HR Scoop Archives for October of 2020

The Non Obnoxious Career Path

Published 10/05/2020

Getting a Promotion in the Best Way     Any office environment can be fraud with peril. Potential personal missteps that can hamper your career can appear at any time. You want to stand out, but doing it at the expense of someone else will more often than not come back to bite you in the future.   No one appreciates someone who brags about their accomplishments or who much they know. However, is your boss doesn't yet know how good you really are, how do you get them to notice you? How do you stand out without sticking out?   There are several ways to impress...

New Minimum Wage Increase in Rhode Island

Published 10/12/2020

Only 9 States Have a Higher Minimum Wage Than Rhode Island     As of last Thursday, only 9 states (and Washington D.C.) have a higher minimum wage than Rhode Island. Rhode Island has the 12th highest cost of living in the country, so it's position in the wage rankings is not surprising. Throw into the mix that Rhode Island has the 4th highest percentage of workers (19%) represented by unions, and the picture becomes clearer.   In a 2019 CNBC article, Rhode Island was reported to have the 7th highest cost of doing business (although, with the new minimum wage going into effect, this...

First the Water Cooler, Now the Breakroom

Published 10/21/2020

Is the Break Room Gone?   One of the great things about almost any job is the people you meet. People who you otherwise would never know and, more importantly, never connect with. The workplace certainly isn't the great equalizer, but it can act as a social mixing pot. However, with work-from-home being implemented more and more, and workplace redesign intended to purposely keep us apart becoming the norm, getting to know our fellow employees is becoming harder and harder. Just when we think it can't get worst, now it looks like we're going to (at least now), lose our coffee breaks...

Bizarro World

Published 10/26/2020

Why is this time different?   In Superman's bizarro world, nothing seemed to make sense. Everything was the opposite of what was expected. It would seem that today's pandemic impacted economy, especially as it relates to hiring, would feel right at home in the Man of Steel's alternate universe.   (I would have used a Superman Bizarro World image, but I didn't think that D.C. Comics would like it.)   We have record unemployment, yet jobs go unfilled. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the September unemployment rate had decreased to 7.9% with the number of people unemployed down to 12.6 million. Among those...