Law And More

Alleged Attempted Poll Rigging - So Over, Confidence in Polling Data

Was it naïve to have been surprised by the article in today's The Wall Street Journal alleging attempted poll rigging by the Trumpettes? 

According to the reporting, which Michael Cohen confirms, in association with the 2016 presidential campaign John Gauger of RedFinch Solutions was contracted to manipulate polling by CNBC and Drudge Report. That never did get accomplished. But the reality that it was allegedly attempted blasts a gigantic hole in the confidence of the data produced in polls. 

It's not hyperbolic to anticipate that the entire polling industry could collapse.

For the 2020 presidential campaign those following the machinations could be relying on other kinds of data. We could return to the old-fashioned method of simply asking the neighbors what they think about Candidate X or Y. We will leave our screens and listen to the candidates in-person. We will research their backgrounds for details about advocacy and voting. We will trust nothing and no one. 

During the 2016 campaign, Drudge Report took on new prominence through its polls. For example, the polling asked whom readers considered had won the debates. Often, of course, the top scorer had been Donald Trump. Was that legit, we now wonder.

In addition to killing trust in polling, we also are increasing our distrust of technology. Those in the know seem to be busy bees manipulating just about everything. 

Prediction: The 2020 campaign will be operated very differently from the one in 2016.

Option: Fleeing to a cabin in the woods, off the grid. The American Dream of being free of digital technology. Back to communicating over distance through smoke signals. 

Get amazing results through out of box communications strategies/content. Complimentary consultation janegenova374@gmail.com. I help, not sell.

Booze Sales Down - Bad News for SmallLaw, Solos, AA Could Die of Natural Causes

A predicable piece of business for SmallLaw and Solos has been the DUI. 

But that could go poof, like so many other B2C niches in the legal sector.

The Wall Street Journal documents how the sale of booze keeps declining.

During 2018, it went down another 0.08%. Beer got hit the worse, with another 1.5%.

Seeing the handwriting on the wall, those in alcoholic beverages are diversifying. Soon enough they could be opening spas in southwestern Arizona. 

Without the DUI, SmallLaw and solos could be even more in a pickle to land enough work to keep the lights on. 

Another institution to take a hit - maybe even collapse - is 12-step program Alcoholics Anonymous. For several years its effectiveness has been questioned. Membership is down worldwide. And, critics frequently quote from the hatchet job done by the now iconic anti-AA article in The Atlantic.

Without a nation of boozers, AA would lose its reason for being. Of course it could rebrand as Opioids Anonymous but that's not what it is about at its core. The "trusted servants" who oversee AA probably wouldn't allow that. The organization tends to be fundamentalist.

How will America be as post-boozing nation?

Could be we will sip herbal tea while watching the Superbowl. Since there is already an epidemic of loneliness we will likely be experiencing that sporting event alone. Instead of bros and sistas, there will only be our dog next to us, along with our smartphone. 

Overall we seem to have given up on socializing, unless it has a definite professional agenda. Sure, I will meet you for a drink - only one - if there is a possibility of business. 

Several years back I took my last shot at the joys of human companionship. Somehow four former college classmates and I found our way back into each other lives. It should have been predictable that would be a disaster + BigTrauma.

My father bowled alone. I will do the SuperBowl alone.

Tonight we will watch another episode of supposed friends' saga "A Million Little Things." Could be we could pick up some tips about getting back into the human interaction game.

Get amazing results through out of box communications strategies/content. Complimentary consultation janegenova374@gmail.com. I help, not sell.

No Surprise, #MeToo Is Scaring Off Men From Mentoring Women

Those of us who have worked in organizations anticipated this: Men are backing off from mentoring women.

That, to me, is a predictable consequence of the #MeToo Movement.

In Forbes, Arielle Lapiano documents with personal anecdotes and surveys from Lean In and Survey Monkey that about half of male managers are not comfortable with mentoring women. They also are reluctant to be alone with a woman in the workplace or socializing with women. 

This could have serious negative impacts on the careers of women.

The mentoring I received in academia and in my first seven years in corporate life primarily came from men. That was just the way it was. 

I didn't request the help. I didn't even know I needed guidance about a meeting I should be attending, or a door I should be knocking on. Males observed my lack of direction and pointed me in the right direction. They had the insight about how things worked and the power to help move my career forward. 

More recently, women have that insight and power. Currently one has parachuted in to help me figure out if I should re-locate my business to scale. 

No question, #MeToo has been accomplishing a lot, especially in increasing sensitivity about what might constitute disrespectful behavior toward women. However, the downside should have been anticipated.

Now what? That's what men and women who work together have to figure out.

Get amazing results through out of box communications strategies/content. Complimentary consultation janegenova374@gmail.com. I help, not sell.

 

 

Student Loan Debt - Fed Research Documents Link to Drop in Home Purchasing, Re-Location from Rural Areas

Student loan debt totals about $1.5 trillion. 

No surprise, The Wall Street Journal, whose major niche is business, has focused on the implications of that growing number. Its primary focus are the findings of the Federal Reserve research. Here you can read the study.

The two key findings are:

The debt is correlated with the 9% decline in home ownership among those 24 to 32 years old during the time period 2005 through 2014. That percentage could increase now that housing market has softened in myriad locations.

Students carrying student loan debt also feel forced to leave rural areas in order to have the earning opportunities to meet their monthly nut on the loans.

Of course, none of this is a surprise. Everywhere we older professionals go we encounter new graduates, including from law school, whose life choices are being determined by the loan debt. In addition, they are nervous about holding on to their jobs so they won't have to default on their loans. 

When it comes to youth, this is a national emergency.

But youth isn't the only category overwhelmed with this burden. The December feature in The Wall Street Journal discussed how those over-60 have taken on student loans to study for degrees later in their careers. If age bias prevents employment or dooms them to low-paying jobs they are really in a financial pickle.

Those older Americans who aren't keeping up with student loan repayment could find their work checks and Social Security docked.

What many articles on the impacts of student loans don't mention is that some degrees, by time they are completed, are unmarketable. After the financial crash of 2008, a significant number of new law graduates couldn't land jobs practicing law. What else was available during those hard times usually paid peanuts. Meanwhile some had to deal with a monthly repayment of $700. 

I had my own dark night of the soul with a degree that couldn't be marketed. In the early 1970s, the demand for college humanities professors tanked. When I had begun my doctoral studies the government had projected growing need for those kinds of professors. By time I was doing my dissertation, everything had changed.

Of course, I had student loan debt - and an academic credential employers outside academic didn't respect. It took me about five years to pay off the loan. It was about six years before I was hired by an energy corporation for a communications position that paid well.

When it comes to the combo package of student loans and not highly marketable degrees there should be this takeaway: Treat every decision about enrolling in a degree as an investment one. The ROI has to be calculated in strict terms of what is the likely payoff in earnings.  

Get amazing results through out of box communications strategies/content. Complimentary consultation janegenova374@gmail.com. I help, not sell.

 

William Jacoby - The Graduate School Game

Retired Michigan State University political science professor William Jacoby has been accused by the school of sexual harassment of two graduate students.

One was matriculating at MSU, the other at the University of Michigan. The allegations have been made after the university investigated. Here are more details from the New York Post.

Anyone familiar with how the graduate school game is played is probably not surprised at the allegations.

In the fiercely competitive world of academia it is almost imperative to win over the support of the powerful professors and administrators. Those can shake loose resources for the students' research, introduce them to useful contacts, and create glowing recommendations. That's just the way it is. 

Not all professors and administrators abused or abuse their power. And, unlike what the two students claim about Jacoby, not all demand payback for the help. In my doctoral studies at the U of M, the late Walter Clark was selfless in mentoring those of us who had been enrolled in his high-level aesthetics seminar. 

However, given the high stakes, corrupt professors could put pressure on anxious students for all kinds of quid pro quo. That wouldn't just be about sex. Often free research without receiving credit was expected. There were also nutty things like being an unpaid gofer. And some were just lonely and craved the human warm of companionship, with no sexual ties.

The ways of academia can be more brutal than the dynamics of corporate life.

Get amazing results through out of box communications strategies/content. Complimentary consultation janegenova374@gmail.com. I help, not sell.

 

Mindfulness & Doritos - So 1st Decade 21st Century

LinkedIn Update, it turns out, is the Land of No Spin. Those tightly scripted (as well as the tightly wound) have few followers. Often their posts go without any likes or comments.

Those who flash raw sincerity are the ones who pull in the attention. And keep it. We keep our eyes open for what they will share next.

Who are they?

There's New York Metro area adjunct communications professor and lover of grammar - Don Heymann. He reminds us baby boomers of our fourth-grade teacher who never let a misplaced comma or too many of them get by her red pen. The era was the 1950s. That was before the self-esteem movement in education eliminated that kind of editing of any student behavior in the classroom.

Another is editor in chief of Odwyerpr.com Kevin McCauley. Most recently he turned the eulogy into an art form. The grabber? The person whose spirit he keeps recapturing for us is his late boss Jack O'Dwyer. There wasn't a boss I didn't have a long-festering resentment for.

However, the Pied Piper on all social networks is Elie Mystal. He heads out of the box legal news site Abovethelaw. With total cool, he mixes advocacy about all sorts of justice with the ethos of a daddy blogger.

Meanwhile, those BigBrandnames who rule over prestigious law firms and public relations agencies go unfollowed. Actually, they turn us off with links to what they consider seminal articles in the Harvard Business Review or Axios. Some of us are tempted to leave a comment: Hey, I surf the web too.

Consuming raw sincerity is analogous to doing a whole package of raw chocolate chip cookie dough in one sitting on a very bad day.

We flip the channel in our heads from despair to hope. That often pans out (no pun intended) better than mindfulness - or Doritos. 

Get amazing results through out of box communications strategies/content. Complimentary consultation janegenova374@gmail.com. I help, not sell.

Sport No Longer Cool - Lawsuits, Plunging Property Values

In the mid 1990s, we ambitious professional women were encouraged to learn how to play golf. Sure, it was a difficult sport and not cheap. But the networking opportunities were positioned and packaged as growing and growing. 

That was then.

Millennials never took to the sport. Maybe it's too slow a game, without enough of comprehensive workout. Maybe it's too complex to learn. There is also the cost. It's a generation born into stagnant wages.

Whatever the reason, golf is no longer a must-do for business or a recreational activity looked forward to.

As Candace Taylor reports in The Wall Street Journal, since golf became not cool, there have been lawsuits against members of golf-oriented social clubs who stopped paying their steep dues. Initiation fee can be as high as $70,000 and monthly dues $1,000 or more. 

Way back then when golf was popular and a prime business networking tool, it make good professional, social, and recreational sense to buy a house in a development surrounding a golf course. Usually the house was sold at a premium price and membership in the "club" was mandatory.

However, not only has the popularity of golf changed. So have people, their interests, and their budgets. Some have stopped paying dues. They are being sued. Others have requested a refund of their initiation fee. They are being put on a waiting list. That can number 60 applicants. 

In addition, if they want to or have to sell their houses they are facing a perfect storm. Mandatory membership in the club is demanded as a term and condition of purchase. That limits the pool of buyers significantly. In addition, there are fewer buyers to begin with since fewer want to be based around a golf course. If that golf course has been closed down, usually the property is neglected. That's an eyesore in terms of the appearance of the development.

The bottom line has been a plunge in market values. Many had paid a premium price to buy in. Now they are coming to the reality that they have to sell below what they paid - sometimes a lot below. 

Playing golf was not a fad. It was a long term trend. Therefore, those caught up in this legal and financial pickle can't be blamed for recklessness. What is happening more and more simply happened to them: Lots changed.

Get amazing results through out of box communications strategies/content. Complimentary consultation janegenova374@gmail.com. I help, not sell.

More Fallout from Andy Rubin Payout - "Martin v. Page"

Last week the ghost of the massive payout to Andy Rubin returned to haunt Alphabet, parent of Google.

As many recall, an internal investigation found credible an employee complaint of sexual harassment by Android phone executive Rubin. When he and Alphabet parted ways his exit package totaled $90 million. There were also other monetary treats involved. 

That triggered a walkout by thousands of Google employees. One result was that the corporation ditched its mandatory arbitration provision for employees reporting sexual abuse and allowed class action litigation.

More recently, two shareholder derivative lawsuits have been filed by investors. Essentially, they contend mismanagement of the Rubin matter. That resulted, they claim, in consequences ranging from waste of corporate assets to unjust enrichment.

The more interesting of the two is "Martin v. Page." Among the defendants are Alphabet's board.

The litigation contends improper payout, failure to disclose publicly why Rubin was going, and the company's making an investment in his new venture. The plaintiff James Martin is being represented by, among others, the Renne Public Law Group.

The litigation doesn't request a specific amount of money as restitution. Instead it asks for the return of all the profits and compensation by those in the loop of alleged sexual harassment. In addition, it requests changes in the corporate structure, including nominating three new candidates to the board. That goes to the heart of governance issues.

Likely, these investor lawsuits will embolden other constituencies to go the litigation route. If any of the lawsuits go to trial, Alphabet's inner workings will be made public in the courtroom. That's why these two, at least, will be settled.

Meanwhile, there is a souring of attitudes about tech, both in the U.S. and the EU. A sign of that is the questioning of the value of the smartphone.

After almost a decade of being tethered to the iPhone, I have switched to a low-feature flip phone. That has given me more control over my professional life. 

A growing fantasy among executives and managers is living in a cottage, somewhere off the grid.

The new anti-hero is Christopher Knight who spent 27 years in an isolated part ofthe Maine woods. The detailed chronicle of how Knight made it without a job, human companionship or sophisticated technology is recounted by Michael Finkle in the book "The Stranger in the Woods."

Sigmund Freud's notion of civilization and its discontents could be recast as disruptive technology and its discontents.

Get amazing results through out of box communications strategies/content. Complimentary consultation janegenova374@gmail.com. I help, not sell.

Employment Contracts - Non-Disclosure Clauses and Other Mandates Which Must Be Made Bullet-Proof

The negotiation part of Megyn Kelly's exit from NBC ended last Friday. The former Fox political commentator got her full $69 million, despite an early departure from her contract. 

But the negative consequences of its ill-fated hire will play out for probably much longer than the television network could have anticipated.

At the top of the list of the fall-out could be the influence, power, and very career of network head Andy Lack.

In the New York Post article about the payoff to Kelly, Lack is cited for poor judgment. Among his "sins" was hiring this abrasive personality for a soft newsmagazine in the evening (which had been pitted against hard-hitting "60 Minutes") and the folksy late-morning segment of "Today." Kelly couldn't engage an audience.

Another error in judgment was allowing Kelly's compensation to be public. Success in television broadcasting requires team work among talent. Once the $69 million number reached insiders, it became the night of the long knives. Kelly was frozen out. That was when she had no depth of understanding of softball television. 

Could Lack wind up the scapegoat? That probably depends on how much mischief Kelly could indirectly cause.

The negotiations took so long because of the battle over what Kelly could disclose about her ordeal at NBC. That means she has an agenda to push back. She is also determined for a comeback through her strength: political reporting. With the 2020 election on the horizon, she should be receiving job offers. Any success she produces in her Next will reflect poorly on how NBC managed this star. 

A third negative spinoff could be a hit to the collective confidence at NBC. It's not difficult to conclude that it hasn't yet healed from the allegations surrounding the forced-out Matt Lauer.

Meanwhile, ABC keeps hitting homeruns.

With David Muir as anchor, its evening news programming is number-one.

Muir has taken on the mantle of a comforting Walter Cronkite for these unusual times.

Aging "20/20" is keeping the juices flowing with blockbuster two-hour segments about real-life puzzles.

Among the winners had been the probing of why Colorado husband and father Chris Watts might have committed the triple murder of wife and children. A smart move, there was no definitive explanation. More recently, we were left to connect the dots if "Baretta" actor Robert Blake was guilty of murdering his wife Bonny Bakley. 

The bottom line on the Kelly mis-hire is that she is proving to be no one to mess with. She seems to combine a Machiavellian mindset with training as a lawyer. For a while, she had been an associate at BigLaw firm Jones Day. Any organization hiring her better create a bullet-proof contract for everything ranging from the mandate to be a team player to non-disclosure before, during, and after the hiring.

Get amazing results through out of box communications strategies/content. Complimentary consultation janegenova374@gmail.com. I help, not sell.

Aging Workforce - Japan v. U.S.

The aging.

Are they a challenge to developed economies or a catalyst for GDP growth?

In the U.S., those over-50 continue to be positioned and packaged as a problem demographic.

Not only are Millennials grousing about aging workers blocking the paths to promotions and then eventually sucking up entitlements such as Social Security and Medicare.

In addition, aging professionals themselves live in high angst about their ability to continue to land high-paying employment. That worry frequently evolves into a fear about getting any work. 

In Japan, the phenomenon of The New Aging is playing out very differently.

It's by hiring and re-hiring the elderly that the nation is, as The Wall Street Journal reports, generating its "second-longest economic expansion since World War II." 

Like many developed economies, Japan is experience a birth famine. Rearing children is expensive. Women are finding great satisfaction through careers. And the social pressure to be married-with-children is becoming totally 20th century.

There are fewer traditionally aged workers. That could have left myriad industries short-handed. Japan figured out that gap can be filled with the over-60 employee. They are both provided with incentives to not retire and to return to the workforce after having retired. 

How Japanese companies are recruiting and managing an aging workforce can provide models for human resources leaders in the U.S.

The New Aging story in America is a mixed bag.

On the one hand, some companies are creating strategies to retain skill sets and institutional knowledge which can exit through retirement.

On the other hand, they are perceived as forcing out the over-60 because of their high salaries and/or their alleged decreased productivity.

Also, they are seemingly playing dirty tricks in recruitment. Among the growing number of lawsuits had been the class action filed against Darden for alleging discriminating against hiring older wait staff. That had been settled with the restaurant chain for millions of dollars.

As The Wall Street Journal documented last month, almost eight million older Americans who want to work are jobless or are stuck in what could be called "the gray ghetto" - that is, low-paying/low-status jobs.

No surprise, those rejected begin to participate in creating their unmarketability. They become breeding pools for dysfunctional mindsets.

Here, free to download, is my book on those monsters of the mind - and how the aging can slay them. Too often, the aging shoot themselves in the foot.

The new game, at least in America, is to embrace the realities of aging and figure out how to transcend them in a search for not only work but better and better opportunities. Here is my book, also free to download, about the rules of that new game Download Outwitting ageism

Get amazing results through out of box communications strategies/content. Complimentary consultation janegenova374@gmail.com. I help, not sell.