With These Holiday Hosting Tips IMPRESS THE GUESTS
The holidays are rapidly approaching, and soon, we’ll share laughs while enjoying the festivities with our loved ones. Before the celebrations begin, you must prepare your home for visitors, especially if they stay overnight. It can be stressful whether it’s your in-laws, best friends, or distant cousins coming to stay with you. You want to leave a good impression, but how do you ensure everyone’s needs are met, including yours? Here are three tips for setting yourself up for a successful holiday, regardless of who stays with you. Stock up on your guests’ favorites. Have you ever stayed with someone who didn’t have extra food for their guests? Don’t put your guests in this situation. Load up your pantry, refrigerator, and cupboards with your guests’ favorite foods and drinks. If you don’t know what they are, ask ahead of their visit! Your guests will appreciate your conscientious gesture and have a much more enjoyable time if they can eat their favorites while visiting. Prepare a guest room. If your guests are staying with you, you need to prepare somewhere for them to sleep. Make sure you make up the
bed, have plenty of pillows and blankets on hand, and provide adequate closet space for their clothes. Even if they aren’t staying in a traditional bedroom, their sleeping area should still be ready when they arrive. Clear off a table for them to use as a nightstand and put sheets on the couch or mattress where they’ll sleep. Use real dishes. When we have company over for a meal, especially a large gathering, it’s usually easier to use plastic or paper options — saves on cleanup, too! The holidays are not necessarily the time for this shortcut. Break out the fine china if you have it, or use regular dishes for your guests. It’s okay for the kids to have paper plates, but if you want to make a good impression on visiting adults, nicer dishes will dress up the table setting and meal.
THE LEGAL TRUTH ABOUT POSTING YOUR SALARY ONLINE
In July, a Colorado woman was fired from her tech job for posting her salary online. This company later rehired her, but her dismissal was featured on news outlets, including CBS to USA Today. The reporting dug up thousands of others sharing their job titles and income on social media. There are even a few public spreadsheets to which anyone can sign on and add their information. Sharing job details online is part of a push to fight against discrimination and unfair business practices, such as gender pay gaps. While the cause is good, many business owners don’t take too lightly to their employees talking about how much they make. But can you legally be fired from your job for doing it? The short answer is no. Talking about your wages is federally protected, and you have the right to do it. The National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) protects employees when discussing workplace wages.
This means two things: First, how much you get paid relates directly to the quality of your treatment at your job. If you aren’t getting paid fairly, that is a poor job condition. Second, discussing how much you get paid brings attention to your mistreatment. You will never know if you’re not being paid fairly if you don’t have a reference point. And once people realize they’re being treated unfairly, they do something about it. Wages are the starting point for many other positive changes. What’s more, the NLRA explicitly protects the discussion of wages online. The NLRA does mention, however, that your employer may still be able to fire you if you use their technology equipment to post about your wages. So don’t post your salary on Facebook from your work computer.
Your employer can also use your wage posting to fire you for previous bad behavior, so if you post your salary, be smart about it. Do it without defaming your employer, and never give away too much personal or professional information online. Only share information that pertains to you, not your company’s secrets.
According to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), which enforces this act, “Wages are a vital term and condition of employment, and discussions of wages are often preliminary to organizing or other actions for mutual aid or protection.”
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