Trial Periods

Recently I attended some very interesting training on the 90 day employee trial period, which had come into effect on 1 March 2009.

There was an Employment Court judgement earlier in 2011 about a case (Smith vs Stokes Valley Pharmacy (2009) Ltd) which was heard last year. The bald facts of the case are that Ms Smith had been an employee of Stokes Valley Pharmacy since 2007. The original owners sold the business, which was to be effective from 1 October 2009. The new owners made new employment offers to all staff.

Ms Smith was offered a new IEA on 29 September. She took the contract home and read it, and, aside from some other matters that she wanted to negotiate with the new owners about, was also worried about a 90 day trial period clause. Ms Smith did not sign the agreement, but took the contract and her concerns back to the new owners. Ms Smith and Stokes Valley Pharmacy (2009) Ltd had not reached agreement by the take-over date of 1 October, but the new owners asked Ms Smith to start work anyway.

On 2 October, after being told that the 90 day clause was 'standard in all their contracts' and that it wouldn't be a problem, the parties reached agreement and Ms Smith signed the contract.

On 8 December, Ms Smith was dismissed with few reasons given by the new owners. She challenged this through the Employment Court as unjustified dismissal.

Judge Colgan ruled that Ms Smith was unjustifiably disadvantaged, and was unjustifiably dismissed; and that Stokes Valley Pharmacy (2009) Ltd had breached the “good faith” provisions of the Employment Relations Act and the IEA. Additionally, Ms Smith would be able to sue Stokes Valley Pharmacy (2009) Ltd for breach of contract.

The result of this case is that to uphold a 90 day trial period there needs to be:

• A written employment agreement (there was)
• The EA as to be signed before employment commences (it wasn't)
• The employees attention must be drawn to the 90 day clause (no 'reasonable expectation')
• The 90 day offer should be clarified in an appointment letter (it wasn't)

To avoid a PG for 'Unjustified disadvantage', the employer would be best to clarify acceptable behaviours and provide fair warnings (no 'reasonable expectation'). These do not need to be as extensive or formal as post-trial period, but documentary evidence would protect the employer.

Cautions for employees: if you start work before your written employment contract is signed, the 90 day period may not stand. Ask for a formal appointment letter. If your employer downplays the 90 day period as being 'standard' in your contract, the trial period may not stand. Your employer needs to give you reasonable expectation that your employment will cease if your work continues in the same vein. Ask for regular feedback, and keep diary or file notes of any performance conversations with the employer.

Cautions for employers: don't let any employee start work without having a written, signed IEA already in place, and an appointment letter detailing that the 90 day trial period will be in place, and what that means for the trial employee. Ensure your IEA has been carefully constructed to support the 90 day trial throughout (ie, that all your clauses include reference to the 90 day trial. Get expert employment contract advice with a reputable organisation such as EMA). Keep a diary or file note of any unacceptable behaviours and fair warnings, preferably signed & dated by both parties.

Download a summary of the Smith vs Stokes Valley Pharmacy case from http://www.justice.govt.nz/courts/employment-court/documents/2010-%20NZEmpc%20111%20Smith%20v%20Stokes%20Valley%20Pharmacy%20-2009-%20Limited.pdf.

read more "Trial Periods"

Newsletter Issue 201, May 2011

Sam Young Newsletter

Issue 201, May 2011

Hi guys,

Kenn Butler, weekly newsletter writer, ponders about competition after some inspiration from Jenny Devine. Check out Who are You Competing With? below.

We look at the lighter side of Handbags: What's in em?. 

Beware of Malware Dialogue Boxes   TLAs for SMEs        Tips, Short & Hot Keys        Hot Linx

Don't forget, if you want to be taken off my mailing list, click here to send me a reply e-mail and I will remove your name.

Who are You Competing With?

Kenn Butler writes a weekly newsletter article on aspects of business. A couple of weeks ago he posted a real gem on competition (at http://www.kennbutler.com/PUBLICATIONS/Newsletter/Read+Online/Wee+221.html), which he has allowed me to share with you all here, written & sourced from Jenny Devine's newsletter at http://webranger.createsend.com/t/ViewEmailArchive/r/D7E0A0B4935BE7A9/C67FD2F38AC4859C/ & adapted with permission from Jenny.

A few seconds before full time, one of the rugby teams is awarded a penalty. The outcome will determine which team wins the championship, a representative competition for rugby teams. The atmosphere is electric. The spectators are silent. The players, all aged around 12, can hardly bare to watch. Although it is not technically a difficult kick, only a few metres from the posts & at a soft angle, my intuition is the first-five shouldn’t attempt it. An outstanding player around the field, his kicking has been off today & the pressure on him now is staggering.

Both teams have played a spectacular game; talented boys demonstrating the skill, speed, power & flair of rugby at its best & in a moment the “winner” will be known. The first-five lines the ball up, gazes at the posts, pauses & kicks. The ball misses, veering left & missing the posts completely. The opposing team & their supporters throw their arms in the air, screaming & ecstatic. A boy’s mistake has made them all winners.

I watch one team & their supporters; crumpled; disbelieving; devastated. A boy’s mistake has made them all losers. Several of the boys are struggling to hold back tears; others are unsuccessful. The first-five’s head is on his chest, his eyes to the ground, lost somewhere in his own grief & shame.

This, my friends, is competition. This is what we encourage our children to take part in from a young age. This scenario, modified to various degrees, plays itself out all over the world on a daily basis; within schools, on sports fields, in dance academies, musical institutes & art schools. Children compete to win, to be the best, to dominate.

Like you, I live in a world where the ruling & predominant paradigm is based on competition. In our world “competing” is the norm. Individuals, businesses, companies, markets & countries compete against each other. If competition is defined as rivalry in which the desired outcome is supremacy then you & I are competing every day. We compete with ourselves & we compete with others.

So then, is this concept of competition wrong or right? Is it by nature fundamentally flawed or is it actually essential to bring out the “best” in ourselves & others? If we look from a psychological perspective at what drives this rivalry we can see in its most pathological form the wounded aspect of the ego lives in a war zone engaging in daily battles. Unsure of its territory, isolated from its source & having limited belief in itself it battles to survive. It observes other human beings from a defensive position drawing in those it believes can strengthen its position & attacking or sabotaging (overtly or covertly) those who might threaten it. Its goal is to win: more power, more money, more things, more prestige, & more glory. It has no understanding of the word enough. For the wounded ego there is no enough; there will never be enough.

I can remember experiencing such a paradox. What is the point? Why compete, be the best you can be & give it all you’ve got if there’s nothing to win? Why hurry & get back on your bike…why bother at all? Herein lies the mystery of competition. From the perspective of shadow work, the dark shadow of “competitive” & the light shadow of “co-operative” are neither right nor wrong. They just are. Like all shadows they have their place & at some time or other in this life they will both serve us; they both contain useful & not so useful characteristics. Trouble arises for us when we deny or repress them or try to make their existence wrong.

Like all shadows, when we see them for what they truly are, acknowledge their presence & accept them as a natural part of us then we graced with the power of choice. We get to choose to use the shadows to serve us rather than being used by them.

You see I am competitive. I am also co-operative. In the course of my life as I follow my passion to awaken the consciousness of leaders I will need both of these qualities to assist me. These human qualities are a tiny part of the greater whole which is me, but this doesn’t mean they are insignificant; like you & me, they contribute to a magnificent whole which would be incomplete without them.

Author bio: With over 38 years experience in the industry, and with a commitment to excellent customer service, Kenn Butler is the man for all your insurance needs. Passionate about leadership and customer service, and as an experienced business person and mentor, he is a sought after consultant and public speaker. View online at http://www.kennbutler.com/

Author bio: Jenny Devine is a Certified Integrative Coach trained by Debbie Ford at the Ford Institute for Integrative Coaching at JFK University, California. Jenny has a Masters Degree in Consciousness Studies from the University of Philosophical Research in Los Angeles and is also a certified Yoga teacher from Kripalu in Massachusetts. She is credentialed by the International Coach Federation as an Associate Certified Coach (ACC). View online at http://www.jennydevine.co.nz/

Handbags: What's in em?

Jean-Claude Kaufmann is one of France's leading sociologists. His research into women's handbags is just out in a book, Le Sac un Petit Monde d'Amour ("The Bag, a Small World of Affection"), and, with photographer Pierre Klein, there is also a photo exhibition of the contents of 50 handbags, Elles Vident Leur Sac (a saying which means "to get it off one's chest"). Kaufmann points out that the more that "women have become independent, the more they have taken their bag with them every day".

Adam Sage of the Times wrote an article in April about handbag contents (original article link below). Sage said that Kaufmann had found that a handbag is an "insurance policy against the risks of daily life". How an insurance policy? Well, we women tend to carry around a lot of things just in case we need them.

Personally, I never used to use a handbag. I used to carry my wallet and my keys, with my sunglasses on my head. Three things; easy peasy. But then I added a fourth thing to the mix; that of a cellphone. Suddenly I was leaving one of my things behind wherever I went, getting to the car and finding I had left my keys behind; getting a call at home to find I had left my cellphone at a shop...

So to avoid constantly losing things, I succumbed to a small bag. And over time I added things to it; plasters, loyalty cards, neurofen, two pens (just in case!), business cards, rolled up shopping bags, nail scissors (reminder to self, do NOT leave these in at the airport again), hand cream, tiny sewing kit and more. No makeup though; I don't do war-paint.

After shoulder injury, I migrated to a leather backpack. So I have only one 'handbag', and it isn't one.

Sage quoted Kaufmann. "The just-in-case tells us a lot about today's society [...] We don't face more risks than people did in the past but we can't stand the idea of being unprepared for risk."

An insurance policy. That is what my backpack is. It contains all the things that I MAY need when I am out and about. Probably 95% of the time, I would be able to get away with not having most of it with me. But when I don' take it, my husband will give me his wallet to look after, and be horrified that I don't have my bag with me, for his convenience. Or I will need that plaster for someone, or tissues, or another pen, or some paper, or a business card, or my emergency credit card (yes, I have an 'emergency' one - and, no, it is not because my credit is maxed out! It is another form of insurance).

Sage in his article talked about women constantly being unable to find their keys in their bags. My bag isn't big, but I too misplace my keys in its black depths. I think it says more about who designs bags... and I must remember to buy another dog-clip to snap my keys onto the inside of mine (I recycled it in another just in case situation.

Martine Laronche in her Guardian article (see below) talked about the seriousness of loss or theft. She quoted Kaufmann "The owner feel as though she has lost part of herself. The handbag is a key piece in the day-to-day construction of identity." The exhibition photographer, Klein, feels that women have their identity in their handbags, where the more affluent amongst us get away from practicality and into image construction.  Do you have a Louis Vuitton bag? Miu Miu? Chloé? Jill Sander? Or do you recreate yourself depending on what day it is?

"It's a female attribute, an expression of style," Klein says. "A woman's handbag is a bit like a man's car: it corresponds to the image they wish to project." Perhaps. I am the unbranded bag that is kept until the cobbler's repairs can no longer keep it together; the well-loved muddy and dented family retainer, chuffing along on three cylinders.

However, Kaufmann and Klein feel that we women try to see the future in what we carry with us; shopping lists, first aid items, things to keep the family entertained and organised. Some of us - though not me - appear to carry the past; mementoes, photographs, icons and artefacts.

Kaufmann was surprised by how many 'useless' things that the women in his study carried, as physical icons of their past. As Sage said, there were "teddy bears, dolls, pebbles, champagne corks, an old handkerchief (the souvenir of a discarded lover), letters of reconciliation [, ...]photographs of loved ones".

Ah, but not in mine. Practicality rules. But I must remember to get a new dog-clip :-)

 

References:

• Sage, Adam (4 April 2011). What the contents of your handbag says about you. UK: The Times. Retrieved 8 May 2011 from http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/life/article2970245.ece
• Laronche, Martine (5 April 2011). The secret life of handbags. UK: The Guardian. Retrieved 27 May 2011 from http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2011/apr/05/secret-handbags-pierre-klien-laronche

Beware of Malware Dialogue Boxes

If you suspect you have accessed a website which is about to download something nasty on your PC via one of those little pop-up dialogue boxes; don't click the "x". Some of the dialogue boxes are really just images, and the whole thing is really a link that activates the payload of whatever nasty you have staggered into.

This includes the relatively new 'LizaMoon' malware (the payload is delivered via one of those a fake "Your computer is infected! Scan now?" pop-up dialogue boxes).

Instead, Ctrl, Alt & Delete and shut down your browser from the taskbar.

Sure, you will lose any open windows in your surfing session, but you shouldn't get stung. And hopefully you will know where you have been & can use your daily link list to get back to where you need to be.

If you are using Firefox and it asks on restart whether you would like to load the previous session, tell it 'No'.

Safest way :-)

 

Thanks to WindowsSecrets.com for the reminder.

TLAs for SMEs

Here are this newsletter's TLAs (Three Letter Acronyms) for you:

• WATS, wide-area telephone service. A specialised form of fixed-rate long-distance telecoms service, usually used by businesses and government agencies.

Please feel free to email me with any TLAs that you want to get the bottom (meaning!) of.

Tips, Short+Hot Keys

In this newsletter, we look at what you can do with strikethrough and comments in Excel and Word:

• Word "Insert a new comment" Ctrl, Alt & M
• Excel "Strikethrough for selection" Ctrl & 5
• Word "Strikethrough for selection" Change the assigned keys (Ctrl & L) for hyperlinks to strikethrough.

Hot Linx

Did you know that if you double-click the fill-handle in an Excel cell, then hold and drag along your range, your cells will fill as a series? Check out TechRepuplic for this hint at http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/msoffice/a-quick-fill-handle-trick-for-microsoft-excel/5009?tag=nl.e056

Jodi Glickman published a great article on HBR's blog site, a how to on "How to Recover from a Personal WikiLeaks". Check it out at http://blogs.hbr.org/glickman/2011/02/how-to-recover-from-a-personal.html?cm_mmc=email-_-newsletter-_-management_tip-_-tip040611&referral=00203&utm_source=newsletter_management_tip&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=tip040611

Leaders are the keepers of culture; and culture can be more important than strategy. Read Nilofer Merchant's HBR blog article at http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2011/03/culture_trumps_strategy_every.html?cm_mmc=email-_-newsletter-_-strategy-_-strategy041511&referral=00210&utm_source=newsletter_strategy&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=strategy041511

To be successful, do two things: 1. Have SMART goals (ie, Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant & Timely), and 2. Focus on what you WILL do, not what you won't. Read more from Heidi Grant Halvorson in "Nine Things Successful People Do Differently" at http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2011/02/nine_things_successful_people.html?cm_mmc=email-_-newsletter-_-management_tip-_-tip050411&referral=00203&utm_source=newsletter_management_tip&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=tip050411

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                                Catch you again soon!! E-mail your suggestions to me here

read more "Newsletter Issue 201, May 2011"

Richard Little on robot legs

Today on National Radio's Nine to Noon, Richard Little speaks about his work as an inventor, helping transform the lives of some paraplegics using a robotic exoskeleton. This is a fascinating talk on applied scientific research that is happening right here in New Zealand. Check out the podcast at http://podcast.radionz.co.nz/ntn/ntn-20110525-1012-feature_guest_-_richard_little-048.mp3

read more "Richard Little on robot legs"

Using LinkedIn for Career Placements

Apparently there is a growing trend for graduates in the UK to use LinkedIn to kickstart their careers. Liz Holland from the Career Development Association (CDANZ) posted a link to an OnRec article about two surveys of UK graduates.
Read "Graduate job seekers more likely to utilise social media than rest of UK job seekers" at http://www.onrec.com/news/news-archive/graduate-job-seekers-more-likely-to-utilise-social-media-than-rest-of-uk-job-seeke.

read more "Using LinkedIn for Career Placements"

Harvesting, Buying and Eating Locally

While I personally remain unconvinced about the phenomenon known as Global Warming, I do feel that we in the West consume well over our fair share of the world's bounty. A bit of restraint does me some good ("Anticip... ation" to quote Frankenfurter from Richard O'Brien's Rocky Horror Picture Show), and I am sure I am not alone in enjoying something more if I have had to wait for it.

The BBC have an interesting page called "Bloom" on their website, at http://www.bbc.co.uk/bloom/actions/localseasonalfood.shtml, which looks rationally at the local vs imported food argument.

They pose a couple of questions: is local food always better for the climate? (not always). Does buying [local] mean the developing world suffers? (sometimes, yes).

How things are grown, stored and processed is equally as important as where it comes from and how far it has travelled to get to the person who eats it. The BBC say "local food that's been grown out of season in heated greenhouses, heavily fertilised, harvested using fuel-heavy machinery and stored for months in fridges can be worse for the climate than produce grown abroad using the sun's heat, picked by humans and flown to the UK. Take the green bean. Kenyan beans grown and hand-picked in fields require climate-intensive air-freighting to get to your plate - yet research suggests that they can produce fewer emissions than British beans that have been grown in greenhouses and depend heavily on machinery and synthetic fertilisers." Greenhouses are a significant and growing contributor to climate change.

On the topic of apples, the BBC say "Similarly, British apples are not always a low-emissions alternative to imported apples - due to the way in which they are 'kept alive' in energy-intensive fridges for up to a year after harvest. In fact, an apple in August can have more carbon on its conscience than an apple that has been freshly harvested in New Zealand and shipped to the UK."

"Perhaps more surprisingly still, even New Zealand lamb, according to research at Lincoln University, can have a lower climate impact than lamb farmed in Britain because of the efficiency of New Zealand's livestock industry - even including transport emissions from New Zealand to the UK. But that doesn't make it a low-carbon option, warn critics - it just means that both have a damaging impact."

Aside from the food we buy, we also need to think about OUR drive to the supermarket, as this is also a 'carbon-intensive' activity. The BBC quotes Gareth Thomas, the British Minister for Trade and Development, who says "driving 6.5 miles to buy your shopping emits more carbon than flying a pack of Kenyan green beans to the UK."

What we are really talking about is the West's megalithic consumption of petroleum products. We can say 'carbon footprint' until the cows come home, but we are talking about oil. Petrol, diesel, oil, kerosene and lubricants to seed, tend, harvest, process, transport and store our food. The more ingredients an item has, the more likely it is to have a very, very high oil cost.

Barbara Kingsolver in her book "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" examined US agriculture's oil consumption, and found food production gurgled down 17% of the US's oil (2007, p. 5). Only 20% (3.4% in total) of that oil gets the harvest to the farm gate. A whopping 80%, or 13.6% of the US's oil consumption is burned on the road, in factories, in the air and in someone's warehouse, waiting for Americans to drive and buy their edibles at the supermarket (and the consumer's supermarket trip is not factored into the barrel).

I am blowed if I want to eat an American apple -metaphorically - dripping with oil. Much of the tinned fruit consumed in New Zealand is processed in China from enzyme-stripped fruit. If you think that cardboard taste it is your taste buds failing you, think again.

Read food labels. There are real give-aways, like the catch-all "Made from local and imported ingredients". Most Kiwis will remember the controversy about Cadbury Schweppes larding their chocolate with palmoline (mmm, that lovely taste of soapy chocolate); the Sanitarium Chinese peanut butter; the Barker's-owned Anathoth Raspberry Jam full of berries from who knows where.

For those of us who want to attempt to lessen our impact on the planet, one of the easiest things we can do is to eat food that is grown locally, outdoors with as little chemical treatment as possible in well-nourished soil, purchased at the gate and largely eaten in season. What remains of our seasonal local harvest then can be stored for winter and spring; bottled, dried or frozen.

Preparing summer produce for storage is very therapeutic. I have just been bottling tomatoes, apples, pears, beetroot and plums for the winter. While that is not going to feed us for the winter, the 100 jars of preserves we have processed will reduce our oil consumption this year, and put less money into H J Heinz' pockets over winter (Heinz owns the Wattie's brand, Kraft Foods owns nearly everything else and between these two American behemoths, they sew up a goodly percentage of Kiwi supermarket facings).

We are not angels or evangelists; we live rurally, work in town and we commute by car. We aren't aiming to be perfect, just more thoughtful.


References:

• BBC (2009). Climate Change - Bloom - buying seasonal, local foods. Retrieved 23 March 2011 from http://www.bbc.co.uk/bloom/actions/localseasonalfood.shtml
• Kingsolver, B., (2007). Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: Our year of seasonal eating. USA: HarperCollins Inc

Sam

read more "Harvesting, Buying and Eating Locally"

Newsletter Issue 200, May 2011

Sam Young Newsletter

Issue 200, May 2011

Hi guys,

Are you still paying for a landline? Or are you following the global trend to a mobile-only existence? Check out Landline vs Mobile below.

The 90 Day Trial Period was introduced in 2009. However, there are some hidden implications for employers. 

PowerPoint Superscript & Subscript   TLAs for SMEs        Tips, Short & Hot Keys        Hot Linx

Don't forget, if you want to be taken off my mailing list, click here to send me a reply e-mail and I will remove your name.

Landline vs Mobile

In The Guardian on Wednesday 23 March 2011, Jess Cartner-Morley mused about the death of the telephone (read the article, Is this the death of the telephone?, online at http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2011/mar/23/death-of-the-telephone).

The article led off with "BT's plans to hike up charges for landline use, coupled with our modern reliance on mobiles, texting and email, could spell the death of the traditional phone call. And our lives will never be quite the same."

As Jess said in her article, for a century the no-dial-tone phone was a great horror film prop, a "symbol of isolation and doom foretold". Now she thinks that the death of the landline is close to happening. In America, a quarter of homes don't have a landline. 2007 research placed 15% of British homes as landline-less, but that figure is likely to have grown significantly in the intervening four years.

So why are our global citizens giving up their landlines?

For me in New Zealand it is because of the 'user-pays' cost of putting a landline on to our house ($10k), plus the fact that if we did put the phone on, we couldn't get broadband anyway as we are on old infrastructure and too far out from the exchange. So we went totally mobile with satellite broadband. I haven't sent a fax in five years or so, so there was no need for a phone line for that either.

For many in the US and UK, it is the cheap alternatives offered by the mobile market. In Vietnam there is no in-ground infrastructure for landlines, so it was cheaper for them to ditch it and go entirely mobile as a nation. I was told that you can get a monthly mobile plan in Vietnam for around $1 per month.

With a mobile you can email, txt, pxt or talk while you carry on your daily life, for a fraction of the cost of the landline. You are not anchored to the house. It costs less. No matter where you are, you have the same number. All your friends' numbers are in your phone. You can go overseas and take the same phone, and the same number, with you. The phones are lighter, more stylish, and you can screen your incoming calls for free.

Ah, now there's a good selling point. Call screening is very easy when you have a mobile with your numbers loaded. If an incoming call comes up with "Private Number", "Number withheld" or "Caller Unknown" you just don't answer.

Poor telemarketers. In New Zealand, where landline calls are free and mobile calls cost, you are unlikely to be telemarketed when you have only a mobile number. In the past eighteen months I have only had one telemarketer call my cellphone. The bliss of not having dinner time interrupted is fantastic.

Jess mentions another reason for the huge increase in mobile 'home-lines'; those in their twenties who have had mobiles "since their teens and for whom a landline makes no practical sense during the transient years before they settle down, the moment of opting into landline-owning may never come if it becomes an expensive extra". Jess also said that it was pretty much only her parents who called her on her landline these days.

Jess also felt that the cellphone, with it's handy mutable ring, was making us less transparent, and more selfish in being able to ignore others when they want to talk to us. She felt that the landline was once an "invisible [social and romance] knowledge map" of who was calling, how long conversations were, and of having to answer the phone when it sirened its call through the house.

I disagree. My mother has a great saying, which I apply equally to the landline and the cellphone, "the phone is my servant; I am not its". If I am busy, the phone - landline or cell - won't get answered. The phone, after all, is for my convenience, not for others'.

I also remember having to order a change of phone with Telecom three weeks before I moved, and still not having the phone connected for two weeks after the move took place. The telecoms fees I had to pay for my bare-faced gall in moving house were pretty staggering. I was also told that I couldn't take my old number with me, because I was now on a different exchange. All this was 'normal' and convenience didn't enter into it.

And that's the thing with mobile phones - they are intensely convenient. Remember dial-up internet? The mobile really came into its own then, when you could call someone AND be on the web at the same time. Mobiles go wherever you go; providing you have access to a powerpoint from time to time it will keep going; you have your address book and diary all in one place, and for some retailers you can have your loyalty card stored in it. You can know exactly where you are with GPS, check your emails, keep your e-ticket and have your talking book and your favourite music on it. There is talk of loading electronic credit cards on them.

Most people have a mobile and a landline. Couples have two mobiles and a landline. A family has 4 plus mobiles and a landline. And internet. And Sky. You can understand people questioning in tight economic times why they should pay for a landline as well. If your landline comes bundled with your internet, perhaps do as some of our friends are choosing to do; taking the 'naked broadband' option.

So to me the only difference it really makes to customers whether we use the underground cables or not is about paying for the cost of upkeep. Once we all shared a little cost over a great number of us. Shortly a few are going to share a great deal of cost, which will really toll the death-knell of the landline. Naked broadband won't be able to subsidise the cost either - so we will be satellite all the way.

Who knows what telecommunications will be capable of, once free of its earthbound shackles. One thing is that today it is more likely to be for customer convenience, not for that of telecoms companies.

 

90 Day Trial Periods

Recently I attended some very interesting training on the 90 day employee trial period, which had come into effect on 1 March 2009.

There was an Employment Court judgement earlier in 2011 about a case (Smith vs Stokes Valley Pharmacy (2009) Ltd) which was heard last year. The bald facts of the case are that Ms Smith had been an employee of Stokes Valley Pharmacy since 2007. The original owners sold the business, which was to be effective from 1 October 2009. The new owners made new employment offers to all staff.

Ms Smith was offered a new IEA on 29 September. She took the contract home and read it, and, aside from some other matters that she wanted to negotiate with the new owners about, was also worried about a 90 day trial period clause. Ms Smith did not sign the agreement, but took the contract and her concerns back to the new owners. Ms Smith and Stokes Valley Pharmacy (2009) Ltd had not reached agreement by the take-over date of 1 October, but the new owners asked Ms Smith to start work anyway.

On 2 October, after being told that the 90 day clause was 'standard in all their contracts' and that it wouldn't be a problem, the parties reached agreement and Ms Smith signed the contract.

On 8 December, Ms Smith was dismissed with few reasons given by the new owners. She challenged this through the Employment Court as unjustified dismissal.

Judge Colgan ruled that Ms Smith was unjustifiably disadvantaged, and was unjustifiably dismissed; and that Stokes Valley Pharmacy (2009) Ltd had breached the “good faith” provisions of the Employment Relations Act and the IEA. Additionally, Ms Smith would be able to sue Stokes Valley Pharmacy (2009) Ltd for breach of contract.

The result of this case is that to uphold a 90 day trial period there needs to be:

1. A written employment agreement (there was)
2. The EA as to be signed before employment commences (it wasn't)
3. The employees attention must be drawn to the 90 day clause (no 'reasonable expectation')
4. The 90 day offer should be clarified in an appointment letter (it wasn't)
5. To avoid a PG for 'Unjustified disadvantage', the employer would be best to clarify acceptable behaviours and provide fair warnings (no 'reasonable expectation'). These do not need to be as extensive or formal as post-trial period, but documentary evidence would protect the employer.

Cautions for employees: if you start work before your written employment contract is signed, the 90 day period may not stand. Ask for a formal appointment letter. If your employer downplays the 90 day period as being 'standard' in your contract, the trial period may not stand. Your employer needs to give you reasonable expectation that your employment will cease if your work continues in the same vein. Ask for regular feedback, and keep diary or file notes of any performance conversations with the employer.

Cautions for employers: don't let any employee start work without having a written, signed IEA already in place, and an appointment letter detailing that the 90 day trial period will be in place, and what that means for the trial employee. Ensure your IEA has been carefully constructed to support the 90 day trial throughout (ie, that all your clauses include reference to the 90 day trial. Get expert employment contract advice with a reputable organisation such as EMA). Keep a diary or file note of any unacceptable behaviours and fair warnings, preferably signed & dated by both parties.

Download a summary of the Smith vs Stokes Valley Pharmacy case from http://www.justice.govt.nz/courts/employment-court/documents/2010-%20NZEmpc%20111%20Smith%20v%20Stokes%20Valley%20Pharmacy%20-2009-%20Limited.pdf.

PowerPoint Superscript & Subscript

Did you know that you could create a non-standard superscript or subscript in PowerPoint?

While you can do a standard superscript and subscript to any text in a presentation, PowerPoint also allows you to set how much offset you want;

1. Select the text you want to offset
2. In 2003, click the Format menu | Font (in 2007+, click the Home tab and then click the small arrow in the bottom-right corner to launch the Font dialogue box).
3. In the Font dialogue box, click the superscript or subscript box, then enter the number for your desired offset effect (the limits are 100 and -100, and the standard superscript is 30, subscript is -25).
4. Click OK.

Thanks to TechRepublic for this tip (http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/msoffice/office-challenge-why-does-my-word-document-look-different-on-my-home-computer/4926?tag=nl.e056). 

TLAs for SMEs

Here are this newsletter's TLAs (Three Letter Acronyms) for you:

• IEA, Individual Employment Agreement. The written, formal, explicit, overt contractual & legal bond that binds the employer & the employee together for a defined period of service (fixed term contract) or open (full employment) length of service.
• PG, Personal Grievance. Any grievance that an employee may have against their employer (or former employer) because of a claim (see Section 103 of the Employment Relations Act 2000 for claim details).

Please feel free to email me with any TLAs that you want to get the bottom (meaning!) of.

Tips, Short+Hot Keys

In this newsletter, we are going to look at some popular hotkeys for Outlook:

• "Go to Calendar view from any other view" - Ctrl & 2
• "View specific number of days, beginning with the selected day, eg select April 14, key Alt & 4, Calendar shows April 14 - 17" - Alt & 1-9
• "Go to a specific date via date selection dialog box (enter/choose date and click OK)" - Ctrl & G
• "Show Week view" - Alt & - (hyphen)
• "Show Month view" - Alt & = (equals).

And one for Outlook 2007+

• "Create a new appointment in any Outlook view" - Ctrl, Shift & A

Hot Linx

There's a new report out saying that in-house promoted CEOs outperform those who have been hired in. Check out the AT Kearney report at http://www.atkearney.com/index.php/Publications/qhome-grownq-ceo.html

For expertise in employer's employment advice, advocacy, networking and training, check out the Employers & Manufacturer's Association at http://www.ema.co.nz/

HBR have published a guide to meetings, which is available directly from HBR at http://hbr.org/product/guide-to-making-every-meeting-matter/an/10755-PDF-ENG?cm_mmc=email-_-newsletter-_-management_tip-_-tip041811&referral=00203&utm_source=newsletter_management_tip&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=tip041811

Those of you who are looking for different Kiwi blogs could try learning a little more about Wellington at http://wellingtonista.com/ and http://www.karldufresne.blogspot.com/, and about Nelson at http://www.wildandsneaky.co.nz/.

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                                Catch you again soon!! E-mail your suggestions to me here

read more "Newsletter Issue 200, May 2011"

Inserting Filler Text

To insert filler text into a Word, Publisher or other MS document, you can either use the =rand() function, which will insert "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog"; or the =lorem() function, which will insert the pigeon-latin text, "lorem ipsum".

You can adjust the amount of text being inserted by entering the number of paragraphs (x) and the lines per paragraph (y) inside the parentheses. Eg =lorem(10, 5) will insert 10 paragraphs of 5 lines per paragraph.

read more "Inserting Filler Text"