Prevent Pollution :: essays research papers

All time-management courses boil down to one basic piece of advice: set priorities and allocate the bulk of your time to tasks that are crucial to meeting your goals. Minimize interruptions and spend big chunks of your time in productive and creative activity. Unfortunately, current information systems encourage the opposite approach, leading to an interrupt-driven workday and reduced productivity. Here are six steps to regaining control of your day: Don't check your email all the time. Set aside special breaks between bigger projects to handle email. Don't let email interrupt your projects, and don't let the computer dictate your priorities. Turn off your email program's "Biff" feature (the annoying bell or screen flash that notifies you every time an email message arrives). If you're using Microsoft Outlook, go to Tools > Options > Preferences > E-mail Options and uncheck "Display a notification message when new mail arrives." Don't use "reply to all" when responding to email. Abide by the good old "need to know" principle that's so beloved by the military and send follow-up messages only to those people who will actually benefit from the reply. Write informative subject lines for your email messages. Assume that the recipient is too busy to open messages with lame titles like "hi." Create a special email address for personal messages and newsletters. Only check this account once per day. (If you're geekly enough to master filtering, use filters to sort and prioritize your email. Unfortunately, this is currently too difficult for average users.) Write short. J. K. Rowling is not a good role model for email writers. Avoid IM (instant messaging) unless real-time interaction will truly add value to the communication. A one-minute interruption of your colleagues will cost them ten minutes of productivity as they reestablish their mental context and get back into "flow." Only the most important messages are worth 1,000 percent in overhead costs. What Companies Can Do At the corporate level, we need to implement four more steps: Answer common customer questions on your website using clear and concise language. This will save your customers a lot of time -- thus making you popular -- and will keep them from pestering you with time-consuming phone calls and emails. User test your intranet. Clean it up so that employees can find stuff faster, and make the intranet homepage their entry point for keeping up on company news and events.

Different Aspects of Emily Essay

Often people are stuck in the past and cannot accept the truth, the present, and modernization going around them. The character of Emily Grierson in William Faulkner’s â€Å"A Rose for Emily† is one from this category of people. Emily Grierson was a strange personality with distinguished characteristics. From the point of view of many, she is a crazy woman because she kills her lover in order to keep him forever with herself. Miss Emily Grierson is a static character that is locked in her past life. She is not able to change herself and roll on with the wheels of time. William Faulkner, through the use of various symbols indicating death and decay, portrayed a woman whose life ends long before her death. The first and one of the significant symbols of death and decay presented in the story is Miss Emily’s house itself. The look, setting and atmosphere of the house provide us with the features of death and decay in Emily’s life. The street where her house is located has changed completely except Miss Emily’s house. â€Å"Garages and cotton gins had encroached and obliterated even the august names of that neighborhood† (28). The house that once had been beautiful is destroyed now. â€Å"†¦lifting its stubborn and coquettish decay above the cotton wagons and the gasoline pumps- an eyesore among eyesores† (28). Cotton gins, cotton wagons, and the gasoline pipes are all symbols indicating the new and modernized era and period where still stands, Emily’s old and destroyed house. Emily’s house was an eyesore in the city, and Emily herself was a greater eyesore in her society. The entire look from the inside of the house is also a symbol representing death and decay. The inside of her house is explored in the story for the first time when the deputation committee came to ask Miss Emily to pay her taxes. They passed through the door that no visitor had passed since a long time and entered a dim hall. â€Å"When the Negro opened the blinds of one window, they could see that the leather was cracked; and when they sat down, a faint dust rose sluggishly about their thighs, spinning with slow motes in the single sun-ray† (29). The old furniture in her house, the cracks on her sofa and the dust-covered things in the place suggest the dark aspect of her  life. The darkness and dimmed atmosphere of the place, throw us into an aura of dullness and sadness that demonstrates the significant feature of Emily’s character. Miss Emily Grierson, herself is the most important symbol representing death and decay in her own life. Her appearance, face and her features all suggest a sort of dullness and stillness in her life. â€Å"She looked bloated, like a body long submerged in motionless water, and of that pallid hue. Her eyes, lost in the fatty ridges of her face, looked like two small pieces of coal pressed into a lump of dough as they moved from one face to another†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (29). The description of Emily and the features of her face provided by the author demonstrate the dry and deadly character of Emily more clearly. Miss Emily is also a very unsocial and isolated person. The over protecting behavior of her father and too many restrictions put upon her by him, had a great influence and impact in shaping her personality. She lacks the elements of active social life and art of communication in her life. Emily has an extremely proud and self-important disposition because of her family status. â€Å"She carried her head high enough- even when we believed that she was fallen† (32). This sentence portrays her aristocratic behavior and high attitude. Her aristocratic behavior isolates her more from the society, leaving her alone with her gradual death, her sole companion. Emily’s inability to accept the present and change itself is a significant symbol demonstrating death and decay in her life. For example, when authorities come to her and ask her to pay her taxes she in return tells them; â€Å"See Colonel Sartoris. I have no taxes in Jefferson† (30). At that time, nearly ten years had passed since the death of colonel Sartoris. This instance clearly shows Emily’s involvement in her past life, and the fact that she was not moving on with the pace of time. Another scene more clearly depicting this characteristic of Emily is when her father dies; she keeps the dead body of her father for three days in her house. After the death of her father she cuts her hair short; â€Å"†¦her hair was short, making her look like a girl†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (31). This incident also emphasizes that she wants to be her father’s little daughter again. This incident demonstrates that she does not have the ability to accept the reality, or maybe she does not want to do so. Homer Barron is a symbol representing modernization and arrival of new period and age. Homer is a Northerner, a Yankee, presenting the era of manufacturing industry, technology, innovation, and reconstruction. His purpose of coming to the South is to work for construction and renovation; paving the sidewalks of the city. His personal character also demonstrates elements of modernization. He does not care about the code of behavior which is important in Emily’s community, a Southern society. The story presents Homer as a person who is not a marrying man and likes to be free and prefers bachelor life. â€Å"Whenever you heard a lot of laughing anywhere about the square, Homer Barron would be in the center of the group† (31). The description of Homer Barron in the story suggests that he was a carefree person, liked parties and enjoyed meeting with others. It also demonstrates his lively character which is completely the opposite personality of Emily Grierson. Homer was a person representing present and future, and Emily can not leave her past and move ahead so she kills Homer and keep him for ever hers. All of the symbols present the isolated and steady character of Emily, which was still and static through the passage of time. Emily’s soul was covered with the dust of loneliness and dimmed by grief, sorrow and everlasting sadness. In the story â€Å"fallen monument† refers to Emily. Emily was a monument, a legend that has been ruined and shattered by the passage of time because of lack of care and attention. Not a single light of joy or happiness was in her life. Being a young woman, once she had been beautiful and attractive, but she was left alone because of the circumstances in her life. Emily lost her soul gradually through her lifetime and was actually dead long before her death. Work Cited Faulkner, William. â€Å"A Rose for Emily.† Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. Ed. X. J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia. 8th ed. New York: Longman, 2002. 28-35.

Employers Organisations and the State in Nigeria - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 5 Words: 1438 Downloads: 9 Date added: 2017/09/21 Category Advertising Essay Type Argumentative essay Level High school Did you like this example? AN EXAMINATION OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN EMPLOYERS’ ORGANIZATIONS AND THE STATE IN NIGERIA BY ANYIAM, IJEOMA LUCRETIA DECEMBER 2009 INTRODUCTION Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Employers Organisations and the State in Nigeria" essay for you Create order According to J. T. Dunlop (1958), an industrial relations system is comprised of the following actors: * A hierarchy of managers and their representatives in supervision (or employers and their associations) * A hierarchy of workers and any spokesmen (the workers and their unions), and * Specialized government agencies (or the state) concerned with workers, employers and their relationships. Employer’s Organizations Employer’s organizations as one of the participants in industrial relations developed quite late in Nigeria, in comparison with the workers’ unions. According to Yesufu (1962), in 1954, there were only 8 employers’ organizations in Nigeria dealing manly with regulating trade practices and services rather than collective bargaining and negotiations. This slow development were largely as a result of the slow growth of industries then, the failure of trade unions to galvanise the employers to relate seriously with them, and the government policies that were not encouraging. Although the Trade Union Act of 1973 defined a trade union as ‘a combination of workers or employers’, it was actually the 1978 Trade Union (Amendment) Act, which galvanised them into action by actually recognizing 9 employers’ organization for purposes of relating with workers and the state in industrial matters. One of the major reasons for formation and recognition of employers’ organizations is for them to have a common platform for containing trade nions, maintaining good industrial relations by educating members on the benefits of good employer-employee relations, designing and formulating policies relating to wages and salary administration, and influencing public policy. The most notable employers’ organizations in Nigeria today include: * The Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association (NECA) * The Manufacturers’ Association of Nigeria (MAN) The Nigeria Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA) * The Association of Food, Beverages and Tobacco Employers (AFBTE) * Road Transport Employers Association of Nigeria (RTEAN) NECA relates with the state on the following issues: * On industrial relations matters, to ensure peaceful industrial relations climate * Representation of Nigeria at the International Labour Organisation * It sometimes opposes government laws that would likely negatively affect its members * Provision of suggestions to the state on economic reforms e. . pensions and minimum wage * Serves on various committees, boards and agencies of the state NACCIMA relates with the state as follows: * Specifically on trading and commercial matters * Advises the state on matters affecting the general economy and business * Promotion of commercial and economic cooperation between Nigeria and the international business community * Serves on state boards and agencies MAN relates with the State in the following areas: * Production and manufacturing matters Monetary policies such as pressures for reduction of loan interest rates * Fiscal policies geared toward reduction of prohibitive taxes and import duties * Policy advocacy aimed at protection of small and infant industries * Representation on state boards e. g. Corporate Affairs Commission, NEPZA, etc THE STATE The state is both an employer and the institution that makes laws to regulate the activities of everyone else in the industrial system. As the third actor in industrial relations, and for national interest, the state regulates the relationships in the industry. The state also makes directive principles and state policies indicative of the obligations and responsibilities that the state should keep in focus while enacting laws and formulating policies, and these include: i) To fix certain social and economic goals for immediate attainment ii) To bring about a non-violent socio-economic revolution iii) To fulfil the basic need of the common citizen, etc There are also fundamental objectives of State which are economic, social, educational, ethical, environmental, and cultural. Some of the fundamental economic and social objectives of the Nigerian state include the following: a) To harness the resources of the nation and promote national prosperity and an efficient, dynamic and self rel iant economy; b) To ensure that suitable and adequate shelter, suitable and adequate food, reasonable national minimum living wage, old age care and pensions, and unemployment, sick benefits and welfare of the disabled are provided for all citizens; c) To review from time to time, the ownership and control of business enterprises operating in Nigeria and make recommendations to the President on same; d) To ensure that all citizens without discrimination on any group whatsoever, have the opportunity for securing adequate means of livelihood as well as adequate opportunity to secure suitable employment; e) To ensure that conditions of work are just and humane, and that there are adequate facilities for leisure and for social, religious and cultural life; f) To ensure that health, safety and welfare of all persons in employment are safeguarded and not endangered or abused; g) To ensure that there adequate medical and health facilities for all persons; h) To ensure that there is equal p ay for equal work without discrimination on account of sex, or on any other ground whatsoever; i) To ensure that children, young persons and the aged are protected against any exploitation whatsoever, and against moral and material neglect; etc. In its bid to accomplish the above stated objectives, the state passes laws and establishes institutions and agencies for the regulation of above and other objectives. These include: * The Trade Disputes Act * Trade Union Act * Labour Act * Minimum Wage Act * Pensions Act * Workmen’s’ Compensation Act * Productivity, Prices and Incomes Board * The National Directorate of Employment * National Pension Commission * The National Health Insurance Scheme * The National Provident Fund Management Board * National Labour Advisory Council * National Industrial Safety Council * National Manpower Board * National Council of the West African Examination Council * Nigerian Council for Management Development National Advisory Committee on th e Employment of Graduates and Professional Manpower * National Youth Service Corps Directorate * National Committee on Women and Development * ILO Committee of Experts on Social Security Relationship between Employers’ Organisations and the State The State and Employers’ organizations have a very good relationship in comparison with the role of state and the workers’ union. The areas where the relationship between the two is very visible include: Industrial Relations: The role of state in industrial relations (as the third actor) is supposed to be that of an unbiased umpire, however, it favours the employers more than the workers. State is usually dedicated to the protection of private property and minimizing disruptions to production and seeking the elimination of ‘threats’ to investments and investors, and to ‘ensure a buoyant economy’. The state cannot afford to be neutral in industrial matters, but can only favour employers’ associations for the attainment of these objectives. According to Edwards (1986) the state regulates relationship between employers and workers by determining the conditions on which labour power may be sold, and how the labour power is used by providing for compulsory union recognition and collective bargaining as a means of constraining management’s freedom to discipline workers. Legislations: Its two interests: employer and regulator do sometimes conflict and influence the kind of laws passed to regulate the three actors in industrial relations. It must be noted that most laws are geared to the protection of private property and favours management and investors. Health Safety at work: The state attempts to establish health and safety standards at the workplace (physical work space, lighting, noise levels, protective clothing, etc); To create ‘a favourable climate for investments’ by lowering corporate and production taxes, engage in periodic downward review o f import tariffs, keep a lid on wages and salaries, etc. Dispute Resolution: In its mediating role in conflict situations, the state is also biased toward the employers. It usually sets the limits within which the institutions and processes for mediation, conciliation and arbitration operates. When workers protest against some unilateral decision of employers, the state through legislation places conditions to be met, including balloting before going on strike. Political restrictions: State also passes legislation preventing unions from using their funds for political purposes, yet there is no corresponding stipulation for the employer. Representation/collaboration: The employers’ organizations are often represented in the above institutions and agencies of state listed above. Conclusion: From the above, it can be safely said that the state and employers’ organizations enjoy a symbiotic relationship, because according to Karl Marx and Engels as per Hyman (1975),  "the executive of the modern state is but a committee for managing the common affairs of the whole bourgeoisie†. While employers assist the state through payment of various forms of taxes and levies which keep the affairs of state running, the state protects the interests of the employers by creating and ensuring enabling and conducive environment to enable employers continue in business. References: Chris Obisi (2005): Substance of Employee Industrial and Labour Relations Yesufu T. M. (1981): The dynamics of Industrial Relations: the Nigerian experience Dafe Otobo (2000): Industrial Relations, theory and controversies.