Workplace Buzz: Today's Headlines

Making Headway…Slowly
One step forward, two steps back.You'd think that 87 years after women earned the right to vote and more than 40 years after the Civil Rights Act prohibited gender bias in the workplace, equality would rule. However, the battle for equal pay for equal work continues.There is a bright spot, though. The pay gap between men and women is decreasing. Women were earning 81 percent as much as their male counterparts in 2005 compared to when women earned about 63 percent as much as men did in 1979, according to a report conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau for the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Daily Times

Boomers and Gen Yers in the Workplace
They wear flip-flops to work, reveal personal information online, and see no reason why their work schedules can't be flexible. Ladies and gents, please welcome Generation Y now tap dancing around their boomer managers in the workplace. The mixing of these two groups - with Gen Xers wedged in the middle - is one of the hottest human resource topics, as employers struggle to attract and keep the valuable but unharnessed young talents of Generation Y. All eyes are on this emerging group who are destined to replace an aging workforce and match work culture to their cyber-hip lifestyle. But like all newcomers, Gen Yers have a thing or two to learn about fitting in before they turn things upside down. Boston Globe

Where Do You Fit in this Survey?
More than half of the working American population has suffered or witnessed workplace bullying, including verbal abuse, job sabotage, abuse of authority or destruction of workplace relationships, according to a new Workplace Bullying Institute (WBI)/Zogby Interactive survey. The WBI survey found that an estimated 54 million employees 37 percent of U.S. workers have been bullied at some point in their work lives, while millions more have witnessed acts of workplace bullying. Despite this epidemic-level prevalence, 45 percent of respondents said they never have seen or experienced bullying at work. Occupational Hazards