Secrets of the City

According to Bench & Bar, the Minnesota State Bar Association’s publication, 37 percent of workers in the U.S. have been bullied, making on-the-job bullying four times as common as sexual harrassment. And employees have successfully taken their employers to court over this. The publication discusses the anti-bullying legislative movement, and Katherine Kersten asks if Minnesota is ready for such legislation.

TERRI KRIVOSHA, a partner at a Minneapolis law firm, logs three miles each workday on a treadmill without leaving her desk. She finds it easier to exercise while she types than to attend aerobics classes at the crack of dawn.

First it was all the manufacturing jobs and now Lehman’s done and Merrill Lynch has been bought by Bank of America. What does this mean for you (financially, career wise, etc)? Feel free to talk about other financial concerns of importance.

Somebody is looking for a staff writer.

About an hour ago, Gov. Pawlenty signed the Freedom to Breathe Act into law. Minnesota is now the 19th (we leapfrogged Illinois, whose Governor has not yet signed) state with a comprehensive statewide law on indoor smoking. I chatted a bit with St. Paul City Councilmember Dave Thune and recalled some of the other memorable moments in what I sometimes call the Tobacco Wars. There was Sue Jeffers’ profanity-riddled exit of the Bloomington City Hall when her group’s attempt to weaken the city’s ordinance (as they did in Hennepin County) was defeated unanimously. Or the day when the first Freedom to Breathe bill suffered a sudden and unexpected death after an unrecorded voice vote in a House committee, leaving us stunned and dumbfounded. There was also the time I was chased down a Hennepin County Government Center hallway in a gottcha interview attempt by a crew filming a yet-to-be-released documentary. The new law takes effect Oct. 1, 2007. What a long, strange trip it has been.

Wonkette is reporting that Michele Bachmann’s office is looking for an intern. Here’s the direct link to the post. Any takers?

From Today’s New York Times:

MINNEAPOLIS John Steigauf spent more than a decade fiddling with the innards of those huge United Parcel Service trucks until an icy day two years ago when the company put him on leave from his mechanic’s job. A supervisor escorted him off the premises.

His work was good. He hadn’t socked the boss or embezzled money. It had to do with what was inside him: diabetes.

(via Pioneer Press) According to a study by the state, undergrad college students are working an average of 27 hours per week to pay for school. Makes it difficult to be a good student, in my experience both as a student and teacher at the U.

Ann Bauer, former writer at Minnesota Monthly, has a piece in today’s Washington Post about her autistic son’s inability to get a job–any job–even here in liberal Minnesota. Any ideas for him?

The Strib had a piece yesterday about how to get your first job. Along with it was a rather predictable list of dos and don’ts, which were slightly less helpful than Mom’s admonition to “Wear shoes.” The NY Times yesterday had an interesting piece called “Take This Internship and Shove It” about the internship path to employment.