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Business and the Health Care Crisis

July 28, 2008 By Leave a Comment

It is no secret that one of the biggest fears that workers have with the prospect of losing their jobs in a tough economy is also losing their health care coverage. We are the only major industrial country where medical coverage is dependent for the most part on where one works. And not only is the health care payment system seriously flawed, but access to health care is a problem in many parts of the country. Since moving to the southwest, I have found that simply finding A doctor to be quite challenging – many doctors are simply not taking on new patients.

And then we have today’s New York Times article, “As Doctors Cater to Looks, Skin Patients Wait”. I think this article exactly illustrates that we have a health care system that is broken. The crux of the issue is that when faced with a choice of treating self-paying patients who want elective procedures like botox treatments and those who might have skin cancer and whose insurance company will reimburse doctors at a much lower level than wealthy patients are willing to pay for cosmetic procedures, dermatologists do botox treatments and people who really need medical care have to wait.

Large corporations have an opportunity to be a hero. These organizations have enough buying power to really effect change in health care in the United States. Things need to change and these organizations could lead it.

Filed Under: Work place issues

Inviting Commentary on the Impact of “Online Reading”…

July 27, 2008 By 1 Comment

Back in my first set of graduate school days in the early ’70′s, one of the books that seemed to be required reading almost everywhere was Thomas Kuhn’s, “The Structure of Scientific Revolutions”. Kuhn coined the term, “paradigm shift”. Today’s New York Times has an interesting article that I think is about such a paradigm shift: “Literacy Debate: Online RU Really Reading?”

What is fascinating about this article is that it brings the use of the internet as primary source of reading material right up against the view of the importance of reading books. Before I contribute my two cents on this topic, I invite others to read the article and offer comments on this site. I eagerly await your insights…

Thanks!
JD

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Another Article About “Helicopter Parents”…

July 26, 2008 By Leave a Comment

A number of years ago, we sent our daughter to a two-week summer language camp in northern Minnesota. The first contact that we had with her after she left was not until the parent-child event on the last day of the program – which was part of the deal. While she thought we had banished her to Siberia, and while she complained about the absence of TV and not being able to use her hair dryer (NB there were no cell phones in those days otherwise that would have been part of her rant!), she is still in contact with some of the campers some twenty years later and is among one of the most independent and self-reliant thirty-somethings I know.

Then this article appears today in the NY TImes – “Dear Parents: Relax, It’s Just Camp”. MSNBC coined the term “helicopter parents” about eighteen months ago. These are parents who “hover” over their children’s every move. They call the school constantly to check on their kids, confront teachers if their child did not get an “A”, and show up at job interviews to negotiate compensation packages for their budding executive. Now we have these upper income parents – who obviously don’t have enough to do – calling residential summer camps multiple times a day to check on their child.

Here is what is wrong with this picture, as noted in a comment to “Another Frustrated Boomer”, the behavior of these helicopter parents is contributing mightily to producing a generation of self-absorbed people who cannot function or think independently, and who lack discipline. The NY Times article talks of parents who give their camper-children TWO cell phones (the use of which happens to be banned at these exclusive camps) and tell their kids “if they take away the first one you still have a back up to call me every day”. So we have parents who are condoning rule breaking and then we are surprised when this generation grows up, enters the work force, and ignores the policies and procedures that a company puts in place. Something is very wrong with this picture. How much of this ludicrous behavior are we willing to tolerate?

Filed Under: Generational Issues, Observations, Work place issues

Are “Private Sector Solutions” that Much Better?

July 25, 2008 By Leave a Comment

As I follow the 2008 Presidential, Congressional, and Senate campaigns, and listen to others talking about them, I hear a lot of criticism about “government. I hear words like inefficient, unresponsive, and incompetent when people talk about government-run services. In the same breath, these critics say that we need private sector solutions – particularly for health care.

Has anyone tried to get medical bills paid through a fragmented health care delivery and payment system lately? Have these critics tried to resolve issues with their credit card, cable or cell phone company only to find it to be a miracle when you can actually talk to a person.

Here is my favorite private sector stories for this week.

First, I ordered a product on the internet and paid for two day shipping with one of the main stream private sector shipping companies. I tracked the package online and discovered that it was not going to be delivered on time because of “an emergency situation beyond our control. After a phone call to the 800 number I learned that (a) people at the call desk and even at the local distribution center have no idea what the emergency actually was; (b) that designation is often used when the driver simply runs out of time to make the delivery; and (c) because it is “beyond the company’s control the consumer is not entitled to any refund! It is also curious that the local distribution centers cannot take incoming phone calls and can only be contacted by the central call center by E-MAIL! When I have mailed an express letter through the much maligned USPS, and it does not arrive by the promised time, I have gotten reimbursed for the cost of the postage.

Second, a couple of months ago I am embarrassed to say that I cut my thumb while preparing dinner. After a not so quick trip to the ER and several stitches later the “fun actually began. The hospital where I went staffs its ER with physicians from a non-hospital clinic. The billing department at this private hospital is supposed send the patient’s insurance data to the physician’s practice administrator, but routinely does not. While the hospital bill was paid without a glitch, I am still getting bills from the ER physician’s clinic – in spite of the fact that I personally sent them my insurance info.

Third, I recently got a new VISA business card – it only took THREE mailings of the new card until this company finally got my name spelled correctly!

So how about we change the discourse about incompetence to include these “private sector solutions as well?

Filed Under: Observations, Work place issues

Another Frustrated Boomer

July 24, 2008 By 1 Comment

It seems that a lot of my work lately is around coaching Baby-Boomer bosses on how to work with the newest generation in the workforce – the twenty-somethings (AKA “Millennials”) – and teaching the twenty-somethings what no one ever taught them – how to get along in the world of work. On the same day last week, a health care professional and a chef/restaurant owner bent my ear about their frustrations with this youngest generation. What was not surprising was the usual rant about how much time many members of this generation spend on their cell phones either talking or text messaging their friends, their aversion to anything but positive feedback, the apparent lack of time management skills (“you mean deadlines matter?!?”), and their sense of entitlement. However, what I am beginning to hear more frequently is a frustration around the twenty-somethings’ lack of common sense and good judgment, the ability to “think”, and the extent to which they are totally self-absorbed. What both of these bosses told me last week was that each has to spend a great deal of time telling the millennial exactly what to do – long after they should know how to do their job – and that when something occurs that is “off-script”, the typical twenty-something becomes “fartoost” which is a great Yiddish word that means bewildered, disoriented, discombobulated, and otherwise seriously confused. Such behavior on the part of the millennial causes these two bosses to exclaim with great exasperation, “Don’t these people have a brain”.

I think they do. However, most are products of a seriously flawed education system where passing standardized tests has replaced helping students to learn how to think.

The tension between the generations in the workplace is increasing dramatically and the reality is that these twenty-somethings are the ones filling the pipeline of talented workers and future leaders as the baby-boomers retire. I am interested in hearing from others on not only their experience with generational tension in the work place, but also how we can better prepare twenty-somethings for the world of work AND how the world of work needs to adapt to this newest generation.

Filed Under: Generational Issues, Generational Issues at Work, Work place issues

Are We Preparing the Youngest Generation for the World of Work?

July 2, 2008 By Leave a Comment

Last Friday, many news outlets picked up an interesting story. The Community Services Director in an Ohio community canceled this year’s Little League All-Star Game citing “child development studies” that say these sorts of games need to be banned. Parents were outraged. Last month, there was a controversy in Durango, CO when the High School principal wanted to discontinue the tradition of honor students wearing white robes at graduation as a symbol of their academic achievement. Fortunately, in this case the principal listened to the input of the outraged parents and the tradition continued, as well it should.

There is now an entire generation – the Millennials – who have grown up in a culture where everyone is wonderful, where only positive feedback is present, where everyone gets an award for just participating in an activity, and where outstanding achievement in school, athletics, or any other endeavor tends to get downplayed so as not to make others who did not achieve at such a high level feel bad – or worse yet, where everyone gets an “A”. So these twenty-somethings are entering the workplace expecting to get rewarded for just showing up.

In the spirit of full disclosure, I am a Baby Boomer. I grew up in an era when sometimes you tried out for the team, play, orchestra, or choir and DIDN’T make it; when teachers arranged seats in the classroom according to class rank; and when not everyone got into the college they wanted or got hired by the company where they really wanted to work. In other words, there was competition. And yes, a competitive environment can have serious flaws. However, this nonsense of not recognizing achievement because it will somehow segregate people has to stop. The reality is that in the workplace people get performance reviews – at least annually – and not everyone should get rated at “greatly exceeds standards”. Unfortunately, the twenty something’s saying “I’ve never gotten anything less than an ‘A’ in my life” will not cut it. This participation award mentality has created an entire generation who find negative feedback and dealing with adversity difficult. And adversity is exactly what businesses will have to deal with in the future. It would be a much better world if schools, community programs, and families helped young people find their talent instead of having them falsely believe everyone is great at everything.

Filed Under: Generational Issues, Generational Issues at Work, Observations