earned a raise or promotion. The manager might ask, ‘What have you done for me lately?’ Be ready to answer this question immediately and provide the ‘value-added’ aspect of your work.” Use salary data in the city, state or industry to compare your work with others who have similar qualifications and jobs. Have data and facts to provide your manager during your salary discussion.

*Build your case. “Track your success and document it,” he says. “It will make it easier for your boss to see your contributions and consider giving you the raise.” Remember that you’re asking for a raise because you deserve it, not because you need it. “A desperate need for money does not equate to being worthy of a raise. Do not confuse what you need with what you are worth in the marketplace. Keep the discussion with your manager about your work performance, your qualifications for more income, and your overall value to the organization. “

*Choose the right time for a meeting with the manager. “A best time to ask for a raise might be when you have just received good news or if the company received good news and you had a part in it,” he says. “Perhaps Thursdays or paydays might be a good time to schedule a meeting for discussing the raise. The end of the fiscal year is probably not the right time for a raise since this might be the time when most managers are preparing their budgets for the next year or are answering for their spending of the past year. Therefore managers might be a bit too stressed in such days and weeks when they are dealing with annual budgets.”

*Ask for what you deserve. Be realistic and sincere, says Mujtaba. “Tell your boss that ‘I would like to explain some of my major accomplishments and why I believe I deserve a raise.’ Explain the facts about why you deserve a raise and then ask for a specific increase. If you do not ask for it, then the chances of getting a raise is very small. “

Hope for the best, but be prepared to hear ‘no’ and negotiate alternatives to a raise when extra income is not an option due to budget limitations.

“Keep in mind that in many cases a ‘no’ response is getting you one step closer to the affirmative answer,” he says. “The “no” answer should lead to the question of ‘Why and/or what can I do to earn a raise in the next opportunity?’”

*Set goals. “Volunteer to help when new and upcoming challenging or time-consuming projects,” he says. “Agree to work on projects and times that nobody likes to work on. “ When possible, befriend the manager as your mentor or coach and jointly set goals for the upcoming quarter and year.

Have you asked for more money recently, or were you a cowardly lion?

Employers, aka Big Brothers, aka Richard Simmons wannabes, want you to drop and give them twenty.

Aaron Lefkove, who works for a publishing firm in Manhattan, gets periodic memos and emails from his HR department reminding him to walk more, and offering tips on staying fit and diet.

The notes haven’t really helped.

He knows he shouldn’t be eating the cheeseburger and curly fries special from the deli across the street from his office, but he does, often. The deal is $5 and it’s yummy.

“It’s a great stress reliever and the deal of the century,” says Lefkove, whose employer has gone through two rounds of layoffs, implemented a pay freeze, and added lots of extra work for everyone left behind.

Lefkove, 28, has gained about 12 pounds since October, and attributes most of that to on-the-job stress and being forced to buy lower-cost, fattening foods.

He even started a blog called DisgustingThingsIHaveEaten.com that chronicles his stress and comfort eating.

The recession has caused a lot of stress for employees and some have seen their healthy habits go right out the window as a result. In my MSNBC.com column today I report on how employers aren’t skimping on wellness programs even though the recession has caused them to hack and slash almost everything else.

You’re costing your bosses too much money when it comes to health care, and many believe the best way to stop you all from using medical care is the make you healthier.

Clearly the cost for such wellness programs are a drop in the bucket compared to health care costs.

Here are some numbers from Towers Perrin comparing the two:

For wellness programs, those that are identifying and mitigating lifestyle risks with health assessment and biometrics followed by coaching (telephonic, web, mail), the cost would be about $125-150 per employee per year. The cost of incentives is very variable and would be added on top of that. A full health management program with enhanced case management, disease management and gaps in care would range from $100-150 per employee per year. A comprehensive health management program would cost $225-300 per year.

Given that the total cost of healthcare per employee per year in the 2009 Towers Perrin Health Care Cost Survey (HCCS) ranged from $8,904 for high performing companies to $10,104 for low performing companies, the percentage of total cost for a comprehensive health management programs for a high performing company is 2.5-3.4%, and for a low performing company is 2.2-3.0%. For just a wellness program, as defined above, it is 1.4- 1.7% for the high performers and 1.2-1.5% for the low performers.

Implementing wellness programs make sense, but employers have to be careful of crossing the discriminatory line.

I’m sure there are companies out there that really care for employees, but let’s face it, the bottom line is driving this desire to make you healthier and that could lead to some overzealous managers.

Too much get-healthy pressure, makes some employee advocates uncomfortable, and there are strict federal guidelines employers have to follow when crafting such weight management programs.

“We need to make sure overweight and obese employees, who are already vulnerable to stigma in the workplace, are not stigmatized even further,” stresses Rebecca Puhl, coordinator of weight stigma initiatives at Yale’s Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity.

And labor attorney Hanan Kolko maintains: “employers shouldn’t be our mothers. Workers ought to have the right to be left alone.”

There’s a fine line between helping workers stay healthy and invading a person’s privacy.

What is your employer doing? Is it helping you stay healthy, or is it making you uncomfortable?

Tell me what you had for breakfast or lunch today. Devouring donuts and cheeseburgers may get you in the workplace pokey.

In West Side Story, Tony’s life changes forever when he meets Maria at the school dance.

He leaves his gang behind and embarks on a new life.

Is it hard or easy for Tony? Well, he ends up dead so I guess the answer is hard. But making that decision to risk everything you’ve known in your life is easier for some people than others.

South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford has had a long, successful political career. There was even talk about him becoming president some day. That is until Maria.

He fell in love with an Argentinian woman named Maria and everything else in his life became secondary to her. He even flew to Argentina, lying to his staff about his whereabouts, and was incommunicado for days — a no no for governors. The citizens of your state need to know where you are just in case some sort of major catastrophe occurs.

Well, he didn’t care about that. Suddenly his high-level career, not to mention his lovely wife and four lovely sons, were not that important.

Dr. Debra Condren, author of “Ambition Is Not A Dirty Word,” thinks it’s all about narcissism.

He (and let’s face it, it’s usually a man, not a woman) builds
this lifelong career. Builds up power. He becomes a legend — in his own mind.
The legend in his own mind and the nature of narcissism is that he splits off
his immoral, self-destructive behavior, meaning he compartmentalizes it/denies
it, essentially; the narcissistic mind has this way of telling itself, “That person
cheating on his wife of 20 years and becoming a horrible role model to my four
sons–I’m not THAT guy.”

So what kind of guy is he?

I’m not going to get into the ethics behind adultery or the hypocritical acts of a socalled devout man pushing his morality on others even though it didn’t apply to him. That’s not what this blog is about.

This blog is about careers, the work place, jobs. It’s about what so many of us strive for — a great, happy, working life.

Sanford seemed hungry for a career of political power. Here’s his bio from who2.com:

A native of Florida, Sanford moved to South Carolina as a teenager. He earned degrees in business and worked in New York in finance and real estate during the 1980s, but returned to South Carolina in 1990. He founded his own real estate investment firm in 1992, and in 1994 turned to politics. A conservative Republican, Sanford won three terms in the House of Representatives (he did not run for a fourth term). Elected governor in 2002 and re-elected in 2006, he’s known mostly for budget battles with his own party, and he has a knack for making headlines (including one stunt where he carried two live, defecating pigs into the State House, calling pig “Pork” and the other pig “Barrel”). During the presidential campaign of 2008 Sanford was mentioned as a possible running mate for Republican John McCain, and by 2009 he was making the news as the most visible governor opposed to a federal spending plan by President Barack Obama’s administration.

A man who carries defecating swine around has to be committed to his career, his job, no?

Well, that’s the question I’m pondering this morning. It seems to me Sanford was yet another person unhappy with his career. At some point he must have sat back and realized his behavior would impact his political future, but that didn’t stop him.

I know love is a beautiful, powerful thing, but love can also be used as an excuse to change a life you’re not happy with.

While we all are outraged at his breaking a commandment, we should all take a moment to think about whether an exciting Argentinian named Maria, or Mario for that matter, would be a welcome excuse to risk a career, a life, we really don’t want but are too chicken to leave.

My daughter asked my son recently to give her several of his Bakugan balls.

She didn’t have any because she either misplaced hers, or gave them away.

My son was reluctant at first to hand over the little, Japanese balls based on a cartoon series, but after much pleading on my daughter’s part and promises she’d give them back eventually, he agreed and gave her three.

Even though my daughter has since found her own Bakugan’s, she refuses to give back the ones she begged out of her brother.

This is exactly what will happen at many U.S companies.

Workers everywhere are scared of losing their jobs, and employers are feeding this fear every chance they get. Unfortunately, many employees seem far too eager to give up benefits and have their wages cut, without making any waves.

But all of you should not be too compliant, because when the gravy train returns to Corporate America you may not be able to get back on board.

According to a study by human resource consulting firm Watson Wyatt, published in the Wall Street Journal today, many of the reductions made by corporations under the guise of the recession, aren’t going any where once things turn around.

* 52 percent of the companies surveyed say they expect to have fewer employees in three to fives year.
* 20 percent expect reductions in salaries they’ve initiated to never come back.
* 46 percent have no plans to reverse increases that have been made to employees’ share of health insurance premiums.

This should be a cautionary tale for any employee out there thinking they should easily give up pay and benefits now so they can reap the rewards later.

I know what you guys are thinking, “how the heck can we fight back without risking layoff?”

First off, if enough of you question cutbacks then it will be difficult to single out just one person. And many of you are working your butts off now, doing a number on your physical and mental well-being, working crazy overtime to make up for your furlough days, thinking it will pay off in the end.

I’m here to remind you all of what the long-term payoff may and may not be.

Look, you may end up having to make concessions at work, just don’t be eagerly compliant about it. Employers may end up thinking it’s pretty easy to hit you where you live.

What’s sadder than an empty lunch counter?

You want to help the local economy people, head out for lunch today.

I’m challenging everyone today: Don’t brown bag it. Don’t get a chocolate bar from the vending machine. Leave the building and go out to your local what ever, sit down at a table or counter, and order something. (And I know it’s National Donut day, but do you really need to eat a donut for lunch?)

This will not only help your local merchants but it will help your well being. Why do I say this, because I just know. I have no statistics for you to back this up but do we really need them?

We all know taking a break from our computers will allow our brains to relax for a bit, and may do something for that nagging headache. (I have a bad one today. Why? Because I worked through lunch yesterday and have been paying for it ever since.)

I know many of you are like me. The Society for Human Resource Management found in a recent survey that 72 percent of employees work through lunch, while 70 percent of you are working more than your hours and on the weekends. (I’ll yell at you for that in another post.)

But now, I’M YELLING AT YOU AND ME FOR NOT TAKING A LUNCH AWAY FOR THE DAILY GRIND.

I know you want to and need to. I wrote a column about the death of lunch for MSNBC.com a while back and I got over a million hits on that story. (And that was before the economy hit the skids.)

I’ve decided to share it with you here in hopes it will inspire many of you to sojourn away from it all today.

My relatives in Athens, Greece have always indulged when it came to their lunch breaks.

They’d leave work and head home around 1 p.m. and sit down with family at a big table loaded with food, everything from grilled octopus with greens to roasted lemon chicken and potatoes. There was also always wine and Ouzo, an anise-flavored liquor, flowing.

As you can imagine, everyone got pretty tired partaking in this feast so they’d all go off to bed for at least an hour nap.

Around 3:30 or 4 p.m. they’d go back to the office or factory and toil until about 7 or 8 p.m.

I always mocked my relatives when we would visit them in Greece during my teen years. Their endless lunch breaks seemed to me to be the height of laziness.

Ah, the ignorance of youth. I would give my right arm if I could get that kind of lunch today. Who wouldn’t?

Not only is this not an option for most of the U.S. workforce, we’re lucky if we get a lunch break at all.

The workers at VendorSeek.com don’t get any lunch breaks Monday through Thursday.

“It is encouraged that we eat at our desks and use this ‘down time’ to address e-mails, inter-office meetings, and other tasks and necessities that would interrupt the flow of the normal course of the work day,” says Ken Wisnefski, president of the company that helps businesses find outsourcing services. He points out that the company is a bit more lax on Fridays and workers can take up to an hour to do what they wish.

What Wisnefski found was his workers were spending so much time scheduling lunches and then ramping back up again after lunches that they ended up playing catch up for most of the day.

“Now things are more organized, less chaotic,” he explains.

Lunch hours, forget them. Those were long gone years ago. A study by chicken fast food chain KFC Corp., found that 60 percent of workers in Corporate America actually considered the lunch hour “the biggest myth of office life.”

But now a growing number of employees are finding they are also losing their right to a lunch half hour, or any break at all. About 55 percent of workers take a half hour or less for their lunch breaks, according to a survey by Steelcase, an office equipment maker.

Women, who are forever trying to prove themselves in the work world, are not surprisingly more likely to take shorter lunch breaks than men; and all you uptight Northeasterners are also taking shorter lunches than your counterparts in the rest of the nation.

Many workplace experts suspect even those workers who are allotted a half hour for lunch, often end up never leaving their desks.

The move to shorter or non-existent lunches is in some cases self-imposed. “It’s almost as though workers started the trend,” says Deborah Brown-Volkman, a career coach.

We’re all too busy these days to take a leisurely lunch and we also want to get out of work at a reasonable hour so we can have some quality time with our families and friends. If you work through lunch, the thought goes, you can get out of the office before the witching hour.

In the case of VendorSeek, employees actually hatched the idea to do a way with lunches, maintains Wisnefski. “They asked, ‘why do we need to take lunch?’”

Well, it turns out giving up your lunch break could actually diminish your productivity, causing you to end up putting in more hours in the long run, not to mention what it does for your health and well being. “I joke sometimes that smokers are the healthiest people in the work place these days because they get outside,” says Brown-Volkman.

“Your brain needs to rest,” she adds. “Sometimes, in order to concentrate you have to think about something different, get a way from the problem. Sunshine is good for the body, mind and soul.”

And Joe Takash is a business consultant claims lunch breaks can “help boost creativity and profits.”

This may be a good selling point for your boss if you’re one of those workers who want to reclaim their right to a lunch.

Here are some other ways to convince your boss you need time to dine, from psychologist and corporate consultant Kevin Fleming:

* “Make it an informal setting for a discussion of some important work topic best done ‘offsite.’ Bosses love this. Shows not that you want your lunch back, but that you are astute to office politics and have good boundaries.”
* “Make it a ‘leadership lunch.’ Tell your superiors it is an alignment lunch to get folks on the same page and to make sure they are making them richer faster.”
* “Convince them that the lunch break makes you more productive. Be a ‘Columbo’ [the 1970s TV detective] and show them data that compares these two camps. Many times corporate America is used to hard data so speak in a language they will understand.”
* “If all else fails, make a low blood sugar scene of dramatic proportions.”

There is no federal law that provides for lunch or coffee breaks, but some states may have provisions. “California law does require that employers provide unpaid meal periods after five hours of work, as well as rest periods, for most employees,” says Greg Mersol, a Cleveland attorney with Baker Hostetler. Here’s a Web link to some state provisions.

We all need to bring back the mid-day break.

And don’t forget to eat something, demands Kathleen Hall, a stress and work-life balance expert. “Food boosts mental and physical productivity and regulates moods. But don’t just eat anything within reach. Eat foods that boost brain activity like Salmon or blueberries. Foods can also fight anxiety, stress and panic, which is good if you’re having an especially difficult day.”

Now just in case you are still daydreaming about my relatives in Greece and their three hour lunch extravaganza, things are changing even in that laid back country. Unfortunately, the nation has moved closer to the U.S. model of a 9 to 5 workday in recent years.

Well, not everyone. On my last trip there, my uncles, aunts and cousins were still toasting to life over long lunches and squeezing in their midday siestas.

Opa!

Opa means many things in Greek. But the main time I’ve heard it was when my uncles, aunts, and all the other nuts in my family were enjoying life, eating, singing, dancing. They would yell it out in joy.

So, OPA EVERYONE!

OK, when you get back, tell us where you went and what you ate unless you’re too busy catching up on work because you went to lunch. I’ll let you all know later what I did and if I actually followed my own advice.

Opa.

Memorial Day is the kick off of the summer season and with it young, eager individuals are busting their butts wanting to be the best at their new jobs.

Well, not everyone.

There was a particular waitress at this beach-side spot who seemed to have her head in the clouds. She took the drink order for only half of our group and then disappeared. When she got back she put a large Bloody Mary drink in front of the 2-year-old in our party and dashed off.

When I went to the bathroom I chanced upon a rare moment. The restaurant manager was giving the young woman an impromptu training session.

“Stand there and smile until everyone tells you what they want,” she advised, adding a few other subtle tricks of the trade.

But unfortunately the waitress was staring off into space with a blank look. She wasn’t nodding her head or doing anything that showed she was listening.

Our service continued it’s miserable, slow journey, and it got me thinking about missed opportunities.

Maybe that young girl figured this was a temporary job for some extra cash over the summer and didn’t think she would get anything else out of the gig but money.

Well, she was wrong.

You learn every day of your life. And every thing you do, every job you hold, will shape you and your work life.

On-the-job lessons learned are a job perk!

What ever you end up doing, what ever your career goals are, you have to see every job as a learning opportunity.

There will be degrees of learning and some gigs will teach you more than others. But no matter what you do, listen to the veterans around you. They usually have a wealth of knowledge you can tap into.

Maybe you’re thinking, “what do I want to learn from this person? I never want to do the job she’s doing.”

But it’s not about the actual job a person is doing, it’s the subtleties, the general rules they’ve learned about work and common courtesy that will serve you well.

One story a CEO told me shows how important listening can be.

I interviewed Harris Diamond, the CEO of Weber Shandwick Worldwide, about his first job selling peanuts at Yankee Stadium. Here’s an excerpt from my book:

The job was no walk to home base. “I never sweated at a job but here I lost weight and came home with my shirt yellow with sweat. I was a mess,” he says. However, he got some of his best pieces of advice early on in his peanut-selling career from another vendor who was in his twenties. He saw Diamond watching the game on one occasion instead of selling his wares. “He said, and I’ll never forget this: ‘there are two types of guys that come here. Those who watch the ball game and those who work. If you came here to watch the game go get a ticket. It’s cheap and easy. If you came here to work understand why you’re here.’”

It was like a light bulb went off for Diamond. “If you’re here to work focus on work,” he says. When he started focusing on work, the money started pouring in.

He listened and so should you, no matter how crummy you think your job is, especially in this economy where many of us will find ourselves doing work we may not like just to make ends meet.

You never know when you’ll be lucky enough to have a learning experience. That’s what life’s all about, no?