I trust you will have a wonderful Thanksgiving, if you celebrate. Thanksgiving and this four day Thanksgiving weekend is a wonderful time to think about everything for which I am grateful: my work, my family, my husband, our companies, our friends, our home, and my ability to write and publish my thoughts on so many topics.

I am also grateful for you, the people who read my site and especially, the readers who send me notes about articles and comment on my blog posts. Whether you agree, disagree, or want to submit an article, tip or quote, I am happy to hear from you.

You've heard my oft repeated refrain about the importance of establishing annual traditions in your companies and organizations just as you have in your home. With this in mind, one of my clients held a Thanksgiving dinner at lunch for all employees last week. It's an annual and annually appreciated tradition.

They time the feast carefully now since one year it coincided with Ramadan and the Muslim employees had to take their food home for dinner after sundown. We learned fast after blowing it, the same as the planning committee quickly learned to provide vegetarian hot dogs and all-beef hot dogs, instead of just pork, during the summer picnic.

For a new perspective on Christmas, and a reminder, too, that Thanksgiving isn't world-wide or even nationally celebrated by all, here's how we can all celebrate our diversity during this holiday season.

My cornucopia overflows with joy. What brings you joy? Thank you for another wonderful year.

Please share what you are thankful for in "comments" below.

_{Image © Kelly Cline}

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In the US, the debate over how much the Federal and state governments should control the employment relationship between employers and employees rages on. Currently, a mandatory sick leave requirement is under consideration in the Pandemic Protection for Workers, Families, and Businesses Act.

The Act would require that all employers with more than 15 employees offer full-time workers seven days of paid sick leave, and part-time employees a proportionate share based on hours worked. Employees could also use the time to care for children when daycare is closed and to take a child to the doctor even if the child is not ill.

While the Act is for infectious diseases, I have no doubt its implications are much broader. My readers generally disagree vociferously with me on this topic, and some readers agree with me just as strongly. I do not believe that government should mandate sick leave, and I believe that nations that do offer paid sck leave and other time off benefits, have suffered consequences, such as more unemployment and less productivity - and the studies generally back this point of view.

Would I like to see every employee have a solid benefits package? Absolutely. The entire theme of this website is forward thinking Human Resources, but I would rather see people have jobs.

With current unemployment at 10.2% and 17.5%, if you are willing to account for people who have given up looking, legislated employer mandates are a burden on job creation and job preservation. Indeed, in addition to the general uneasiness experienced by the business community, rising unemployment taxes, to deal with the legions of the unemployed, are further hindering job creation.

My home state, Michigan, has the highest unemployment in the nation - 15.1% without taking into consideration those who have stopped looking. Teenage unemployment nationally is currently 27%. Sure, let's mandate a proportionate number of paid sick days for these kids; good luck job hunting.

Stop with the new demands on employers, and the threatened new demands on employers, and you'll see job creation and job security rise quickly. But, you won't see serious job creation until the government backs off on the debt employers will assume through programs such as national health care reform, rising unemployment insurance rates, and higher business taxes at both the state and Federal levels.

Your comments are always welcome.

_{Image Copyright Kelly Young}

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Great events and not so great events in the workplace and for Human Resources, managers, and employees happened from 2000-2009, the first decade of the century. When you look back at this decade, what will you remember as the best and worst happenings and events, your favorite and least favorite happenings and events of the decade for you and your workplace? Help me identify the best and worst of the decade for workplaces, Human Resources, employees, and managers.

Here are a few questions to ponder: Did Federal or state employment laws pass that hindered you or helped you? Did your company change direction? Did you change direction? Did your company adopt a new approach to employee relations? How about a new recognition system? Did a book change the way you view the world? Did a state, national, or international event change your work world?

Thanks for your responses; I hope to turn these into an end of decade piece that all of us will find useful.

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We're working on developing a formal mentoring program at a client company that will ensure that every new employee, or employee new to a department, has a formally assigned mentor. And, with this title comes the responsibility to help the employee get up to speed on job skills and also to integrate into the culture quickly. (See: Eight Hallmarks of a Mentoring Culture.)

This mentoring relationship is aside from the informal mentoring relationships that I would encourage you to develop throughout your career. Mentoring is one of the most important components of employee development and, too often, the new person gets assigned to a buddy who has no clue about what he or she is supposed to do other than take the new employee to lunch.

Let's change that and make mentoring into a contributing developmental factor for employees. Use mentoring to recruit and retain and train your very best employees.

_{Image Copyright Diego Cervo}

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