CANADA: I Can't Come In Today - Grandma's Died Again

From Globe and Mail /GlobeLife /WORK TORONTO, Canada (Globe and Mail), October 15, 2007: I can't come in today - grandma's died again Readers of the News.com.au website in Australia were recently asked to come up with the worst lies they had ever told in the workplace for the site's Office Confessions series. One woman lied about attending a wedding in order to get off work. After colleagues asked to see pictures, she said the couple used a "sketch artist" rather than a photographer. One manager recalled an employee who asked for time off after his grandmother died. After going to note this in the worker's personnel file, the manager saw the employee had previously lost a grandmother - nine times. "A few weeks later in a review meeting, I mentioned he'd 'had a tough run over the last two years,' with nine of his grand-parents having passed away, and showed him his file," the manager said. By Craig Silverman SMOKED BENEFITS Blogs: Silverman on the way we work COUGH IT UP Employees of Tribune Co., an owner of newspapers and television stations in the United States, were recently informed that smokers would soon be forced to pay an additional monthly fee of $100 (U.S.) on top of their regular medical premiums. "So much for the old stereotype of a fedora-wearing reporter pounding out copy on deadline, cigarette dangling from his mouth," wrote Michael Mayo on his blog for the Sun-Sentinel, a Tribune paper in south Florida. He also wondered what other bad habits would soon cost extra. "Will there be fees for alcohol use? Eating fast food? Having high cholesterol? Not adhering to proper weight/body-mass guidelines?" Or perhaps blogging about company policies? BY THE NUMBERS ANGER MANAGEMENT 80 Percentage of workers in the United Kingdom who say they have witnessed acts of "visible anger" in the workplace, according to a survey of 3,000 European workers commissioned by Canon, maker of cameras and printers. 94 Ninety-four per cent of Italian workers said displays of anger were "commonplace," the highest percentage in Europe. Suddenly The Sopranos make so much more sense. 20 Percentage of U.K. workers who admitted to kicking or smashing malfunctioning office equipment. Favoured targets included staplers, keyboards and printers. The top anger-triggering events for U.K. workers included "pointless meetings" and "being spoken down to by a boss or colleague." THE GOOGLE AGE HOW OLD IS TOO OLD?: Brian Reid previously worked as a director of operations and engineering for Google, a company that is regularly celebrated for its work environment and culture. But Mr. Reid, who is in his 50s, says Google is no picnic for older workers. He's suing the company for wrongful dismissal after he was fired three years ago because he wasn't a good "cultural fit." Mr. Reid thinks he was let go because of his age, and a court recently allowed his case to proceed. "I don't dye my hair orange and ride a unicycle to work," he told one newspaper, inadvertently causing clowns everywhere to send their CVs to Google. Source: Sydney Morning Herald