Free Newsletter Article and a Look at Subscriber's Articles for November 2018

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I hope you enjoy popping into this blog every once in a while for a free article or two. To download a package of information and more free articles, click here on the green box to your right.

Way down below is a free article, but before I list it, I want to give you a quick introduction to the articles sent to subscribers for the month of November. We are getting close to the holidays, so I usually start adding in relevant article topics. That's a good idea, by they way, to get some seasonal kick into your newsletter. You will get more readership that way

Here is just a brief look at November's articles - become a paid subscriber here to FrontLine Employee and I will send these to you.

Stress Management Tip for Holiday Family Get-togethers

If relaxing and enjoying your family this holiday season and avoiding difficult family interactions are included in your goals, consider the following tips: 1) Decide on boundaries--types of interactions, and the amount of time you will spend with difficult relatives. What discussion topics will you avoid? What past grievances . . .

Avoid After-hours Job Creep
Work-life balance is critical to health and well-being. A recent study showed that unwinding after work and stepping away from work activities helped participants return their bodies to “pre-strain” and “pre-stress” levels. They also . . . 

New Cautions about Light Drinking
You’ve heard by now that a glass of red wine daily is good for the heart. Well, not so fast. One university just completed an extensive research study on light drinking, and the one drink of red wine a day came up short on helping people ...

Parent Tip: Saying No to Your Teen

Saying no to a teenager (and making it stick) is tough for many parents. Fear of conflict leads to backing away in the face of rebellion. Sound familiar? To make saying no easier, distinguish between house rules and guidelines. Rules are nonnegotiable, like a rule about no drug use. Guidelines are flexible and based on circumstances, like . . . 

Safeguarding Your Sobriety during the Holidays
Risk of relapse can increase for recovering alcoholics between Thanksgiving and the new year because lots of opportunities exist to socialize around alcohol. If you are newly sober and facing the holidays for the first time, relapse need not happen. . .. 

Don’t Touch That IRA!
Withdrawing money from your IRA early in life can pull the plug on your retirement fund. You can irreparably damage it. Enormous leverage exists when an IRA sits undisturbed over time. Perhaps you have heard this lecture before, but if you are young . . .  

How to Be a Visionary Employee
Being visionary at work does not mean seeing the future or even the next revolutionary product or service. It means being aware enough of your role and its importance that you see ways to make it more valuable and how to evolve it. You don’t see the future; you . . .  

Overcoming Impostor Syndrome
Impostor syndrome is an unfounded fear of not being deserving of your position or achievements despite your training, capacity, and skills. It often includes fear of others noticing it too. Impostor syndrome is a common experience. Even Albert Einstein reportedly suffered from it. Expect impostor syndrome if you are trained in what you are doing, but simply . . .  

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FREE ARTICLE - This is one of those article you will get a lot of controversy out of. Can you see why? I know, I wrote this for alcoholism awareness month, but just change the title and you are ready to go.

One-Question Quiz for Alcoholism

In honor of Alcohol Awareness Month, try this one-question quiz:

“Have you ever seriously wondered whether you could be an alcoholic

or have an alcohol problem?” The emphasis is on the word “seriously.” Whether your answer is yes or no, make an appointment for a professional assessment. Why? Those without any symptoms of alcoholism never seriously consider this question. Millions of recovering alcoholics and drug addicts have gathered their wisdom over the years in books, resources, self-help groups, and even short quizzes to help those with alcoholism or other drug addictions diagnose themselves. This is one of those quizzes.

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October Articles for FrontLine Employee: Subscribe at Link Below

These are the quick previews of October's articles from the subscription of FrontLine Employee. Subscribe at this link ONLY IN OCTOBER. Start your own Employee Newsletter that is editable, rename-able, and customizable, and receive 18 months instead of 12.

~ Learn the Five Steps of Suicide Prevention
The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255) recommends awareness of the “five steps” to suicide prevention. The research-supported model can reduce the risk that a person in crisis will take his or her life...

~ Think Outside of the Box

You’ve heard the expression “thinking outside of the box.” It’s thinking creatively and solving

problems in ways that defy convention. Outside-the-box thinkers see the same information differently from the way their coworkers do. …

~  “Amotivational Syndrome” and Marijuana
Does cannabis use foster apathy and reduced self-efficacy—“amotivational syndrome”? The most thorough study yet examined the cannabis use and behaviors of over 500 college students. Marijuana use, age, gender, race, personality style (extroversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, openness, …

~ Anger in the Workplace

If you blow up at disappointments, rage at inconveniences, or bark at others’ mistakes, then you probably recognize your anger management problem. Are you still struggling to get a handle on it? The change you want entails education about anger, self-awareness, and triggers; practicing alternative responses; ….

~ Relationships—the Secret to Happiness
Many articles, books, and speeches have discussed the secret to finding happiness, but there is only one 75-year study that has attempted to pin down the answer. It’s the Grant and Gluek Study, which began in 1934. And it continues today. The project focuses on the lives of two completely different groups of people—a …

~ Are Teenagers Switching to Xanax?
Many teenagers who have been using opioids may be switching to prescription drugs like Xanax, say addiction treatment professionals who specialize in teen substance abuse. The war on street opioids, related overdose fears, and the risk of death when using fentanyl may be influencing the switch. Drugs like Xanax are often plentiful in medicine cabinets of parents and grandparents. ….

~ Stress Tip: Reduce Catastrophic Thinking

Humans worry, but when we focus on the worst-case scenario, it is called catastrophic thinking. It’s worry on steroids. Catastrophic thinking is agitating and exhausting. It can be toxic to your mental health. …

~ Stalking Awareness

Studies show that a woman over the course of her life will have about an 8% chance of being stalked. For men, it’s about 2%. Stalking is unwanted or repeated shadowing, observation, and scrutinizing of another …
These are the quick previews of October's articles from the subscription of FrontLine Employee. Subscribe at this link ONLY IN OCTOBER. Start your own Employee Newsletter that is editable, rename-able, and customizable, and receive 18 months instead of 12.

Free Article for Your Employee Newsletter: Cold Weather and Heart Attacks

Cold weather is on its way in the northern hemisphere, and it is a good topic for your employee newsletter because cold weather injuries, seasonal illnesses, and dangerous conditions can affect anyone.

They can also take a toll on the bottom line in companies with workers' comp claims, absenteeism, and forever back injuries. Drug addiction to opioid medication anyone?

Both the U.S. and especially Canada have horrible problems with falls where snow and ice conditions are prominent. And of course, the older you are, the higher the risk of fall injuries no matter what the conditions.

One interesting bit of research about cold weather is that there are more heart attacks. Why? Well, they are not exactly sure, but shoveling snow is not the reason.

Here is an article below for your company newsletter or employee newsletter. Use your mouse to copy it, and feel free to edit or amend the content.

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New research presented by the European Society of Cardiology found

Put an article in your company
about cold weather and heart attacks.

that people with high blood pressure are more vulnerable to heart attacks during months of colder weather, or with sudden and significant temperature drops during other times of the year. One suggested theory to explain the phenomenon is the contraction of blood vessels and increased blood pressure experienced by hypertensive patients exposed to colder weather. The recommendation is to dress warmly when going out in the cold weather.

If you have a heart attack, chances are you won’t be sure what’s going on if you don’t know the symptoms. You may then wait too long before seeking help. Usually, heart attacks are accompanied by mild pain and discomfort, not a sudden feeling of having “an elephant on your chest.”  Learn the symptoms of a heart attack and you may save your life, or that of someone you know.

1. An uncomfortable feeling in the chest—pressure, squeezing, fullness, or pain.

2. Discomfort in other areas of your body—either or both arms, the back, neck, jaw, or stomach.

3. Fatigue—a feeling of physical and mental weariness. You may feel a sudden sense of being ill.

4. Shortness of breath, which women in particular may have without chest discomfort.

5. Breaking out in a cold sweat, indigestion, nausea, or lightheadedness.

Source: American Heart Association

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Go ahead and download a complete newsletter kit for your company, and for at least the next three months, have a free editable, reproducible, workplace wellness and company newsletter without cost or obligation. Go here to download the information about FrontLine Employee.

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Holiday Article to Encourage Employees to Reach Out for Help

Employee newsletters should mention coping strategies for dealing holiday stress. Don't be

fooled though. Many sad and depressed people like the holidays because it offer activity and distraction, although loss may still be an issue that creates stress and sadness during this time of year. Here is a free article for your employee newsletter. Does you company have an EAP or an EAP-like service, then always mention it. This is a risk issue to help you employees who are depressed, suicidal, or at risk for other sorts of problems like alcohol and drug addiction relapse.

Free Article for Your Newsletter
Bracing for Holiday Blues

The holidays are supposed to be a time for joy and celebration – full of wonderful foods, social occasions, religious and spiritual enrichment, or just plain fun. However, many people experience holiday blues. Are you one of them? One common complaint of those who suffer from this form of depression or period of sadness is their awareness of the expectations surrounding the season and their inability or lack of desire in meeting those expectations. Personal health, relationship issues, past losses, isolation, financial circumstances, and pure stress of the season can contribute to these holiday blues. The company employee assistance program or a counseling service in your community can see you temporarily to give you support during this time. Your insurance may help pay for such services. Ask about group counseling support. It's often the best kind because others who seek to conquer similar challenges can often generate powerful solutions with the mastermind effect found in the group work experience. If all else fails, don't suffer in silence. Instead, Google "holiday blues solutions" for a ton of ideas on beating the season's impact on your happiness or mood.

Would you like a "ready to use" monthly newsletter in MS Word with images, or in MS Publisher,  so you can have your own internal publication?, We've got it! It's turnkey, and you edit or add or leave it as is. Birthdays, company news, etc? A newsletter will bring employees and your organization together like glue. You will notice this effect after the very first issue. Go here to download all the information. Your newsletter will never be late again, no skipped issues ever, and you 24/7 customer service access to us for your needs.

FREE NEWSLETTER ARTICLE: FATIGUE FIGHTING FOOD FACTS

FREE ARTICLE, NO ATTRIBUTION REQUIRED

TITLE: Fatigue Fighting Food Facts

BODY: There is a lot to know about food and its relationship to the prevention of fatigue. Because chronic fatigue illnesses are common, nutrition research is plentiful. Here are a few key tips if you are looking to fight the “three o’clock energy droop”: 1) Try vitamin C. Vitamin C is essential for adrenal gland functioning. Under stress, these glands emit hormones that fight fatigue. Try supplements and natural foods. 2) Drink more water. Fatigue can be an early symptom of dehydration. Drink water periodically during the day, even if you aren’t thirsty. 3) Go easy on the coffee in the morning. It can reduce your desire to eat breakfast. By lunchtime, it could be 18 hours or more since your last meal — definitely an energy zapper. You need most of your calories during the day when you are most active. Appetite suppression can also contribute to overeating at dinner. 4) Snacking in the afternoon is good, but think fruits, vegetables, low-sodium juices, and foods with whole grains. Source: Eat to Beat Fatigue by Joan Slage Blake, M.S., R.D. (

To get 24 more articles go to FREE 24 NEWSLETTER ARTICLES. 

Mental Illness in the Family: Your Employee Newsletter Can Help

A free article for your employees follows this discussion, but visit here to get more free content and start a subscription (if you like--there is no "bill" or credit card needed) to FrontLine Employee newsletter

This post discusses mental illness in the family, how your newsletter for employees can reach out, and tips for how to do it. But the free article for your newsletter is at the very bottom.

Each year millions of Americans are diagnosed with mental illness. And most of them work. Do any work for your company? If you have more than say eight employees, you can bet on it.

Are there employees in your work organization with mentally ill family members? Absolutely. It's probably close to 1 out of 5. Most will keep it a secret, however. That's because there is still a great stigma attached to being mentally ill. And that is not going away any time soon.

Family members commonly feel an overwhelming sense of helplessness and may secretly blame themselves about mentally illness, believing something they did caused the family member’s mental illness. This is especially true of older children and teenagers.

Pre-teens and teenagers are at that confusing time in their lives where they know everything and nothing, act secure but are petrified with worry and guilt. Hormones rage. They are highly susceptible to guilt and suggestion, peer pressure, and mentor influence (a good thing.) They blame themselves for lots of stuff, which is what makes suicidal thinking a significant issue for this age group.

Although small children may be traumatized by mental illness depending on how overt its manifestations are, teenagers are the unaddressed most-guilt-ridden group. Newsletter articles can infiltrate this arena of need.

Since family members are often key to intervention, helping them cope is crucial to helping those with mental illness. Again, use the newsletter to target issues.

Does your company have an employee assistance program? Be sure your employee newsletter guides employees and encourages them to use it. Do so regularly to reduce risk and turnover in your organization.

If your EAP has only a hotline on the back of the insurance card to guide people to an EAP or mental health help, then hold everything, and look for a high-touch EAP in your community to serve your organization. There is one, or phone me and I will locate it for you. This is how you reduce risk in your organization -- from presenteeism to violence. No hotline or managed care referral number will suffice like a "high-touch" EAP with counselors that visit your organization, know your culture, and spot the needs yet addressed.

Employee newsletter articles should be positive. Always put a positive angle on even the worst problems. This is easy to do. Simply focus on the solution after mentioning the problem. Always

Regarding mental illness, encourage family members to be proactive. A good topic to discuss is avoiding the trap of shame and isolation. Push employees  with your newsletter content to reach out for support and a listening ear.

Consider helping your employees with articles that encourage them to avoid the trap of overprotecting a family member from the stigma of mental illness.

Alcoholism is not mental illness, but it has the same dynamic of protection and cover-up and affects 1 our of four families. Tell employees in news articles that the stigma of mental illness is fast disappearing, and new medications for mental disorders are continually being researched. It's true.
Be hopeful and realistic. Many people with mental illness and multiple hospitalizations are capable of holding full-time, responsible jobs with the aid of proper medication and support. 

Don’t ignore the needs of children with your newsletter articles. They may not read it of course, but parents do.

Although mental illness should not be the focal point of a family's life, share information with them that can reduce their fear and anxiety. 

Understand patient responsibility in recovery. A key principal in mental health treatment is patients taking personal responsibility for managing their illness. Help employees not become enablers that undermine this important principle. This includes medication compliance. Family members often unwittingly undermine this dynamic by doing too much "taking care of." Often this is out of guilt.

Encourage care-giving employees to take care of themselves. Encourage them to maintain balance in their own lives. This is a conscious process. It does not happen automatically. Your employees can suffer from lack of sleep, nutrition, exercise, fun, and stress management. This will affect your bottom line and even contribute to turnover, which is very costly.

Also, give  your employees self-help resources. They can take charge, get help, and get the help they need to draw a balance between concern and detachment. Again, your company EAP (if you have one) should be the #1 go-to resource.
=====================ARTICLE========================

TITLE
Mental Illness in the Family 
Each year millions of Americans are diagnosed with mental illness. Family members commonly feel an overwhelming sense of helplessness and may secretly blame themselves, believing something they did caused the family member’s mental illness. Since family members are often key to intervention, helping them cope is crucial to helping those with mental illness.
Avoid the trap of shame and isolation. Reach out for support and a listening ear. Avoid the trap of overprotecting your family member from the stigma of mental illness. That stigma is fast disappearing, and new medications for mental disorders are continually being researched.
Be hopeful and realistic. Many people with mental illness and multiple hospitalizations are capable of holding full-time, responsible jobs with the aid of proper medication and support.
Don’t ignore the needs of children. Although mental illness should not be the focal point in your family, share information with them suitable to their age level that can reduce their fear and anxiety.
Understand patient responsibility in recovery. A key principal in mental health treatment is patients taking personal responsibility for managing their illness. This includes medication compliance.
Take care of yourself! Maintain balance in your own life. Family members often suffer from lack of sleep, nutrition, exercise, fun, and stress management. Self-help resources can help you draw a balance between concern and detachment. Your EAP can help you find them.


Learn about the illness. Learn about the type of mental illness that affects your family member. Know its relapse warning signs so you can act early if intervention is necessary. 
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12 Critical Topics for Employee Newsletters and Internal Corporate Health News Publications

12 Critical Topics for Employee Newsletters and Internal Corporate Health News Publications:

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Employees are your company's most valuable resource, but if they are ignored and left unattended to -- meaning without effective workplace communication and reasonable personal development opportunities, then they can potentially become your organization's most at-risk explosive financial nightmare. There are many ways to attend to your employees' needs, but one of the most powerful is a workplace wellness, stress tips, productivity newsletter that they will be compelled to read, and that will find its way home where family members can read it, too. You will see why below with the list of topics shown. This sort of information is what can help employees and family members take steps to address personal issues affecting their lives.Every business organization wants its employees to work with maximum levels of productivity, while experiencing high morale, and thinking like a team--viewing themselves as part of a "corporate family." Unfortunately, this ideal picture of what executives want to can be undermined by personal problems that follow employees to work. There are ways to intervene, and of course an employee assistance program is one of them. However, you need to drive employee traffic to the EAP, and one of the best ways to do it is with a regularly disseminated workplace wellness or EAP newsletter.If you are considering an employee newsletter, here are 12 topics that continue: 12 Critical Topics for Employee Newsletters and Internal Corporate Health News Publications: 

How to Write Employee Newsletter Articles that Employees Will Delight In Reading

When authoring newsletter content, you have to have a system for generating it. If you do not, you will put your head in your hands, rub your race vigorously, and bite your lip trying to generate ideas. Things will go slow.

If you repeat this experience regularly, even if you have a monthly, bimonthly, or quarterly newsletter--it doesn't matter--you will ditch your newsletter eventually out of frustration. Authoring regular content is simply too tedious. Even I have a hard time doing it with a blog like this one because no one is paying for this content. It take more motivation.

That said, write these words on a piece of paper or a strip of 3 x 5 card.
.....or print and cut this list below. Paste it to the side of your computer screen like this:

• What
• Who
• Why
• When
• How
• Which
• Example
• Allusion
• Simile
• Metaphor
• Resource Link
• Try this
• Learn more
• Tips

Post these words where you can see them and they will keep you keep moving on your article idea--like you see here.

Does the title of the article that you are writing create energy -- mental energy -- good or bad that the reader is compelled to expel by reading further and learning more? This is critical.

For example, if I wrote an article and titled it, "Three Ways to Find 24 karat Gold in Your Trash Can Today!", you would experience energy, right? This energy is compelling and you would read the article to satiate it.

The above is an exaggeration of what you are trying to do. After reading your article title, a question should challenge your reader to explore and read more. This is a very important dynamic because you have to sell them on what you are writing and its significance to their lives. There are many distractions all around us and keeping your reader glued to the page is really an art.

I can honestly say we have accomplished this with FrontLine Employee newsletter, and one reason is how short and punchy our copy actually is. This is another secret to writing great newsletter copy. We keep the articles between 75 to 250 words. However Most are about 130-145 words. That's plenty to give employees rich content.

See the August 2018 issue right here.

If you can do it, create "How to" articles. The reason for this is, again, interest. An article with this title will have the most interest of all titles.

I really like the "how to format." This format can be created with almost any expertise that you have at this moment regarding a topic. If want to education others about anything you have great knowledge about, you can create your own "How-To" article.

Don't worry about your newsletter articles not answering every question possible. If you are short, punchy, but leave employees wanting more, you will come back to a responsive audience who will not forget what they read. 

Can you see why your human resource program, EAP or wellness center can benefit strongly from a company newsletter while you insert links to amendments that connect to wellness and other opportunities you want them to know about?

You do not need to be dramatic with your newsletter content to get noticed. Consistency is the secret...more frequency, less quantity. Hey, did you know that a monthly 2-page newsletter is 50% more content per year than a quarterly 4-page newsletter? But the 2-page r is more likely to be completely read. This is the secret to program promotion along with short punchy articles.

Can't bare to think or imagine writing a newsletter monthly. It is easy as pie with this product below because we do it for you. All you to is send or amend!

Get a nice download package of information about our editable newsletter, FrontLine Employee is found here: 

Thrill Those Who Read Your Staff Employee Newsletter

Writing employee newsletter articles is not as demanding as most people make it. A few tricks and tips is all you need to thrill your readers with content. This is easier to do that you might think.

A topic of interest must be fast reading and can't put your readership to sleep. Be careful. You can put an employee to sleep with the first sentence of an article depending on how you write it. Do not use the passive voice, which I will demonstrate below.

Articles must be practical, and they must offer useful tips that can be snatched up and used by employees or family members.

I've learned that high-impact articles are written with 80 to 250 words. After this length employees seem drop off the page or go to another article. The good news is that this is easier for you write.



Get a Free Trial to FrontLine Employee Human Resources Newsletter for Employees

I mention family members because newsletters often go home with employees or articles in them, or are forwarded to family members because of their content. (Articles on teens using pot, day care center tips, elder issues, and stress get a lot of forwards.) This engagement leads to opportunities for employees to improve wellness.

As you can see, your employee or staff newsletter put out by your human resources office can create change and help a lot of people beyond your W-2s and 1099s. Yes. Be sure make your newsletter available to part-time employees and contract employees. Why? The reason is simple: These individuals can affect your bottom line. The reason you are distributing a wellness newsletter, staff newsletter, or other type of communication vehicle that solves problems and communicates is because it helps your company. It is that simple.

Get a free trial to the only Employee or Wellness Newsletter you will ever use...that you can amend with your own internal news articles


Back to style. Don't start writing articles with the following phrase: "Have you ever wondered..." This passive voice style tires readers because the must weed through words on the page that are not linked to any topic until they finally arrive at your point! This sort of writing will lose your employees' interest. Also, please, never start an article with the phrase, "When it comes to..." These are amateurish writing styles that will destroy your readership. "When comes to stress management...etc." (Feeling sleepy?) Remember: Like I mentioned above, if your content is boring or tedious, risk to your organization will increase because employees won't read and absorb the useful content you want them to grasp.

Employee newsletters are comprised of informative tidbits. Make sure your employee newsletter includes this goal. The real key to success is the engagement of readers. You want them looking up additional resources, practicing exercises, cutting up the newsletter, and remembering the tips within the publication -- tips for dealing with employees who interrupt, act anti-social, hog all the credit, or behave is myriad of ways that demonstrate dysfunctional behavior, tension, conflict, etc.

In other words, your company newsletter is a workforce management tool! (Ok, the secret is out.)

What new information makes sense to be newsletter articles? And what is exciting to your readers? Find those things out prior to writing any article. The last thing that you want is irrelevant information.

If your employees are under stress, be sure to have stress articles regularly. You are welcome to purchase reproducible wellness tip sheets from WorkExcel.com and use them as content in your company staff or employee newsletter. Better yet of course is just get a free trial to our Frontline Employee Workplace Wellness and Productivity Newsletter.

Avoid cookie recipes in your workplace employee newsletters or other company staff newsletters. Here is the reason why: It is not helpful to the employer for you to take up valuable newsletters space with meaningless information like this. Send it another way. The same goes for jokes and paid ads from local businesses. Don't think that you need "fillers" in your newsletter to take up white space. If that is the case, you need to phone me personally at 1-800-626-4327, and let's get you started with FrontLine Employee for 3-4 months. You won't get a bill.

Some might have overlapping interests periodically in your articles. That's okay. This kind of crossed-information promotes retention of key concepts employee should hear a lot about. For example, I usually mention something about substance abuse several times per year because one out of four employees have a substance abuser in their family.

Keeping the information in your newsletter relevant as possible entails to some degree becoming an authority on various topics, but not overly authoritative. It is not advised to cram information onto your readers, keep concepts simple, and concise. Sincerity and a genuine voice will get you just as far, or further, than technical and boring jargon.

Use these steps to find interesting content:

1) Create a list of wellness and productivity keywords. Use a dictionary if you like. Let's take the words "coping with overfilled inboxes" - 

2) Google this term.

3) You will see this on your computer (this is a screen shot of what I saw):

4) Do you see the words "News"?

5) Click "News" or see "All"

6) News will bring to the most hot stuff going on with that keyword. The more simple the search the more likely you will see news that is hot. And that is your article for the company newsletter.

Are you getting this? Pay attention to what employees like about your newsletter and drift toward the article topics that seem to get the most accolades.

Free Newsletter Article for Human Resource Managers: "Reducing Aggression in Your Email Communication"

If you are like me, the first thing that comes to your mind when you hear the words "workplace violence" is a guy in a factory or some maniac coming into an office building with a gun to shoot up the place.

Indeed, that's about as bad as it gets, but violence has other dimensions to it. You can bet that any employee who does march into an office building slamming open the front doors has had some small, seemingly benign violent interchange with coworkers in the past before the "big one"  finally happened.

Everyday for example, aggressive individuals send hostile and aggressive emails. You many not think much of them, but indeed violence can start here as much as it can occur on the loading dock in a fiery exchange of words.

So what about intervention and education when comes to emails? Your employee newsletter and 

HR newsletter or staff newsletter should consider these types of stories. I have one for you to use below. Include it in your next employee or staff newsletter.

Get a free issue from us if you like and use that to include this content. I want to email me at publisher@workexcel.com and let me know if you do or don't get feedback from employees who read it, and whether or not they tell, "Hey, I am glad you send that newsletter out with that article on aggressive emails. I know some people who needed to read it.

If you don't use FrontLine Employee (get a free trial if you like) and/or paste this content into your own template. 

Please note: There is no attribution necessary for this article if you create a link on your web site somewhere that says. "Article used courtesy of WorkExcel.com with link to [  http://workexcel.com ]." You do not have to make this conspicuous or obvious to anyone. Just place it on any page where search engines crawl web sites 24 hours a day can see it. That could be almost anywhere. Your Web master will know what to do. So, the article is free and this small but highly appreciated favor will help us to keep posting new articles in the future. Thank you!

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ARTICLE TITLE:
Reducing Aggression in Your Email Communications

FREE CONTENT OF ARTICLE:
Avoid email blunders that can accidentally send the wrong message, communicate aggression, or demonstrate emotions that you do not intend to send by practicing "emotional proofing." If you are angry, upset or "PO'd", do not send an email immediately. Compose it. Walk away from it. And do something else like take a bathroom break, eat lunch, or attend to another business matter out of the room. After ten minutes or more, revisit your email. Do you still want to send what you wrote? It is more likely that you will edit your email. You'll be shocked at what you wrote, and you will want to "turn down" the emotional volume and aggressive tone within it. This emotional proofing of your communication--as opposed to grammatical proofing--allows you to remove "emotional mistakes" you would rather not send. (By the way, this works with other emotional content that you may unwittingly perceive as positive. For example, do really want to send that "love email" to the coworker down the hallway and risk being accused of harassment? Harassment is, in fact, another form of workplace violence. For extra super-emotional proofing of your communications, send your email to yourself first. Then tomorrow--that's right, the next day--read your email. It is nearly guaranteed that you will make significant changes. And you will sigh with relief that you did so.
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Free Employee Newsletter Article

FREE EMPLOYEE NEWSLETTER ARTICLE

Terms Options: 1) Free to use without attribution or copyright if you place a link on your company Web site to WorkExcel.com [http://workexcel.com]; this does wonders in the search engines, please consider! We also pay $25 courtesy fee for this link! 2) Use article and add author name in this way: "Daniel Feerst, MSW, LISW-CP" ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Water Safety for Children

Ten people per day drown in the U.S., and 20 percent are children under the age of 14. More children accidentally drown in lakes, rivers, and oceans than in pools, with younger teen boys being most at risk. Don’t underestimate drowning risk by leaving children in the water unsupervised, even if they can swim. If older children babysit, be sure they are not distracted by playful peers or other activities. No money for swim lessons? Start with free videos easily found online that show how to teach your child to tread water. Source: Centers for Disease Control

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Rationale for this article: This article will possibly save a child's life this summer. It represents the type of content your employee/staff or HR newsletter should include. Employee newsletters and staff newsletters always find their way home to spouses and partners. Hence, articles that reach out to help families with health and wellness also help employees. The life saved by this article will never be known because it never happened. So much in health and wellness and injury prevention includes this "you can't prove a negative" dynamic. No matter. Rest assured if you use this article that you taken a step to preventing tragedy. That should make you feel good indeed. Get more effective articles and let us give you a subscription to Frontline Employee -- America's only reproducible, editable, customizable, and re-nameable workplace wellness newsletter. Go here to get a subscription right now. It's free. You do not have to pay now. Pay in three months, or ignore th invoice. We're easy.

Help Employees Bounce Back After Disciplinary Actions to Reduce Risk, Lower Turnover, and Increase Productivity

No matter how well employees do their jobs, chances are they will have a corrective

interview someday with their supervisor at least once--if you're an above average worker, your chances increase that a mistake will come someday because you aren't playing it safe all the time.

As an HR manager, use your employee health, wellness, and productivity tips newsletter (I hope you are distributing your own. It's easy.) to help disciplined employees bounce back from that awful interview with the boss.

Use these tips or re-write them to fit your situation and help workers stay positive, make the needed corrections, value the feedback that came from their boss, admit their mistakes, communicate better with a supervisor in the future, head problems off early next time, and bounce back with resilience from the ego-slapped feeling of being verbally corrected -- OUCH!!!.

Consider these five tips on managing corrective interviews like a champ.

Trust your ability to succeed. Being corrected isn’t pleasant, but if you have a successful track record, a corrective interview can’t take that away. Use this knowledge to detach from feelings of dread so you can focus on what management has to say.

Remain calm. Listen and keep notes. You don’t have to refute everything you disagree with now. Consider a second appointment to raise concerns, or compose a memo to tactfully refute points raised in the meeting. Don’t try to take control of the interview away from your supervisor in a fit of emotion.

Accept reality. Corrective interviews are management tools, not disciplinary actions. They happen, and mostly for good reasons. Try to understand management’s perspective, even if you disagree. Don’t attack a supervisor for correcting your performance. Don’t hesitate to ask for clarification on what you don’t understand.

Supervisors don’t enjoy corrective interviews. Understanding that your supervisor does not take pleasure in correcting your performance can help you avoid feeling “picked on.”

If they’re right, they’re right. It is possible to leave a corrective interview thanking your supervisor for feedback. Affirm your intent to perform satisfactorily. Add your own suggestions. Cooperation demonstrates professionalism, and it will be remembered. It might also be reflected in your annual performance evaluation.

Resilience is about getting the right perspective, finding a way to step back from very uncomfortable event, and quickly doing what it takes to feel good again while retaining all the necessary lessons. There are several ways to do this.

Make up your own schedule to meet periodically with the boss. Take a list of essential functions with you on a sheet of paper and discuss how you are performing on each one. Repeat this process every three months--we are talking about a 10 minute meeting, and get feedback. Make it conversational. Don't drill your supervisor with a checklist!

To download some free newsletter content, go to Frontline Employee Download Page.

Reach Out to Families with Your Employee Newsletter Articles

From January until June, it’s a race with the family. There is only one break in six months until the end of school, so families are busy with life.

Consider topics in your employee newsletter with hard tips that they can use to help their lives be easier. Also, do not forget to mention the EAP or your company’s employee assistance program if you have one. So helping family members, and promoting the EAP can boost your utilization and program impact. When parents have teen problems, it is usually in the Spring when it gets warmer, and social activities intensify. This is when you will see more alcohol abuse, pregnancy, panic about grades, sports injuries, and life dramas. Here is an article to use. If you place this on your Web site, please give us a small back-link to WorkExcel.com

FREE ARTICLE!

Home Stretch to Higher Grades

Four months down, five to go. Is your child on track for a successful school year? If not, don’t panic – there’s plenty of time to stage a New Year comeback. Your job is to provide coaching, encouragement, and some discipline. Schoolwork can turn into meaningless drudgery when it’s not connected to real-world outcomes, so tune in to your child’s emotional triggers and find areas of interest that you can use as leverage. Defeat discouragement by breaking up the remainder of the year into manageable, short-term goals that build to your year-end goal. Demonstrate the usefulness of schoolwork by showing how skills learned in school apply to your child’s hobbies or career interests, and help your child to recognize opportunity within adversity. Build good work habits by carving out scheduled study time in 30-minute blocks with a 10-minute break between blocks. Staying on top of daily workloads will help your child avoid the stress of last-minute cramming. Make sure your child has a designated work area that’s free of distractions such as television and cell phones. Use a planner to prioritize daily assignments. If materials have a way of getting lost, spend an evening developing a good system for filing and organizing class work. Step in if your child is spending too much time on social Web sites such as Facebook.

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Help Employees Win With Their New Year's Resolutions!

True or false--employees who succeed with their New Year's resolutions will be happier and

healthier workers? Most people would guess true, generally. After all, it's simple logic.

So, why not help them by using your employee newsletter as a motivator? Of course!

Many people make New Year's resolutions - in fact 60-70% of people do according to many research studies. And for those that don't formally decide upon a New Year's resolution, you can guess that they thought about it, are thinking about it, or at least are hoping for something new and greater in the coming year. So, let's give employees what they really need and probably want--a better shot at success. Your company will reap healthier, happier, and more productive employees as a result. So, keep reading.

Personally, I like articles that delve deeper to give employees more useful content--tips and how-to's that they can apply right away and sink their teeth into the results. This was the whole point of Frontline Employee workplace wellness newsletter. That's what I promise you when you subscribe.

When it comes to New Year's resolutions, most people fail within a month or two. No surprise there. But the reason why is up for debate. After reading and studying this issue as a clinical social worker and health writer, I will tell you why: The reason is simple but insidious--I call it "inertia of non-attainment." This is a complex dynamic. Something you want and desire is juxtaposed against your experience at never having achieved or attained it yet. This inertia or experience, or rather lack of it, produces self-doubt. Simply put, it's not believable to the degree necessary to overcome the script of doubt and the negative self-talk scripts that bubble up from it.

When we try something new, we must fight our natural belief that it will be hard to accomplish or that risk of failure will may high. This mental preparation for failure is a defense mechanism to prevent the pain of disappointment. So, we tend to fight against our own desired pursuits.

This expectation or concern over failure, as natural as it might be, is a set up for failure. When it happens, secretly, we are not surprised. 

Employees or anyone else who desires to attain a valued goal is literally fighting their own negativity in order to succeed. To really succeed with a New Year's resolution or any goal that's new, valued, and exciting, one must believe in the certainty of the result. How do we get to this point. It sounds great. Imagine, not a thought of uncertainty. This is a tough assignment for one's mental willpower, but it is easier to implement than most people believe.

Here is an article to help your employees begin the process of sticking to their New Year's resolutions. You will see right away that it deals with scripts and subconscious mind in a way that penetrates these pesky things to help disintegrate negative scripts. That's the goal of this free article from Frontline Employee newsletter.

Click here to download the free article or copy the text shown below.

Title: Believe In Your New Year's Resolution

Text: There are many reasons for not accomplishing a New Year’s resolution, but one you may not fully appreciate is a lack of belief in your ability to be successful. You may want and hope to be successful with your goal, but a barely noticeable, negative self-talk script doubting your ability will make your goal elusive. Fight negative self-talk scripts, which you can assume will creep up on you, by practicing affirmations that inoculate you against them. An affirmation is a positive statement that you declare to be true and that you rehearse frequently in a manner that allows it to sink in. Think of affirmations as “software for your brain.” Assertiveness, determination, feeling that success is inevitable, quickly dismissing setbacks, and ignoring others’ negativity are critical skills in achieving any goal. A gut belief in your anticipated success, made possible by affirmations, allows these skills to carry you to the finish line.

Print the brochure for Frontline Employee.

Use Your Employee Newsletter to Connect Employees to the Community to Support Important Causes All of Us Depend Upon

Your employee newsletter is a wonderful vehicle to support community projects and organizations everyone depends on. So, a great content idea for your newsletter is stories that encourage engagement by employees and also reap the goodwill from your community.
 
Any project that supports first-responders like police officers is a good one to consider. I am not talking about encouraging donations to non-profit groups. That would not fly very well in a staff newsletter or other employee newsletter. Instead, I am talking about fun runs, symbols of support, and the like.

Let's discuss it. Although community policing is often controversial in the news, we know that everyone one depends the cops. It is the thin blue line between communities and anarchy.

One project that is celebrated every year but rarely discussed in the news--and I bet you do not know about it--is Project Blue Light. This is

good employee newsletter article (see below) and one for your company newsletter to mention, especially during this time of year when it actually gets publicity. Even major news outlets like CNN will probably not mention it, so you will naturally look like a genius if you do. That's just a bonus! :) -- Also, don't hesitate to contact major media outlets in your town or fax a memorandum to your local radio or television station that you are encouraging employees to participate in the following. I guarantee there is a strong likelihood that you will get free publicity.

So, let's talk about PROJECT BLUE LIGHT.

During the holidays, the idea is to put a blue light in your window as a tribute to police officers and law enforcement officials who have given their lives in the line of duty. Over 32,000 people in the United States right now have a missing family member because of an officer who was killed in the line of duty. Many are children.

In honor of this ultimate sacrifice, here is an article below for your employee newsletter during the holiday season.

If you can, please place a link to [ http://workexcel.com ] someplace on your web site that will create a back link to our home Web site. It does not need to be conspicuous or obvious. Then, when search engines like Google "crawl" your Web site, they will see it, it this increases our authority. In turn, this will help us be more recognized and allow us to continue this blog to your benefit. Thank you in advance. Your IT web master knows how to do this.
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Article for Free Use:
Project Blue Light is observed nationally every year to serve as a memorial to fallen law enforcement officers. Project Blue Light asks communities to display blue lights throughout the month of December to acknowledge and show their respect for those whose lives have been lost in the line of duty. By participating in this annual campaign, communities are able to show their appreciation and provide encouragement to the dedicated men and women who patrol the streets every day. Project Blue Light started in 1989 after Mrs. Dolly Craig decided to put two blue lights in her window during the holidays to honor her son-in-law, a Philadelphia police officer killed in the line of duty, and his widow, her daughter, who had recently been killed in a car accident. Learn more at: https://nationalcops.org
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To obtain your own easy, editable, web-usable internal staff newsletter that you edit, amend, delete, re-name,  (the same exact one used by the U.S. Senate of the United States, State of New York, and places like the Seattle School District, and others..) go to this link: http://www.workexcel.com/content/lp/frontline-employee.html

Use Employee Newsletters to Discuss Productivity Laws for Impact and for Kicks

Have you heard of Parkinson's Law? It was first coined by British author and historian C.

Northcote Parkinson, writing for The Economist in 1955.

The law states that "work expands to fill the time available for its completion.” Have you experienced this phenomenon?

A better question is have you seen employees who are given an assignment with plenty of time to complete it, but still manage to only get it to you barely on time, or even late? This is the Parkinson's Law in action.

Your employee newsletter is a magical tool to educate employees about productivity principles like this one within a workplace wellness context. Improving productivity, reducing stress, sharing the information with others, and having a chuckle or two are exciting reasons to educate your employees about productivity laws that cleverly (more so than others) define our lives. 

A bit of research on productivity laws discovers that there are actually nine different productivity laws commonly cited in time management literature and personnel management training. You've heard of Murphy's Law. It happens to be one of these nine.

In the future, I will share more about these laws of cause and effect with you, but the employee newsletter article idea I would like to recommend is composing a simple article on this topic right now. Make it about 100-120 word range. Remember, it is my recommendation that you never have employee newsletter articles that extend beyond 250 words, and keep most in the range of 120-150 words.

When you research these productivity laws, you can make a strong impact with your employees as I have done here taken from a newsletter article I wrote several years ago.

Have you heard of Parkinson's Law? Simply stated, the law states that "work expands to fill the time available for its completion.”  That’s the observation made by the British author and historian C. Northcote Parkinson, writing for The Economist in 1955. The few who are able to overcome this productivity-killing phenomenon are able to work so efficiently that they seem to have magical powers. Here’s how to join this elite group: Shorten the amount of time required to complete a task and correspondingly increase the urgency of completion by promising it sooner. You will develop more efficient work habits with this intervention, and you will find more free time in your life that you struggle to find right now. A simple way to work with this principle is to take a kitchen time and set it for say, thirty minutes and tell yourself you will finish a project before the bell goes off. The move to your next task and repeat the strategy.
Subscribe to Frontline Employee -- a newsletter you can distribute to the workforce, rename and call your own, and  finally have an on-time, highly visible EAP newsletter for improved utilization and program preservation.

Don't Forget to Mention Your Company's Employee Assistance Program in Your Company Newsletter

Does your company have an employee assistance program? An EAP is a  structured approach to managing troubled employees whose personal problems may affect job performance. EAPs are strictly confidential so the attract the most at-risk employees to seek help for personal problems. EAPs are free, company-hosted, and because they address substance abuse issues, are often governed by federal drug and alcohol confidentially laws. Assurances are given to employees that use of the program will not interfere with an employee's job security, promotional opportunities, or job duties. EAPs however are not a "safe harbor" from disciplinary actions.

EAPs, in their most viable and cost-benefiting form, reduce risk-exposures associated with a broad range of employee and supervisory behaviors.

EAPs follow the "EAP Core Technology." These elements were first conceived in the mid-1980's as a set of activities or foundational services that are unique to the Employee Assistance Program industry, and which set EAPs apart from all other professions.

You may be very aware of your organization's employee assistance program if you work for  a large work organization with an EAP Director who is very visible throughout the organization. This is the traditional EAP model as it was originally conceived--and it arguable the most effective  Or, you EAP (may be a hotline found on the back of your company insurance card.

Nevertheless, make periodic mention of your organization's employee assistance program in your internal company newsletter, or employee newsletter for the sake of increasing program utilization, encouraging employees and their families to use the program, and reducing risk to the organization.

In your employee newsletter, discuss confidentiality regularly, how to access to the EAP, types of problems for which employees can get help, fees, etc. You EAP may be only an 800# on the back of the company insurance card. (This is unfortunate, but begin training and educating employees as to the importance of seeking help for personal problems.

How to Find Newsletter Articles on Hot Topics

When I need to author an article on a hot topic, googling usually leads me to a bunch of web sites that won't do much good. What's better are news articles that are hours old or press releases that actually are meant to be copied and inserted into news publications like you internal company newsletter. Here are the steps for doing this successfully. There are only two.

1. Google the general term you are looking for. Example "Being More Tolerant in the Workplace"

2. Click on the news tab you will see at the top of the page under the browser button. See image below.

3. When you click news, you will begin to see very recent news articles, and even press releases.

Here are the finds. Try it yourself. But as you can see above, there is one that says "How to Encourage Workplace Tolerance." You can get your ideas there. Also, try "press release" (use the quote marks!) and combine that with the key word. Let's try it "Press Release" + How to Be More Tolerant of People in the Workplace ........and the results are below.

See the article on Neurodiversity. Wow, I am going to use this in the next issue of Frontline Employee (brochure.)This subject discusses people with different intellectual capabilities and cooperating with different levels of those abilities in the modern workplace. See? You have a nice path to a great article there. If you do not see a press release (ah shucks), simply create a quick outline What, Why, Who, When, Where, How, and formulate an article around it. You will do fine with just a little practice.

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