Bathroom breaks in the way of negotiations | MoneyCnn.com

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Since June, workers started facing disciplinary action if they used more than 60 minutes of bathroom time over 10 days, according to a government complaint. That’s an average of about six minutes a day. Workers are expected to use the bathroom during their lunch or other scheduled breaks during the day — a total of 1 hour in all.

On the other hand, if workers do not use the bathroom during working hours, they can earn $1 a day. CEO Steven Kersten said last month the company gave out 25 gift cards.Workers marched last Monday in Chicago carrying a toilet, a symbol of their struggle with WaterSaver Faucet Co.Union representative Nick Kreitman said the company tracks how often employees swipe in to use the bathrooms and has spreadsheets on every employee’s bathroom use.

He filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board in June claiming WaterSaver unfairly disciplined 19 workers for excessive bathroom visitation.

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  Virtual Office Assistant – a Life Saver | Getentrepreneurial.com

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The mere articulation of the saying “Virtual Office Assistant” is a most recent agitation which has hit the search engine platforms. It can make an entrepreneur ecstatic or apoplectic-all relying upon their experience with this increasingly well-known administrative help. Being a business visionary, you are prone to wear numerous hats to keep up the accomplishment of your business.

There are insufficient hours in a day, and you can’t pick to do everything on your own. The key course of taking your business to new heights – the focus ought to be on your customers, clients and how to get a greater business from them. Effectively dealing with all the core exercises, stress and requiring some investment for yourself is vital to keep away from wear out and the disappointment of your business.

Along all these lines, why are you in any case still clutching the directing wheel so firmly? Let another person handle the preparatory exercises.

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Microscope on Mobile Phone or Tablet | CoolBusinessideas.com

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The Catalyst Frame Microscope turns your smartphone/tablet into a versatile digital microscope. It combines with your camera’s digital magnification with native 30/50/170x or 30/170/340x to get a range of magnification from 30 to over 1000x. No need to manually hold focus, focus it once with the knob, and then it’s as easy as holding your phone. Use it to take photos, videos, panoramics, slow-mo, or even time-lapse! Optics click into alignment, samples are held down with a clip, and the illumination is built in using an energy efficient LED with two AAA batteries for hours of battery life. Finally the sample doesn’t touch the lens, which always keeps the lens clean and your samples pure.

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‘Is it safe to hire?’ Business owners don’t trust recovery | MoneyCnn

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The economic recovery may be continuing, but small business owners aren’t ready to put the rose-colored glasses back on.

According to an exclusive CNNMoney-Manta survey released Tuesday, 28% of small business owners said the economy is the “biggest challenge” they’re currently facing, topping issues like sales, regulations and financing.

The survey polled over 1,500 small business owners across the country. Even those experiencing revenue growth are hesitant to test their luck. “We’ve done well as a small business, [and] banks are willing to lend us money,” said Victoria Aguilar, the founder of a small law and consulting firm. “But is it safe to bring on another employee?”

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Healthy Heart Needs More Than Pinch of Salt, Study Finds | Bloomberg

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People who eat the least salt may be hurting their hearts, according to a study causing controversy because some of its findings clash with public-health efforts to lower sodium consumption.

The results published yesterday in the New England Journal of Medicine showed the expected link between heart complications and high levels of sodium, which is known to boost blood pressure and cardiovascular risks. Those at the lowest end, as measured by the amount of sodium in their urine, were also at greater risk — a 27 percent increased chance of heart attack, stroke and death from cardiovascular causes, the study found.

“There is a sweet spot for what the optimum sodium intake is,” said Salim Yusuf, senior author of the paper and director of the Population Health Research Institute in Ontario. “The message is very simple: Moderation in salt intake. Avoid high and low levels.”

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7 Ways for Businesses to Leverage Customer Surveys to Their Advantage | Inc.com

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checklist-1940x900-2_35266Surveys can benefit your company, your current customers, your potential customers, and the industry as a whole through usable information that might otherwise be lost.

Among the many techniques businesses use to engage customers and improve services, few remain as effective as the customer survey, according to GetResponseblogger Pam Neely.

What do customer surveys have to offer?

Measurement and analysis of customer satisfaction (or, in some cases, dissatisfaction). Companies can render a sample set of this information by reviewing sites such as Yelp or Angie’s List, perusing blog comments, and checking out social media commentary–and they should.

Beyond this, customer surveys offer a business the opportunity to choose which information it seeks. Many customers, especially the unhappy sort, will express their chagrin without quantifying it or explaining why they’re dissatisfied with your product or service.

Surveys offer specifics and the opportunity for subsequent synthesis by company personnel and marketers.

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Nine Strategies for Fixing Common Budget Problems | The Simple Dollar

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Budgets are an amazing tool for getting a clear picture of your financial situation and for planning for the future. They make it possible to see, in one overall place, the exact state of your monthly spending. You know where every dime is going. You know why every dime is going there. You can also see exactly where your financial situation is headed if you stick to that budget.

Sarah and I used a very tight budget during the first few years of our financial turnaround. It provided us with a very specific plan for how we should spend our money, how much we could put towards debt every month, and so on. Along with our debt repayment plan, our budget paved the way to debt freedom.

We still budget, but it’s not as tight as it once was. Mostly, we use it as a guideline and as a way to model our expenses and savings into the future. Of course, budgeting isn’t always that easy. It can be a challenge – particularly at first – and there are many potential pitfalls along the way. Here are nine of the steepest challenges we’ve faced while budgeting and the solutions we use to make sure that they don’t happen again.

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Facebook’s Product Design Director: Redesign for 1 Billion Users | Businessweek

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FacebookAnyone who has even breathed in the vicinity of a website redesign knows that there is no more perfect time for every single site user to say exactly what they think about the terrible, horrible changes that never should have been made in the first place. Now consider Facebook FB, with its 1.23 billion subscribers, most of whom feel quite proprietary about the site. Who wants to mess with a billion avid users?

Margaret Gould Stewart does. As Facebook’s director of product design, it’s her job to make sure the site’s latest layout changes don’t tilt the love-hate Facebook equation too far toward “hate.” The Silicon Valley veteran, who led user experience teams at YouTube and Google before joining Mark Zuckerberg’s crew, says that designing for the masses brings up particular challenges: Any pixel tweak could rankle half the population of the internet. Here’s how she does it

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Body Odor and Brain Waves: 5 Cool New ID Technologies | Livescience

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Many driver’s licenses and passports have holograms and other types of sophisticated security embedded in them, but for the most part, people still heavily rely on ID cards to prove who they are. Biometric identification technologies, such as fingerprinting and iris scanning, are already being used to speed up security clearance at several airports in the United States. Iris scanning is also gaining support in the health care industry, as a way to prevent fraud and combat identity theft. Now, ID tech is moving into new realms, with devices that could distinguish individuals by their veins, brain waves and even body odor. Here are five emerging alternatives to traditional identification:

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