I am Quitting Too - For My Own Health

I recently started my own wellness program. Watching the signs on the news stating such things as “Once a Quitter Always a Quitter” targeted at Sarah Palin made me think about my own dilemma. I have decided to quit smoking. So I like the saying that if I quit and if it sticks (I am more determined this time to make it stick) I will always be a quitter. Quitting is a good thing for me. I have the Florida legislature to thank for this as the price of cigarettes went up a dollar a pack on July 1 to help pay for the cost of a child medical plan. So I am being selfish. Instead of giving my fair share to help sick kids, I am saving money and possibly my future lifestyle.

At the same time I feel I should be ashamed of myself. I went to college on a swimming scholarship and was very and athletic through my late 30’s. I lost this athleticism about 15 years ago after moving to Jacksonville. I did not have the same people around who I used to work out with by playing basketball, tennis, racquet ball, swimming, golf, etc. This is an excuse as I lost my “stay in shape” support group. I could have found another support group, but got bored with just going to the gym or swimming laps. I need a competitive purpose. Keep in mind that I smoked cigarettes the whole time, but it did not seem to have a bad effect on me. Luckily, I do not think I have any smoking related illnesses yet, but I was developing a smoker’s cough in the last few months.

When you are young, there are no bad long term effects from living life in the fast lane – drinking, smoking and giving up sleeping for a week at a time are all expected. In fact, most of the people on my college swim team were smokers. As a junior and senior, I was designated to drive one of the team vans. We had 16 people on the team and 12 of them would pile into my van while the other four went with the coach. We would lose the coach on the road, stop at a convenience store, pick up a case or two of beer and drive home while the 12 smoked cigarettes and drank beer. A good time was had by all – except me as I concentrated on driving.

Now I am 54, out of shape and in the midst of quitting smoking. I have quit about 20 times in the past for as little as a couple of days and as long as a year and a half. There have always been great reasons for starting up again. I got fat and gained 30 pounds, so I had to light up again to lose the weight. It worked and the extra pounds disappeared as soon as I started smoking again.

But, the main reason I started smoking again in the past is the foggy head. For the last two weeks, I have been in more of a stupor than usual. My job requires me to think and if I cannot think, then I don’t work well. The fog dulls my edge which makes me nervous. The websites on quitting smoking tell me this can last for up to 2 months. I know quitting is the right thing to do, but two months of living in a haze hardly seems worth it when my business and the livelihood of my family and employees depends on me to bring in new business during this critical time.

Smoking a cigarette was a way to go outside, take a break and think. Thinking is good. Few of us actually take time to think. Thinking is good especially with a clear mind. Going outside to smoke a cigarette was a time to take a break, get away from the phone and the computer, light up, think and come up with great ideas. Many people say they have their best ideas in the shower. I had my best ideas while smoking.

So, this is the start of my wellness program. I have to spend over $1,600 every month for my medical insurance because I am 54 and a smoker. That $30 to $35 per week that I would otherwise be spending on cigarettes is now going to help offset the cost of my medical insurance.

With the medical insurance costs going up so quickly and the country split pretty much down the middle with how to fix the health care costs, it is time to start our own wellness plan. Lose weight, start exercising or change that unhealthy lifestyle. You have to start somewhere. Just go for it.

Ricci vs. DeStepano Supreme Court Decision

The recent decision by the Supreme Court in Ricci vs. DeStepano is the correct one. When an organization fails to promote individuals because of the fear of litigation on the part of those who were not promoted, this is discrimination. See the decision here - http://www.supremecourtus.gov/opinions/08pdf/07-1428.pdf.

In this case, a test was given to a number of employees of the New Haven, Connecticut fire department for promotion to Lieutenant and Captain. After the test was given, it was determined that 17 white employees, 2 hispanic employees would be eligible for immediate promotion. There were no members of other minority groups eligible.

Under disparate impact rules, the promotions would have caused a prima facie case of discrimination and opened the city to a risk of a lawsuit by black firefighters. After much discussion and debate, the city decided to ignore the results of the test and promote no one. The white fire fighters sued and the Supreme Court decided in favor of the white fire fighters by stating they were discriminated against due to their race.

This decision must make all organizations take a hard look at their recruitment and promotional practices. The City of New Have relied solely on the test to make promotional decisions and then negated the results after they saw there could have been a disparate impact based on race. Disparate impact is not proof of discrimination, but it puts the organization in a defensive position to prove the test is based on business necessity.

If the City of New Haven took past attendance and performance into account, or held some sort of in-basket exercises or an assessment center as part of their promotional process, the outcome would probably have been much different.

Too many organizations rely too heavily on assessments and tests to make hiring and promotional decisions. If an employee does not pass the test, then there is no job.

A couple of years ago, I was working with a company looking for a marketing director. The candidates were required to pass a Wonderlic test. They had 35 people take the test - some with over 20 years of successful experience in the industry. Yet no one was able to pass the test. Applicants were interviewed by telephone, brought in for a face-to-face interview and then given the test. If not passing the test was a disqualifier, the company should not have wasted time interviewing candidates and simply had all applicants take the test before moving to the next step. To me, it was a simple case of Wonderlic making the test impossible to pass so they could sell more tests to the client. Wonderlic is an intelligence test and this test was developed with the assumption that a marketing executive should have a certain level of high intelligence to do the job. We all know this is not true as we all know many very stupid people who are successful in the marketing field. Past performance and past accomplishments were totally discounted simply because the applicants could not pass the test.

I met with a guy about a year ago who sold personality assessments. I asked him what percentage of certainty the assessments attained. When he said 100%, I knew he was full of baloney. Under current guidelines in the USA, if a personality assessment is more than 39% accurate, it passes the validity test.

Too many employers make employees take a Myers-Briggs, DISC, Personality Index, or Occupational Personality Questionnaires or any one of the thousands of assessments available on the market. There is no such thing as an assessment test that is more than 50% accurate. By relying on personality assessments, we may be dismissing half of the qualified candidates.

If an experience interviewer cannot be more that 50% accurate in his or her assessment of a candidate, then the interviewer ought to find another line of work.