The best roadmap to the future sometimes looks strangely like the past. This is particularly relevant in the discussion on classroom vs. online training. Almost a decade ago, one of my friends who worked as an HR manager for a large, Fortune 50 manufacturing company lamented the difficulty his organization was having with employee acceptance and use of a new, online learning service that had just been purchased from an outside vendor. He said, “You know, Paul, sometimes there’s nothing quite like good, old ‘butt-in-the-chair’ training”. Looking through the lens [...]

Here at RespectfulWorkplace.com we often receive inquiries from managers requesting sensitivity training for their employees. Typically, there has been an ‘incident’ – someone has called someone else a derogatory name or otherwise been disrespectful toward other employees. In some cases, this leads to an EEOC investigation and, possibly, required intervention. At this point, a manager, HR Director, or C-level staff member seeks out a solution – possibly some form of ‘sensitivity training’ to remedy the situation. But is sensitivity training really what your organization needs? I did some quick research [...]

Paul was recently quoted in the New York Times on sensitivity training for one of the most stressed out and disrespected group of workers – traffic enforcement agents. Sensitivity Trainers’ Advice for Traffic Agents by James Barron Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg wants the city’s 2,795 traffic enforcement agents to undergo sensitivity training, and Paul Meshanko, a managing partner of a company that runs the Web site RespectfulWorkplace.com, knows exactly what he would tell them. Mayor Bloomberg has called for the city’s traffic agents, some of whom were issuing summonses for blocking the [...]

Did you know the rate of suicides in the military is rising significantly? According to a recent article on the subject: “The Army, with 128 suicides last year, already has 79 so far this year. The Navy had 41 last year and 28 this year. The Marines have 34, seven shy of last year, and the Air Force has recorded half its 40 suicides of 2008.” So what can be attributed to the increase in suicides in all branches of the military? Various causes of course, but recently Private Keiffer [...]