Flashings

Great job!

Sometimes, it's difficult to find a new, credible phrase to thank an employee for a job done well. An overused phrase may begin to lose its power, and in a busy office, thanking an employee for good work sometimes can be forgotten. Try using the following short phrases to show employees you appreciate their work:

• "I'm glad to have you on our team."
  
  
• "Congratulations on completing a difficult job."
  
  
• "You've been very helpful. Thank you."
  
  
• "I appreciate your consistent effort."
  
  
• "Great effort! You make us all look good."
  
  
• "Your sales results are outstanding."
  
  
• "You make the team's vision come alive."
  
  
• "Your actions inspire the team."
  
  
• "What an incredible accomplishment!"
  
  
• "Customers notice your extra efforts."

Source: Adapted from The Fun Factor, as cited in Team Management Briefings, January issue.

Let them complain

Everyone knows employees complain about projects, supervisors and other work topics. As a manager, it is important you listen when employees complain because by doing so, you can gain valuable insights and make positive changes within your company. Once per month, hold a gripe session at which employees can complain about anything work-related. You should hold the session outside the office, such as at a restaurant or coffee shop, because employees will be more apt to talk freely. And schedule the session during work hours, which will make employees more willing to participate.

Source: Adapted from Leading for Results, December 2002 issue.

Manufacturers raise product prices

Dow Polyurethanes, Midland, Mich., once again has increased prices for several polyurethane products. Prices for toluene diisocyanate (TDI) products increased 11 cents per pound; VORANOL,™ VORALUX™ and SPECFLEX™ polyether and co-polymer polyols, as well as ISONATE™ pure methylene diphenyl diisocyanate (MDI) and PAPI™ polymeric MDI prices, rose 4 cents per pound; rail-car shipment prices for pure and polymeric MDI products, as well as VORANOL polyether and co-polymer polyols, jumped 7 cents per pound; and VORANATE™ TDI prices increased 10 cents per pound. In addition, a 3 cent up-charge for tank-truck deliveries has occurred for all polyurethane products.

Richard Beitel, Dow Polyurethanes' commercial director, says: "The profitability of Dow Polyurethanes is being challenged by the highly volatile hydrocarbons and energy situation. High and volatile oil and energy pricing is creating escalated raw-material and distribution costs and a subsequent decrease in margins. This dramatic movement in oil and energy pricing is combined with several years of severe margin compression and tough economic conditions."

Similarly, Northfield, Ill.-based Knight Industries LLC, parent company of Knight-Celotex, Northfield, has increased prices for sheathing and roof insulation by $9 and cants and edges by 10 percent. The company says the increases are a result of price increases for raw materials and energy.

Concern about age discrimination

In 2002, the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) surveyed 2,500 employees, ages 45 to 74, and found 20 percent of respondents are positive about continuing to work but 67 percent are concerned about age discrimination. The following statistics summarize what concerns this category of workers, according to respondents:

• The value set upon educational degrees of younger workers instead of older workers' experience concerns 62 percent.
  
  
• Sixty percent say they believe their age category is the first to be laid-off during downsizing.
  
  
• Fifteen percent say they were not hired for a job because of their age.
  
  
• Nine percent believe age caused them to be denied promotions.
  
  
• Five percent thought they did not receive raises because of their age.

Source: Adapted from Staying Ahead of the Curve: The AARP Work and Career Study, as cited in The Manager's Intelligence Report, January issue.

Asbestos litigation affects smaller companies

A recent trend in asbestos litigation has brought smaller companies into the arena of liability for asbestos-related illnesses. As many larger companies have been forced into bankruptcy protection because of rising asbestos claims, plaintiffs have begun to target smaller companies.

The smaller companies, including consultants, engineering firms, plant owners, and maintenance and construction contractors, are being sued by workers for exposure to products containing asbestos on their premises. As larger companies in bankruptcy protection reach product liability insurance caps, plaintiffs are filing claims against smaller companies.

WS Bellows Construction Corp., a Houston-based commercial office builder, is among the smaller companies addressing new asbestos claims. "It has little to do with whether anybody knowingly did anything wrong," says WS Bellows Construction Vice President Jim Stevens. "It's more about who has deep pockets."

According to the RAND Institute of Civil Justice, a nonprofit organization in Santa Monica, Calif., businesses paid more than $54 billion in asbestos claims by the end of 2000. And the number of lawsuits for asbestos exposure is increasing. In 1982, about 21,000 claimants sued for asbestos exposure. The number of plaintiffs jumped to about 750,000 in 2002.

"We found that during the past decade there has been a rapid increase in the number of asbestos claims and the cost of litigation," says RAND Institute of Civil Justice Senior Economist Stephen Carroll. "This surge challenges the notion that litigation is manageable and raises new questions about whether there will be enough money to pay all the claims that are likely to be filed."

The rise in claims against smaller companies also has increased financial pressure on insurance providers. Some insurers have imposed limits on asbestos coverage, resulting in litigation between insurance companies and their insureds.

In related news, the U.S. Supreme Court made an interesting ruling in Norfolk & Western Railway Co. v. Ayers, a case involving six railroad workers suffering from asbestosis, an asbestos-related disease that causes shortness of breath and disability but does not develop into cancer. In a 5-4 vote, the Supreme Court upheld a jury decision awarding the workers $4.9 million in damages because they feared their asbestosis eventually would develop into cancer. The West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals declined to hear the appeal.

The railroad workers are covered by the Federal Employers' Liability Act, a 1908 act that addresses the dangers associated with working for a railroad and makes railroads liable for damages without requiring injured workers to prove fault.

In the majority opinion, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg says, "Courts must resist pleas of the kind Norfolk & Western Railway has made, essentially to reconfigure established liability rules because they do not serve to abate today's asbestos-litigation crisis." She argued such a task should be reserved for Congress.

As a dissenter, Justice Anthony Kennedy says the court's decision was employee-threatening, not employee-protecting, because it is "only a matter of time before inability to pay for real illness comes to pass."