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Tragedy struck Oklahoma yesterday when tornadoes wiped a goodly portion of the area around their state capitol off the map. It's a fact that Oklahoma ranks third in the nation in number of Federal disaster aid requests, behind only Texas and California. Just last month, disaster was declared there following severe snowstorms. Ironic-- since two of its most prominent Senators-- one of whom has been the loudest supporter of speedy Federal funding to aid victims of Oklahoma's various past disasters-- have repeatedly voted AGAINST sending disaster aid to other states (most recently, New Jersey Hurricane Sandy relief). Still, let's hope the victims of this terrible disaster get the emergency funds they need as quickly and efficiently as possible, since after all-- shit like this happens, which is a big part of WHY we have a Federal government in the first place. Let's take care of our fellow Americans.

Such myopia abounds in the corporate world as well. One of the most self-defeating business practices is The Talent Gauntlet, where mid-level managers selfishly refuse to hire or promote anyone who exhibits skill or talent that might conceivably threaten their own position of authority in the future. It's essentially the Survivor "immediately vote the strongest player off the island" Syndrome.

Some company owners and upper brass purposely turn a blind eye to these activities, considering such behavior to be a Darwinian self-policing system that forces naturally dominant employees to rise (like cream) to the top. But in order to be effective, any such system demands fair, honest, incredibly-selfless middle management. No company exists merely to serve the personal career strategies of its middle managers; it exists to perform its function as a business by maximizing the potential of every employee.

Managers who purposely roadblock anyone more talented than themselves are a lethal detriment to any company. It's the responsibility of the owner or upper management to ensure that middle management acts in the best interests of the company--  paranoid or tyrannical managers can completely poison a company division, wrecking morale and driving truly talented and skilled employees out the door.

Businesses must be vigilant, lest a group of selfish jerks take up residence atop the company payroll, selfishly defending it against all comers. That's NOT "only the strong will survive"- it's a parasitical infestation by industrial saboteurs. 

Speaking of parasites: "drafting" derives from a bicycling term in which the bodies of other cyclists are used as a windblock to reduce ones own workload... i.e., "getting an easy ride at someone else's expense." In business, it's when a lazy employee gets added to a project team, work group, or task collective (along with more studious workers), who then does next to no work. But they still take credit for the collective work of the team. This is the same type of douchebag who rushes in to help a group jointly lift a heavy burden... but once they've been seen "helping," they exert zero effort, instead feigning work and only pretending to help.

Such selfish jerks usually believe themselves far too clever to be caught... but they eventually tip their hand and get fired for such shenanigans. Though that doesn't make up for the extra work they've dumped atop others. 

When the chips are down, there may be someone on your team eager to grab what they can for themselves, despite the bigger picture. Protect yourself.

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Here's a bit of history:

The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) of 1938 created the minimum wage and outlawed child labor in America, and also introduced the eight-hour work day and the 40-hour work week. Inspired by a massive backlash against the irresponsible business practices that caused the Great Depression, it overhauled work conditions in American industry and boosted household revenues, supporting a prosperous middle class over the ensuing 75 years.

The "overtime" portion of the law doesn't prohibit employers from demanding that employees work more than 40 hours a week. Instead, employers must pay extra to overworked employees, or else hire additional workers to increase production. Plus, it rewards employees who DO work longer. So it creates more jobs, and injects more money into the economy in the form of higher overtime pay. Either way, extraordinary workloads are rewarded with an increase in wages. 

Even WITH the legal requirement of overtime pay, Americans STILL work more hours than almost any other industrialized country in the world. It's what we do-- we're just kooky like that.

Well, right now a group of Congressmen is working to change all that by introducing a bill allowing employers to side-step paying overtime, substituting it with "comp time" instead.

What is "comp time"? It's bullshit, that's what. It forces workers to work beyond the accepted 40 hour work week with no commensurate raise in pay. Instead, for each extra hour an employee works, he or she is awarded a "comp hour"-- a future paid "vacation hour" which can supposedly be taken off sometime down the road. Not too bad, right? Wrong.

If Washington passes H.R. 1406-- the ironically-named "Cantor/Roby Working Families Flexibility Act"-- predatory employers will immediately start pressuring their workers to eschew overtime for comp time. Paychecks will drop; plus, suddenly there's no need for a business to hire extra workers if production can be increased just by keeping the doors open for more hours. Hours worked by wage slaves for no special reward other than the angry pukey feeling that comes from grudging acquiescence to corporate exploitation.

Here's the REAL slap in the face: H.R. 1406 does nothing to guarantee workers the right to actually USE such comp time when they get it. Instead, the bill lets any employer who receives a request for comp time decide WHEN (if ever) the employee gets to take it... plus the employer can even REFUSE the request if, in the employer's view, letting the employee take comp time will "unduly disrupt the operations of the employer."

Unscrupulous bosses have long dodged paying overtime by saddling workers with locked salaries and labeling them "managers" on the payroll records. That's the oldest trick in the book. Recent business reports reveal that American productivity is on the rise-- but NOT from the creation of more jobs. Rather, companies are more productive because they work longer hours. Take away overtime, and believe me, the universal 12-hour workday will return with a vengeance.

The framers of this law claim it would "allow families more flexibility in planning time off from work." But that is a blatant smokescreen to mask the real reason for the law-- to erode the foundations of the 1938 FLSA. The truth is simply this: there are big players in corporate America who would really rather not pay hourly employees overtime for extra hours worked, and who are trying to pass this ridiculously-named bill into law so they can work their employees to exhaustion while still paying them peanuts.

Somebody dust that bill for fingerprints: I bet it's printed under a Walmart letterhead.