I'm not complaining about work or my fellow enslaved, I'm not talking about the mind numbing boredom that is work, whether it be packing clothes, taking tickets, posting letters, or drawing frame after frame for Walt Disney. The boss is hardly to blame when it comes to looking at your watch and realising you’re stuck in that current position for another 7hours. I blame the boss for almost everything else, and here’s why!

Because I have yet to meet a supervisor or manager or whatever the case may be doing any actual work. I have yet to see one treat you as someone equal, really think about it, when they talk to you (Even the nice ones) don't you feel like they're looking down on you? I have also never seen one admit their mistakes and take the blame. So I am writing this message because I want to express the things I'd love to say to my manager. (The only thing he could manage is another grease filled hotdog.)

1. Why don't you put your aftershave/perfume on instead of showering in it?

Let’s face it, every time they come over to talk to you; your eyes water, your nostrils sting and your throat goes instantly, not unlike Texas, painfully dry. It isn't pleasant! And YES! We get it, you own 90% alcohol 10% bleach.

2. Why in gods name did you buy £90 shoes for factory work? Are you a bloody idiot?

So many times I have chewed my tongue off resisting, watching the 'tool' complain that his brand new expensive shoes have been scuffed, or her designer high heels are breaking. They have no one to blame but themselves.

3. Oh don't worry about being late, your only the f**king manager, no one needs you to sign the payslips, check us off the tills, tell us exactly what needs doing.

Late managers, unbelievable, it shocks me how they got the job in the first place, usually the reason is because their hair wasn't quite right, or they missed the bus. Enough already, if your going to get paid a considerable amount more than the lower employees then you better damn well show up on time!

4. I hate bosses  PEOPLE who think they are funny and walk around all day making jokes that are simply bad; and the people who encourage them are even worse. SHAME ON YOU! 

Your NOT funny, people only laugh because they want more pay, stop making sexual innuendos and shut the f**k up.

5. I'm going to murder you, you bloody useless oxygen thief.

Nothing really to say about that one, but who hasn't thought it?

I'm sure there are thousands more horrible, just, life altering things you want to say but shouldn't, but unfortunately; I have to go to work.

http://mtsu32.mtsu.edu:11218/300px-The_Scream.jpg

Very few workplaces haven't yet been contaiminated by his plague. Falling in the trap of office gossip is all too easy, even for people who are not the direct perpetrator, but just naïve enough to listen.

Not all gossip is malicious and some is in fact relatively benign: anyone enjoys a good banter and innocent gossip can usually strenghten co-workers bond by creating a certain sense of comradeship.

Unfortunately the typical gossip is purely destructive, can easily go out of control and its effects can be devasting, not only on the victim but on the entire work environment. Telltale can hugely affect worker's morale and turn unexpected risks on complaisant management.

Samuel Greenhard in his article “Gossip Poisons Business: HR Can Stop It”, writes some lucid words: “When the gossip mill begins to grind people up and ruin their reputations, there is both cause for concern and a real need for the human resources professional to step in. When left to fester, gossip can not only cause deep personal pain but also lead to turnover, conflict, and lawsuits”.

GOSSIP AND ITS CAUSES

Office gossip is generally about alleged dating between management and employees, or who's is going to get fired, promoted or moved down the corporate ladder.

No matter what the excuse is (romance, illness, promotion, cheating?), gossip is always designed to slander or defame an individual, often for personal or political gratification.

Susan Dunn, expert author on management and marketing coach writes: “Particularly malicious gossip is used for personal or political gain within the organization. Any form can open management up to significant liability because employees who perceive themselves in a hostile environment can go on to assume they're being discriminated against”.

Gossip often thrives on rivalry and boredom - “an idle mind is the devil's workshop”- or it can be encouraged by a frustrating lack of information about company events.

Annette Simmons, president of Group Process Consulting and author of “A Safe Place for Dangerous Truths: Using Dialogue to Overcome Fear and Distrust at Work(Amacom,1999)” writes that “when people aren't fully engaged in work, it creates a vacuum. And when they don't know what's going on, especially regarding promotions and layoffs, they begin to speculate”. She also notes that men often use gossip as a form of political control, while women employ it to make themselves look and feel important.

THE ADVENT OF E-GOSSIP

Gossip is nothing new. It's wired into the human nature. It has always existed and always will. But the internet has opened up a completely new dimension to gossip. A new world of (disastrous) possibilities.

We witnessed the passage from the traditional one-to-one exchange (be it face-to-face, by phone or letter) to the potential one-to-hundred instant email sent to a list of recipients in one single click. What in the old days was a rumour taking weeks to develop, can now be spreaded exponentially in minutes with often tragic results.

But it's not all bad. Lynn Hamilton, who teaches management communication at the MeIntire School of Commerce, University of Virginia, explains how the emails can provide a real insight into the nature of relationships between coworkers. Moreover, unlike the spoken word, email correspondence represents a far more “trackable” mean of communication; it's easily documented and in this sense it allows human resources and IT management to study and implement policies to counteract the e-gossiping.

WHAT ORGANISATIONS CAN DO

1) Building the foundations of a respectful community of workers. If an organization knows that ignorance, boredom and cut-throats competition are indisputable feeding of all gossip, it can put the wild cat on a diet. It can create a culture which is supportive and fair rather than overtly competitive. It should keep employees well informed on company's directives, potential promotions and all essential actions instead of acting like a secret agent. It should encourage hard work through promotions and incentives with an eye to building team work's spirit and prolific cooperation between colleagues.

2) Putting in place a written policy against gossip. The policy should describe appropriate behavior and actions at work, promoting relation based on ethics, professionalism and respect between employees. Rules and punitive measures should be clearly outlined and the document should be displayed where workers can see it.

3) Running regular workshops to educate workers and raise awareness. Dan Bobinski - the President and CEO of Leader Development Inc., an organization providing human resource training and development to businesses - explains that “how an organization deals with gossip can often mean the difference between growing and thriving, or disintegrating from within”.He also adds that “by openly bringing the issue to the attention of everyone in the office, gossipers are more likely to feel the peer pressure and think twice before opening their mouth”.

4) Counseling should be available for both victim and instigator. The victim needs obvious emotional support, but the gossiper needs advice too.As Bobinski points out “It is vitally important that we don't just tell people what not to do. We must give them positive, constructive alternatives to choose instead of the gossip”.

5) Rumors must be dealt with immediately and with a firm hand. More often than not the management is responsible as much as the gossiper by no dealing with the issue, by looking the other way or worse still by engaging in the gossip themselves.

Rebecca Gushue, HR generalist and compensation specialist at GENEX Services, Inc., has dealed with hundreds of cases and she notes that “management often opens itself up to significant liability by not dealing with the problem”. An investigator should inspect the matter if necessary and the gossiper should be confronted directly.

There is no point in having a written policy of “respect and dignity for every employee” if nothing or little is done in case of transgression. A lack of action or a simple delay would hinder all benefits of the process and irreversibly damage the policy's credibility.

There is also a bad side to margin loans. Margin loans can increase a consumer's risk of gaining more debt. When the market stock declines the borrower is at risk of having to pay back the entire margin loan depending on the amount of depreciation that took place. Margin loan lenders add to your adjustable rate mortgage between various percents. It is possible for lenders to mark your margin up to three to four percent more. If you have a bad credit history or are currently in debt this mark up can increase even higher. The lender's margin mark up determines how fast your mortgage interest rate will rise when they adjust the loan. The loan with the higher margin will always cost significantly more. It is important when using margin loans to research and shop around for the best adjustable rate. You should always ask your lender questions if you have any. It is also wise to ask your lender for a margin reduction before selecting an adjustable rate mortgage.

Recently, a woman called Kelly lost her job from a Burberry factory in South Wales. This was because the company Burberry were moving their factory to China. In China, the laws are more lenient and do not force to give workers good working conditions and there is no minimum wage so the Chinese citizens are desperate for as much money they could get. On the other hand, Burberry argue that their main market is based in Japan. Moving the factory to China reduces the shipping distance helping to make the company greener. This argument implies that globalisation is only good in the point of view of large companies and not to the average person like you or me.

Nonetheless, if globalisation never happened many large companies who choose to sell their goods here will never of been heard of such as Microsoft and McDonalds. Companies like Nike argue that making their goods in TNCs and LEDCs helps boost the countries economy and helps the individual people get money to help feed there families. After all, some money is better that no money. Whereas many “antiglobalisation” groups argue that it is all very well that they have got a job, but they would be spending most of their money on health care to help themselves from the awful injuries they get in the unacceptable working conditions they have to suffer. Transnational companies complain that they get so much abuse when they are not breaking any rules but many people feel that it is unfair and maybe there should be tighter restrictions in countries like China.

Reviewing these arguments I conclude that, to middle class people, globalisation is a great thing which helps us get the best life we want whereas the people below the poverty lines in all MEDCs, TNCs and LEDCs, it could be described unfair and from their point of view, it is only good for the company.

Every October, corporations turn on more marketing and try to extend their brand into a more logical position inside the lucrative Halloween holiday market. Just last year, the National Retail Federation of America found Halloween has become the sixth largest spending holiday in the United States behind Christmas ($457.4 billion US), Valentine's Day ($13.70 billion US), Easter ($12.63 billion US), Mother's Day ($13.80 billion US) and Father's Day ($9.01 billion US). The study found that Halloween sales have grown by about $2 billion since 2003, to just over $5 billion in 2006.

As a parent, it's become obvious to me that Halloween is growing in all the wrong places. Most folks living today don't know anything about how the pumpkin came to become the ubiquitous welcome lantern at over 100 million homes across North America, or why October 31st is sometimes called All Hallow's Eve.

My own sister, and her children won't be frolicking down lamp lit residential lanes this year, they won't be crossing dark streets or taking candy from strangers. They'll be heading for the West Chester Mall, a shopping center near their home, to trick-or-treat among the stores there. “I'll take them to Reggie and Carol's and to Rob's mom's house, but we're going to the mall,” She said to me and when I asked why not meet some of the neighbours she protested that “the kids want to go to the mall. Its fun, convenient and most importantly it is safe.”

In my opinion, it's also fundamentally wrong. I loath corporate ad bucks promoting retail trick-or-treating as a safe alternative to walking about your neighborhood. Shopping malls offer a stale, pedestrian-only, lights-on, shallow smile sales-clerk kind of experience. All spookiness has been exorcised, and some malls even ask that no scary costumes or masks be worn. Come to K-mart and get your free bag of Halloween candy on Oct31st'

Retailers use candy to bait strangers. The sugar coated offerings lure potential new customers into a venue where they have never shopped before. And even if the families don't buy anything on Oct 31st, they'll remember the store when shopping for Christmas.

Corporate hegemony is hurting Halloween. Unwarranted issues of safety and morality are spiked home by media scares. Watch the papers the week before Halloween, there is at least one "it could be your neighbour" story presented to plant seeds of doubt.

Yesterday, a "human interest" story in an American newspaper advertised the fact that the SPCA would not allow black cats to be adopted in the month of October, fearing perhaps local residents might be tempted to use the creatures in Satanic rituals. I checked Toronto - it's true. The Toronto Humane Society will not allow black cats to be released from their protective custody this month either. (I was actually going to write a story on that, but then found myself on the wrong side of the media - a story like that would help foster the myth of fear away from neighbourhood trick or treating).

Beware the "razor blade in the apple", and fear the possibility of eating adulterated candy is the message promoted by retailers, and this is the most pervasive of all corporate lies - there is little or no substance to this tenacious urban myth. Yes. It happened once in 1974: An 8 year old boy died from a cyanide-laced candy which he picked up at Halloween. Investigations revealed however that the boy's own father had intentionally spread cyanide on the candy in order to kill his son. He wanted to collect the insurance. He was charged, tried, convicted and executed.

In 1982, fifteen kids and one adult became ill at a school Halloween party. It might have been caused by the candy and cakes that they ate. But the newspaper reports of the lab tests on the food are contradictory. Although nobody died, the story hasn't been forgotten and is preserved by our fear of predators.

As a parent, I'm personally greatly discomfited by the general trend away from neighborhood-based trick-or-treating. I would like to see consumers simplify their lives and buy fewer disposable goods, and I believe trick-or-treating in shopping centers replaces community with commercialism, and soon children will begin to associate Halloween with local retailers, rather than with local friends. As an alternative, I suggest community-center costume parades, school carnivals and block parties. Can you find a destination where the myth and stories of Halloween can be shared? Yes I'm sympathetic to parents' concerns, but can you not celebrate Halloween safely without salespeople?

Shopping mall trick-or-treating scares me because it's hurting Halloween. Media fed urban myths propagate fear and destroy neighborly interaction, the very thing that makes the holiday such a great asset to society. Many people don't realize the importance of knowing and trusting those who live near their residence. There may come a time when you need each other, whether its to mobilize together to face an environmental disaster, create a crime watch, find a baby sitter, or borrow a ladder - Halloween helps.