NEBA August 2015 Newsletter

NEW ENGLAND BUS ASSOCIATION

ISSUE 08/ AUGUST 2015

NEBA MONTHLY NEWS & INFORMATION YOU NEED.

American Express Survey

Finds Travelers Want

4 Reasons to Switch to

Cloud Accounting Unveiling the Brand New

BusRates.com Veterans becoming bus Drivers

in record numbers

High-Tech High-Touch

VETERANS TRANSITION INTO CIVILIAN JOBS AS COMMERCIAL TRUCK AND BUS DRIVERS IN RECORD NUMBERS THROUGH USDOT/FMCSA PROGRAM/

AMID NEW OVERTIME RULES, MORE EMPLOYERS MIGHT SET EMAIL CURFEW/

The buzzing phone or ding of an email from the bedside table might be standard these...

More than 10,000 veterans and active duty personnel have now taken advantage of the...

TRUCK-DRIVING SCHOOL TARGETING RUSSIAN SPEAKERS BUSTED FOR ILLEGAL LICENSING, FEDS SAY/

DON’T UNDERESTIMATE THE POWER OF SOCIAL MEDIA TO CHANGE TRAVEL PLANS/

More than a one third (34%) of travelers have changed their plans after seeing a post on...

UNVEILING THE BRAND NEW BUSRATES.COM/

Authorities say they’ve uncovered an illegal commercial-drivers-license...

The charter bus and group travel directory BusRates.com has been overhauled to affirm...

4 REASONS TO SWITCH TO CLOUD ACCOUNTING/

5 SUREFIRE WAYS TO MAKE CONFLICT WORSE/

Cloud accounting, also known as “online accounting” is the process of using computer...

There are opportunities every day to engage in some form of conflict. Someone...

JUST HEARING YOUR PHONE BUZZ HURTS YOUR PRODUCTIVITY/

By now we know that we’re (mostly) not supposed to multitask — that we can’t do...

AMERICAN EXPRESS SURVEY FINDS TRAVELERS WANT HIGH-TECH, HIGHTOUCH/

American Express Travel, which is celebrating 100 years of service this month, unveiled...

WILL MILLENNIALS CHANGE THE WORKPLACE FOR THE BETTER?/

This year, millennials will reach a major milestone, surpassing baby boomers and Gen Xers...

RETAILERS MUST ADJUST TO FRAUD’S FASTER PACE/

In today’s fast-paced, digital age, when smartphones are “outdated” six months after...

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Secretary’s Message Where has the summer gone. It has gone quickly for me. I can see companies hurrying to get there equipment ready for the new school year. I see we still have the same common issues “ a lack of drivers”.

Many are saying that if you do not have a well planned training program, you will not have enough drivers to steer your vehicles down the road. You still have time to put your plan into action. I refer you to the article in this edition that talks about hiring veterans, please read this informative article.

Just some housekeeping issues; Still working on locations for 2016 & 2017. I will very shortly place several locations in front of the board for their approval.

We are about 75 % complete with our renewal of dues. At the same time we have some new members.

I will share these in the Sept. edition. Now for the 25%, and you know who you are, I will send out one more notice requesting the dues be paid, thereafter if the dues are not paid you will be removed from all

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mailing and communication lists. Our dues have been kept at an affordable level, please remit them.

At this writing we are about to say good bye for now to one of our members. William “ Peter” Wilson, of Wilson Bus Templeton MA., who we lost on July 31, 2015. New England Bus Assoc. members wants the Wilson family and their employees to know, that Peter will sadly missed and extends it’s hand out if we may be of assistance at anytime. On a personal note, I will miss Peter’s knowledge and expertise regarding our industry. He was my go to guy when I had questions about “ how to repair a coach. Thanks for all my great memories.

Continue to have a great summer......Please drive carefully..........And as always if we can be of assistance, please contact Gregg or myself or any of the other Board Members.

Mitch Guralnick

Chairman’s Message For all Coach Operators planning on sending buses to Philadelphia for the Papal visit I have attached some road restrictions that may be of interest to you. This will be an epic event with many challenges, please make sure you are prepared.

Safe travels.

Gregg Isherwood - President New England Bus Association

Listed below are the traffic alerts for the Papal Visit: MAJOR HIGHWAYS The following highway closures will start at 10 p.m. on Friday, September 25th: *I-76 ea stbound from I-476 to I-95 *I-76 westbound from I-95 to US Route 1 *I-676 will be closed in both directions from I-76 to I-95 *US Route 1 will be closed in both directions from US Route 30 to Belmont Avenue, because Pope Francis is staying at Saint Charles Borromeo Seminary. *I-95 WILL REMAIN OPEN with selected ramps closed

BEN FRANKLIN BRIDGE

Fellow Members of the New England Bus Association. I would like to introduce myself to those that may not know me. As of our annual meeting, I moved from the position of Vice President of our association to President for the next two years. It is with great pleasure that I serve all of you. I am the President of Custom Coach and Limousine in Portland ME. We had a great annual meeting in June and expect to even have a better meeting in 2016. We are working as of this writing to finalize our plans. I will be reporting back to you in the Sept. Edition of this newsletter with dates and locations. The board will be given some information on several possible locations and we will choose one that we believe will be the best location of our next meeting.

Until then, please continue to have a great summer. If for some reason you want to contact me, please feel free to, my contact information is in the directory or E mail at gisherwood@ customcoachandlimo.com Safe travels, Gregg Isherwood President New England Bus Association

*The Ben Franklin bridge will also close to vehicular traffic on Friday, September 25th at 10 p.m. until 12 p.m. on Monday, September 28th. The only vehicles allowed will be emergency vehicles. *The bridge will be used as a pedestrian crossing.

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Transition into Civilian Jobs

Veterans Transition into Civilian Jobs as Commercial Truck and Bus Drivers in Record Numbers through USDOT/FMCSA Program 6

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More than 10,000 veterans and active duty personnel have now taken advantage of the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) Military Skills Test Waiver Program. In the first three years of the Military Skills Test Waiver Program, approximately 6,000 former military personnel obtained a civilian commercial driver’s license (CDL). In the past 12 months alone, another 4,000 individuals, including Reserves, National Guard, and U.S. Coast Guard service members, have taken advantage of the Program.

“It is our duty to help returning veterans transition into civilian life,

and I am proud that so many have used this program to secure careers in the transportation sector,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx. “Just as important, we want to put their valuable skills and experience to work driving the Nations’ economy.”

The Military Skills Test Waiver Program, which began in 2011, grants state licensing agencies, including the District of Columbia, the authority to waive the skills test portion of the CDL application for active duty or recently separated veterans who possess at least two years of safe driving experience operating a military truck or bus.

Waiving the skills test expedites the

civilian CDL application process and reduces expenses for qualified individuals and operating costs to state licensing agencies.

“In the near future, the need for skilled truck drivers is expected to grow dramatically,” said FMCSA Chief Counsel Scott Darling. “Having skillful and experienced drivers operating on our roadways will lead to increased safety for every member of the motoring public.”

The USDOT/FMCSA Military Skills Test Waiver Program has been conducted in close cooperation with the Department of Defense and the

American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators (AAMVA).

Additional information, including a standardized application form accepted in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, is available at: http:// www.fmcsa.dot.gov/registration/ commercial-drivers-license/military.

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9

Illegal Licensing

Truck-driving school targ busted for illegal licensin 10 www.greenazine.com

geting Russian speakers ng, feds say www.greenazine.com

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Authorities say they’ve uncovered an illegal commercial-drivers-license scheme that helped more than 600 people get Florida licenses without proper training — or in most cases, without being able to understand English.

Many of the students were Russian-speaking immigrants living in New York, Illinois, California and Virginia, according to federal-court documents.

Most found out about the commercial license training through a now-defunct website — russiantruckingschool.com — and then traveled to Florida with plans to get the license and use it back in their home state, according to federal-court documents.

Authorities said it only took a few days to get a license through the school and usually cost $2,000 to $5,000.

A typical truck-driving school lasts three or four weeks and costs at least $6,000, authorities said.

Four people allegedly connected to the school, operating under the name Larex Inc., were indicted July 1 on federal charges including conspiracy to aid and abet the unlawful production of Florida driver licenses, according to a statement by the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

If convicted, Ellariy Medvednik, 48, Natalia Dontsova, 49, Adrian Salari, 44, and Clarence Davis, 76, are each facing up to 30 years in federal prison.

Court documents identify Medvednik as “the boss,” with Dontsova and Salari working under him at the school.

Davis is an independent commercial-drivers-license tester who acknowledged to agents that he accepted “tips” from Medvednik and passed several students who could hardly speak English.

Federal investigators started looking into the school in June 2013 after the Orange County Tax Collector’s Office noticed that numerous people had applied for a CDL using the same address: a home on Safflower Terrace in Oviedo.

In total, authorities found more than 600 people used other Central Florida addresses tied to Larex or one of its employees. Authorities say many of those people never stayed at nor had ever been to the

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addresses they used.

In January, a confidential informant posing as a Russian speaker from out of state contacted Larex about getting a commercial drivers license, the documents state. He then went to the school in March, meeting first with Salari at a “training facility” in a parking lot off Ferguson Drive in Orlando.

The informant, who was often wearing recording equipment, said Salari immediately handed him several documents, including a forged certification of residency, so he could transfer his out-of-state drivers license to Florida.

After little training, he met with Dontsova, who prepped him for a written test by wiring him with an earpiece, hidden microphone and secret cellphone, the documents state.

With Dontsova reading him answers to every question from copies she had on her computer, authorities said the informant passed the exam faster than the average person.

The informant told agents he noticed most of the other students were originally from Moldova and spoke English poorly, if at all.

He later learned that Medvednik hired Salari after giving him unspecified “collateral things to do unrelated to the CDL training.”

In May, federal agents raided several properties and interviewed Medvednik and his employees, along with several Larex students. Many had conflicting statements and stories that didn’t match with what the informant saw, according to the documents.

Medvednik told agents that students would memorize a speech in English to read to the CDL tester during their driving exam, the documents state. He said the tester wouldn’t ask the students any questions, so they didn’t need to understand any English.

Medvednik and Dontsova are scheduled to appear Friday in federal court.

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Cloud Accounting

4 Reasons to Switch to C 14 www.greenazine.com

Cloud Accounting www.greenazine.com

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Cloud accounting, also known as “online accounting” is the process of using computer hardware and software applications to do accounting online. Data is sent to the Cloud (the Internet, essentially), where it is processed and returned to the user. There are many benefits to Cloud accounting; here are four reasons why you should consider switching to Cloud accounting:

1. Removes the Constant Pile of Paperwork Instead of having to deal with all that paperwork, everything is stored in Cloud services and apps. This enables you to utilize paperless work flow management and file storage. You are emailed invoices which are then electronically are put into a processing queue, which are then approved and the payment process is managed online.

This means businesses spend less time finding and filing documents. Apps on our smartphones are used to capture images of your receipts which are then automatically put into the companies accounting system. This means there is no constant hassle of having to remember and store all your receipts. You can also update bookkeeping information in real-time, which allows accountants to better communicate with their clients, which means everything is always up to date.

Moving on to smartphones means that we are getting rid of the constant demand for paper, constituting to a greener business overall.

Will Farnell of Farnell Clarke accountants in Norwich said, “As one of the early adopters of Kashflow, we’ve seen a huge rise in interest in businesses switching to cloud accounting. More and more companies are seeing the benefits.”

2. Ability to Access Financial Information Anytime, Anywhere This is so beneficial for businesses that are constantly on the move, meaning that a few taps on their smartphones can make a world of difference. They can find out information such as; a summary of financial statements and cash flow analysis 24/7 wherever they are in the world; as long as you have an internet connection.

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This is so beneficial for businesses that are constantly on the move, meaning that a few taps on their smartphones can make a world of difference. They can find out information such as; a summary of financial statements and cash flow analysis 24/7 wherever they are in the world.

3. Access Your “True Cashflow” This means you constantly know exactly what’s going on with your money. Cloud accounting means you can see how much money you have, where your money is going, who you owe money to, and who owes you money. Knowing your “true cashflow” gives you confidence to make the right decisions for you or your business.

4. Reduce the Risk of Fraud or Embezzlement Having all this important information all protected online means there are less chances of fraud or embezzlement. The winner in this technological transition are small businesses which don’t have manpower systems or know how to ensure that proper internal controls in place to protect against theft. Online bill paying allows for multiple approvers with a click of a button.

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In regards to the Motorcoach Marketing program, we love it. So far, we have made the 1000 postcards, and we did some full page handouts. We just got a stand up banner.

When I get some time, I’ll be making new rack cards for both offices. We made 500 church theme postcards and 500 in the safety theme.

We sent out the church cards through a local mailing company to every church within 50 miles. So far, we have had a great response and 4-5 people booked trips from it. I plan on using the safety ones soon by sending them to our new customers. All of our staff and drivers love the modern design and the finished products. Only one of my staff has watched the videos so far, but we will be working on that next month. So far I’m very happy with the service. It works well and looks great!

Chris Knittel

Owner/General Manager New Mexico Texas Coaches, LLC

We Help Operators Sell More Charters To More People.

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Email Curfew

Amid New Overtime Rules, More Employers Might Set Email Curfew The buzzing phone or ding of an email from the bedside table might be standard these days. But a longawaited proposal that would increase the number of employees eligible for overtime pay could mean more companies curtailing the use of work email after hours.

salary came with expectations.

When Nicholas Castillo was hired as a bank branch manager several years ago, he was told his $30,000

Castillo took this to heart, routinely working 50 or 60 hours a week, without overtime pay. His wife grew to

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“My manager had told me, ‘You’re on salary pay.’ And she said, basically, ‘You are required to work more than the normal hours because you are on salaried pay,’ “ Castillo says.

hate how often he checked his email on nights and weekends when he was at dinner or the movies with his family.

“She would tell me, ‘Can you put your phone down?’ I would say, ‘Baby, I’m sorry, I have to do this real quick.

This is work; if I don’t work, I don’t get money. I have to do this,’ “ he says. “And it becomes an issue where it’s like, who do I disappoint? The one who pays me, or

the one, that, you know, that I live with.”

Under the current rule, most workers are no longer eligible for overtime once their salary exceeds $23,660 a year. President Obama’s proposal would more than double that threshold to just over $50,000. And that would increase the number of workers eligible for overtime by about 5 million.

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Lee Rainie, director of Internet, science and technology research at the Pew Research Center, says the rules won’t affect all workers in the same way.

Raising the salary threshold might lead employers to convert more of their salaried managers to hourly pay.

And that, in turn, would mean those workers could start claiming overtime for checking email during off hours.

“Two-thirds of all American adults have smartphones.

The vast majority of office workers and many workingclass workers also have smartphones,” he says. “So these are now issues that involve lots more jobs than they used to.”

Take California. A decade ago, the state adopted overtime rules similar to what Obama is proposing federally.

Brenda Rushforth, who heads human resources for Pomona College in Claremont, Calif., says those changes to the state’s rules prompted a clampdown at the private school.

“We had to budget overtime in a more strict manner,” she says.

Pomona adopted an email policy limiting hourly workers’ access to email.

“They are instructed to not download email to their personal devices. And they are not supposed to be on email after hours,” she adds, to avoid having to pay workers overtime.

“Because here in California, even if you read the email — doesn’t mean you have to respond to it — ... now you’re working,” she says.

Indeed, more companies are taking similar steps.

Neil Boyd, a management professor at Bucknell University, says the higher overtime salary threshold will prompt some large companies to shut down email servers. Others may simply ban their hourly staff from checking it during off hours.

“I think the No. 1 motivation is clearly going to be labor costs,” he says.

But, Boyd says, an after-hours email ban could create logistical challenges for businesses as well.

“It’s gonna be difficult to monitor, I think. What parts of the email are for business? Are there any kind of 20 www.greenazine.com

personal parts to this? It’s going to create an interesting landscape, I think, to say the least,” he says.

Some companies that have already curbed after-hours email did so for reasons having nothing to do with overtime regulations.

Dan Calista is CEO of Vynamic, a health care industry consultancy that adopted what it calls “zmail.”

The firm shuts email down on weekends, and between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. on weekdays. He says zmail now has its own rules and lingo.

Calista says limiting email has increased productivity and happiness because employees are just better rested.

“A ‘zbomb’ is a thought-provoking email that shows up at the last possible minute,” he says, “and is a terminology that we could say, ‘Hey, you sent me a zbomb there last night.’ “

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Travel Plans

Don’t underestimate the to change travel plans

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e power of social media More than a one third (34%) of travelers have changed their plans after seeing a post on social media, according to a study by Social Media Link.

The study, conducted in May among the agency’s Smiley360 community of social consumers who try and review products and services, revealed that 52% of participants have changed hotel plans after seeing social media posts.

Out of the 26,663 respondents, nearly half (49%) said they’ve altered travel activities based on social media posts, and 42% have changed restaurant reservations. Word-of-mouth still reigns supreme, however, with 51% of participants saying that’s how they like to get ideas about where to go, stay, and eat on trips.

With travelers no longer making rigid vacation plans and being influenced by social media, Social Media Link is calling this phenomenon Fickle Traveler Syndrome.

Sue Frech, cofounder and CEO of Social Media Link, said that marketers need to focus on the long-term relationships they can build with travel consumers, rather than promoting one deal and ending the conversation.

“Marketers should realize that they can still impact that decision when it comes to travel choices up to the last minute,” she explained. “They should really think about that decision the consumer makes from the time they make it to the time they’re actually on their trip because that’s impacting other people.”

Not only are travelers looking at social channels to get ideas, they’re also posting on their own, with 94% saying they chronicle their vacations on Facebook with photos. Instagram comes in second place at 45%, while 25% of survey respondents said they post about their trips on Twitter. www.greenazine.com

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More than 40% of travelers also post about their vacations multiple times a day, the study found.

More than 40% of travelers also post about their vacations multiple times a day, the study found.

Frech added that travel brands need to listen to consumers who are already talking about their companies on social media and then turn them into advocates. If a consumer mentions a specific airline or hotel on social, that respective brand should listen, follow, and engage with the traveler, she said.

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Setra - a brand of Daimler AG

Don’t be fooled by its pretty face

Once again, Setra has raised the benchmark in the North American luxury motorcoach segment, with over 30 innovations in design, passenger and driver comfort, safety and environmental efficiencies. Daimler’s new, unique Front Collision Guard (FCG), for instance, is a passive safety system engineered to protect the driver and tour guide in the case of a frontal impact. Experience the all-new Setra TopClass S 417. From Daimler Buses North America, the worldwide leading manufacturer of buses and motorcoaches.

Motor Coach Industries 1700 East Golf Road, Suite 300 · Schaumburg, Illinois 60173 · Phone 866-624-2622 Distributor of EvoBus GmbH for Setra buses and Setra parts in the United States and Canada

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Brand New BusRates.com

Unveiling the Brand New BusRates.com ®

The charter bus and group travel directory BusRates.com has been overhauled to affirm its position on the forefront of online tour and travel planning. A multitude of new features aim to increase accessibility by group planners, making the directory a “one-stop shop” for charter itinerary creation.New functionality and customization also gives operators more value in efficiency and quality of potential charter leads.

The enhanced version of BusRates. com is more accessible across a variety of devices, including tablets, smartphones, and personal computers. The responsive design increases usability and helps make it even easier for group planners to contact the listed operators and travel partners in the BusRates.com directory.BusRates.com had 1.2 million visits in 2014 and continues to break those records, currently receiving more than 110,000 visits per month.

Eric Elliott, general manager of BusRates.com,is pleased to announce further developments 26 www.greenazine.com

to help charter operators including integration with Distinctive Systems’ Coach Manager and Relational Bus Systems GoChartprograms. Leads received from BusRates.com will automatically be transferred to the charter management software to increase efficiency and help operators better track returns from groups who find their business on BusRates.com.

Enhanced customization of operator profiles has also been implemented, allowing motorcoach operators to highlight receptive and tour operator services in addition to charters.“The improved listing setup allows operators to quickly add new buses, features and amenities that operators have added to their fleets.

The goal of this redesign was that we wanted to give our customers a higher level of service and more value.” explained Elliott.

Social media continues to provide new ways to connect with potential customers, as BusRates.com has expanded beyond Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to include Instagram, Google+ and Pinterest profiles that

operators can add to their profiles as part of the Expansion Suite. Other ways to visually differentiate and express the value of each operator are available in adding up to six additional photos, two marketing brochures, and a longer description of company services, including video. The site has kept costs down for these value add-ons at an affordable $15 per month for all options available in the Expansion Suite.

The website now features a renovated “My Account” area where operators can access detailed reports, manage and respond to customer reviews,update company and profile information and request add-ons and new listing locations. Customers can alsobid for placement to position their listings within major markets for opportune visibility.

Elliott also said that BusRates.com has improved the way that userscan create detailed trip itineraries.

Secondary searches include group-friendly hotels, restaurants, attractions, and events. A retooled

and streamlined method of itinerary creation makes discovery of these travel partners easier than before.

“As customers peruse bus operator listings, they are also presented with travel partners for consideration,” he said. “During the checkout process, we remind them to plan the whole trip at once; including hotels, restaurants, attractions, and events that relate to their final destination.”

includes a growing Group Travel Resource section, full of educational materials related to planning and orchestrating group travel. Tutorials teach customers how to navigate and understand the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration SAFER systems to help them evaluate the safety of carriers. It also provides other tips and tricks to assist users in getting the best group travel experience possible.

In order to provide additional value to novice and professional group leaders, the upgraded website also

BusRates.com was launched in 2005 as a charter bus operator database, providing free and easy-to-use

charter information for consumers and group travel planners, and as an economical venue for bus owners to promote their services. In June 2011, BusRates.com expanded its directory, adding listings for hotels, restaurants, attractions, events, and other group activities to create an all-encompassing resource for group travel planners. It’s most recent overhaul in July 2015 streamlines all aspects of the website and represents a major improvement for end users, facilitating direct contact between group leaders and the motorcoach operators that best fit their needs.

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Make Conflict Worse

5 Surefire Ways To Make Co 28 www.greenazine.com

onflict Worse

For some reason it is easier for me to describe what to avoid, rather than how to creatively deal with conflict.

Probably because I’m thinking of all the times I made a mess of things.

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There are opportunities every day to engage in some form of conflict. Someone cuts you off while driving.

The customer service rep on the phone gives you the runaround. Your coworker undermines you in a meeting. A friend lets you down on a promise made.

Want To De-Escalate Conflict? Don’t Do These Things.

For some reason it is easier for me to describe what to avoid, rather than how to creatively deal with conflict.

Probably because I’m thinking of all the times I made a mess of things.

Blame I’m working to let go of being incensed at someone who owes me money. Someone who has been stringing me along. For months. The real truth is that I didn’t get enough in writing. And from the beginning something didn’t feel right. I was naive in my trust.

I read somewhere recently the vehemence of our blame is often in direct correlation to our own lack of responsibility. When I face my part, I calm down.

Jump To Conclusions A colleague in the financial industry gave me this permission to share his story. He emailed someone in his firm to initiate a trade. Later when he checked, he didn’t see the trade had happened. He asked about it via email. The response was “I resent that email.” He wrote a few paragraphs putting the person in his place.

Then he got, “I mean I re-sent your trade request,” as in “sent again.” Someone earned a hand-written apology and a night on the town. My colleague learned many things, among them, don’t assume the worst, and check before going ballistic.

Act From Entitlement I’m sure many of us can relate to this, particularly when driving. For instance, it’s difficult to tell someone doesn’t see us when they cut us off. Or if they feel entitled to take “our” parking spot.

I heard author, coach and inspirational speaker, Iyanla Vanzant, was involved in a car accident once. Another woman involved in the accident was verbally berating her. Iyanla calmly responded, “What have I done that makes you think you can talk to me like that?” Indeed.

I know I can learn from both sides of this example.

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Carry A Chip On Your Shoulder Several years ago, while conducting sexual harassment prevention training, one attendee was working very hard at not participating. He slumped in his seat, arms crossed, wearing mirrored sunglasses. Something finally prompted him to speak. I don’t even remember what he said, but he was ready for a fight. I told him he was right. I didn’t even have to work to make him right.

That’s a great way to de-escalate conflict, but this was no stretch for me in this case. He said another version of what he started with. I told him again how he was right. He wanted to argue so much he couldn’t take it in that I agreed with him.

The entire 4 hours we spent together I wondered how much energy it took to “not participate.” That chip must have been heavy. How heavy is yours?

Swerve Into The Other Person’s Lane This is my personal favorite because it’s my biggest temptation. I regularly receive well-crafted emails that I consider the equivalent of a cold call. A few days ago a woman wrote me asking about my services, as if she could be a potential client, but she was a little vague in her request. I had a feeling something wasn’t right.

When I asked her what she was looking for precisely she responded that she had read one of my recent blog posts and even quoted from it. She went on to try to sell me exactly what I already do. I wanted to tear that email apart with all the assumptions she had made, and how she had not done her homework. But… not my job. I have more constructive things to do.

Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional.

Haruki Murakami So, when you think about dealing with conflict, here’s what I can offer. Be a leader, rise above the fray and don’t do the things I listed here today.

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31

Phone Buzz

Just Hearing Your Phone Bu By now we know that we’re (mostly) not supposed to multitask — that we can’t do two things at once very well and that it takes us a while to refocus when we switch from one task to another. This is why we put our phones screen-side down and slightly out of reach when we want to focus on something or show someone that we’re paying attention.

But unless your phone is fully silenced or off, it’s probably still distracting you. The familiar buzz buzz of a new notification is not as innocuous as it seems.

This may sound intuitive. But many people (including myself) might not realize just how beneficial switching from vibrate to silent can be. A new piece of research, “The Attentional Cost of Receiving a Cell Phone Notification,” reports that the reverberations of new notifications can distract us, even when we don’t look over to see what they could be. It found that just being aware of an alert can hurt people’s performance on an attention-demanding task.

The authors, Cary Stothart, Ainsley Mitchum, and Courtney Yehnert of Florida State University, became interested in the impact of these notifications after noticing that they themselves got distracted by them.

“If we were driving and we felt a vibration for a phone call, that led us to think about the source of that call — who it could be, what the message was,” Stothart told me.

They knew from the literature on distracted driving that talking on the phone causes a cognitive load, which means it requires a certain amount of mental effort and working memory. Multitasking, for example, imposes a heavy cognitive load and hurts performance on a task, because our mental resources are finite and have to be allotted to discrete tasks. That’s why you’re not

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supposed to talk on the phone or text while you’re driving, and why many campaigns urge drivers to wait to respond until they’re no longer behind the wheel.

This led the authors to think that an alert or notification could also cause cognitive load, because that buzzing might make you wonder about the content or source of the message. So even if you wait to respond until you finish what you’re working on, the fact that you’re aware of something waiting for you could be enough of a distraction to make you perform worse than you would had you not received a notification.

In 2013, they recruited 212 undergraduate students at FSU to participate in an experiment. The students would come to their lab, provide their phone numbers, emails, and other information, and then complete a Sustained Attention to Response Task (SART). This measures sustained attention, or your ability to focus on one task without drifting off and thinking about something else. The task had students press a key any time a number flashed on a computer screen, unless that number was “3.” They did this for about 10 minutes — this was the first “block” of the task that gave researchers a measure of baseline performance —and then they had a minutelong break. Meanwhile, a computer had randomly assigned participants to one of three groups. So after the break, one-third of participants started receiving text messages as they completed the SART a second time (the second block), while one-third received phone calls, and another third served as a control and didn’t get anything.

Participants completed the experiment individually, with one experimenter in the room to note if anyone actually took out his or her phone. Since the researchers were

uzz Hurts Your Productivity

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only interested in how the knowledge of receiving a notification affected performance, they excluded people who interacted with their phones from the analysis. The experimenter didn’t know beforehand which people would get notifications, as a computer sent those out randomly.

The students weren’t told to leave their phones out or unsilenced or anything, but they were asked afterward if they had heard or felt the notifications. Stothart said that because people were divided into groups randomly, they could assume an approximately equal number of people had their cell phones, didn’t have their cell phones, or had them on silent — so the researchers were confident in looking at the main differences in performance among groups.

They measured performance by looking at the number of commission errors (someone pressed a key for “3” when they weren’t supposed to) during both blocks of the task and across the groups.

These errors are analogous to action slips — so for example, say you’re writing an email to your colleague explaining next steps for a project, and you accidentally type “pizza” instead of “plans” because you suddenly thought about lunch. That’s an action slip. According to Stothart, when they compared the first block of the task to the second block, the probability of making an error increased by 28% in the group that received phone calls. For the group who got text messages, they made 23% more errors than they did during the first half of the experiment. And the group who received no notifications made 7% more errors. “That comes, we think, just from task fatigue,” Stothart said. “So if you’re doing this tedious task for a while, your performance declines regardless of whether or not you receive notifications.”

Were these results statistically significant? Short answer: Yes. Long answer: When the researchers looked at the relationship between block and group, they found that the percent change between blocks was greater for participants who received notifications, compared to participants who didn’t, and this was statistically significant at the 0.05 level. However, they didn’t find any significant difference in errors between people who received phone calls and people who received texts.

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So basically, just having your phone near you can distract you and negatively affect your work performance. And this distraction-by-notification might even be comparable to interacting with your phone. Stothart said that in terms of effect size, their results were consistent with those of the distracted driving literature, which has looked at the effects of texting or talking on the phone (interacting) while driving. But what they weren’t able to pinpoint was what was actually behind the distraction.

“We think that the mechanism behind the distraction from knowing that you received a notification is mind wandering, but we haven’t actually looked at that in our study,” Stothart said.

“It could just be prospective memory, or knowing that you need to do something in the future, that impacts performance. So the next step for us is to disentangle that — to actually determine if the mechanism behind our effect is mind wandering or something else.”

Regardless, if you want to stave off distraction and be able to perform a task at your very best, the researchers say it couldn’t hurt to put your phone on silent, or hide it so that you can’t hear, feel, or see any notifications. Maybe this isn’t that surprising. But digital distraction has been dubbed, “the defining problem of today’s workplace,” and our phones lie at the heart of that.

For how relatively nascent smartphone ubiquity is, the line of research devoted to understanding its effects is far-reaching. You can read about how phones destroy our productivity, how their mere presence distracts us, and how phantom vibrations are a thing. And as we start getting more and more notifications (they’re the next big platform after all), we should be conscious of how the habitual buzz buzzing of our devices affects our ability to concentrate at work.

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35

Travelers Want High

American Express Survey High-Tech, High-Touch

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y Finds Travelers Want American Express Travel, which is celebrating 100 years of service this month, unveiled results of a new survey that found travelers in the future will use both hightech options and high-touch human service to create unique travel experiences.

The survey, conducted for American Express by The Futures Company, polled more than 1,000 consumers in the U.S. on their attitudes toward travel. It found that travelers are placing an even higher premium on the experiences they enjoy through travel, as well as the personal service provided by travel professionals.

Eighty-two percent said they are more interested in making memories than making money; 85 percent said they plan to travel as much, if not more, for leisure travel in the next five years; and 91 percent said they would rather focus on meaningful life experiences over their profession. Some 85 percent also agree with the statement that “spending money on travel is an investment worth making,” and 64 percent agree with the statement that “leisure travel is a big priority in my life.”

Travelers also are far more resilient and eager to travel: 60 percent disagree with the statement that “with all of the risk and uncertainly in the world

today, it makes me want to travel less.”

Ninety-three percent of travelers said that despite digital advances in the travel industry, personal service can’t be replaced. And that trend is prevalent even among millennial travelers: 83 percent of millennials value personalization and want to have travel brands track their habits in exchange for a better, more individual experience.

Travelers also aren’t looking for cookie-cutter experiences: 85 percent of those surveyed said that a customized itinerary is far more appealing than a prepackaged one, and 72 percent said they would spend more time planning a trip that is tailored to their interests. Even better for travel agents, 90 percent of those surveyed said they appreciate the efforts of a travel professional who can customize an experience based on their preferences.

While there is a perception that technology is replacing human customer service in the travel industry, the survey found that a personal touch remains critical: 93 percent of respondents said they feel the value of personal service can’t be replaced despite digital advances in the travel industry, especially at times when www.greenazine.com

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Eighty-two percent said they are more interested in making memories than making money something goes wrong with a trip. Indeed, 89 percent said they want human assistance for canceled flights or lost luggage, while 53 percent said they want it for getting an insider view of a destination.

At the same time, travelers do prefer to use technology for certain aspects of their trip. Seventy-six percent of those surveyed said they turn to technology for air and hotel bookings; 73 percent said they use the web for researching places to go for leisure travel; 60 percent said they will use technology to check in for flights and hotels; and 47 percent said they want the technological capability to share their travel experiences on social media to add to their enjoyment of the trip (65 percent of millennials said they want the same capability).

That said, travelers don’t want to be left high and dry by technology without some way to connect with a real person. Some 79 percent overall agree with the statement “many of my travel hassles could be made up for by exceptional customer service,” while 72 percent agreed with the statement “I expect higher levels of customer service when I travel than in my daily life.”

Like other surveys, the American Express poll finds travelers place a high value on experiences. Ninety percent agree with the statement “I appreciate when a travel service company strives to customize my experience based on my preferences.” Drilling down on that statement: 91 percent say they focus on meaningful life experiences; 88 percent said they invest time in life experiences; 85 percent want a

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personalized itinerary; and 72 percent said they spend more time planning a travel experience that is tailored to their interests and preferences.

“Increasingly, travelers want to see the world on their terms with tailored, personalized and differentiated experiences that reflect their passions and needs,” said Claire Bennett, executive vice president of American Express Travel. “The boundaries between technology and personal service are being blurred, allowing more intimate connections for travelers with the world around them.”

Bennett said there were three major insights from the survey: First, the travel industry is incredibly healthy; second, that travelers want both high-tech and high touch; and third, travelers value a personal connection

that makes a difference when they travel.

Beyond just surveying the U.S. travel market, the Futures Company also did a cross-country comparison among the U.S., U.K., Mexico and China, polling more than 1,000 travelers in each country.

When asked how much they expect to be traveling five years from now, 37 percent of U.S. travelers said more, versus 48 percent who said the same and 15 percent who said less. Thirty-three percent of U.K. travelers said more, versus 49 percent said the same and 17 percent said less.

In Mexico and China, however, travelers overwhelming said they would travel more. Some 61 percent of Mexican travelers said they would travel

more, versus 29 percent who said yes and 10 percent who said the same. In China, a whopping 66 percent of travelers said more, while 28 percent said the same and 6 percent said less.

The difference among travelers in the four countries also was evident in a desire for personal service.

Ninety-six percent of Chinese travelers said they would travel more if they received more personalized service, compared with 72 percent of Mexican travelers, 48 percent of U.K. travelers and 45 percent of U.S. travelers.

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Change The Workplace

Will millennials change the wor 40 www.greenazine.com

This year, millennials will reach a major milestone, surpassing baby boomers and Gen Xers to become the largest generation in the American workforce, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of U.S. Census data.

Adults ages 18 to 34 now make up 1 in 3 American workers, Pew reports. And that number is only expected to grow as more millennials graduate from college and enter the workforce.

What could that mean for the workplace? We asked millennials and workplace experts to weigh in.

More flexible work schedules “For millennials, flexibility is so important,” said Lindsey Pollak, The Hartford’s millennial workplace expert and author of the bestseller “Becoming the Boss.”

In The Hartford’s 2014 Millennial Leadership Survey, conducted in coordination with Pollak, worklife balance stood as one of the top issues of importance to millennial workers. But Pollak said: “It’s integration more than work-life balance. ... It’s that understanding that work can take place anywhere.”

Now that technology has made it so easy to work wherever you are, Kathryn Minshew, CEO and founder of millennial career site The Muse, said the lines between work and life blur. “A lot of people now are [always] connected, they’re checking email after hours,” she said. “If companies are going to ask that much of people, they have a responsibility to give more as well. I think that means giving

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At The Muse, Minshew said, “We have different arrangements for different people based on how they work best and what they need to really enjoy and excel at what they do.” One employee, for example, works from home once a week. people the opportunity to have a flexible work day.”

At The Muse, Minshew said, “We have different arrangements for different people based on how they work best and what they need to really enjoy and excel at what they do.” One employee, for example, works from home once a week.

As employees are expected to work longer hours, such arrangements can become increasingly important in attracting and retaining the best candidates, said Dan Schawbel, founder of WorkplaceTrends. com and managing partner of Millennial Branding, a Gen Y research and consulting firm.

A renewed focus on growth and development Millennials have gotten a bad rap as being lazy and entitled, but Pollak argues that is not what they expect in the work environment.

Millennials want to know that

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work is a place of growth and development, where they can “find their purpose and be passionate about what [they] do.”

It’s the role of the CEO and other executives to foster that type environment for employees said Minshew. How? When asked in The Hartford study how an employer could demonstrate it was invested

in helping them advance at the company, more millennial respondents chose training and development, feedback and coaching over cash incentives.

Flatter organizations While older generations may be wary of younger millennials becoming the majority in the workplace, Pollak, a Gen Xer, assures that “millennials admire

and want to work with other generations.”

Maybe more closely than boomers and Gen Xers imagine.

Accessibility and open communication are inherent to a generation accustomed to emailing professors and tweeting directly at corporations and celebrities alike. That ethos is embodied by millennial executives

like Minshew, who sits in an open room with her employees an arm’s length away.

Many of their boomer parents, however, rose up in workplaces that were filled with cubicles and closeddoor offices—places with distinct hierarchies and procedures. As millennials rise up the ranks that’s likely to change.

command and control to whatever is going to be the millennial style, and I don’t think anyone really knows what exactly that will be yet,” said Pollak. “I think what will happen is a meeting in the middle.”

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Fraud’s Faster Pace

Retailers Must Adjust to Fraud’s Faster Pace In today’s fast-paced, digital age, when smartphones are “outdated” six months after they’re released, nothing stays the same for long, and that includes payments fraud.

Fraudsters have been busy adopting new techniques and adapting old ones to take advantage of weaknesses in payments systems. Credit cards and debit cards have become especially vulnerable. While checks remained the top payments vehicle for fraud in 2013, credit and debit card fraud jumped 48% compared to 2012, according to the 2014 AFP Payments Fraud and Control Survey.

What’s new in payments fraud?

What’s ahead? Here’s a look at three ways that fraud is evolving—and how retailers can protect themselves.

Skimming.Thieves have been using card skimmers for years. The small electronic devices attach to credit card machines at ATMs, stores, gas pumps and other locations and gather account information, including PINs and CVV numbers.

The stolen numbers are then used to make purchases or sold on the black market.

In recent years, skimmers have gotten even more sophisticated. Some thieves are using undetectable hidden cameras to record PIN numbers or placing phony keypads over real ones to record keystrokes. Sometimes, they’ll use Bluetooth technology to transfer and capture the information 44 www.greenazine.com

in real time, eliminating the risk involved in retrieving skimming devices.

Fortunately, the rollout of EMV in the United States will help combat skimming-related fraud. Unlike magnetic stripe cards, most EMV cards are “dipped” in machines,

not swiped, and the chip-and-pin technology they contain makes it difficult for thieves to counterfeit cards based on stolen information.

After EMV was rolled out in the United Kingdom, card counterfeit fraud dropped 30% over the next 10 years. Skimming hasn’t been

eliminated in countries where EMV has been widely adopted (U.K. fraudsters have begun exploiting weaknesses in POS terminals and shoddy algorithms) but retailers should expect to see a significant reduction in skimming-related fraud once EMV is fully rolled out in the United States.

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Fast fraud. Unfortunately, while EMV adoption will significantly reduce skimming and other point-of-sale fraud schemes, it will likely lead to an increase in card-not-present scams, or “fast fraud.”

With fast fraud, scammers exploit weaknesses in online and mobile commerce security to steal digital goods—like e-books and music downloads—which can then be easily resold on the secondary market.

It’s a trend that has higher costs for retailers: every dollar lost to fraud in 2014 cost merchants $2.79, but every dollar lost to online fraud cost $3.10, according to a study from Lexis Nexus and Javelin. And things are only going to get worse.

Card-not-present, or CNP, fraud in the United Kingdom rose 79% in the first three years after EMV adoption.

In the coming years, it’s expected that fraudsters will increasingly focus on goods and services that they can quickly monetize, especially digital gift cards and e-tickets to events.

Data breaches.An offshoot of fast fraud, data breaches have become a growing problem for organizations. The number of reported data breaches in the United States in 2014 hit a record high of 783, according to the Identity Theft Resource Center. That’s a 27.5% increase over the number of breaches recorded in 2013.

Similar to fast fraud, data breaches occur when fraudsters take advantage of weaknesses in online security systems, but the costs of a data breach— both monetary and reputational—can be much higher. In 2014, the average organization spent $1.6 million following a breach on response costs, such as legal and consulting fees and identity protection services for victims, according to a study by the Ponemon Institute. Additionally, the average organization loses another $3.2 millionworth of business following a breach due to abnormal customer turnover, reputational loss, diminished goodwill, and the increased customer acquisition activities that are often required.

With skimming scams on the decline and fast fraud and data breaches on the rise, how can retailers protect themselves? Combatting

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credit and debit card fraud jumped 48% compared to 2012 evolving fraud trends will require a new approach to payments security.

Many traditional systems are built to combat old fraud threats, when scammers used to target physical goods. Because orders took a few days to process and because physical addresses were associated with the shipments, these solutions had the time and the information they needed to spot and stop suspicious payments.

Those traditional prevention systems don’t work against fast fraud and data breaches, though.

Fraudsters can quickly obtain digital goods and services as well as customer data, delivered digitally and instantaneously with no address requirement, and reap the financial benefits right away. Stolen digital goods and data can be re-sold extremely quickly on secondary markets.

Adopting a secure payments solution, one geared toward dealing with digital transactions, is key.

Most retailers will be unable to build a competent in-house solution without pouring a lot of time, money and staff into the effort. For many, the ideal solution will mean partnering with a thirdparty provider, which can be anything from a do-it-yourself software program to a full-service payments platform.

Whatever route a retailer chooses, fraud is evolving, and transaction security must evolve with it. Choosing the right payments solution can help retailers thrive in today’s fast fraud ecosystem and better prepare for whatever comes next.

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