NewsLink

Links to Internet news items and other information related to diversity and inclusion, provided every week by the Office of Diversity Management and Equal Employment Opportunity (06), a program office within VA's Office of Human Resources and Administration.

Volume 6, Issue 34                                      May 23, 2007

This Week's Web Highlight
2007 LULAC Federal Training Institute

Why Working Less is Better for the Globe.  A backlash against overwork fatigue, the Work Less Party is one of a growing number of initiatives aimed at cutting work hours while tackling unemployment and environmentally unfriendly behavior and boosting leisure time.

When You Feel Stuck at Work.  Instead of trying to change how you feel when you think you’re just spinning your wheels at work, you may want to change how you’re working.

Top 10 Ways to Engage Passion of Employees.  The focus here is on how to engage the passion of your employees in order to improve their quality of work-life and your organization's culture.

Government Taps the Power of Us.  Officials turn to blogs and wikis to share information and achieve goals.

Diversity Programs Look to Involve White Males as Leaders.  Part of an effort to get diversity programs off the sidelines and into the mainstream of the business, having a White man champion diversity efforts may help bring other White males on board.

The WSJ Gets It Wrong: White Men Don't Legitimize Diversity.  DiversityInc's cofounder, Luke (“Ask the White Guy”) Visconti, responds to the Wall Street Journal article that claims "having a White male in charge of diversity efforts lends legitimacy to the effort."

World Diversity Leadership Symposium at the United Nations.  The CEOs of HSBC, Adecco, MGM Mirage, P&G, Aviva, AIC and Commissioner of Major League Baseball will receive awards and deliver speeches at the third annual World Diversity Leadership Symposium.

Working Wives Enjoy Lasting Marriages, Studies Show.  The marriages of women who work outside the home are more likely to stay together than the marriages of those who don't, according to new studies that have converted at least one prominent social conservative.

After Baby, Boss Comes Calling.  There has been a 6 percent falloff in labor force participation among married mothers, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, but those women are not leaving permanently.

Men's Minds Decline More with Age.  Everyone becomes a little more forgetful as they get older, but men's minds decline more than women's, according to the results of a worldwide survey.

Gen Y Floods the Workplace.  The oldest members of the biggest population bubble since the baby boomers are graduating from college. It's the start of a generation-long transition that figures to touch everything from economics and politics to family life.

A Public Service Incentive.  Government agencies can attract young people by helping them pay down the debt they incurred as students.

Recruit creatively.  Federal agencies now face major recruiting challenges. How can they win the increasingly competitive war for talent? How can they streamline hiring to attract a new generation of workers to public service? And how can they become an employer of first choice for more first-time job seekers?

Workers Satisfied with Company’s Social Responsibility are More Engaged and Positive.  Employees who are satisfied with their company’s commitment to social responsibility have positive views about their employer in several other key areas.

GSA Office Designs Workplaces to Match Agencies’ Missions.  Surveys that show 90 percent of employees think their work space affects their well-being and half say they would work harder if that space improved.

Radical New Office Concepts to Boost Employee Productivity.  In a hectic work environment, the office has to compete with many distractions and ensure employees are upbeat at all times. For this, a growing number of designers are focusing on creating flexible and exciting work environments.

Resolving Conflicts at Work.  Teamwork and communication skills are critical in today’s business environment because many times disputes arise between co-workers—and between employer and employees.

Bersin & Associates Study of Corporate Talent Management Identifies Top 22 Processes which Drive Business Impact.  Coaching, centralization of staffing requirements, and workforce planning top the list; management shortage is biggest challenge for companies today.

California is Leading Nation in Diversity.  Minorities now account for one-third of the nation's 300 million U.S. residents, with the largest share of them—21 percent—living in California.

New Demographic Racial Gap Emerges.  With the number of nonwhite Americans above 100 million for the first time, demographers are identifying an emerging racial generation gap.

A Road Beyond Ethnicity.  In the same way that multiculturalism posits that different groups experience reality differently, David Henry Hwang's new play, Yellow Face, suggests that there is no uniform Asian American, Black, White, or Latino experience.

Muslims "Well Integrated" in U.S.  Muslim Americans are largely integrated in U.S. society and moderate in their views, a nationwide survey suggests.

Pressure to Achieve Partly Contributes to Asian-American Women's High Suicide Rates.  Pressure to be a "model minority" in part contributes to high suicide rates among Asian-American women, according to an Asian-American studies expert.

Little Progress in Hiring Minority Executives.  Of 6,350 senior executive positions in the Federal government, 8.6 percent are occupied by blacks and 3.6 percent are occupied by Hispanics.

Harvard Study Shows Corporate Ladder Opening to Asians, Women.  A 1,000-member Harvard Business School database forms the centerpiece of a Harvard study of the origins of corporate leadership.

Disabled Magazine Honors USPS.  Careers & the disABLED magazine has named the U.S. Postal Service as Public-Sector Employer of the Year for its progressive efforts to recruit, hire, and promote people with disabilities.

SPL Center Opposes Guestworker Expansion.  On the eve of congressional debate over immigration reform, the Southern Poverty Law Center issued an explosive new report and called on Congress to reject an expansion of the program that some workers describe as modern-day slavery.

When the Empire Strikes Back: Employer Retaliation, Reaction and Counterclaims.  Anyone who has had the task of informing an executive that he or she must defend a discrimination charge understands why almost all protective employment laws contain an anti-retaliation provision.

Whistleblowers Charge Retaliation; More Protections Sought.  Career Federal employees who report waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement in government agencies are routinely subjected to career-ending retaliation, humiliation, and legal costs.

Public Favors Expansion of Hate Crime Law to Include Sexual Orientation.  A substantial majority of the American public favors the expansion of Federal hate crime legislation to include crimes against people based on their gender, sexual orientation, and gender identity.

Ask and Tell: Gay and Lesbian Veterans Speak Out.  Drawing on more than 50 interviews with gay and lesbian veterans, Steve Estes charts the evolution of policy toward homosexuals in the military over the past 65 years.

Rethinking Gender.  A growing number of Americans are taking their private struggles with their identities into the public realm. How those who believe they were born with the wrong bodies are forcing us to re-examine what it means to be male and female. 

NewsLink is part of VA's ongoing effort to increase awareness and acceptance of diversity and to promote a flexible and inclusive work environment. For more information, visit the Office of Diversity Management and Equal Employment Opportunity Web site at www.va.gov/dmeeo.

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