Grandmas Passing essays

Grandmas Passing essays Grandma was a frail older woman, in her early 70s, and of small stature. Her skin was of a light brown complexion, wrinkled and ashy. When I sat on her knee, her brittle hands would always gently wrap around my waist. I would kiss her on her cheek, which was always cold for some reason. Grandma always wore dark blue dresses that came down to her ankles and an old pair of black dress shoes everywhere. You know, the ones with no heels that appear as if they are slippers. She was old fashioned, and didnt hesitate to instruct my dad to switch me if I stepped out of line. Grandma was soft-spoken, but firm; I never back-talked her for fear of the painful consequences my dad would inflict on my legs. I remember one time I had acted up; oh I paid for that one. It had just rained, saturating the earth in the back yard beyond capacity. Mud puddles were everywhere; they were enormous filled with dirty grimy water. These mud puddles were everything a kid could dream of; they were irresistible. My cousins and I jumped, stomped, splashed, and rolled in the mud puddles; we had a great time. My grandma had told us kids not to track mud through the house, but I was having too much fun with my cousins to take her seriously. We were chasing each other, and I ran into the house with the mud still caked all over my body. My grandma caught a glimpse of me dashing through the living room when she bellowed for my father. Grandma told him that she had warned me to not track mud through the house, but I had done it anyway. My father came, took one look at the carpet, and instructed me to retrieve the switch. I did as ordered, and subsequently was beaten for my insolence. I had red whelps all over my legs; I never tracked mud through the house again. Mother summoned for Janelle and I to come to her room; from the sound of her voice, we felt she was distressed about something. As we entered her bedroom, we discovered she ...

Pronouncing Words That End in -lm

Pronouncing Words That End in -lm Pronouncing Words That End in -lm Pronouncing Words That End in -lm By Maeve Maddox Not many one-syllable English words end in the letters -lm. Sometimes the l in them is pronounced; sometimes it isnt. Heres a list of the most common -lm words, together with the pronunciation in the phonetic notation given at Answers.com. Many Americans pronounce all of these words with an l. alms [mz] balm [bm] calm [km] elm [Ä•lm] embalm[Ä•m-bm] film [fÄ ­lm] helm [hÄ•lm] palm [pm] psalm [sm] qualm [kwm] realm [rÄ•lm] whelm [hwÄ•lm] These pronunciations all agree with those given in the OED. Additionally, the OED acknowledges U.S. pronunciations with the sound of l for palm, psalm, and qualm. Merriam-Webster uses the symbol ] to indicate a sound that facilitates the placement of variant pronunciation. For example, ï ¿ ¼]mz. This symbol, which seems to indicate an almost l, is used for the first pronunciation given for alms, balm, calm, embalm, palm, psalm, and qualm. The pronunciation with a full l sound is given as an alternate: also ]lm. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Spelling category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:Bare or Bear With Me?How Long Should a Paragraph Be?When to use "an"

Using the Plan & Process for Competitive Positioning Essay

Using the Plan & Process for Competitive Positioning - Essay Example The first pitfall involves an ineffective participative structure. Many HCOs make an inclusion of all the people in the organization during the implementation of a strategic plan. However, the top management does not really incorporate the views of other staff members. Therefore, they only have the other staff members physically, but there is a limitation in their participation. In other words, the HCOs do not consider an open communication during the implementation process. In addition, the other staff members feel they are left out in the decision making process and subsequently become discouraged in strategic planning implementation. In addition, the second pitfall is the achievement of a casual consensus rather than a real consensus. A consensus is an agreement reached after the consideration of various conflicting and attaining a compromise. Most HCOs achieve a casual consensus, meaning that after a successful agreement in the setting of goals and objectives, the top management usually implements their own objectives. This makes other employees feel neglected because after all their opinion does not count. The habit of a casual consensus affects most HCOs and has become a culture. The culture does no justice to the implementation of strategic plans; rather they slow the transition process. The first pitfall could be addressed using various techniques. The management of the HCOs could organize various groups of the employees and assign them different roles. This makes every group accountable for their responsibilities and every member must participate in the implementation of strategic planning (Moseley, 2009). The management could also appoint supervisors to monitor and give advice to the groups in the process of implementing the strategic plans. However, the management needs to define clearly the role of such individuals, failure to which

Product Evaluation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Product Evaluation - Essay Example good thing about this product is its added features and benefits such as affordability above all, while ensuring quality, availability of spare parts, customer support and more added values. Starting with affordability, other brands such as those from Apple Incorporated, Sony, Acer and others are becoming expensive because of the higher rating they obtained from customers and third parties. In general this is the bottom line of highly influential marketing activity, which is an integral part of creating significant needs for certain product or service offerings – the essence of advertising or promotion (Boone and Kurtz 482). Once these needs are created, it would now become easy to take control of the price on the part of the producers or manufacturers because of their higher or strong market power (Porter 4). This is evident in the case of Apple brands and others which substantially take hold at the top of the competition even though their prices are relatively higher. The case of Dell is different because it tries to create its market share by ensuring affordability while maintaining high value for customer support and availability of spare parts, which would result further to opportunity for long-term usage (Dell Official Site). All of these based on experience could be justifiable and are substantially met by Dell as it continues to cater price-conscious customers who also want to get something more at remarkably cheaper price. Dell is a good brand of choice among customers who are substantially looking forward to cheaper price but would also want to get something more. This is the area where Dell is making out the most of its market opportunity. It continuously seek to cater market segments where the basic criteria they considered is affordability at high level of functionality and including value-added features such as quality, availability of spare parts, and reliable customer support. In other words, Dell has what it takes to have something more

Religious Discrimination Essay Example for Free

Religious Discrimination Essay Religious discrimination under Title VII as defined by the U. S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) involves treating a person unfavorably because of his or her religious beliefs. The law protects not only people who belong to traditional, organized religions but also others who have sincerely held religious, ethical or moral beliefs. The law forbids discrimination on the basis of religion in any and all aspects of employment. This includes hiring, firing, pay, job assignments, promotions, layoff, training, and benefits. Title VII also prohibits workplace segregation based on religion, such as assigning an employee to a non-customer contact position because of actual or presumed customer preference. Title VII also addresses reasonable accommodation in relation to religion. The law requires that the employer must reasonably accommodate an employee’s religious beliefs or practices, unless doing so would cause more than a minimal burden on the employers business. For example, if an employee needs to be off work on Sunday mornings to regularly attend church services it would be the responsibility of the employer to reasonably attempt to accommodate this need. An accommodation for this could include paying another employee to cover the Sunday morning shift, even if it requires paying overtime. Or the employer could hire an additional employee to be able to cover the shift. Since Title 7 of the United States Civil Rights Act was passed in 1964 there have been several judicial decisions that have molded the way this law in interpreted and applied. The first such court case that I came across was the case of Welsh V. United States which brought into question what types of beliefs can be used to obtain conscientious objector status when being selected to go to war. In this case the prosecutor was convicted of refusing to accept induction into the armed forces; he did claim conscientious objector status but did not base this decision off religion. He did not claim to believe in a deity that would morally keep him from fighting in a war, he instead asserted his own personal moral opposition to any conflict in which people are being killed. He alleged that the sincerity of his belief should qualify him for exemption from military duty under the Universal Military Training and Service Act. The Act allowed only those people whose opposition to the war was based on religious beliefs to be declared conscientious objectors. However in a 5-3 decision the court allowed Welsh to be declared a conscientious objector even though his opposition was not based on religious convictions. The implication this case has on Human Resources Management is that HR personnel must be aware of the broad scope of beliefs that will be protected under Title 7. Whereas before this case only majorly defined religions such as Judaism and Catholicism would be protected you now see religions such as scientology seeking protection under the law. Another relevant case would be Seshadri v. Kasraian which established that an employee bringing a religious discrimination claim does not need to belong to an established church. Another case that has shaped this law and impacted human resource management was Campos v. City of Blue Springs. In April 1996 Campos was hired as a crisis counselor for the Blue Springs Police Department’s Youth Outreach Program (YOU). At the time she did not have the advanced degree as required by the written job description, but her supervisor told her that she would have until February 1997 to obtain her degree and guarantee her position. She was also guaranteed via verbal contract that she would be paid an extra $10,000 per year for support group work, she would be a team leader within three months, and she would be an assistant director within six months of starting her full-time employment. She began working in October 1996, enjoying her job until she disclosed to her supervisor that she observes tenets of Native American Spirituality, not Christianity. Campos claimed that immediately her supervisor’s behavior towards her changed; she was unfriendly and critical, excluded her from employee meetings, and told her that she may not have been a good fit for the job. After failing to show up to work due to attending a mandatory meeting to obtain her dissertation, which was required by her employer, Campos received so much scrutiny from her supervisor that she resigned. After her resignation, Campos filed suit against the City, alleging that she suffered from employment discrimination based upon her religion, sex, and national origin. The charges of sex and national origin discrimination were eliminated, and the case was submitted to the jury on the theory that Campos was constructively discharged because of her religion. On April 13, 2001, the jury awarded Campos $79,200 for back pay and compensatory damages. The district court denied the Citys Motion for Judgment as a Matter of Law, or in the Alternative, for a New Trial, and awarded Camposs attorneys 90,556. 20 in fees and $11,825. 41 in expenses. This case has implications on Human Resources Management today because it establishes that employment decisions cannot be made based on whether or not an employee or potential employee agrees or disagrees with the employers religious views. One relevant business that comes to mind is Chik Fil A and their openly Christian beliefs. Even though they include Christian values in the core content of their mission statement and business plan they know that they cannot make any employment decisions based on religious affiliation. In Eatman V.  United Parcel Service in 2002 the company’s policy of requiring its drivers that had unconventional hairstyles to wear hats was called into question. The plaintiff was required by the company to wear a hat while on the clock because his hairstyle of choice was dreadlocks, a hairstyle where sections of hair are hand-rolled together in tight, interwoven spirals. After putting a lot of thought into the decision, Eatman, who is black, began wearing locks in February 1995 as an outward expression of an internal commitment to his Protestant faith as well as his Nubian belief system. At this same time he also became enlightened about locked hair and its connection to African identity and heritage. The position that his supervisor at UPS took on his hair was that the company uses common sense to determine which hairstyles are not businesslike; he finds ponytails, Mohawks, green hair, carved shapes, and locked hair—short or long—unacceptable. And there were currently 19 other drivers at this particular UPS that were required to wear hats to cover their unconventional hairstyles, including others that had dreadlocks. Even though Eatman claimed that the policy was discriminatory the jury did not rule in his favor. It was ruled that Eatman’s hairstyle was dictated by a personal choice. Nowhere in his religious texts did it dictate in any way that followers of the faith must wear their hair uncovered in dreadlocks. The implications of this case are actually pro employer and pro Human Resource Manager. It shows that not every claim that an employee makes based off of religious need has to be immediately catered to. There are cases where the request can be frivolous and off topic of religion, in which case the employer does not need to go out of their way to make accommodations. Another very interesting court case that I came across was EEOC v. Union Independiete De La Autoridad De Acueductos y Alcantarillados De Puerto Rico. I found this case to be very interesting because it stipulates that employees cannot pick and choose which parts of their religion they wish to follow and which ones they do not. In this case the issue was whether or not a Seventh day Adventist’s objection to union membership was the product of a sincerely held belief. Although the religious foundation of the Seventh day Adventist faith’s opposition to union membership has long been recognized, there was evidence that this employee often acted in a manner inconsistent with his professed religious beliefs. He was divorced, took an oath before a notary upon becoming a public employee, worked five days a week (instead of the six days required by his faith), and there was some evidence that the alleged conflict between his beliefs and union membership was a moving target. This case seemed important because is forces the employee to prove that religion is vital part of their life. It keeps them from claiming that they are Christian for the sole purpose of being off on Christmas, or from claiming that they are Catholic only to be off on Easter. It not only keeps people from faking being religious but it also helps to ensure the sanctity of those who actually are as religious as they claim to be. And the final court case that I found addresses sincerely held beliefs that have not always been there but can conceivably come about. In the case of E. E. O. C. v. Ilona of Hungary, Inc. an employee sincerely believed that she should refrain from working on the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur even though she had not frequently celebrated Jewish holidays in the past. Her rise in faith was brought on by recent family events such as the passing of her mother-in-law and father, the birth of her son, and her husband’s rising faith. The court decided that these were significant enough to have caused a change in lifestyle and that she did believably have a real change of faith. After reviewing all of the cases mentioned above, along with numerous others, I have found that the topic of religion isn’t nearly as â€Å"black and white† as most would assume. There are many grey areas: What constitutes religion, how do you know if someone legitimately believes in their religion, and what aspects of someone’s lifestyle are pertinent to their claimed religion are just a few examples of where courts have to make a decision that will affect the way this topic is viewed for years to come. With the world become more and more diversified every day the topic of religion and all others under title 7 will continue to be tested and pushed to their limits. It is the job of the Human Resources Management team to be on high alert of potential discrimination cases and have all employees properly trained on these matters to ensure it does not happen at their company.

Aging Nurse workforce Essay -- Employment, Nursing Worforce, Retiremen

A variety of conceptual frameworks were used to research the aging nursing workforce. The theoretical model of Organizational and Personal Factors and Outcomes, developed by Schaefer and Moos (1991), was one context used during this review of literature. This framework suggests that the personal system as well as work stressors affect the association between the organizational system and work morale and performance (Atencio, Cohen, & Gorenberg, 2003). This model suggests that the individual system as well as work stressors influence the relationship involving the organizational scheme and work morale and performance. Occupation stressors combined with organizational and individual system factors induce coping responses and the result of retaining the older nurse (Schaefer & Moos, 1991). Another theoretical model used was the Conceptual Model of Intent to Stay by Boyle et al. (1999). This model describes four variables that shape a nurse’s plan to stay in employment. These variables consist of leadership characteristics, nurse characteristics, system characteristics, and work characteristics. The primary concentration for this model was to research the influence that leadership uniqueness has on a nurse’s intention to stay employed versus retiring. The outcomes showed that control over nursing practice, situational stress, and the manager characteristics had implicit effects on older nurse intention to remain employed (Cranley & Tourangeau, 2005). Karasek and Theorell’s Demand-Control Model (1990) was an additional conceptual framework noted in the review of literature on the ageing nursing workforce. This representation implies that intense job strain and decision-making opportunity contributes to work tension and lead... ...parture from the nursing profession or retirement from the line of work. Several key elements have been established throughout the research that lead to theses nurses feeling the need to retire and include: burnout, physical demands, mental health, linkage to the organization, hours worked, organizational culture, work intensity, and fiscal requirements. Organizations are beginning to establish evidence-based strategies in an effort to retain older registered nurses. Human resources are beginning to formulate policies and procedures to meet the needs of these aging nurses, which focus on their safety, stress levels, preferred work setting, schedule, and job satisfaction. The ability to delay retirement of these nurses or creating career paths that help facilitate a transition to a different work setting could help ease the shortage of nurses in the next decade.

A Blind Man Leads the Way

A Blind Man Leads the Way â€Å"Cathedral† by Raymond Carver, describes a couple who is awaiting the arrival of the wife’s blind friend, Robert. The husband is not too fond of a blind man staying in their house and is judgmental about meeting him. It’s not until the family sits down to watch t. v. that the husband gains respect for Robert. A show about cathedrals comes on, and Robert asks him to describe them to him. When Robert and the husband draw the cathedral together with their eyes closed, the husband begins to see what he could not describe with his eyes open. Carver uses the cathedral in the story as a symbol of sight, insisting that the narrator was blinded by prejudice before he met Robert and also as a symbol of teaching, Robert acting as a preacher in a church. The husband is very judgmental and negative toward blind people. He states, â€Å"My idea of blindness came from the movies. In the movies, the blind moved slowly and never laughed. Sometimes they were led by seeing eye dogs† (526). The husband views all blind people as the same and gives them the same respect, which is none. He brings them down to make himself feel better. Carver’s figures close themselves off from their worlds, walling out the threatening forces in their lives even as they wall themselves in and retreat destructively into the claustrophobic inner enclosures of self† (Davis). When the narrator meets Robert and they all sit down for dinner, his opinion about Robert begins to change. He says, â€Å"The blind man had right away located his fo ods, he knew just where everything was on his plate† (531). The husband was in shock that Robert did not need someone to cut up his food and help him eat his meals. He begins to see and appreciate Robert as a person and not just as a blind man. His sight is in full affect when he begins describing the cathedral from the t. v. show. The narrator could see the cathedral, but he could not quite describe what he saw. He and the blind man began to draw the cathedral, and for once the narrator felt like he was the blind and that the blind man was the one who could see. The husband states, â€Å"It’s really something† (537). This is when he can fully see the picture not only of the cathedral, but also the understanding that even the blind can see and understand things with their eyes closed. The narrator comes to understand Robert and learns a lot from him. Robert helps him to open his eyes and become less judgmental of the blind. The husband learns from Robert that you can’t judge a book by its cover, and that sometimes it’s the important things in life that you can’t see that really matter. Cathedrals are holy structures that people go to and receive an understanding of a higher power. In this story Robert is represented by the cathedral being the teacher, and the seeker is the husband. Robert is the one who gives the understanding of what it is like to be blind. Robert teaches the husband along the way by his actions and shows him that being blind is not a disability, but sometimes even a gift. Robert insists they draw a cathedral together and as the husband draws, Robert guides him through the process. Robert states, â€Å"That’s right. That’s good,† he said. â€Å"Sure. You got it bub, I can tell. You didn’t think you could but you can, can’t you† (536)? Robert is guiding the narrator through the process, just as a preacher would guide his church through a service. Robert is guiding the husband step by step, making sure he is getting an understanding of the Cathedral. In the beginning, the narrator was less passionate about Cathedrals, but through Robert’s eyes, he grew found of them. The narrator states, â€Å"The truth is, cathedrals don’t mean anything special to me. Nothing. Cathedrals. They’re something to look at on late-night TV† (535). The narrator viewed cathedrals differently by the end, and they made him feel something he had never felt before. The narrator states, â€Å"My eyes were still closed. I was in my house. I knew that. But I didn’t feel like I was inside anything† (536). At this point the narrator feels outside of everything at the moment and spiritually feels like he is part of something greater. â€Å"As a symbol represents a kind of common humanity and benevolence, and of human patience and fortitude, in the process of â€Å"a-spiring. † Curiously enough it is within the walls of the cathedral that the narrator ultimately ends up† (Nesset). Robert showed the narrator that there is a higher power out there. He did not want to pester the husband by talking to him about religion so he showed him through drawing the cathedral. The narrator felt like he was outside of his own body and felt like he was part of something higher. Robert taught the husband along the way showing him that seeing isn’t believing, but believing is seeing. By this point, the narrator witnessed himself opening up and becoming less judgmental of the situation. â€Å"Only in Cathedral does the reader witness the rare moments of their coming out, and process of opening up in closed-down lives that comes across in both the subjects and events of the stories†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Nesset). Robert was a Christian man, and believes that he showed the narrator that there is a higher power out there, and helped the husband understand that through the cathedral. â€Å"The narrator of â€Å"Cathedral† communicated verbally and non-verbally with Robert, resulting a renewed sense of empathy and a remarkable, almost religious experience† (Champion). The narrator did experience a religious experience through the cathedral, and it made him feel like he was not himself. Through the cathedral, the husband is a changed man. Robert shows and guides him along the way, teaching him that seeing is not everything and that even someone blind can help you to see and understand things you never thought you could describe. In the beginning the husband was very judgmental of Robert and did not want him in his home, and by the end he felt like his life had been missing something and that was the guidance of the cathedral. The sight he encountered as he sat there with Robert and drew the cathedral was like something he had never seen before, and could only be seen with his eyes closed.