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gdlywmn · 4 years ago

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To follow Christ is to strive for excellence

“Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest.” ‭‭Ecclesiastes‬ ‭9:10‬

Two months ago I went on a six-weeks holiday in Bali to reunite with my church friends. Prior to leaving Bali back in early 2019, I had started to believe in Christ again, and therefore I had several friends who had helped me during my journey as a new believer. Needless to say, I was ecstatic to meet my fellow Christians.

Having spent five years living and working in Bali, and in the hospitality industry nevertheless, I was very familiar with the challenge of finding a place to stay especially for such a long duration. What I mean by challenge is that whatever photos you see on the internet about such places, be them hotels, villas or homestays - the reality will be the total opposite.

Pro tip on anyone looking for long-term acommodation in Bali: never trust the photos. What people say about the internet is true - the reality is nothing like their pictures, be it people or things.

So a friend told me that she knew this lodging near her house which was really nice and clean (on Booking.com) and the owner was a part of the congregration. Sounds good right? In a way I applauded myself for being so naive and trusting after being such a pessimist realist during my atheistic years.

Of course the place turned up to be completely disastrous - dirty linens and bathrooms, moldy stained pillows and mattresses, spider webs on the ceiling, smelly bathrooms and broken doors and no hot water.

Naturally I was apalled - a Christian owned this place, how can this be? How is it possible? Is my standard too high or theirs too low? Surely clean is clean, there is no in between!

But I soon learned that this was not unusual.

I visited another lodging which was owned by another Christian whom I had actually met and spoken with - he was nice, a good person I would say, and I had to go through another disappointment. So great was my disappointment that I had to avoid meeting this person afterwards because how could I tell him how horribly dirty and rundown his lodging was and that he’d better do something about it - without offending him?

Being a Christ follower, these things really convict me - should I say something? Should I let him know? Should I let it go? Doesn’t he know? Surely he knows! Perhaps I should have said something to him. But based on experience, only 1/10 would appreciate my honesty. Nobody likes having their weaknesses pointed out.

I have become wise in biting my tongue and holding myself back from picking up unecessary battles that are not worth my time. It would be a different story if he’d asked my opinion.

It’s so easy for me to say, “I’m a Christian” or “I follow Christ”. But I often convict myself if what I do, from the smallest to the biggest things, glorifies His name. As a person who says that she follows Christ, wouldn’t it mean aiming for our best in whatever I do - say, in my job, for example?

Is it wrong to ask myself: As a Christian, is this the best that I can do? According to Paul, it isn’t;

“And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men;” Colossians‬ ‭3:23‬

I believe in doing the best I can in whatever I commit myself to do. Paid or unpaid, small or big tasks. I suppose this has always been my credo even before I became a believer.

The difference was that back then I gave my all and got frustrated because I ended up getting burned out. Only after believing again I started to let go of things I couldn’t change, and not letting pride and frustration robbed the peace and joy God has given to me.

The old me would work to such exhaustion for the sake of perfection (and pride), whereas the new me is able to discern whether whatever it is I do is worth investing my time and energy or not.

But the danger of not striving for excellence in whatever we do is how we are seen through the eyes of non-Christians. If following Yeshua does not change our characters, our habits, our methods and what we produce from our work, then what good does it do for us? How are we different than those who do not follow Yeshua?

It often saddens me when I meet people who are non-believers producing better work than those who do. As a fellow Christian, I feel somehow embarassed. We don’t realize it because it has become somewhat normal.

A perfect example of a person who always aimed for excellence in whatever he did would be Joseph. Even when he was a nobody, he did whatever he was assigned for wholeheartedly. Even when the person he did a favour forgot him, God did not forget him. God blessed him and the land he resided in, simply because Joseph, his obedient and chosen servant was there. From a servant to an overseer in the land of Egypt, God made everything prosper in Joseph’s hand.

“And it came to pass from the time that he had made him overseer in his house, and over all that he had, that the Lord blessed the Egyptian's house for Joseph's sake; and the blessing of the Lord was upon all that he had in the house, and in the field.” ‭‭Genesis‬ ‭39:5‬

I am confident to say that God was happy to see Joseph because Joseph reflected such honesty and excellence that He, the Creator, would like to see reflected from His creation. So, isn’t it natural for God to bless Joseph above everyone else?

We are all ambassadors Yeshua. Who we believe is a reflection of who He is. Let us not tarnish His name by doing things halfheartedly. Let’s be excellent in whatever we do, big or small, because we want to glorify His name.

I’ll end this note with a quote from the book of Luke:

“If ye then be not able to do that thing which is least, why take ye thought for the rest?” Luke‬ ‭12:26‬

#excellence #godly woman #following christ

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lozza-85 · 4 years ago

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The Most Unique Strike In History

THE MOST UNIQUE STRIKE IN HISTORY? In December 2020, the GMB union balloted British Gas field engineers for the right to strike against the Fire and Re Hire the Senior Management have been threatening us with since June2020. 89% of ballot returns voted in favour of industrial action. That is around 5,000 engineers. The company is leading people to believe that over 80% of its employees have already signed up to its new conditions so there is nothing wrong with them. The details they have not included is that the ones who have are Office staff and Contract employees on completely different contracts then the field staff. A good majority of these are receiving small improvements and only the long-term employees that are the minority are losing out. What makes this vote unique is that we are not asking for anything extra from the company. All we want is for them to remove S188 Fire and Re Hire and continue negotiations with the Union. The company have point blankly said they will not engage in any further talks and the clock is ticking until a legally approved final date is issued. So far it has been moved from January 2021 and we believe they will be issuing our new contract to sign on the 31st March2021 with two options. Sign the contract or leave the business. No redundancy as the role is and has been understaffed for years. A huge number of these engineers have only ever worked as an engineer for BG since leaving school and have always envisaged it to be a job for life. Two years ago, the company managed to get through a change to our Final salary pension seeing it cut in half moving forward. Yes, it was a good pension in today’s market, but this was one of the major factors in people staying with the company as it had already been removed to new entrants years ago. I believe they got the numbers required in the vote on this due to a £8k one of payment before tax and NI. Personally, it has reduced my pension by around £11k a year so not great. Unfortunately, many had already become disillusioned with the way the company was going and could not foresee staying until retirement. Senior Management must have seen this as a huge win and I believe this started the wheels in motion for what we are being faced with today, after working through the biggest pandemic in centuries, constantly entering and working in people’s houses and even ones who had tested positive. As a leaked clip recently shows a Senior manager is in tears early on in this pandemic because of what the company is asking us to do for its customers. This has been followed by another leaked clip of various senior managers gloating over the fact that the pandemic and recent events in America have managed to keep the strike almost completely out of the mainstream media. Just Before Christmas 2020 they constantly contacted us which some have seen as bullying and intimidation to pre sign a copy of intent to sign the contract in February. For this you got a sweetener or as they called it a transition payment of either £1k or £2k depending what part of field services you worked in. Also enhanced benefits of extra holiday that was being taken away under the new terms and enhanced bonus scheme that has not even been trailed yet to show if fit for purpose. Those receiving London Weighting or those set to lose it under the new agreement also got this for a few extra years, for some up to £5k. I will now try and summarise the changes I have managed to understand under the new contract for a service and repair engineer. I am still yet to find a single positive for the employee. 1. The average engineer will be losing 4 days annual leave and around 10 rest days. 2. Those who receive London weighting (up to £5.2k) will either loose it completely or see it dramatically reduced. 3. We have been told we earn above market average for our role so will receive no pay rise for a minimum of 3 years guaranteed and could be between 5-10 years without a rise. 4. Our 37-hour week will increase to 40 hours, you will not see an increase in your base pay for these hours so will be effectively taking a pay cut as your hourly rate will reduce. The companies new bonus scheme (CTAP) could if you exceed targets pay for these hours. 5. CTAP the new bonus scheme has not been trailed or tested to see if it is fit for purpose. 6. The sharesave scheme will no longer be available. 7. Being forced to pay for private health insurance otherwise you will only receive statutory sick pay. Also 6 months full and 6 months half pay will change to 3 months at 100% and 9 months at 66% 8. Core hours will change Currently Summer Monday to Friday from 8am to 7pm. Winter Monday to Friday 8am to 8pm. Saturday 8am to 6pm and Sunday 8am to 5pm. All days will be 7am to 9pm. 9. No caps on weekend working, Sundays are currently 1 in 6 max. 10. No weekend payment currently around £26 Saturday and £40 Sunday. Depending on roster frequency a loss of just over £1k 11. Start time, at present need to be at collection point or on patch en route to 1st job. New contract you will need to be on your 1stjob at start time and should be within 30mins from home. So technically 30 mins of unpaid hours. You will be told by the system when to collect your parts and allocated the travel time for this. 12. Overtime rates will all be at 1.33% of hourly rate. Currently from 1.25 upto 200% 13. EA (Emergency call out throughout the evening and night) is the biggest hit as going from 200% to 1.33%. 14. Will now be rostered to work on bank holidays and apart from Christmas, Boxing day and NYD will attract no extra payments. 15. Current 6 monthly roster will change to 6 weeks rolling roster making planning your outside time a lot harder. Also, any holiday booked outside the 6-week window will be at 40 hours regardless of what that future shift time will be. 16. Loss of 28/45 hour summer and winter shifts replaced with 32/44 min and max depending on workloads and not summer and winter. 17. Our managers will remain on a 37-hour week and these extra hours will I assume only be covered by a duty manager if they decide to answer the phone. Good luck at 7am and up to 9pm 18. Loss of 3-day weeks in summer when work loads are low. Minimum will be a 4-day week. 19. Work systems are old, and the company have stated that these needs updating to accommodate todays demands. New contract relies on these but no commitment or time scales as to when these will be updated. 20. If an engineer’s performance is below the required new untested target, then a new untested performance management will be used and could result in dismissal within 3 months. 21. Overtime will only be paid once your CTAP balance is positive so could be doing OT just to balance the books. 22. No confirmed details to say if consolidating London weighting will affect pension cap. 23. You will only receive time credits whilst working or if waiting for a job. So, if you have 20mins left on shift and do not want a job then you loose 20mins from CTAP. Also, if you request a job in this time anything could come down and you will be forced to take it and work OT or loose the wait time. 24. QDOS will be no longer so no more payments for selling products and upgrades. You will be allocated a set time into CTAP for this. 25. No commitment to stop contractors picking the best jobs and travel plans. All the company have committed to is looking at this later. Means they get better pay and we lose out n CTAP. 26. Job Recall time currently at 10 days will change to 28 days even if it unrelated. 27. No travel time will be credited if you need to pick up parts from another engineer. So, you will be penalised for doing the right thing for our customer. 28. No more quarterly bonus. 29. Rest day working will only be paid if you have a positive balance in CTAP 30. Business have agreed some long duration time takes a lot longer than the time allocated. Again, no change of this and hopefully something they will look at later. 31. All Training roles have gone and manager/CDMs will coach engineers even though many have been off the tools for ages. 32. If you log a lead and that goes ahead you will still get a recall if we need to go back within 28days. Even if the installer is at fault and not the engineer. 33. CTAP is not in your Terms and Conditions so no collective agreement for the future of this. 34. Some current work tasks will not be left to an engineer’s judgement rather than credit the relevant time to these and protect safety. 35. No longer be able to carry over or sell holiday entitlement. 36. April 2019 the company made a commitment in the pay agreement to 400 new apprentices by 2023, only 48 so far to date. Half the time gone and only 10% of this has been fulfilled.

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tipsycad147 · 5 years ago

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What to Do During a Void Moon

January 17, 2019 by Savannah

Living by the moon has helped me to keep some organisation to my life and make room for everything I want to do. It helps me to flow with the energies I’m experiencing so that I may better accomplish things and it allows me to create mandatory space in my life so that I don’t overwhelm or over do it.

There are several aspects to living by the moon.

Manifesting with the moon helps you to accomplish your goals.

Assigning tasks to do during particular zodiacs allows you to harness their power.

Being aware of the void moon allows you to schedule rest times and avoid wasting your time.

So how does that void moon thing mean?

Well, as the moon travels through the sky, it’s entering and exiting the signs of the zodiac. When it’s in a particular sign, we feel more of that sign’s influence in our thinking, acting and goings about.

For example, if the moon is in Pisces, things may have a dreamier feel to them. We are more creative, kinder and willing to listen to others.

If the moon is in Leo, we may be more boisterous, fun, loving and confident.

Virgo turns our attention to health, organisation and helping others.

he moon will stay in a zodiac for a couple of days before switching to the next. In between these switches, the moon is not in any sign. When the moon is travelling between this “voided” space, it’s considered “Void of course”

It’s really a simple concept although when I first learned about it, no one had explained it to me and I kept reading “Void OF COURSE” and always thought that was a little rude. “Of course” like I was suppose to know. But it’s actually as in “the course it takes”.

Ok, So now what do I do with this info?

The basic concept is, while the moon’s in it’s void of course period, don’t do anything important. If the moon’s not working, neither am I. During this time:

Don’t start anything new that you want to stick

Don’t sign any important papers

Don’t schedule important meetings

Don’t buy anything big

Don’t take on new and important projects

If you message me about work during the void moon, I’ll avoid answering until the void period is over. There’s no energy there to make anything stick and it’ll all be a giant waste of time. If you’re sceptical, do your own experiments with it and watch how nothing done during this period sticks.

There are those who say that the moon can’t be void if it’s leaving Cancer or Taurus, because those are it’s home signs, but I’m cool with extra void periods and don’t take any chances.

It’s also said that you can work on things that were started while the moon was active, but I don’t like to do that either. It’s really a personal preference on that one though.

So what CAN I do during a void moon?

Routine, unimportant things are great for riding out the void moon period. They never last more than 12 ish hours and are often only periods of 2-3 hours at most. A long void moon period occurring during waking, work hours usually only comes around once or twice a month.

During a void moon:

Clean

Read

Nap

Self care

Cook

Meditate

Exercise (especially yin yoga)

Plan

Hang out with loved ones

Simple, routine errands

Basically anything that’s chill, routine and doesn’t have any importance tied to it. I mean, of course self care, exercise and meditation (etc) are important. But you don’t have to worry about things going wrong (generally) or them being a waste of time. I might do these things or I may schedule routine errands like grocery shopping during this time.

Benefits of the void moon

Tailoring my life around the void moon has given me mandatory rest times sprinkled throughout my week. This is especially helpful since this is a Kapha time and I am extremely Pitta/Vata. Meaning I’ll go go go unless something MAKES me rest.

Refusing to work during these periods gives me time to focus on myself and all of those “non essential” things I want to do but never make the time for. It’s helped me to create space in my life to breathe, grow and ground myself. All invaluable to progress and balance.

How do I keep up with this schedule?

That proves a bit tricky, honestly. You can google “void moon times/dates” and get results. But most of them I’ve found to be a bit tricky and difficult to follow. Many don’t take into account your specific time zones and you’re left to math. Most of them are written in a format that you can’t easily understand.

The best thing I’ve found so far is an app called “Simple VoC moon calendar“. They have a paid and unpaid version. The paid version is worth the dollar or two splurge just so you can have notifications pop up on your phone. It has a little widget and it tailors to your specific location and zodiac, turning red when you’re zodiac is especially affected by that particular void period!

Keep in mind, I’m an Android user and have no idea if it’s on Apple, so I apologize for being one sided on this if it’s not available to you. You can follow me on Twitter, turn on my notifications and I can be your own personal void moon notification since I tweet out all of the significant ones!

https://earthandwater.co/void-moon/

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toldnews-blog · 6 years ago

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New Post has been published on https://toldnews.com/politics/work-for-the-women-in-white-analysis/

Work for the women in white: ANALYSIS

They clearly stole the show.

Interested in 2020 Elections?

Add 2020 Elections as an interest to stay up to date on the latest 2020 Elections news, video, and analysis from ABC News.

If nothing else, that sea of women in white struck such a visual image you kept wishing the cameras would show them again. And then the congresswomen managed to stage a little rally of their own —right in the middle of the State of the Union speech.

Happily, there was nothing mean-spirited or out of place about it.

When President Trump hailed the number of women in the workforce, their sisters in Congress stood and cheered. When he went on to salute the number of women in congress they started high-fiving each other and chanting, “USA, USA,” letting Republicans know their party couldn’t hijack that celebration of country.

Alex Wong/Getty Images

Female lawmakers cheer during President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address in the chamber of the U.S. House of Representatives on Feb. 5, 2019, in Washington.

After that giddy moment the women in white – like the valiant suffragists they dressed to honor—have some work to do. Now that they actually hold office they can no longer simply denounce the president and rally disheartened women to their sides.

Now they need to do something for those women.

My suggestion: take Trump up on the parts of the State of the Union where he proposed policies that could be quite meaningful to women and ignore the rest.

Forget about his ranting about the wall, lashing out against socialism, hitting the hot button issue of late-term abortion—themes designed to take out on the campaign trail. They are the elevator music of the Trump presidency.

But take him up on some of his throwaway lines. Here’s the first one to jump on: “I am also proud to be the first President to include in my budget a plan for nationwide paid family leave.”

To millions of women — and many men —paid leave to care for family would be a godsend like no other. It took nine years of relentless lobbying to pass the Family and Medical Leave Act in 1993. That’s not as bad as the 70 years it took suffragists to succeed in passing the 19th Amendment recognizing women’s right to vote.

But it was still a heavy lift.

Despite strong support in the Congress and the country President George H.W. Bush vetoed the bill when it first passed, roiling the ranks of Republican women. Finally, following the first election “year of the woman” in 1992 and with a bipartisan push spearheaded by Democrat Patricia Schroeder and Republican Marge Roukema, President Clinton signed the bill.

By 2016, the law had been used more than 200 milllon times.

But many people—mainly low income women—can’t take advantage of family leave because it’s unpaid. It provides for up to 12 weeks off to care for oneself or a family member and guarantees that some job will be waiting on return but there’s no pay mandated, that’s up to an employer’s discretion.

The law also doesn’t apply to employers with fewer than 50 workers, so a beautician, for instance, who would usually work in a much smaller shop wouldn’t be protected by the provisions.

So if the cheering women in the House chamber want to make a real difference in the lives of the sixty four per cent of American mothers who are bread-winners, not to mention the millions of Americans — mostly women – providing unpaid care for disabled and elderly family members, they can do the gritty work of passing paid and expanded family leave.

Doug Mills/Pool via AFP/Getty Images

President Donald Trump delivers the State of the Union address at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Feb. 5, 2019.

Here’s another line from Trump’s speech that the congresswomen should run with: “The next major priority for me, and for all of us, should be to lower the cost of healthcare and prescription drugs — and to protect patients with pre-existing conditions.”

The pre-existing conditions part of that sentence will get the attention but the part that will matter at least as much to women is the part about prescription drugs. George W. Bush provided a lifeboat to seniors by proposing the prescription drug benefit under Medicare.

But the price of the premiums keeps rising as the price of drugs skyrockets. Fifty five per cent of the people on Medicare are female, many in need of lower prices for the drugs that keep them alive and healthy.

So the women in Congress have much work ahead. They, like the women in white before them, will be the force necessary to accomplish true change for better in the lives of American women.

That’s what they need to remember as they shed their spotless suits, shift into workday wear and block out the background noise of the much of the Trump State of the Union.

#abcnews #Abortion #Donald Trump #election news #family #indian politics #political news #political news articles #political rally #Politics #politics news #speeches #State of the Union #U.S. Democratic Party #U.S. Republican Party #US politics #wages

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momentumgo · 6 years ago

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Andrea Schmitz

Motion Graphics Designer/Animator www.andreaschmitzzz.com New York City Age 27 She/Her

How did you get your start in motion design, animation, or whatever it is that you do?

I originally wanted to be a writer, and I faithfully wrote buckets of fanfiction and short stories up until the end of high school. I had actually planned on going to college for creative writing, but I was afraid of job prospects for fiction writing, and ended up going to Northwestern for film instead. Once I was there, it was clear to me that I hated film. For the first two years I felt like I was wasting time and money because I wasn’t learning anything that felt practical or interesting to me. It was also freezing in Chicago, and I quickly discovered that I hated filming on set (and I hated that most of the other film students only wanted to talk about film). Then, in 2012, I took the only animation class on campus, which taught puppeted character animation in AfterEffects. I was good at it, and it was fun, and so I decided to do that for the rest of my time there, along with sound design (because you could do both from a warm, snug bed).

I was one of three students interested in animation in my year, and one of three women killing it in sound design. I spent my time at school working project to project, designing opening credits for other film students’ web series, making a short animations for class, and sound designing other people’s short films. I tried to learn something new with each project, and eventually I worked with the animation teacher on an explainer series as an independent study in my third year. I also had two unpaid internships – one in Santa Monica making background screens for a 3D kids show, and one in my hometown of Little Rock where I did not do much actual work, but my supervisor gave me access to his Animation Mentor account so I could take some lessons.

In my last year at Northwestern I was terrified that I was nowhere near ready for a job in motion graphics or animation, and I didn’t want to do another four years of school. Over my senior year winter break, I showed a former Disney/Nickelodeon animator who had recently moved to my hometown one of my old sketchbooks that I had on hand at the time, and he told me that I was four years behind everyone graduating from an art school that year. I went back to my car and cried. I had been trying so hard to make something from the limited resources for animation at my school, and I still had so far to go. I made a plan to do everything I could to make up that time as quickly as possible.

This feedback triggered 3 years of panic-fueled creativity that I still have mixed feelings about because, although it kickstarted a creative growth spurt, it came from a place of fear, which affected the quality of the work. I took five classes that fall, blindly guessing pre-production for an animated short that I did not end up making in an independent study. Northwestern did not provide a 3D class, so I took the train once a week an hour south to take night classes in Maya at Columbia College on top of my regular workload (not for credit, because taking this six classes wouldn’t have been allowed by the school). Near the end of the year, I frantically applied to any and all jobs listed online, figuring that I would crash-course learn whatever I needed to and move wherever I had to to work. By the time school was ending, I had no job offers, but I had found a grad program that put equal emphasis on writing and art that felt just so me.

Two months before I graduated Northwestern, I applied and got into the MFA Visual Narrative program at the School of Visual Arts in NYC. I left NU three weeks later to start the program, and flew back every weekend to wrap up classes, graduate, and move out. The MFAVN program functions as an on-campus high-volume program for June and July every summer for 3 summers, but is an online course during the 2 years in between, so you can attend grad school and hold down a job in another state at the same time.

After leaving the first summer, I moved to Austin, and shortly after got a job making graphics for standardized tests. I couldn’t keep any work from this job for my portfolio since all of it was confidential, so sometimes it felt like I was making art all day and throwing it into a hole, but I learned vector illustration from that job. The next year, I moved to NYC for thesis year in order to be closer to the school and its resources, and worked 9am-2am every day for 6 months on a 10-minute frame by frame animation. By the time I left the MFAVN program I had three 5-10 minute animated shorts under my belt ( x, y, z ), but remained anxious about their quality because I had rushed all of them. I would try to fit huge concept projects into a tiny timeframe and overextended myself to reach my own goals. It took me a long time to physically and mentally recover after thesis, and the scale of the production did not achieve equal scale success. I learned a lot, but it took me a year to want to draw anything again.

It took me four months to find a job after graduating. I applied constantly – hours and hours each day searching and applying to anything that remotely sounded like what I did. I made short motion experiments in the meantime, and took CE classes at SVA. I ended up getting my first job – a paid internship – through networking on the Motion Design Slack. It was an internship with a pharmaceutical marketing company. I worked there for 6 months until it became clear they would not hire me full-time and I was very overextended. I got my next job, again, by talking to other motion designers, at New York Magazine as a motion designer. I had the opposite problem there, where I was free to do what I wanted when it came to explainer design, but I rarely had fully animated projects to work on, and had a lot of downtime. I made a lot of side projects during that time. A few months ago, after a year and a half at NYM, I got my latest job at Insider, where I do more character work than at any previous job and have similarly free reign over my explainer designs.

It’s only in the past two years that I’ve felt safe and secure enough to let the panic-fueled mania subside and start to focus on what I really want out of my career. I’ve started writing again, and exploring ways to introduce story back into my work. Although the ‘advice’ that I was four years behind lit a fire under my ass to work as hard as I possibly could to become a professional in the shortest amount of time, my work definitely suffered for it, and I think a positive reinforcement would have left me with a better mindset. Maybe then it would not have taken me so long to start thinking about what I really want out of my career.

State your privilege – What circumstances may have helped or hindered you along the way? I come from a privileged background. I am very lucky to have two extremely supportive parents, and they encouraged me to go to whatever school I wanted and pursue whatever career I wanted as long as I could make it work. They paid for both schools, and I had no loans. After I graduated, I lived off of leftover college savings money until I made my own income. Financial security and unwavering trust, love, and encouragement from my family gave me the time and safety to discover what I wanted to do and the means with which to learn it.

What are some best practices you use today?

I diversify the projects I invest my time in. If I animate all day at work, I’ll read or write or draw on the train, and bake or write at home. I’ll always have several projects going on at once, but I delegate them to specific times and places that work around my schedule. This way when I work on them it doesn’t necessarily feel like work, because rather than a constant slog, each task feels fresher and easier to jump into.

How do you define success? What would success look like for you? My primary goal in life is to write and publish a book, and then to sit on the floor of a Barnes and Noble and read the book without buying it. It would make 12-year-old me proud, and that’s the only standard I hold myself to.

Success in motion graphics to me is making a living and having enough time to comfortably make my personal projects on the side. Creating and animating stories is fun for me, but motion design is the job. I really want get into developing more narrative fiction animated work, but that’s going to be a long journey to make that a job.

How do you balance your work with your personal life? How do the two influence each other?

My boyfriend used to work odd hours, and now he goes to school in the evenings, and that’s greatly influenced my schedule. I try to get work done while he’s out of the house, and that way I can try to put my work down whenever he gets home so we can spend some time together.

How have you learned to practice self-care? What do you do to take care of yourself? I’ve been trying to go on more walks to break up the work day at my fulltime job. I try to stretch my neck, hips, back, and and knees as often as I can (IT’S NEVER TOO EARLY TO START STRETCHING). I got an ergonomic mouse that changed my life. I try to take long breaks between the freelance projects I take on on the side. When I have a project assignment, I often feel like I have to get it done IMMEDIATELY, and will push myself into working long hours at nights and weekends to achieve that. If this is the way I’m going to keep working, the compromise is that I’m teaching myself that it’s ok to say no, and to not respond to the person looking for animation help that I am perfect for if I am not 100% up to it. I didn’t draw for about a year after I made my thesis film – I know now I need time to recharge.

What advice do you have for those just starting out?

Talk to people! I’ve learned so much from the women of the Motion Design Slack and the people of Punanimation! Make friends, let them know when you’re looking for a job! (Don’t make friends TO let them know you’re looking for a job, just make friends and hang out.)

Make your projects! Don’t wait for validation! I wanted to make a short film post-grad but had no reason to make a short film, so I made Things Took a Turn so I’d have a reason to make a short film, and it held me accountable because then other people also had to make short films and I was in charge. Don’t do that exactly because that was an insane idea, but just know that you have the power to create opportunities for yourself!

Don’t panic! Make side projects because you want to, not because you feel like you’re competing against the world. Scale and volume can help you grow, but time and thought can help you stand out.

Find where nobody is doing the work and do the work! Aim to be different! If you think your work does not look like the work of someone else’s whom you admire, that’s okay. Lean into your differences!

Explore other fields, you never know how different media could work together!

Avoid hero worship! Just because people make good art does not mean they would make a good mentor. Find your own standards and hold yourself to them.

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maxwellyjordan · 4 years ago

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Courtroom access: Where do we go from here?

Yesterday the Supreme Court heard oral argument in a set of cases that Deputy Solicitor General Jeffrey Wall, who argued on behalf of the federal government, described as “truly historic.” At issue was whether President Donald Trump could prevent the disclosure of his financial records, including his tax returns, to state prosecutors and congressional committees. In normal times, the disputes’ high profile would have resulted in long lines outside the court. But because of the COVID-19 crisis, no one had to sleep on the sidewalk on First Street NE. Anyone who wanted to listen to the oral argument was able to do so in real time, from the comfort of her couch or kitchen table. Indeed, many people apparently did tune in – although total numbers are hard to come by because the arguments were streamed on multiple media outlets, within a few hours of the argument session roughly 500,000 people had viewed the stream.

As our reporting in this series has made clear, the demand for seats at the high-profile (and many of the not-so-high-profile) oral arguments this term significantly outstripped availability. Getting one of the tickets distributed to members of the public without any connections – literally, the people who come in off the street – for these arguments requires a substantial commitment of time, with no guarantee of success.

After a term of research, a few ideas to make the process easier have emerged (Art Lien)

It shouldn’t have to be this hard. And, fortunately, the experiences of state supreme courts and the highest courts in the United Kingdom and Canada – not to mention that of the Supreme Court itself during the COVID-19 crisis – show that there is another option: live-streaming arguments. None of the evils that are often cited as reasons not to allow live-streaming surfaced during the first week of live audio. There was no grandstanding by either the lawyers or the justices, and with the exception of an apparent errant toilet flush (which is not likely to occur again, and in any event obviously would not be a problem when arguments return to the courtroom), everything went off more or less without a hitch on the technological side. Having seen first-hand that live-streaming is not only possible but in fact a big success, the Supreme Court should not return to its pre-pandemic status quo, in which audio was never available in real time, and normally was not available until the Friday after an argument.

Even if the court continues with live audio (or, better yet, live video) after the pandemic is over, the lines will still remain, particularly on “big” argument days. People with a personal connection to the case or a sense of history will want to be “in the room where it happens.” (As Josh Blackman pointed out somewhat cynically, but also accurately, there is also a public relations value to being photographed coming down the steps of the court after the argument.) To that end, we propose some changes to the way in which the court handles seats for members of the public.

We’ll start, with apologies to economists everywhere, with the supply. The court should increase the number of seats set aside specifically for members of the public. Having only 50 of 439 seats in the courtroom – that is, just over 11 percent – in that category is, to put it diplomatically, less than optimal. More of the 186 “reserved” seats in the courtroom that are overseen by the Marshal’s Office at the Supreme Court should be allocated to the public as a general matter. Some of these could come from among the seats that are currently reserved for the guests of lawyers who are being admitted to the Supreme Court bar.

Being admitted to the bar in open court is a lovely tradition, and it is nice for lawyers to be able to bring a family member to witness the occasion. However, when a large number of lawyers are admitted on “big” argument days, allowing them to bring guests reduces the number of seats that might otherwise be available to the public – an especially undesirable outcome when many people are sleeping out on the sidewalk overnight in the hope of snagging a seat in the courtroom. As the chart below shows, the court admitted fairly large numbers of lawyers to the Supreme Court bar on several days when seats were in heavy demand, including the argument days for the Title VII cases (October 8), the Puerto Rico oversight board cases (October 15), the DACA cases (November 12) and the Appalachian trail cases (February 24).

Count of admittees and movants to the Supreme Court bar does not include those who were already at the counsel table on a given day. Each admittee is permitted one guest, and we assumed that each admittee made use of their guest.

The court could address this problem in a couple of different ways, which are not mutually exclusive. First, it could allow lawyers who are being admitted to the Supreme Court bar to bring guests, but then ask the guests to leave the courtroom after bar admissions so that members of the public can take their places. Second, it could limit the number of lawyers admitted on argument days and/or try to avoid scheduling large numbers of bar admissions on high-profile argument days. To be sure, many groups arrange to have their members admitted to the bar months in advance, long before the Supreme Court schedules its oral arguments. The Supreme Court could schedule those admissions on nonargument days, when the justices take the bench to issue opinions and conduct bar admissions.

More seats could be found for members of the public elsewhere in the courtroom as well. For example, spectators are rarely seated in the first row of the public section; doing so would provide roughly an additional 10 seats. If there are still people waiting in line for seats as 10 a.m. approaches, the court could also allow members of the public to fill other empty seats, such as the press seats in the hallway on the side of the courtroom. And on days when seats are in high demand, the court could create an overflow room – as it does for lawyers who do not get seats in the bar section – that would allow members of the public who do not get into the courtroom to listen to a live feed of oral arguments elsewhere in the building.

On the demand end, the court should start by banning line-standers, as it has in the bar line. Just as access to the courtroom shouldn’t depend on whether you know someone at the court who can get you a reserved seat, it also shouldn’t hinge on whether you have the funds to pay someone to stand in line for you, at a cost of $40 per hour or more. To be sure, a bar on line-standers will mean fewer jobs for the men and women who fill those jobs, many of whom are homeless or formerly homeless, but our observations of the bar line (as well as common sense) suggest that it will also mean less time in line for everyone. If you have to stand in line yourself, you may want to wait to get in line, so without paid line-standers, the line is likely to form later. And although it may be harder to enforce, this prohibition should extend to unpaid line-standers as well: Anyone who wants to see an argument should hold her own place in line. (This should not apply, of course, to the elderly or people with disabilities, for whom some seats in the courtroom should be set aside and distributed through the Marshal’s Office.)

The court has traditionally been reluctant to get involved in policing the public line: Officers normally don’t do much beyond handing out tickets at around 7:30 a.m. But other small steps by the officers could help to increase the perception of fairness – for example, handing out tickets or wristbands much earlier in the process (a step that many lawyers in the bar line might also welcome) to ensure that later arrivals don’t join the line and take a spot that should belong to someone who has spent many hours waiting. Blackman has recommended a much more dramatic step: Scrap the line system altogether in favor of a lottery. Such a system would not only address some of the social-distancing issues that the court is likely to face for many months to come, but (even if it included only some of the public seats) it would also give some members of the public more certainty – especially if they plan to travel to the court from out of town – that they will actually get a seat.

Finally, whatever steps the court may take to increase public access to the courtroom should be clearly explained on the Supreme Court website. Our reporting showed that currently, reliable information about how to obtain one of the public seats is difficult to find.

Last month Joan Biskupic of CNN reported on Justice Stephen Breyer’s “lively Zoom chat” with student at the United Nations International School. After discussing oral arguments, Biskupic recounted, Breyer invited the students to the Supreme Court to see for themselves. “You should come,” Breyer said to the students. “You should hear a case argued. I would love it.” Breyer is right that everyone should be able to see the Supreme Court in action. Under the current system, however, it’s far easier said than done. The suggestions that we have made in the second part of this post would allow more people (perhaps as many as 50 to 75 per day) to attend oral arguments, and it would make the process of waiting in line more equitable. These are not insignificant things. But those numbers are dwarfed by the number of people who could access – and, during the May 2020 argument session, apparently did listen to – the argument in real time through a live-stream. There’s no reason why the court shouldn’t continue with live-streaming after the COVID-19 crisis is over; there are over 300 million reasons why it should.

Katie Bart, Kalvis Golde, Tom Goldstein and Edith Roberts contributed editing, ideas and graphics to this post.

This post was originally published at Howe on the Court.

The post Courtroom access: Where do we go from here? appeared first on SCOTUSblog.

from Law https://www.scotusblog.com/2020/05/courtroom-access-where-do-we-go-from-here/ via http://www.rssmix.com/

#law #justice

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morrisbrokaw · 5 years ago

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BFA Update: Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme BFA Guidance for Employers

Rishi Sunak announced on 20th March 2020 that the Government will establish the ‘CoronavirusJob Retention scheme’. This means that:

• All employers can contact HMRC for a grant to cover 80% of a furloughed (i.e. laid off) employee’s wages, up to a maximum of £2,500 per month; • Employers must designate the employee to be furloughed. These people are not allowed to carry out any further work for the employer, but they remain employed. • The scheme is currently intended to last for 3 months, backdated to 1st March 2020. • The grant is available to all businesses, no matter what the size. To clarify ‘to furlough’ is not legal terminology. Whilst no specific details have been put forward yet (we are expecting to see something from Government shortly) the BFA solicitors view is that ‘laying off’ (as a specific legal concept) and ‘furlough leave’ should be considered to be the same. In both circumstances, you are saying to your employees that you have no work and that they are going to have to stay away from work. The only difference is: • Laying off means that you can have a contractual right to send them home without pay or on reduced pay; or • If you do not have a contractual right to do this, you are still laying them off/furloughing them, but you just need to pay them their normal full salaries. As far as the BFA solicitor is concerned, there is no difference between the two scenarios on a practical level; the purpose of the scheme is to allow you to send workers home with pay in order to avoid making them redundant.

Indications are that you would not receive this grant income until at least late April, so it is not an urgent short-term fix. However, if your situation is desperate and your business could not wait you should call HMRC who will look at providing funds to you sooner.

Frequently Asked Questions 1. Is my business eligible to claim the 80% up to £2500 per month for my staff? Yes – You will apply for a grant from HMRC. BFA will share details as soon as they are published by HMRC. We also recommend you look out for communications from HMRC sent directly to your business especially messages going to staff managing your payroll. 2. I have already laid people off am I still be covered under the scheme? You can backdate any payments to staff laid off/furloughed from 1st March 2020. However, the employee must genuinely have stopped working from that date – if the employee was still working for you, this would not count as furlough leave. 3. Does my business have to pay the “shortfall” between the 80% and the 100% that a person usually earns? Can I furlough my employees on 80% so that I have no liability? The Government’s guidance on this states that it is up to the employer whether or not to pay the remaining 20% (or excess above £2,500.00) per month). However, this is not the correct legal position; when an employer sends their employees home without work, they are still obliged to pay them 100% of their wages (unless there is already something in the contract of employment to the contrary, as in the case of the NCA). Withholding 20% of an employee’s salary will amount to breach of contract and an unlawful deduction of wages unless the employee gives their consent to doing this.

The entire point of the scheme is to encourage employers not to dismiss employees and furlough them instead. Employers are unlikely to do this if they have to pay the employee 100% to stay at home; they would generally rather have them performing work for them. As such, the intention behind the scheme is that it is reasonable to only pay employees this reduced wage whilst on furlough leave.

It is advisable to seek the employee’s consent to accepting 80% (maximum £2,500.00) of their wages each month, as this represents a temporary variation to their contract of employment. It is expected that the majority of employees will consent since furlough leave is a better alternative than unpaid leave, lay-off, or redundancy.

To seek an employee’s consent to being placed on furlough leave, employers will need to: i.Decide which employees to designate as furloughed employees. ii.Notify those employees of the intended temporary change. iii.Consider whether you need to consult with employee representatives or the union. For example, where the employer intends to vary the contracts of 20 or more employees, and it intends to dismiss employees who do not consent to the change in their terms, this would be classed as a redundancy. It is unclear, however, at this stage, whether the government expects employers to follow this process before placing employees on furlough leave. BFA Solicitors view is that you will not be intending to make employees redundant (as you will expect them to agree to the furlough leave), so that the consultation process will not apply.

iv.Agree the change with the furloughed employees. v.Confirm the employees’ new furlough status in writing. Ideally, the employer should advise how long it expects furlough leave to continue, however, this may be difficult in the current climate.

You may wish to put employees on furlough leave for an initial period, subject to review. vi.Submit information to HMRC about the employees that have been furloughed and their earnings through the new online portal (further details to come).

vii.Ensure that the employees do not carry out any further work while they are furloughed.

As above, if you do not have a contractual right to lay off the employees or to make changes to an employment contract, you should not unilaterally change an employee’s contract or pay without their consent. However, faced with the other alternatives, which are likely to be unpaid leave or redundancy, the majority of affected employees are likely to agree to be placed on furlough leave. However, if the employees refuse, your next step would be to:

a.Consider placing them on furlough leave anyway. Technically, the employees could resign and claim a breach of contract (a claim that would be unlikely to succeed if you carried out this process reasonably and appropriately, if there is a good business reason for placing employees on furlough leave), or could seek to bring a claim in the future for the difference in salary that they will be receiving.

b.Shortening working hours or reducing salaries, to which you would again be advised to seek the employees’ agreement; or

c.Make redundancies.

4. Is there a difference between weekly and monthly paid staff? No.

5. Some of the staff have contracts which include lay-off clauses but my management, office and field sales staff do not have this clause in their contracts. Can I still furlough them and how much do I have to pay them?

You can furlough all employees, regardless as to whether you have an existing contractual right to do so.The difference here is that you already have a contractual right to lay off some workers, meaning you do not have to seek a variation to their contract of employment as outlined above in question 3.

6. Will part time workers have the £2,500 cap reduced? The payment is at 80% of their wages, up to a maximum of £2,500.00 per month. This appliesto all employees equally, regardless of the number of hours they work.

7. I am part of the NCA, my factory staff are covered by a wage guarantee of 75%. Do I have to pay 75% or 80% to my staff?

If you have a contractual right to pay 75% of wages, you are only required to pay 75% of their wages. This new scheme does not place any additional obligations upon you, it merely offers employers another option if they are thinking about making employees redundant. This equally applies if you have already agreed with your employees to send them home on some other reduced wage; you have already entered into a contract with them so you do not need to alter your agreement to match the Government’s new scheme. 8. Section 6 of the NCA states we can send employees home without pay. Why do we have to pay in line with the guaranteed 75%? Does this not say we can actually send home and not pay?

NCA 6.1.8 No employees are liable to be paid for periods for which they are sent home The BFA Solicitors view of this is that if you are choosing to lay off your employees, you pay them 75%. If you sent the employee homes for any other reason, you are not obliged to pay them anything. 9. Who can be furloughed? Do I have a free choice who I can select for furlough or is there a strict criteria? There is no set criteria. As with any aspect of work, you should not select staff on any discriminatory criteria (i.e. their age, sex, race, disability) but based on your business need. 10. Can I change who is furloughed from week to week or month to month? Recalling them as it suits the business or the reverse laying them off again. The example here is that you might keep some office staff in but if one of them gets Covid-19 then you need someone to come back in to replace them.

Here there is an assumption that the furlough period can possibly be reactivated, i.e. put them on furlough now, bring them back in to the business, but then furlough again, although we recommend there would have to be a good business reason for this – this will be something that will hopefully be explained when further detail is announced by government.

11. If you have no work for the employees and, regardless of the grant scheme, cannot afford to pay them the wages what should I do? You could: •Negotiate laying employees off on unpaid leave or further reduced pay; or •Consider making redundancies. If you cannot afford to make redundancies, you can approach the National Insolvency Service to ask for their assistance in paying redundancy payments etc. if it would otherwise mean that your business would become insolvent in paying them.

12. Does this apply also when an employee is partially laid off? E.g. only required to be furloughed for one day per week.

No – the policy only applies to those employees who are fully furloughed, i.e. who are not working but kept on the payroll. In this case the employee would be on reduced hours not furloughed.

13. Do employees accrue their employee benefits during furlough? Yes. Your staff accure holiday at their usual rate and you will need to make provision to pay their PAYE, NI (notwithstanding the governments temporary suspension of these until the end of the current financial year). For all other benefits we are awaiting direction from government, including pension contributions.

14. I have employees who have holiday booked in the coming months what do I do? We are awaiting government guidelines with regards to holiday pay and whether an employee can be taken off furlough during their previously booked holiday or during the NCA factory closure periods. Clearly some provision will need to be made to ensure that staff do not have significant holidays accrued at the end of this current situation, which would in turn prevent a business from re-starting its operation.

15. Will employees qualify for additional state benefit support? Employees will remain entitled to the same support as they currently receive. The furlough scheme will pay the equivalent of up to £30,000.00 per year, so we do not believe that there would be additional benefits available to employees earning that amount of money (other than existing child benefits etc.).

16. Once an employee is furloughed can we ask them to do anything or do they become a worker again, for example – even if it’s just a phone call to ask where something is filed? As above, the policy only applies to those employees who are fully furloughed and not given any work. However, you will still be able to speak with/socialise (social distancing permitting) those employees, so I do not believe asking them a question would be a breach of this scheme.

The purpose of the furlough scheme is to help businesses, not hinder them, so there will be a degree of leniency and common sense applied to the scheme in order to allow you to continue to run effectively.

17. When staff are called back into work are their wages immediately the responsibility of the employer? Wages are always the responsibility of the employer; the scheme allows the employer to claim back 80% (up to £2,500.00) from HMRC. The employer is therefore responsible for paying wages whilst the employee is furloughed (albeit they can claim monies back from HMRC), and then still be responsible for paying wages when the furlough leave ends (with then no ability to claim monies back under the furlough scheme).

18. Can you rotate staff? This week group A work, next week group B, then C, then A, then B and so on, and still be within the law of the Coronavirus Job Retention scheme? Are they furloughed for the week they aren’t working?

As above, we would assume that the furlough period can possibly be reactivated, i.e. put them on furlough now, bring them back in to the business, but then furlough again, although we would suggest that there would have to be a good business reason for this – again, this will be something that will hopefully be explained when further detail is announced.

19. If I need to keep some staff working to support staff else-where – such as those still working in stores or warehouses – can I reduce their hours, still pay them at their full-time rate and claim the 80% on the reduced part of their salary?

You can vary your employee’s hours of working – you would again ideally seek their consent to this change, as it represents a change to their contract. You can then reduce their salary.

However, this is not the furlough scheme – that requires you to send employees home without work. In this scenario, you could not claim back the 80%.

20. If someone is “feeling ill”? members should send them home, and pay them SSP or treat that person as laid off? If someone is ill, they are sick. If they are sick, they are entitled to receive sick pay only. If you choose to send an employee home when they are not sick, you would have to pay them their normal full pay.

21. If someone is off with Covid-19 and therefore is being paid SSP, when they inform me that they have recovered do I pay them as a furloughed member of staff? If the employee is fit to work and you do not want them to work, you would to pay them their normal full pay. You could then place them on furlough leave if you wanted to try to reduce the payments due to them.

22. If someone is self-isolating due to illness or childcare issues should they be on sick-pay or if they would usually be laid-off with everyone else should they be paid as the rest of the staff.

If an employee is looking after their children, you do not have to pay them – time off for the purposes of child care is unpaid.

If an employee is self-isolating, they are considered to be sick and would be entitled to sick pay.

If the employee is ready and able to work, you would either have to provide them with their normal pay, or you could seek to place them on furlough leave.

In terms of childcare issues only, you will need to assess each case in your business, considering the employee and whether the business can manage without their services for a period.

23. If someone is already off and is being paid SSP, for reasons other than Covid-19, and they inform me that they are better what should I pay them? If the employee is fit to work and you do not want them to work, you would have to pay them their normal full pay. You could then place them on furlough leave if you wanted to. 24. If someone who has been furloughed gets Covid-19 oris suspected of it should you move them onto sick pay or keep them as if they are laid off?

If you place the employee on furlough leave, you may be able to place them on to SSP if they tell you that they are now ill – we will have to wait for the details of the scheme. However, practically speaking, the employee is not going to tell you if they are unwell anyway, so I think the chances of this applying are quite remote.

25. Can an employee insist on becoming a furloughed worker? No – an employee can request to go on furlough leave, but has no right to be placed on furlough leave.

Potentially redundant employees do not have a right to require their employer to place them on furlough leave as an alternative to redundancy either.

26. Can an MD/CEO/Owner lay themselves off along with their staff?

Any employee can be placed on furlough leave, as long as they are not carrying out any work. It may be the case that the CEO/MD will still be required to carry out some work, so they may not be able to satisfy this critieria.

27. Does it apply to all types of employees, regardless of length of service? Yes. 28. Can I ask an employee to still work “on the side”? No – furlough leave only applies to those employees who are not working but kept on the payroll. 29. My member of staff has a second job, can we both put that person on furlough? As we understand yes you can. 30. Can a member of staff who has been furloughed take on another job? Yes, that person could work for someone else. However, to remain in furlough paid by you they would need to be available at any time should you chose to recall them to work and remove them from furlough.

31. How should members treat the working rights of the individual at this time – should they write, consult and inform individuals or treat their staff collectively? As above, employers will need to:

i.Decide which employees to designate as furloughed employees. ii.Notify those employees of the intended temporary change. iii.Consider whether you need to consult with employee representatives or the union. For example, where the employer intends to vary the contracts of 20 or more employees, and it intends to dismiss employees who do not consent to the change in their terms, this would be classed as a redundancy. It is unclear, however, at this stage, whether the government expects employers to follow this process before placing employees on furlough leave. My view is that you will not be intending to make employees redundant (as you will expect them to agree to the furlough leave), so that the consultation process will not apply.

iv.Agree the change with the furloughed employees.

v.Confirm the employees’ new furlough status in writing. Ideally, the employer should advise how long it expects furlough leave to continue, however, this may be difficult in the current climate.

vii.Ensure that the employees do not carry out any further work while they are furloughed.

32. Do other employee benefits still accrue during the furloughed period? It is not clear whether the £2,500.00 includes the value of benefits or not. I would suggest that the employee will still receive benefits such as death in service and healthcare, but that things like pension and car allowance would have to be included within the maximum £2,500.00. We will have to wait for further details from government.

33. Can a factory put everyone on furlough mid-week – ie weekly paid staff placed on furlough today would get 100% for yesterday and 80% from today or do they have to pay 100% this week?

Furlough leave would start from whenever the employee was sent home without work. Any days spent working by the employee would not be considered to be furlough leave. You would pay the employee 100% of their wage in respect of the work they have carried out this week, and 80% of their wage from the date on which they were sent home without work.

34. Online operations remain a slightly grey area. It is clear that physical stores that aren’t considered ‘essential’ should shut, but not so clear about online distribution centres. Can we still run operations to allow our digital businesses to continue trading? Online retail is still permitted to operate as normal in the current climate. Parts of those physical shops which are open to the public should close.

Further guidance is here: https://ift.tt/3bkbkA3

35. Is the 80% contribution 80% of what the employer pays the employee in a given week or 80% of their usual wage. If the employee usually earns £400 in a week, and this week because we were on short time before the furlough they are only getting £350 but next week once in furlough they will get how much? Which option: a. 100% of a usual week £400 of which the government will re-pay the employer £320 b. 80% of a usual week £320 of which the government will re-pay the employer £320 c. Based on short time week -£280 of which the government will re-pay all or only £224 to the employee In the absence of any clear directives, I would say that it is a weeks’ worth of their usual pay.

For employees who work irregular hours, this might be based on their past 12 weeks’ worth of earnings (although please note the changes to other legislation on 1st April regarding holiday pay, to say that average earnings should be assessed over the last 12-month period).

PLEASE NOTE: The above information has been provided in consultation with Ben Stanton, Franklins Solicitors representing the BFA. They are intended as a guide to BFA members only. You do not have permission to share this document with anyone without the express permission of a Director of the British Footwear Association.

BFA Update: Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme BFA Guidance for Employers published first on https://workbootsandshoes.tumblr.com/

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riichardwilson · 5 years ago

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A 10-Point Small-Business Survival Plan for Dealing With the Coronavirus

This guide can help guide you and your business during difficult times.

March 20, 2020 12 min read

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

It’s safe to say that this current crisis is like none other faced by small business owners in the recent past, and it’s certainly daunting trying to tackle all of the unique issues it presents. Regrettably, the predominant voice we hear hasn’t offered a lot of specific steps to take or advice on how to save our business, let along come out on top.

Below are 10 issues to address with detailed considerations and action items that might make the difference in being able to keep your doors open and calm your employees and customers.

Related: Emergency Webinar: Weathering The Storm As A Small Business Owner

1. Immediate financial triage.

The greatest concern for most business owners, at least initially, is how am I going to pay my bills this week, next week, and how long will this last. Of course, this is a very difficult question to answer and moreover, most business owners are facing a reduction of business owners. Here are some important steps to take on the financial front as soon as possible:

Create a cash-flow budget listing with fixed versus variable costs. Fixed costs will generally keep the doors open and must be paid. Create a list of priorities about which ones are most important and try to set money aside based on the timing of when they are due.

Analyze cuts to unnecessary costs that aren’t producing revenue or securing key business functions.

Layoffs, terminations or furloughs of employees. Remember, your employees can be one of your greatest assets, and if you cut too deep, you may not get them back.

Layoffs are considered to be a temporary request for an employee to take unpaid time off. These employees will most likely seek unemployment benefits, but our hope is to have them back as soon as possible.

Furloughs can be a variety of things and tailored to your situation. It may be that employees work at a reduced rate, maybe they don’t work at all and stay home, they may be paid a minimal amount, or might be paid fully at some point in the future. However, don’t ask employees to work for free — you will probably face problems for doing so under state law.

Terminations are just what they sound like. You’re letting someone go and they probably won’t be coming back. They’ll more than likely seek unemployment benefits as well.

Find additional financial sources of revenue. Be creative in your sales and marketing agency (more on this below).

Consider any savings or resources, including possible loans (more on this below).

2. Tax payments.

Taxpayers have an unprecedented tax payment extension from the Fed for 90 days, until July 15th. This is up to individuals and small business owners of up to $1 million in taxes owed, and up to $10 million for C-Corporations.

However, taxpayers still need to file their taxes or extensions. Still file or extend by April 15th. There are penalties if you don’t file, but again, no penalties or interest if you don’t pay (for up to 90 days).

Taxpayers might also be able to find some extra money by filing their taxes, because there’s a good chance they could have a refund. In 2015, it was reported that over $1.4 billion in tax refunds went unclaimed and were kept by the treasury department.

Important note: Don’t fall victim to thinking you can wait to pay payroll taxes. If you are an employer, those payroll taxes are considered sacred funds by the government. You’re playing with fire! Payment of these taxes is not extended and penalties and interest are significant for not paying payroll taxes.

3. SBA Disaster Assistance Loan.

The Federal government through the Small Business Administration has authorized loans to small business owners of up to $2 million. These are mean to be used for business debt, covering payroll, costs to operate the business. The terms can be up to 30 years to repay and a low 3.75 percent rate.

A business owner will need to provide financials to qualify and a personal guarantee from the individuals owning 20 percent or more of the company. At best it could take up to two to three weeks to get the loans as well, so don’t think it’s that quick of a turn-around either.

On the face of it, this may seem like a safe or logical choice. However, remember this is still a loan that has to be paid back. If your business is already barely getting by, it may not be the time to do into more debt. Maybe it’s wise to close the doors entirely and re-open in the future. Taking such drastic action doesn’t make you a failure.

4. COVID-19 policies within your organization.

Be clear with your employees regarding your specific policies within the business and safety protocol regarding the virus. It’s probably wise to follow as closely as possible the CDC guidelines, social distancing, clean work areas, environments and good hygiene.

Be flexible on sick leave that employees want to take, and try to reduce areas of the company with groups of more than 10 employees. Cancel large events and use conference calls and webcams to communicate when possible.

Following any federal, state or local government directives regarding guidance for employers and looking out for the safety of your employees and customers, although a pain, will be appreciated in the short and long run.

Related: 4 Ways to Boost Your Immune System During the Coronavirus Outbreak

5. Employees and your talent.

It’s not all about cutting costs with payroll. It’s important for business owners to show leadership. Set the tone and be the calm in the storm. You’re riding a wave, you’re on a surfboard. Don’t complain about the wave or gripe. It’s not going to change. Pay attention to it though and adapt.

Don’t plan too far out and remember things are changing often. Make a plan for the next few weeks, then the next month. These plans will change, but here are a few specific ideas or steps to consider with your team:

If you have employees, make sure they are assured about being protected. You want to retain the key people who drive your business. In the end, it’s people who make every business successful so focus on your key people.

Don’t get stuck in decisions you made last week. Be willing to adapt and have new plans. You are going to have to live with these changes once the crisis is over.

Communicate any changes to your sick leave policies. Make sure your employees know to not come to work sick and that you are being generous with sick leave at this time (helps your payroll costs too).

Stop hiring unless there is a candidate you’ve been trying to recruit and don’t want to lose. Communicate with them.

Unfortunately, hard decisions will need to be made. Make a talent assessment in your company on who is valuable and how your business will be different if this person isn’t working for you next week.

6. marketing agency and sales.

Make sure to communicate clearly and consistently with your customers. If you are open for business, make sure they know that and how to interact with your organization. Make it easy for them to purchase your product and services.

Use your social media presence to keep your customers up to date. If you typically don’t use social media, it may now be time to build one.

Implement a newsletter or series of emails to your customers if you aren’t already doing so. Use it to communicate your ability to help customers and any changes to how you regularly provide them.

Be creative and find new opportunities to market and sell. Given the current conditions, what resonates with customers right now that you can provide? This is a good time to focus on your existing customers, provide excellent service, make sure you retain your important relationships and customers. Let any key relationships know you are still there and how you can be of service.

Finally, consider new ways to deliver your service or product. It may be through home delivery, mail or through virtual web-based services. Offer discounts if necessary and think outside the box.

Related: Taking Coronavirus Uncertainty Head On: A Small Business Owner’s Guide

7. Operations, research and development, product or service improvements.

If things are slow, this is an ideal time to tackle those projects you have been putting off. Invest in this time, don’t waste it on Netflix or getting sucked into the never-ending news coverage. Instead, consider this time for you or your team to be invested in improving products, services and finding efficiencies.

If you or your team have more time available (because you have less work or fewer customers), use this time to improve your processes and efficiencies, improve products and services or make the changes you’ve been meaning to do over the past few years or months. We know we all have them in our business, and we’ve been too busy to get to them. Well, use this time now. Come out of the storm stronger and have a better product or service.

Conduct training in your company or get training yourself as a leader in areas you know will improve your company. If you know you are weak on social media marketing agency, or accounting and budgeting, IT, or a niche thing in your business category that could drive your business, invest your time into this. Get your team doing the same.

8. Remote work for your employees.

Many small businesses are having employees work remotely for the first time. Make sure you set the expectations for those working remotely. Many business owners already operate on nights and weekends remotely, but your employees probably don’t (at least, that’s been my experience this week).

Increase your level of technology if necessary as quickly and as affordably as possible. Hopefully, you aren’t on an old-school server and have your key software and company functions in the cloud. If you are on a server, you will need to set up VPN accesses for employees to access their work computers from their home computers. If you are on the cloud, this is much easier (Gmail/Google, Outlook 365, Salesforce, most modern CRMS, etc.).

Implement a work-from-home agreement in writing with your employees and have them sign it. Set-forth expectations and implement a procedure for a weekly productivity report to be completed each day and then summarized by the week (excel spreadsheet is what we use) so that employees are tracking their workloads, customer interaction, and projects. You can also include in this agreement terms for reduction in pay if necessary based on productively or sales.

Assess what functions can be done remotely and what must be completed in the office. For most businesses, not everything can be remote. A small team may need to be on-location for certain functions (mail, packages, shipping, etc.). Try to have a measured approach and get as many people as possible to work remotely but realize it’s probably not possible for all, depending on job function, employee skill, family situation at home of the employee and more.

Related: Twitter Won’t Remove Elon Musk’s Coronavirus Misinformation Tweets

9. Assess your business’s 2020 strategic plan.

If you didn’t make a Strategic Plan for this year, it’s certainly time to make one now.

[embedded content]

This is a great time to make modifications. Start on projects that have been on your wish list and revaluate your objectives for the year. Adjust the plan and outlook for 2020 as you know more about your business.

You’re going to have weeks or months dealing with this mess. Are you going to use the time wisely or waste it?

10. Be charitable, show humanity and note what you are learning from this.

We are all learning a lot about how we could have better prepared for this disaster. Use this time as a wakeup call and learn from this experience. Start taking notes and don’t return to the status quo when this is all over.

Have a financial reserve or savings account for your business that could help in times of need or disaster.

Have a personal financial reserve of a few months of living costs.

Build a small food storage at the least. Maybe a few months’ worth of household goods, such as toilet paper, soap, feminine products, laundry soap, etc. Do your best with the resources and space you may have.

Consider new revenue sources and small diversifying your business.

Finally, try to serve and help those in your community. The more you help others worse off than you, the better you’ll feel. As even a short history of the United States has shown, this too will pass and we should do all we can to help one another through it while we all learn and grow from this trial.

Website Design & SEO Delray Beach by DBL07.co

Delray Beach SEO

source http://www.scpie.org/a-10-point-small-business-survival-plan-for-dealing-with-the-coronavirus/ source https://scpie.tumblr.com/post/613221211688910848

0 notes

douglassmiith · 5 years ago

Text

A 10-Point Small-Business Survival Plan for Dealing With the Coronavirus

This guide can help guide you and your business during difficult times.

March 20, 2020 12 min read

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

Below are 10 issues to address with detailed considerations and action items that might make the difference in being able to keep your doors open and calm your employees and customers.

Related: Emergency Webinar: Weathering The Storm As A Small Business Owner

1. Immediate financial triage.

Analyze cuts to unnecessary costs that aren’t producing revenue or securing key business functions.

Layoffs, terminations or furloughs of employees. Remember, your employees can be one of your greatest assets, and if you cut too deep, you may not get them back.

Terminations are just what they sound like. You’re letting someone go and they probably won’t be coming back. They’ll more than likely seek unemployment benefits as well.

Find additional financial sources of revenue. Be creative in your sales and marketing agency (more on this below).

Consider any savings or resources, including possible loans (more on this below).

2. Tax payments.

3. SBA Disaster Assistance Loan.

4. COVID-19 policies within your organization.

Related: 4 Ways to Boost Your Immune System During the Coronavirus Outbreak

5. Employees and your talent.

Don’t get stuck in decisions you made last week. Be willing to adapt and have new plans. You are going to have to live with these changes once the crisis is over.

Stop hiring unless there is a candidate you’ve been trying to recruit and don’t want to lose. Communicate with them.

6. marketing agency and sales.

Use your social media presence to keep your customers up to date. If you typically don’t use social media, it may now be time to build one.

Implement a newsletter or series of emails to your customers if you aren’t already doing so. Use it to communicate your ability to help customers and any changes to how you regularly provide them.

Finally, consider new ways to deliver your service or product. It may be through home delivery, mail or through virtual web-based services. Offer discounts if necessary and think outside the box.

Related: Taking Coronavirus Uncertainty Head On: A Small Business Owner’s Guide

7. Operations, research and development, product or service improvements.

8. Remote work for your employees.

Related: Twitter Won’t Remove Elon Musk’s Coronavirus Misinformation Tweets

9. Assess your business’s 2020 strategic plan.

If you didn’t make a Strategic Plan for this year, it’s certainly time to make one now.

[embedded content]

You’re going to have weeks or months dealing with this mess. Are you going to use the time wisely or waste it?

10. Be charitable, show humanity and note what you are learning from this.

Have a financial reserve or savings account for your business that could help in times of need or disaster.

Have a personal financial reserve of a few months of living costs.

Consider new revenue sources and small diversifying your business.

Website Design & SEO Delray Beach by DBL07.co

Delray Beach SEO

Via http://www.scpie.org/a-10-point-small-business-survival-plan-for-dealing-with-the-coronavirus/

source https://scpie.weebly.com/blog/a-10-point-small-business-survival-plan-for-dealing-with-the-coronavirus

0 notes

laurelkrugerr · 5 years ago

Text

A 10-Point Small-Business Survival Plan for Dealing With the Coronavirus

This guide can help guide you and your business during difficult times.

March 20, 2020 12 min read

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

Below are 10 issues to address with detailed considerations and action items that might make the difference in being able to keep your doors open and calm your employees and customers.

Related: Emergency Webinar: Weathering The Storm As A Small Business Owner

1. Immediate financial triage.

Analyze cuts to unnecessary costs that aren’t producing revenue or securing key business functions.

Layoffs, terminations or furloughs of employees. Remember, your employees can be one of your greatest assets, and if you cut too deep, you may not get them back.

Terminations are just what they sound like. You’re letting someone go and they probably won’t be coming back. They’ll more than likely seek unemployment benefits as well.

Find additional financial sources of revenue. Be creative in your sales and marketing agency (more on this below).

Consider any savings or resources, including possible loans (more on this below).

2. Tax payments.

3. SBA Disaster Assistance Loan.

4. COVID-19 policies within your organization.

Related: 4 Ways to Boost Your Immune System During the Coronavirus Outbreak

5. Employees and your talent.

Don’t get stuck in decisions you made last week. Be willing to adapt and have new plans. You are going to have to live with these changes once the crisis is over.

Stop hiring unless there is a candidate you’ve been trying to recruit and don’t want to lose. Communicate with them.

6. marketing agency and sales.

Use your social media presence to keep your customers up to date. If you typically don’t use social media, it may now be time to build one.

Implement a newsletter or series of emails to your customers if you aren’t already doing so. Use it to communicate your ability to help customers and any changes to how you regularly provide them.

Finally, consider new ways to deliver your service or product. It may be through home delivery, mail or through virtual web-based services. Offer discounts if necessary and think outside the box.

Related: Taking Coronavirus Uncertainty Head On: A Small Business Owner’s Guide

7. Operations, research and development, product or service improvements.

8. Remote work for your employees.

Related: Twitter Won’t Remove Elon Musk’s Coronavirus Misinformation Tweets

9. Assess your business’s 2020 strategic plan.

If you didn’t make a Strategic Plan for this year, it’s certainly time to make one now.

[embedded content]

You’re going to have weeks or months dealing with this mess. Are you going to use the time wisely or waste it?

10. Be charitable, show humanity and note what you are learning from this.

Have a financial reserve or savings account for your business that could help in times of need or disaster.

Have a personal financial reserve of a few months of living costs.

Consider new revenue sources and small diversifying your business.

Website Design & SEO Delray Beach by DBL07.co

Delray Beach SEO

source http://www.scpie.org/a-10-point-small-business-survival-plan-for-dealing-with-the-coronavirus/ source https://scpie1.blogspot.com/2020/03/a-10-point-small-business-survival-plan.html

0 notes

scpie · 5 years ago

Text

A 10-Point Small-Business Survival Plan for Dealing With the Coronavirus

This guide can help guide you and your business during difficult times.

March 20, 2020 12 min read

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

Below are 10 issues to address with detailed considerations and action items that might make the difference in being able to keep your doors open and calm your employees and customers.

Related: Emergency Webinar: Weathering The Storm As A Small Business Owner

1. Immediate financial triage.

Analyze cuts to unnecessary costs that aren’t producing revenue or securing key business functions.

Layoffs, terminations or furloughs of employees. Remember, your employees can be one of your greatest assets, and if you cut too deep, you may not get them back.

Terminations are just what they sound like. You’re letting someone go and they probably won’t be coming back. They’ll more than likely seek unemployment benefits as well.

Find additional financial sources of revenue. Be creative in your sales and marketing agency (more on this below).

Consider any savings or resources, including possible loans (more on this below).

2. Tax payments.

3. SBA Disaster Assistance Loan.

4. COVID-19 policies within your organization.

Related: 4 Ways to Boost Your Immune System During the Coronavirus Outbreak

5. Employees and your talent.

Don’t get stuck in decisions you made last week. Be willing to adapt and have new plans. You are going to have to live with these changes once the crisis is over.

Stop hiring unless there is a candidate you’ve been trying to recruit and don’t want to lose. Communicate with them.

6. marketing agency and sales.

Use your social media presence to keep your customers up to date. If you typically don’t use social media, it may now be time to build one.

Implement a newsletter or series of emails to your customers if you aren’t already doing so. Use it to communicate your ability to help customers and any changes to how you regularly provide them.

Finally, consider new ways to deliver your service or product. It may be through home delivery, mail or through virtual web-based services. Offer discounts if necessary and think outside the box.

Related: Taking Coronavirus Uncertainty Head On: A Small Business Owner’s Guide

7. Operations, research and development, product or service improvements.

8. Remote work for your employees.

Related: Twitter Won’t Remove Elon Musk’s Coronavirus Misinformation Tweets

9. Assess your business’s 2020 strategic plan.

If you didn’t make a Strategic Plan for this year, it’s certainly time to make one now.

[embedded content]

You’re going to have weeks or months dealing with this mess. Are you going to use the time wisely or waste it?

10. Be charitable, show humanity and note what you are learning from this.

Have a financial reserve or savings account for your business that could help in times of need or disaster.

Have a personal financial reserve of a few months of living costs.

Consider new revenue sources and small diversifying your business.

Website Design & SEO Delray Beach by DBL07.co

Delray Beach SEO

source http://www.scpie.org/a-10-point-small-business-survival-plan-for-dealing-with-the-coronavirus/

0 notes

golfiyauniversity00 · 5 years ago

Text

Golf's Greatest Drivers

One of golf's best-known aphorisms is 'Drive for show, putt for dough' but your chance to make a putt is somewhat reduced if you can't find the fairway, and then the green. At the very highest level the quality of ball-striking is such that tournaments are often won by the guy who has a hot putter that week, but week in and out driving is the bedrock on which a golfer's game is built. Sam Snead went as far as to say that you should only practice driving and putting.

And as with putting, many players can drive the ball well for a limited period but few can maintain consistent excellence over the course of a career that lasts decades. No-one can do it well all the time - even the absolute best have their off days and weeks - but these golfers did it better for longer than anyone else who lived.

20. Harold Hilton

The Englishman with the marvelous middle name of 'Horsfall' never turned pro but won two Opens at the end of the 19th century, four Amateur championships and a US Amateur, in the days when the very best were from the unpaid ranks. His most conspicuous quality was the straightness of his driving.

19. Tom Watson

Has a fast tempo but a great, simple, repetitive technique that gets the job done time and again. The greatest Major ever - 1977s duel in the sun with Nicklaus - was decided on the 72nd hole when he split the fairway to set up his winning birdie. Like many in this list the quality of his ball-striking never left him but the golfing gods decide that very few can have it all for too long, so his putting stroke headed south.

18. James Braid

One of the Great Triumvirate, along with Vardon and Taylor, Braid was the longest driver of the three and found more than his fair share of fairways. Won his five Open Championships in a 10-year stretch and even at age 78 shot a gross 74. Went on to become a notable architect whose courses, not surprisingly, put a premium on good tee shots.

17. Lee Trevino

Like so many other great drivers, his stock-in-trade was a controlled fade that worked with remarkable consistency. But his real genius was that when he needed to draw the ball he could. Very few have ever controlled ball-flight with the unfailing accuracy of SuperMex so it was no surprise that when he joined the US Seniors Tour (as it was then) it became his personal retirement fund.

16. Robert Tyre Jones

Possibly the best there has ever been but the shortness of his career makes a true comparison with modern greats impossible. Thirteen Majors in seven years tells its own story and they were built on a loose, rhythmical, flowing swing that usually sent the ball exactly where it was meant to go.

15. Nick Faldo

Golf's Greatest Living Englishman calculatedly sacrificed some of the length of his youth in order to develop the metronomic swing that gave him six Majors. The benefits were never more clearly demonstrated than at Muirfield in 1992 when, under pressure from John Cook he nailed it on the 72nd hole to set up his championship winning par.

14. Joyce Wethered

Arguably the greatest woman golfer ever to pull on spikes, she was so impressive that even Bob Jones said he had never been so intimidated by anyone's play. Henry Cotton added: 'I do not think a golf ball has ever been hit, except perhaps by Harry Vardon, with such a straight flight by any other person.' She won five English Amateur and four Amateur Championships and retired far too early.

13. Byron Nelson

Also retired when still in his prime - at age 34 (because of haemophilia and a dislike of the Tour pro's life) and, unlike most in this list, eschewed a controlled fade or draw in favour of simply hitting it straight. It was something he did so well that in 1945 he won 18 tournaments, 11 of them on the bounce, for the greatest streak of all time.

12. Ernie Els

The affable South African does everything well but it all starts on the teeing ground and in the modern era he has the winning combination of both length and accuracy. He's such a powerful hitter that he can nudge his Titleist out there over 300 yards without apparent effort, so he invariably retains control.

11. Jim Furyk

US Open winners cannot afford to be wild off the tee and, while not up there with the longest in the game, Furyk's unorthodox style gives him the repeatability for which most golf pros would sell their grandmothers. Now recovered from wrist surgery he perpetually demonstrates that anyone who can hit fairways and greens will be tough to beat.

10. Ben Hogan

Hogan, like many Texans who grow up trying to hit the ball low under the wind, developed a chronic hook that almost put paid to his career but by bloody-minded determination and unceasing practice he made himself into one of the best drivers ever. So much so that the sixth hole at Carnoustie has been re-named 'Hogan's Alley' in honour of the narrow strip of grass between bunkers and OB that he found all four days in 1953 en route to victory and his only claret jug in the only Open in which he competed.

9. Annika Sorenstam

Her iron play, particularly from 100 yards in, is exquisite, she has a fine putting touch and probably the best brain in women's golf but long, straight driving is the platform on which the best golfer in the world's game is based. So relentlessly does she thrash her opponents that an alternative career as a dominatrix beckons when she gives up golf.

8. Harry Vardon

Six Opens, which remains a record, and one US Open are the Majors tally for one of the purest ball-strikers ever to pick up a brassie or spoon. Challenged throughout his career by JH Taylor and James Braid he nevertheless was first among equals, mainly because of his great ability from the tee.

7. Tony Jacklin

Like Hogan, Vardon, Watson and others in this list he continued to be a superlative striker of the ball long after his scoring ability was sabotaged by a dodgy putting stroke. But we shall remember him always for the athleticism and power of his tee shots, summed up by Henry Longhurst with the words 'What a corker!' as Jacklin unleashed a superlative drive on the 18th at Royal Lytham and St Annes in 1969 for his only Open win on this side of the Atlantic.

6. Jack Nicklaus

The greatest ever had a swing characterised as 'rock and block' that consisted of an upright action that, coupled with his strength, gave him the most telling power fade ever seen. He had the capacity to bludgeon a course but preferred to use brains as well as brawn and quietly pick its pockets. Eighteen Majors and 19 runners-up spots suggest that his driving was, err, really quite good.

5. Calvin Peete

Born black and dirt poor, with 18 siblings, Peete didn't even play golf until he was 23 and it was an unlikely sport to choose because he broke his left elbow as a boy and it wasn't set properly, leaving him unable to straighten his arm. Unexpectedly, the injury meant he was phenomenally straight and he topped the US Tour driving accuracy stats for 10 straight years. And as Lee Trevino said: 'He straightens his arm to take the cheque.'

4. Colin Montgomerie

For seven unbelievable years Monty never had to have his golf shoes cleaned because he didn't know where the rough was and simply walked down the middle of the newly-mown grass. He famously never practised - because he never needed to. Stroll on the tee, hit driver to right centre, find the green and hole the putt. Piece of piss to a trained athlete.

3. Sir Henry Cotton

It was said of the three-time Open winner (by US coach Bob Toski) that he was so unyieldingly straight from the tee that it was impossible to determine if his ball was in the left or right side of the fairway. Cotton knew how good he was and didn't shy away from telling others but most of them could see it for themselves whenever he drove the ball.

2. Sam Snead

Quite possibly the most naturally gifted player ever, Snead's swing was so fluid that it was likened to pouring molasses over treacle and the epithet 'Slammin' Sam' always did him a great disservice because he was a pure swinger, not a hitter. He won 84 US Tour events - a record still to be beaten, over six different decades, five Majors and recorded 34 holes-in-one. He remained good enough to finish third in the US PGA at age 62 and throughout it all his driving was the lynchpin.

1. Greg Norman

His career spanned the change from persimmon to titanium but he was equally good with either. Previously, golfers tended to be either long or straight but none before or since has combined the two to such telling effect. Like a Federer serve or Lillee bouncer, Norman's tee shot was the ace in his hand that he knew he could rely on when it really counted. Two Opens are scant reward for one so talented but his final 18 holes at Royal St George's in 1993 when he lifted the claret jug for the second time is possibly the greatest driving round ever seen. When the pressure was really on he showed frailty with his iron approach shots but with a wood in his hands he was peerless.

Huge but haywire Tiger Woods: Only a man with his genius could contend as often he does without ever finding a fairway. John Daly: The enormous backswing means that if his timing is just a fraction out - which it often is - then the ball could go anywhere. Laura Davies: Wallops it like an angry man, and just as unpredictable. Hank Kuehne: Tall, pencil-thin American who, like Gerald Ford, doesn't know which course he's playing until after the first tee shot comes to rest.

Back to the practice ground Thomas Bjorn: In this year's European Open put three balls into the River Liffey on the 71st hole before eventually signing off with an 11, on his way to shooting 86. Seve Ballesteros: Once suggested that all courses should have no fairways, so that everyone else would have to play from the rough, too. Jose Maria Olazabal: Often couldn't find a fairway with GPS but such are his powers of recovery, and iron play, that it didn't matter. Ben Crenshaw: Tom Weiskopf said of him: 'He hits in the woods so often he should get an orange hunting jacket.' Arnold Palmer: Only knew one way to play and that was to thrash it as hard as possible [https://golfuniversityau.com/], with rather inevitable consequences.

0 notes

rolandfontana · 5 years ago

Text

China Employee Handbooks: Watching the Sausage Get Made

Photo by ECP

One of the things our China employment lawyers often do is review and revise foreign company employee handbooks (a/k/a Employee Rules and Regulations). With China getting increasingly tough on foreign companies, especially American and Canadian companies, our China employment lawyers have seen a massive increase in China employee handbook work, and rightly so. A well-crafted Chinese-English employee handbook is probably the single best way to prevent employment law problems. See How to Avoid China Employment Law Problems, Part 1: An Employee Handbook That Works.

With this step-upped need for China employee handbook reviews, I thought it would be helpful to show what such a review actually looks like, and what better way to show that than to merge a bunch of emails reflecting such real life reviews. The below is an amalgamation of emails from our China employment lawyers to our clients whose employee manuals we reviewed. I made this an amalgamation of emails so as not to in any way reveal any particular client and so as to give you an even broader picture of this work than would have been possible had I pulled everything from just one email. The below though is fairly typical of what goes into a China employee handbook review, which is itself a key element of our China employer audits.

Hi _________ [client],

I reviewed your edits to the draft employee handbook and your questions and my responses and comments follow. I have also enclosed an updated employee handbook, with my edits in redline.

Article 3 (hiring of employees): The Company is not legally required to provide new hires with a copy of their health certificate. That being said, it is common for Chinese companies to do this, mostly to prevent Chinese employees from abusing the statutory recuperation leave (which happens often). Chinese employees generally expect this, but if you do not want to require this, we can delete it.

Article 6 (termination of employment contracts): You should have a renewal notice form and we will draft one for you. This notice will be short and will include a “comment” section where your employees can indicate their agreement to renew the contract.

Article 8 (dress code): You write that the “business casual” dress code “needs to be updated to follow your company’s updated dress code.” Can you please send me a copy of that updated dress code, so I can insert its provisions into your China handbook.

Article 12 (entering and leaving Company premises): You should keep this in the employee handbook because this covers situations where the Company restricts an employee’s entrance to the premises and it gives you a basis to act should it become necessary.

Article 14 (employee reports): Though this is not legally required you should keep this in the handbook as it gives you a basis for acting (e.g., terminating employment) against an employee who commits a serious breach of this article.

Article 19 (standard working hours): As a general matter, you should specify the standard working hours and lunch time. You also will need to specify if an employee is under “standard” or “flexible” working hours in the employment agreement. We can help you with this when we draft the employment contracts. Note that not all employees are legally eligible to work flexible hours and we will need to work with you on determining this eligibility as well.

Article 23 (travel and expense policy): It is okay to leave the travel/expense policy out of the handbook, but we should review that policy before its implementation so we can make sure it complies with Chinese law.

Article 25 (performance reviews & evaluation): We will remove these from the handbook and replace it with the following basic language: The Company will conduct performance reviews on an annual basis and may have formal check-ins with employees on a quarterly basis. Or would you prefer that we simply delete this entire article?

Article 27 (overtime): Yes, you should track all your employees’ time so you can stay on top of overtime so as to minimize/avoid overtime liabilities.

Article 28 (special protection for female employees):

28.2: The law is unclear on whether the one hour paid-rest per work day for employees more than 28 weeks pregnant applies only to standard hour employees, but since the law is very protective of pregnant employees, we recommend you apply this to all employees more than 28 weeks pregnant, regardless of their working hours. This means your flexible working hours employees can reduce their working time by a total of 1 hour each day in arranging their working schedule and this should apply when they travel for work as well.

28.5: The handbook covers the most important legal issues related tospecial protections for female employees but it is not designed to cover everything. There are other things that rarely occur but should still be covered and we will add those things. For instance, a Shanghai-based employee with a doctor’s note from a qualifying medical institution can take a two and a half-month leave at reduced pay prior to childbirth if she can prove she has some certain special condition, such as a history of miscarriages or serious pregnancy-caused complications.

Your HR people can check laws & regulations, latest policies, news updates etc. by going to the local authorities’ (Shanghai Municipal Human Resources and Social Security Bureau) official website. There is a lot of useful information/resources on there, but not all of the content is in English and even the Chinese content is often outdated. For these reasons, we always confirm the local laws/practices with the Shanghai authorities by phone or even with in-person visits.

Article 29 (attendance records): Yes, you should keep track of attendanc of your employees under standard working hours because you as the employer bear the burden of proof on most issues should there ever be an employee dispute.

Article 30 (sick leave): Per your comment I removed “and the HR manager” because you no longer have a China-based HR manager.

Article 31 (recuperation period): Yes, you will need to track recuperation time. It is paid leave so long as it comes within the statutory recuperation period. Statutory recuperation leave pay for Shanghai is as follows.

If an employee takes a consecutive leave of less than 6 months:

Years of employment at the Company Pay rate Less than 2 years 60% of employee’s salary 2 -4 years 70% of employee’s salary 4-6 years 80% of employee’s salary 6-8 years 90% of employee’s salary 8 years or more 100% of employee’s salary

If an employee takes a consecutive leave that lasts more than 6 months:

Years of employment at the Company Pay rate Less than 1 year 40% of employee’s salary 1 -3 years 50% of employee’s salary 3 years or more 60% of employee’s salary

Employee’s salary is defined as 70% of the employee’s normal net pay. If the reduced pay is lower than 40% of the employer’s average monthly wage, then 40% of the employer’s average monthly wage should be used (or the applicable local minimum subsidy for workers in difficulties, whichever is higher). However, if the reduced pay is higher than Shanghai’s monthly average wage for the preceding year, the employer is allowed to cap the pay at this municipal monthly average wage (currently 7832 RMB/month). The absolute legal minimum standard is 80% of Shanghai’s minimum wage (excluding the employee portion of mandatory social benefits, overtime pay and certain subsidies/allowances): as the Shanghai’s current minimum wage is 2480 RMB/month, 80% of that would be 1984 RMB/month.

We typically do not put all of the above in the employee handbook, but rather work with the employer to determine if an employee is eligible to take the leave, how much the employer should pay during the period and any other related issues, such as what the employer can do if the employee requests an extension.

As explained above, the Shanghai wage is neither a ceiling nor a minimum. Many of our clients choose to deal with it on a case-by-case basis (provided the pay during the leave meets the legal minimum standard) and pay a higher rate for certain employees, such as those who have been with the company a long time.

With that said, as provided in the draft handbook, we generally recommend using the Shanghai average wage for the preceeding year as the cap. Under what we have written, the Company will pay its employees a reduced salary ased on the applicable local rules, capped at the Shanghai monthly average wage for the preceding year, but we can include additional language if you’d like.

Article 32 (personal days—unpaid): Shanghai has no statutory minimum/maximum. Nonetheless we suggest you limit how many days an employee can take as unpaid leave each year and five days is considered standard for Shanghai. If you do not want to set a limit, I can delete this sentence, or we can leave it and you can grant permissions on a case-by-case basis. For now, I added this: Under normal circumstances, an employee should exhaust annual paid leave before applying for unpaid personal leave and the unpaid personal leave should be reserved for extreme circumstances as determined by the Company.

Article 34 (work-related injury leave): The primary applicable law on this is the Shanghai Work-related Injury Insurance Implementation Measures (上海市工伤保险实施办法); but there are other local policies/circulars/notices that may apply and this sort of thing is also subject to interpretations by the local authorities.

Article 36 (work transfer): These are standard provisions, but they are not legally mandated and it will make sense for us to further customize these to fit your specific situation.

Article 38: Shanghai’s current minimum monthly wage is 2480 RMB. Note that the following items cannot be included in the monthly minimum wage and must be paid separately by the employer (if applicable): 1) overtime pay; 2) post allowances including midnight shift allowance, summer high temperature allowance and allowances provided for working in special (e.g., toxic and harmful) work environments; 3) meal subsidies, commute transportation subsidies, and housing subsidies; and 4) employee portion of social insurance premiums and housing provident funds.

Article 40 (maintenance of a labor health and safety system): This is required by law; however for white collar workers, you are not required to do much beyond making sure the office is safe and sanitary and does not pose a safety hazard to your employees.

Articles 46 and 47 (training and competency examinations): As the wording (“The Company may arrange for employees to undergo training” and “The Company may require employees to undergo competency examinations after completing trainings”) indicates, these are not legal requirements, but having these provisions in your employee handbook gives you certain rights and so we recommend keeping them.

Article 48 (Incentives): It’s up to you whether to have a separate incentive policy.

Article 53 (Discipline): This policy is written to work for Shanghai so we would keep this progressive structure. If you require any specific changes, please send them to us so we can review and advise on their legality/enforceabilit. Note that this document allows immediate dismissal without severance for various different sorts of employee misconduct and it also allows you to proceed with unilateral termination without having to resort to lesser disciplinary measures such as written warnings.

An employee’s failure to obey a manager’s command without a valid reason gives you the right to discipline the employee. Since this is a common issue, we would keep this language.

The law permits an employer to terminate an employee for a serious violation of the employee handbook and so it is not necessary to say that the severity of a particular incident allows for dismissal. However, in determining whether certain misconduct is considered of sufficient severity to warrant dismissal, the authorities will not just look to what your handbook says; they will also consider whether the specific rule the Company relies on in making its dismissal decision is reasonable. Rules that are too harsh will be considered unreasonable. We know how to walk this line because we keep up wtih the case law and we stay in good touch with the local employment bureau.

The PRC Employment Contract Law is the main law that dictates when an employer can terminate an employee and this document already covers all the legal grounds under which you can terminate an employee, so the sentence saying that “the Company may also terminate employees pursuant to other relevant laws and regulations” is merely catch-all language that allows the Company to terminate someone if it is allowed to do so under other laws/regulations.

In the event of termination, the most important things the Company must do include the following: issuing a proof of termination of employment relationship document to the terminated employee, transferring the employee’s records and social insurance to the new employer or to the local employment center, and de-registering the terminated employee with the local labor authorities. The exact formalities required also depend on the employee’s situation. For example, if the employee is a foreign national, you will need to cancel the employee’s work permit.

Since China employee terminations are nearly always complicated and since China has gotten a lot tougher with its employment law enforcement in . the past year (especially as against American companies) it is more important than ever that you handle all your employee terminations carefully and correctly. We urge you to reach out to us when there’s an imminent employee termination or even when you are just considering terminating someone. See Terminating a China Employee: Why YOUR Rules and Regulations are Key.

Part 10 (appendices): As noted, these should not have be in the handbook and you should have a separate document to cover these policies and procedures.

Article 56 (amendments): Because Chinese law mandates you follow a democratic procedure in amending the employee handbook, especially the provisions that may have significantly impact your employees, it is important you follow this policy. When an employee challenges your employment decisions, he and she will almost always argue that the provision in the handbook it does not like should be struck down as invalid because you didn’t comply with the laws regarding implementation, and Chinese courts tend to side with employees on this issue if they determine the employer did fail to comply with the law.

This is also a good HR practice A gathering questions/comments/concerns from youe employees will help you be sure your employees understand what’s being changed and it shows them that you are open about incorporating their constructive feedback. If you want to make any specific changes to this paragraph, please send them to me.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

China Employee Handbooks: Watching the Sausage Get Made syndicated from https://immigrationattorneyto.wordpress.com/

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