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Frequently Asked Questions
- Do you make money from this website?
- Why are some Internet resource links not valid?
- Why don't some Internet resource links display properly?
- Why don't the e-mail links work?
- Can files be safely downloaded from this website?
- Sexual harassment, discrimination or hostile workplace situations
- More information about playing the Personality Game
- How to submit an article for the monthly newsletter
- How to suggest a topic for the monthly newsletter
- Comments about the website or newsletter topics
- Help with school, college or research projects
- Quote or reference something on our website
- Add a link to our website to another website
- Career guidance, changing careers
- Information about our Speaker's Bureau
- Brochures or company information
- Job applications and open positions
- Travel
- Religion and Spirituality
- Our Internet Privacy Policy
- Our Junk Mail/SPAM policy - Legal Notice
- About our mailing lists
- Why did you change the format of the newsletter?
- How do you choose the books you list on your website?
- Do you do link exchanges?
- Do you want to sell this domain name?
Do you make money from this website?
We offer our website as a free service as part of our life task to contribute to the betterment of the world and to improve the quality of business management. It is a labor of love and one small way of "giving back" in appreciation to people who have given us so much in the past.
We do not charge for any of our articles or for subscriptions to our mailing list.
Disclosure: We are part of the Amazon Associates program. If you purchase a book or other item from Amazon.com by going their website from a link on our website, we receive a small referral fee. Most of the monthly articles have links to books related to the topic and those will generate a small referral fee if people purchase them. The amount of income from those referrals for the past 15 years has been less than $50 per year.
We also receive a small referral fee from shrinkinabox.com if someone purchases their books.
We do sell our books and consulting services. We have obtained a few clients directly from our website and find it a useful public relations tool for existing and potential clients.
We do not sell ads on our site and we do not do "link exchanges" for the sole purpose of promoting sites.
We do carefully select and provide links to other sites if they are relevant to an article or a page on our site and, in our opinion, provide useful additional information to our readers.
Why
are some Internet resource links invalid?
Each monthly newsletter topic contains resource links to other sites on the Internet. At the time the article is originally posted, all links are valid. The older the article, the more likely the links will become out-of-date. Our site has over 500 pages and has been operational since the mid-1990's, so it would be a fulltime job to constantly maintain the links. People move websites, shut them down or reorganize continually without our knowledge. That is the nature of the Internet.
If do you find that a large number of links are invalid for a particular page, please let us know the URL of the page with the errors. We will update them or remove those that are no longer valid.
Why
don't some Internet resource links display properly?
Most websites are developed to meet the standards of the major current browsers: Internet Explorer and Firefox are currently the most widely used. However, some websites will only display correctly using one particular browser or a particular version.
If you have an older version of a browser, you might want to upgrade to the most recommended versions or try another browser. Sometimes, you may encounter high Internet traffic or a site that is offline for maintenance, which makes a site unavailable. We are noticing a higher number of sites using Java, JavaScript and other complex or non-standard features that may create compatibility problems with some browsers.
We try to test all the links we list on our newsletter articles with current versions of Firefox (version 3) and Internet Explorer ( version 8). Occasionally, we miss a few. We list multiple references for each topic to help minimize linking problems and the tendency for website articles to move or become obsolete. We apologize in advance if you have trouble reaching a site listed. If you report it to us, we will remove a bad link, try to locate a replacement site or correct the link.
Why don't the e-mail links work anymore?
We disabled all e-mail links on our website due to the proliferation of new viruses that use collected e-mail addresses to disguise the true source of the e-mail. We have removed automated e-mail links from our own e-mail addresses as well as those of anyone referenced on our website. For more information on this problem, see Trend Micro's website about the KLEZ virus and variants.
Can files be safely downloaded from this website?
All files posted on our website are virus-free at the time they are uploaded and rechecked regularly to make sure they are still safe. We run virus protection software on our system that is checked constantly and updated as soon as new virus patterns are released. We use firewalls in addition to virus software to protect against viruses coming into our system. We also scan our entire system weekly for even more assurance against the possibility of a virus.
We strongly recommend that you use good up-to-date virus software on your system. Our choice is TrendMicro Internet Security.
Sexual
Harassment, Discrimination or Hostile Workplace Situations
We are often asked how to deal with difficult workplace situations, such as sexual harassment, discrimination or hostile workplace.
Each situation is unique. We are not attorneys and cannot give legal advice.
Our general suggestions are:
- Read the articles on our website that provide more information on the subject. Each article has links to other resources.
- Use the Search page if necessary and look for "hostile" "harassment" "discrimination" and "difficult."
- Please note that the term "hostile workplace" has a specific legal meaning applying to certain specific types of sexual harassment situations. It does not apply to situations where someone is generally "hostile" in a general sense.
- Unfortunately, there are no laws preventing people from being nasty to each other unless it is done within specific legally defined situations to a protected class. For example, discrimination based on race or harassment based on sex/gender. See legal definitions for your state (or country) for what those protected classes are.
- Find out your company's policy on these subjects. In large companies or organizations, the Human Resources Department will have the company policy.
- If the situation warrants, report the inappropriate behavior to
the person or office as defined in your company policy.
In California, if you talk to your manager or another manager, they are required to investigate the situation immediately � whether you file a formal complaint or not. If they fail to take action, they become liable personally and may make the company liable for continued problems. - In the U.S., check with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity (EEOC) Commission for federal laws that apply to your situation.
- In the U.S., check with your state's fair employment agency for specific state laws that apply to your situation.
- Visit the free legal websites (e.g., www.freeadvice.com) for more information about the subject.
- Check with your local library for books and articles related to harassment, discrimination or hostile workplace situations.
- The more you understand about your rights and your responsibilities, the better you will be able to deal with the situation.
- If you are still not sure what to do, many employment law attorneys will meet with you for an hour to explain your rights and responsibilities for a reasonable fee.
- Or, you may find a low-cost public workshop or training program that deals with local laws.
Essentially, when faced with a difficult situation, you have three choices:
- Stay in the situation and fight back.
Fight back by telling the person who is causing the situation to STOP, report the activity to the person's supervisor/manager and file a formal complaint. In our research, telling the person to STOP offensive behavior does in fact stop the behavior more than 60% of the time.
Therefore, when faced with sexual harassment, we strongly advice people to first, tell the person in no uncertain terms that you will no longer accept their inappropriate behavior and that you will make a formal complaint if it does not cease immediately.
After filing a formal complaint that results in no action taken to correct the situation or that results in retaliation, you should talk to a competent employee law attorney. Filing a lawsuit requires a significant long-term emotional commitment to stay with the process until complete. It also requires a financial commitment to pay for attorneys. - Stay in the situation and take it.
In other words, do not take any defensive action hoping that things will get better if you ignore them. In most situations, they get worse by ignoring them. However, occasionally, when someone is out of line (e.g., telling jokes), it is a one-time occurrence. If you are not sure what to do, ask someone who knows more about the subject to help you determine the proper course of action. - Leave the company or the situation.
Sometimes, this is the only realistic way to deal with severe problems. Some companies foster hostility and there is no way to change the corporate culture. Therefore, for many people, their best chance is to find another job, another boss or another company that does not support hostile situations.
More information about the Personality Game
The information provided on this website may not give enough information to people who want to play the game without prior experience or training in this system.
At present, the best resource for study on your own is the book, Personality Puzzle, by Jose Stevens and JP Van Hulle, which contains an older version of the personality quiz. The latest version of the quiz is no longer offered via the internet. The book may be ordered through Joy Perasso, Guided Crystal Books [phone: (925) 254-9162 - San Francisco area] or from the Michael Educational Foundation.
We are now offering workshops on the Personality Game (see Power Path Seminars page).
Submit article for the monthly newsletter
We encourage guest authors for our monthly newsletter. Many guest authors have books that relate to workplace subjects. Others are experts in their field and would like to share their ideas. We also accept well-written articles by people who can address topics of interest for our readers.
We publish guest articles as is � we do not edit them or critique them. We do format the article to fit our website design. If you would like to submit an idea for an article, please contact us.
For more information, see our Tips for Articles section.
Suggest topics for the monthly newsletter
We encourage feedback about the website and encourage people to suggest other topics.
Please fill out our Newsletter survey form, our Feedback form or send us e-mail with your suggestions.
Submit comments or
thoughts about our website
We encourage comments, ideas and suggestions via our feedback form.
Want help with school, college or research projects
Our website is primarily directed to people who are already in management and want to broaden or deepen their skills. Many, many students write for additional information for their research projects. Please understand that if we spend all our time responding to requests from students, we could not do the work we do.
What is on the website is made available at no charge, is very comprehensive and updated regularly. Most monthly topics include a section with references to other websites. We also offer a free search facility, where you may search the entire website for key words.
If we must consult with you individually, we expect you to pay for our time just as our professional clients do. Unless you are prepared to pay for professional services, please do not request additional information.
We wish you the best in pursuing your education and are grateful that we may be some small help in that effort.
Want to quote or reference something on our website
We receive many, many requests for assistance with student projects. Specific information on the following topics is available by clicking the links below.
How to link to our website
We automatically approve links from other sites of the following types:
- Business management resource lists
- Colleges and universities for business, management or communication classes
- Spirituality sites
- Local or community resource lists
- News articles about topics carried in our newsletter or on our website
- Personality styles sites.
If you are not sure whether the proposed link falls into one of the above categories, please contact us for more information or permission to link to our site.
Career guidance and changing careers
We rarely counsel people about changing careers via the Internet. Any work we do in that area is done face-to-face on a fee basis. There are many excellent books, articles, website and organizations that offer information and services in that field.
We highly recommend the book, What Color is Your Parachute? available in bookstores.
In California, we also can recommend the Experience Unlimited centers throughout the state for people changing jobs or careers. Contact your local Employment Development Department for more information.
We wish you the best of luck in pursuing your dreams.
Speaker's Bureau
Our Speaker's Bureau is composed only of people we have worked with locally.
We not accept resumes or referrals to people we have not worked with.
Brochures or company information
We get many requests for brochures or other company information. We do not do that unless we are working with a specific client.
We do provide a great deal of information that is easily accessible on our website. The website contains the most current information. Click on the Services link for more detail.
We are doing limited public seminars because our client work keeps us very busy.
Job applications
and open positions
We do not have any open positions. Please, do not send us unsolicited resumes.
Travel
Our travel pages contain the most recent information with referrals to those companies that host the events.
We do not handle any other travel requests.
Religion and Spirituality
Our organization does not have a commitment to any particular religion. We use principles that are common to different religions and non-religious sacred beliefs. We have attended and participated in services and sacred practices from many religions, faiths and beliefs. Every single one of them taught us something of value.
We consider religion to be the organizational structure and dogma that says someone should believe a certain way and conform to a specific set of guidelines.
We consider spirituality to be a broader, more general term that defines a person's connection to their soul or their non-physical essence however that person defines it for themselves. A person's definition may change over time as they grow and develop. Spirituality, in our view, does not constrain a person nor set out a specific set of beliefs for them to follow.
We believe that spirituality � as we define it � can be a vital part of the workplace. We have developed 7 principles (creativity, communication, respect, vision, energy, partnership and flexibility) to help explain the qualities we feel are important. These principles say that people should be able to express the full range of their humanity in their own personal way without infringing on anyone else's beliefs. We respect other people's views on the subject as well.
Religion tends to be rigid and dogmatic. Therefore, it is very hard to find a place where religion can fit comfortably in many workplaces. That is especially problematic when people believe it is their "duty" to force others to change or feel compelled to push their beliefs on others.
Where everyone can accommodate and accept a variety of beliefs, then there is a basis for good communication, growth and mutual learning without pressure, condemnation or judgment. To us, that is the essence of spirituality.
Why did you change the format of the newsletter?
Starting in February 2005, our newsletter was changed from a multi-page format to a single longer page. All of the monthly newsletter articles have been converted to this format.
The printer-friendly pages will remain as they are.
Readers had asked that we use this new format some time ago. We recently reached the limit of our search engine and decided it was time to invest the time to change the articles in order to allow all pages to be included in the search capability.
If you have comments about this change, please use our feedback form.
How do you choose the books you list on the website?
Books or excepts usually fall into these categories:
- Books related to the monthly topic or
- Excerpts from books sent to us by publishers who know the topics we prefer.
- We also list books or use excerpts from books we own already or come across in our day-to-day activities.
Excerpts are used with the author's permission or under the Fair Use provisions of U.S. Copyright laws.
We are always seeking good articles that fit with the purpose and audience of our website. Our readers are business executives, managers, leaders in many fields as well as company employees, professionals and entrepreneurs seeking better ways of doing business. We also attract many readers who are business students.
Before sending us articles or excepts from books that could be used as articles, please read our Guidelines for Guest Authors.
Do you do link exchanges?
We link to other websites that are relevant to a particular article or topic that is consistent with our message and our mission. If you approach us with a link request, please specify why your link will add value to our readers and to which page on our website it fits best.
We do not sell link space or advertising space on our website. We do not respond to requests for links unless we feel strongly that it is relevant to the purpose of our site.
Do you want to sell the domain name "itstime.com"?
We do not respond to questions about selling our domain name. We bought it, we own it and we intend to keep it. We have a huge investment in making its good name, so please stop asking. We are also not interested in buying any other variations of the name.
Page updated: May 11, 2023
This page is: http://www.itstime.com/faq.htm
