Tag Archive for: Workplace
Oakland, SF Security Officers Demand Workplace Protection – NBC Bay Area
On Tuesday, more than 100 security officers from downtown Oakland and San Francisco rallied on Broadway in Oakland, demanding increased protection from their employers.
The guards work in office buildings and public facilities and they are asking their employers for recognition and to take responsibility through hazard pay and providing de-escalation training to deal with violent situations.
The security officers have experienced an increase in violent situations during the coronavirus pandemic linked to increased houselessness and the lack of needed treatment for mental illness.
“We need increased accountability from our employers in terms of what is the plan when you are dealing with a violent situation? How are our security officers supposed to handle situations with homelessness, with mental illness?” said Steve Boardman, communications director with Service Employees International Union-United Service Workers West, or SEIU-USWW.
There have been reports of violent robberies, being attacked by unhoused people when trying to clear them from an area, and violence and hostility as officers enforce COVID-19 protocols like the mask mandate.
“Officers have been attacked and assaulted and spit on for asking people to wear masks and enforcing pandemic rules,” Boardman said.
Boardman reported a security officer from San Francisco who was put in a coma for months after attempting to clear skateboarders from an area, as well as other confrontations leading to officers being hospitalized. One security officer was even killed on the job in Oakland.
The organization represents around 17,000 security officers statewide with a large concentration in downtown Oakland and downtown San Francisco. They are campaigning for the renewal of their contract and will be prioritizing increased protection.
In May, the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal/OSHA) proposed a draft regulation to prevent workplace violence in all industries. “Cal/OSHA coming in to expand these regulations is right on time,” Boardman said, and he hopes they move forward with the regulations.
“The employer shall establish,…
As Atlanta companies compete for talent, workplace flexibility is seen as key
Home Depot is set to hold a virtual corporate career day on Tuesday. It’s the first time the retail giant has put on such an event.
The Atlanta-based company isn’t alone in trying to stand out in a competitive labor market. And flexibility is seen as one of most important things workers are looking for.
Among the most prized job candidates, Home Depot is hoping to connect with are those with backgrounds in computer science, cyber security and supply chain management.
“They have more options now,” said Eric Schelling, vice president of global talent acquisition for Home Depot. “The pandemic has provided more options for them with remote, work for different states or different companies around the country.”
It’s a familiar story. The tight labor market has led to companies being more flexible about where employees live and where they do their work.
“Certain roles, depending on the work that you’re working on, will be roles where you can work from home long term. Others will be where it’s a little bit more of a hybrid approach,” Schelling said.
That hybrid approach is catching on, says Johnny C. Taylor, CEO of the Society for Human Resource Management. SHRM, as it’s known, includes more than 2,000 Georgia companies and non-profit groups as members.
“What employees want is flexibility. And that may mean I work from home two days a week in the office three days a week,” said Taylor. “But I don’t want to just totally work from home, especially millennials and Generation Z, because they make relationships at work, they build friendships, this is how they build community.”
For others, flexibility means the ability to work and care for children or elderly relatives. Taylor says developing this kind of workplace in an equitable way, has been a challenge.
“That is really proving to be quite vexing for employers to not create two cultures: the culture of people who work at home and the people who are in the office,” said Taylor.
But companies that strike the right balance, he says, have a better chance at landing the employees they’ve been looking…
4 network security tips for the hybrid workplace
Barry Bader
If 2020 was the year of the pandemic, then 2021 could arguably be considered the year of the cyberattack. Gasoline suppliers, insurance companies, municipal water treatment plants, school districts, and even the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority, have all been victims of data breaches or ransomware attacks this year.
While it’s mostly big businesses and high-profile hacks that make headlines, small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) and organizations are also targets for bad actors — costing them downtime, data, business and revenue.
The best network defense is a strong, proactive security offense. Here are four tips for organizations looking to shore up their cybersecurity protocols and products:
1. Implement a mix of threat monitoring, firewalls and anti-virus solutions: Threat monitoring, firewalls and anti-virus solutions are all valuable cybersecurity measures, but they should be used in tandem with each other and alongside smart online hygiene practices, which are basic steps that network users should take to maintain the overall health and safety of the network and its data.
It’s important to select tools that frequently update to help protect against the newest threats, and cover every connected device on your network. Threat monitoring tools actively intervene to block malicious threats like malware, DDoS (distributed denial of service), ransomware, phishing and botnet infections. They also block employees and guests from accessing compromised websites and infected links.
Anti-virus tools detect and block malicious files, but many only block malware they recognize based on signatures that have been written into the AV software. Meanwhile, firewalls allow only authorized traffic or content using configured controls, like access denial to IP addresses known to deliver malware. Even if a malicious payload is delivered, firewalls can prevent it from communicating with control-and-command servers.
2. Manage devices and passwords for an extra layer of security:
Think about all of the connected devices on your business network. From company devices to employees’ personal phones and guest devices, each of them represents a potentially vulnerable…