By Bruce Shutan

I’m a big fan of the National Football League. I’m also appalled by political correctness.

Those two issues recently collided when ESPN felt pressured to dump singer Hank Williams Jr., who performed the rowdy Monday Night Football opening theme song, following controversial remarks he made about the current state of U.S. politics.

His crime? An analogy to describe Democratic President Barack Obama and Republican House Speaker John Boehner joining forces for a friendly golf game against Vice President Biden and Ohio Republican Gov. John Kasich.

The gruff country rock icon didn’t like the idea, telling Fox News’ “Fox & Friends”: “It would be like Hitler playing golf with [Israeli leader] Benjamin Netanyahu.”

And just like that, a two-decades-long association came to an abrupt halt. What will the Thought Police think of next? Have we lost our minds? Our sense of humor? Our inalienable right to make political statements without fear of recrimination?

As a fan of analogies (and the game of golf), I thought his remarks were spot on. As a diehard football fan, I had to laugh. As a Jew who one might assume would take offense to Hitler being a part of any analogy, I still had to laugh. As someone who voted for the president and is sensitive to the plight of African Americans, ditto. But as a journalist who deeply cherishes our First Amendment rights, I almost had to cry.

The fact is that political correctness has gone awry, and I’m tired of people having to walk on eggshells all the time or fear the consequences of telling an off-color joke, regardless of whether the perceived offending party has a liberal or conservative view. Most Americans believe the country has become too politically correct, according to a Rasmussen Reports survey.

Another high-profile case of political correctness that comes to mind involves singer Tony Bennett, who cannot be more opposite Hank Williams, Jr. in political affiliation or musical style.

The pop-jazz crooner, who considers himself a pacifist, triggered public outrage for controversial remarks about 9/11. Appearing on “The Howard Stern Show” on Sirius XM Radio to promote his new album, Bennett said: “They flew the plane in, but we caused it, because we were bombing them and they told us to stop.” I remember comedian Bill Maher saying something similar (without the awkward sentence construction) shortly after the tragedy, which ironically, later cost him his TV show at that time, aptly entitled “Politically Incorrect.”

At the heart of these critiques is a belief that people from around the globe sometimes have an ax to grind with American foreign policy, which has had a spotty track record of success. What’s so wrong with saying that out loud? It’s a fact that people need to accept. Get over the hurt feelings, America, and let’s move on to more important matters.

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A Brave Journey Past Postpartum

2011

By Bruce Shutan

As the proud papa of two adorable babies born just 15 months apart, it never ceases to amaze me how much work goes into parenting. There’s lots of blocking and tackling, if I can use a sports metaphor, and by the end of each day and night, mom and dad often feel like they need to be carted off the playing field – or should I say playground?

Kids will wear you out. Why didn’t all my family friendly pals tell me these details before I took the plunge into parenthood?! I thought writing deadlines were brutal. They’re nothing compared to juggling a heavy workload with dual diaper duty, midnight bottle feedings, bath time, toddlers, tiaras and tantrums. Add to the mix two little ones who like to pinch their way to sleep for added comfort, and I literally sport the battle scars to show the sweat equity I have invested.

In short: I’m exhausted.

But I can only imagine what it must feel like for my wife, who also had to juggle breastfeeding with postpartum depression following the birth of our youngest child. It has been an eye-opening experience that mirrors some of the stories told by actress Brooke Shields in “Down Came the Rain: My Journey Through Postpartum Depression,” which gave me great comfort knowing we weren’t alone in dealing with this mysterious and frightening condition.

It got me wondering how women, who now slightly outnumber men in the U.S. workforce, must be coping not only at home, but also on the job. Talk about a harrowing work-life juggle. It’s hard enough dealing with all those moving parts without suffering from something like this, so the mere thought of another layer of complexity added to the employment equation can trigger some seriously high anxiety.

I don’t know how these brave working women do it, but as a close observer of the human resources field for more than 20 years, I sure hope that they’re getting the support they need from their group medical insurance plans and employee assistance programs. For employers, it can help them move the needle on the talent wars, considering how demographic trends make recruiting and retaining female employees a necessary step toward attaining a competitive advantage.

Having been removed from the corporate world’s daily grind for nearly 12 years and counting, I have no sense how this issue is playing out by the water cooler, or in conference rooms or corner offices. All I know is what I read, which isn’t much.

On a hunch, I conducted a few Google searches about HR and postpartum depression and found virtually nothing written about any links between the two. But the first news item caught my eye. In it, an appeals court ruled that it was okay for (ironically) a medical center to deny an employee time off under the federal Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) to care for her adult daughter, who had postpartum depression and, thus, needed help caring for her newborn. Her employer had what was described as “a no-fault attendance policy that assigned points to each employee based on the number of unexcused absences incurred. Approved absences such as FMLA leave were not included in the point total.” The woman, who also had suffered a back injury that would have been covered by the FMLA, was fired.

My wife is lucky in that as an independent contractor for two different creative career paths, she doesn’t have to deal with any corporate policy restrictions or office politics, nor is she beholden to short-sighted supervisors who don’t understand what it’s like to experience postpartum depression. But for other working women with this affliction whose careers and lives hang in the balance, there just may be no escaping these hassle or pressure to be a super mom, super wife and/or super worker. Let’s hope that their respective journeys through postpartum depression lead them out of the darkness and into the light for their sake, as well as the sake of their families and employers.

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Cost of Insurance Hits Close to Home

2011

By Bruce Shutan

After writing about insurance for nearly half my life, I have a pretty good understanding of underwriting and risk-management practices, as well as the supreme importance of income protection.

I believe in the power of most insurance products, particularly in the area of disability, which is wildly underestimated, but view others as unnecessary. Banks and credit card companies, for example, are now expected to deal with identity theft, despite the birth of a cottage industry to manage this fast-growing, white-collar crime wave, while cancer insurance pales in comparison to critical-illness products that cast a much wider safety net in the event of a serious illness.

But as a consumer of these services, I have encountered the same flaws and frustrations as people who know nothing about the industry’s inner-workings or angry Americans who describe insurance as legal extortion. And despite having some insurance companies as clients through the years, I sometimes wonder whether the industry gets too much of a free pass, especially since health insurance premiums are the equivalent of a mortgage payment for so many families trying to make ends meet in a sluggish economy.

Consider a few recent eye-opening incidents:

• When applying for life insurance following the birth of my 18-month-old son, I underwent the requisite medical exam to rule out any uninsurable risks. As part of that process, I was asked whether I was on any medication. I answered no, but had forgotten about a prescription for valium that one of my wife’s relatives wrote as a favor. The pills were an afterthought – popped every now and then to help take the edge off the extreme sleep deprivation I faced as a first-time parent. But not to the insurance company, which fired off a curt form letter that suggested I purposely hid this information when a certain ingredient associated with the medication was found in my bloodstream and abruptly cancelled the application. I had no recourse other than to seek coverage elsewhere, according to my very embarrassed insurance agent, who said she never encountered anything like that before and recommended that I write a letter of complaint to California’s insurance department about this mid-level industry player. I have since obtained excellent coverage from another source with a better balance sheet.

• It has taken more than two months – and still counting, as I type this blog – to get my son onto our family’s newest health insurance plan because of an underwriting department whose cautiousness in my estimation is either grounded in irrationality, tangled in bureaucratic red tape or both. The brief back story: An ointment for eczema failed to include on the insurance application the date it was prescribed as well as a diagnosis. Small potatoes, right? Not so fast. I tried in vain to obtain this information for an entire month from his doctor, whose office was so acutely mismanaged and offered subpar care that my wife and I decided to pull the plug on the dirt-cheap coverage he had qualified for under a state-run plan and move him to a fabulous pediatrician with rock-star qualities. The old adage is true: You do get what you pay for, and in this case, it wasn’t worth the much lower price tag. But now we’ve fallen through the cracks, and I’m still trying to straighten out the situation with a supervisor for the more costly health insurance plan from a once proud nonprofit entity that years ago splintered into for-profit plans in hopes of cashing in on a market where the balance of power shifted from kindly doctors to number-crunching insurance company executives with fat paychecks. The first supervisor I spoke to agreed with my first-blush assessment, which was that a toddler with itchy skin isn’t a red flag to underwriters. It’s not like he was diagnosed with any serious pre-existing conditions or a life-threatening condition.

• My Peruvian in-laws are faced with a heart-breaking dilemma. Because of the escalating cost associated with treating my mother in-law’s early stage Alzheimer’s disease, they will eventually outlive their savings or need to move from the house they called home in Los Angeles for almost 40 years back to Peru, where care is much cheaper. This issue is the most macro-economic of these vignettes, with a larger implication about the most cost-efficient and dignified way we as a society must manage the care of our senior citizens. Long-term care insurance, which is designed to protect one’s assets in the event that something like this happens, is unaffordable for most working Americans, while a key provision in the new landmark health care reform legislation that was signed into law offers people a low-cost alternative to mitigate this risk, but the benefits are so paltry they’re laughable. So is the answer socialized medicine? Critics charge that such a solution would be worse than the problem it seeks to fix.

Which brings me to a few parting thoughts. Regardless of your politics on the contentious issue of health care for all Americans, we can no longer operate under the status quo.

On the one hand, I’m horrified that President Obama and the once-Democratic majority in the House and Senate passed such an important law that had been attempted for nearly a century with no bipartisan support. Shame on them! This issue is too important to kick around as a political football.

On the other hand, I’m equally horrified that the Republican leadership has devoted too many of its resources to repealing this bill rather than passing alternative reforms that would extend access to care without bloating the cost of such coverage.

That, my friends, is the chief dilemma. How in the world do we add about 30 million uninsured people to the nation’s health insurance rolls without insurance companies passing on any additional costs to the consumer? It’s a complex question with no easy answers, but hopefully the powers that be will figure out this equation before the public becomes even more restless and our insurance premiums keep rising.

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Knowledge Is Power

2010

By Bruce Shutan

People have a choice to be knowledgeable or ignorant about history and current events. But when it comes to my fellow journalists, I expect that they always will embrace the former and avoid the latter, as well as allow reason to trump emotion when expressing one’s view on a particular issue. Unfortunately, a few recent developments made me reconsider those expectations with regard to anti-Semitism.

 Let me start with longtime White House correspondent Helen Thomas, whose nearly 60-year career came crashing down in June when she resigned as a columnist for Hearst News Service at the age of 90. The (dare I say early) retirement came following controversial comments she made to a rabbi and independent filmmaker who videotaped her angrily saying that Israelis should “get the hell out of Palestine” and return to their land of origin – be it “Poland, Germany and America and everywhere else.”

What’s almost as startling to me, a proud Jewish journalist, is that Thomas, whose parents emigrated to the U.S. from Lebanon, noted in a recent radio interview that she said “exactly what I thought” at the time, and assuming a highly defensive posture, that people “cannot criticize Israel in this country and survive.” Her response to a question about whether she’s anti-Semitic: “Baloney!” I’m surprised she didn’t add: “And some of my best friends are Jewish.”

Anti-Semites, just like other types of bigots, can’t help but deny such charges because they refuse to take responsibility for their words or actions. They are among the truest cowards and truly ignorant, which is the premise of what I’m trying to say. We all know that when people prejudge something, it’s done out of ignorance – not knowledge.

Another fairly high-profile journalist whose foot recently was firmly implanted into his mouth is Rick Sanchez, who insinuated in a satellite radio interview that Jews controlled CNN, where his gig as a commentator was coming to an end, as well as other networks, and that Jewish comedian Jon Stewart, who also hosts the Daily Show, is a bigot. In another comment prompted by a discussion of Stewart, who made many jokes at Sanchez’s expense prior to all the controversy, the Cuban-born broadcast journalist who’s on a book tour sarcastically challenged the notion that Jews are an oppressed minority.

The chief difference, though, is that Sanchez later acknowledged that he made offensive comments and had a chip on his shoulders before issuing what sounded like a sincere apology, including a reference to Stewart being “the classiest guy” based on the comic’s reaction to the dust up. 

Ironically, I encountered first-hand yet another example of the deep hostility reserved toward Jews soon after composing an e-mail message to Sanchez through Facebook scolding him for those comments (I might add prior to his public apology). In this case, I was reminded about the frustratingly uphill battle that so many of my fellow Jews feel when trying to defend Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state while attending the Society of Professional Journalists’ annual convention in Las Vegas where I happened to be speaking on a panel discussion about the nuts and bolts of freelance writing.

Included in my attendee bag was a 36-page booklet produced by an organization called American Muslims for Palestine called “Rising from the Ashes: Gaza’s Indestructible Spirit.” While I understand criticisms of the Israeli government and found the report interesting as a journalist, I can’t help but feel as both a journalist and Jew that the research represents just one side of a complex and emotional argument. It’s worth mentioning that this group had a booth in the exhibit hall, and I’m sure they spared no expense in disseminating this slick presentation.

But it troubled me that I had no choice but to be greeted with a document that many of my fellow Jews would consider to be Arab propaganda and that the views expressed by the American Muslims for Palestine would be aired to journalists in a vacuum without any counter argument. It made me feel helpless.

I can only hope that most, if not all, of my fellow scribes try their best to serve as conduits of tolerance and understanding with sincerity in their hearts and minds. To me, journalism is still a noble and beloved profession, albeit imperfect. I also have seen all too often how U.S. citizens so easily scapegoat the media and take a free press for granted at a time when journalists are being killed all over the world in record numbers in pursuit of the truth. Maybe this is a pipe dream, but as I said earlier, I expect more from people who are in the business of gathering and disseminating facts. And maybe then the American public will once again respect and admire this great institution we all call the Fourth Estate.

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A Broader View of Success

2010

By Bruce Shutan

From an early age, I learned that the definition of success was linear.

Merriam-Webster’s online dictionary defines success as “the attainment of wealth, favor, or eminence.” It’s the first part of this description – wealth, being the operative word – that caught my attention back in the 1960s, which is ironic considering that it was a time of mounting rebellion against money and material possessions. But while the times, no doubt, were a changing, as Bob Dylan noted, they were far simpler and average working Americans were much more innocent.

I grew up in provincial south-central Connecticut where my daily life with a mother, father and two older sisters was largely shielded from the counterculture movement, though the family’s first-born child provided a sense of what was happening beyond our unlocked front doors. Also, living in the suburbs meant that we were just as isolated from affluence and extreme poverty, which actually gifted us with a pretty even-handed view.

My parents taught us to embrace old-fashioned virtues and values above everything else in life. And while our successful businessman father instilled in his three kids the importance of having enough money, his point was that it’s a means to an end and it’s important to pursue a career for which you have talent and passion. We had one of the nicest homes in a nondescript, middle-class neighborhood, and my dad liked to drive nice cars, but we never worshipped the almighty dollar. That’s an important distinction that needs to be made.

As a child, I thought that people who earned a lot of money were the ones in life who made it to the top. But my view thankfully evolved as I gained knowledge and saw first hand how money could corrupt people.

I remember a friend from overnight camp around the age of 10 whose family had a boatload of money and lovely home in a tony part of my home state, but every time I visited him there was chaos in the air marked by many heated arguments. I suppose this was my introduction to the notion of family dysfunction. Those disturbing memories stayed with me for years and helped shape my thoughts about money – a powerful cautionary tale that I’m trying to teach my own kids.

Little did I realize that many years later, the topic of workplace compensation would be an area of focus for me as a journalist – an issue addressed at great length in a previous blog entry of mine. I never begrudge people for making lots of money, nor do I frown upon free markets. But I do have a serious problem with extreme wealth that fosters bourgeois tendencies at the expense of love, compassion and all the other things in life that truly matter.

One of my newest heroes in recent years is Bill Gates – not because he helped revolutionize our lives and ushered in the Information Age (truth be told: his product is subpar compared with the one his rival Steve Jobs eventually licensed). What makes America’s most famous computer geek so worthy of our respect is that after becoming filthy rich he decided to give away most of his money through a foundation whose chief cause holds unbelievable promise in helping make the world a better place.

To me, this is the ultimate model of success: an entrepreneurial spirit blended with philanthropy. The problem, of course, is that we can’t force rich people to open their hearts and wallets, nor should we even think about doing this other than mandating the occasional tax increase to help lift ourselves out of desperate times. But we certainly can attempt to instill in future generations the same sort of values I grew up with and shame the most fortunate souls into striking a better balance between selfishness and selflessness.

So what is success?

Annual income is only part of the equation. I think there are multiple layers of meaning that get lost in all the white noise of modern society.

One pillar or foundation involves human relationships. Anyone who’s seriously estranged from immediate family members or friends, or has a difficult time getting along with others or made his or her share of enemies through the years, has some major soul searching to do. As a corollary, it’s hard to muster any respect or sympathy for people who repeatedly play the victim card and cannot take responsibility for their own actions. I marvel at people who verbalize their love on a daily basis when it’s so easy to get caught up in the day’s events and lose sight of our connection to one another.

Another point to consider is volunteerism. I think it’s so important to give back to the community – something that all parents should teach their children so that they can transcend the inherent narcissism of youth and develop early on a sense that there’s so much more to life than worldly possessions.

Other areas include being honest and doing our best at work. The sum of all these moving parts to modern life certainly spells success with a capital S.

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Another Missed Opportunity?

2010

By Bruce Shutan

Legend has it that Yogi Berra was fond of describing some situations as “déjà vu all over again.” The same can be said about efforts to reform the U.S. health care system – an issue that dates back much further than Bill Clinton’s failed effort in 1993.

President Barack Obama recently observed that “since Teddy Roosevelt first called for reform nearly a century ago, we have talked and we have tinkered. We have tried and fallen short, we’ve stalled for time, and again we have failed to act because of Washington politics or industry lobbying.”

Another Teddy (as in Kennedy, the late senator from Massachusetts), was said to have regretted not cutting a deal on universal health care with President Richard Nixon shortly after his re-election more than any other issue as a lifelong legislator. The Watergate scandal swiftly put the kibosh on national health care, which the Liberal Lion would later call the cause of his life.

Fast forward to 2009 when the nation’s first African-American president kicks the dust off this seemingly noble goal and tells lawmakers he wants a bill on his desk by the end of this year. What transpired over the summer during scores of town-hall-style meetings in congressional districts across the nation was nothing short of breathtaking. This is what makes democracy so awe-inspiring, regardless of one’s political affiliation.

But there’s a dark side to the so-called debate, which degenerated into a disrespectful shout down at several meetings from zealots armed with robotic talking points and lots of assumptions about what might happen– a shameful display of decorum that came full circle when U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.) called his rude interruption of Obama’s speech on the subject a town-hall moment.

It all happened to coincide with rapper Kanye West grabbing the mic from Taylor Swift at the MTV Music Video Awards to praise one of her competitors and tennis sensation Serena Williams’ profanity-laced tirade at the U.S. Open, but of course I digress about the kind of hard-bitten society we’ve become. Still, whatever happened to Old Man Bush’s vision of a “kinder, gentler America?!” Guess we’re not there yet.

Now back to the point at hand: Failing to take action, even in the face of the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, will result in much more personal misery and suffering, deplete critical national resources and undermine the U.S. standing on the world stage.

We’re paying far too much for health care services – a major investment that’s not producing meaningful outcomes relative to other nations or, put another way, dividends in the form of healthier and happier citizens.

The fact is that we need to do something about a national obesity epidemic that’s spiking the number of chronic illnesses such as heart disease, hypertension, diabetes and associated conditions in children, which is very alarming. We’re living longer, but our quality of life is declining. And our fast-food-nation culture promotes a pill for every ailment under the sun.

Let’s not be pennywise but dollar foolish about this issue, which I’ve been covering this year with great passion for a monthly business trade magazine. Nearly everyone has a health care horror story to tell, whether it’s a botched medical procedure, inability to afford rising out-of-pocket costs or lacking insurance, altogether.

Republicans are right when they complain that doctors are forced to practice defensive medicine and there’s a shortage of primary care physicians because they’re being paid based on volume and not quality of care measures. A factory mentality has taken hold across doctor offices and emergency rooms. It’s downright Dickensonian. Medical providers have every reason to feel frustrated. But Democrats say malpractice claims make up a mere fraction of the nation’s health care tab, which accounts for about 16% of Gross Domestic Product.

This tit-for-tat game is being played out on virtually every detail associated with health care reform. And it’s becoming mind-numbingly annoying to informed people like me who expect more for their tax dollars. We need for our elected leaders to transcend partisan bickering and do something about a looming crisis.

In spite of what ends up happening (if anything at all), we all have a moral responsibility to take much better care of ourselves. Government alone cannot solve whatever is ailing society. The key to success is a partnership between citizens and those in the public, private and nonprofit sectors. It’s such a simple formula.

Why aren’t we accomplishing anything? It’s like we’re all sick in the head. Which brings me to another issue: mental health. Stress is said to cause about 85% of all physical ailments. So we need to be sure that any reform efforts address the need for parity on this issue as part of a holistic approach.

Far-Eastern medicine is gaining credence in Western culture, and it’s high time we step beyond our borders for lasting solutions to our health and well-being. There’s already a trend afoot called “medical tourism” in which cash-strapped Americans are seeking lower-cost surgeries and better outcomes abroad. I also realize that Canadians, British and other citizens of socialized medicine wait in frustratingly long lines and gripe that the quality of their care is not up to par.

I have already professed in a previous blog that the health care reform issue is highly complex. There’s no magic bullet, and I can’t say with certainty which approach is best. But let’s use our collective common sense, listen more carefully to one another and be willing to take some chances to reverse our downward spiral.

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Larger than Life in Death

2009

By Bruce Shutan

Every so often there’s a superstar in our midst who’s so deeply paradoxical and polarizing that they generate nearly equal parts of admiration and disgust.

Such was the case with Michael Jackson, the self-proclaimed King of Pop who died unexpectedly at the age of 50.

He was larger than life – a pop-culture icon and brilliant entertainer on par with Elvis, Marilyn Monroe, James Dean and countless others who never had a chance to grow old in the public eye. His body of work speaks for itself. There’s no question he was a genius in music and dance. Sadly, he only felt comfortable on the stage performing in front of thousands of crazed fans or in the company of children, which is where his life took a disturbing and bizarre turn down a dark tunnel from which he never escaped.

There were stories of abuse he allegedly suffered as a child under an iron-fisted rule by his father, Joe, followed by a series of cosmetic surgeries that transformed a once dashing African-American boy into a disfigured man-child with Caucasian features whose child-molestation accusations, short-lived marriages, financial ruin and legal problems left him frail and reclusive. This dark side made Michael the object of both public curiosity and ridicule.

I was transfixed by the Jackson Five’s songs as a youth and felt a kinship to Michael because we were nearly the same age. It was shocking to see such a little boy with a big voice singing and performing with passion and maturity that were well beyond his years. His music played a prominent part on the soundtrack of my life. “I’ll be There” is one of my all-time favorite songs – one I love so much that I went out and bought a spectacular cover of that tune by Mariah Carey from her MTV Unplugged performance, even though I wasn’t much into her music at the time.

But I’ll never forget when he moonwalked his way into our hearts on March 25, 1983 during a rendition of  “Billie Jean” for a TV special celebrating Motown’s first 25 years, which some have said unofficially marked his transition from child star to an adult sensation. His performance was jaw-dropping. I never saw anything like it and thought he was gliding across the stage with the help of a hidden prop – not the power of his feet.

Just five days before his death, “Don’t Stop ‘til You Get Enough” immediately lured me onto the dance floor at a friend’s birthday party. I thought to myself afterward, ‘wow… what an amazing piece of music. In spite of all his troubles, this guy really knew how to write, sing and perform some unbelievable songs.’

Say what you will about Michael Jackson now that he’s gone. He was never convicted of child molestation, though he settled out of court the first time such charges became public and was acquitted following a legal circus on a second try to put him behind bars. The circumstantial evidence was damning, and for all I know, he could very well have been the monster that was portrayed by the prosecution in his trial. But at the end of the day, I wasn’t 100% sure what happened. It seemed there was enough reasonable doubt between his impassioned plea of innocence and childlike qualities that made many of us wonder whether he was simply guilty of naivete, poor judgment, asexuality or all of the above,

Love him or despise him, apparently, there’s no shortage of others who were as deeply moved by Michael Jackson’s talent as me.

What happened online around the time rumors were rampant across the Internet appears to have been unprecedented. Soon after TMZ broke the scoop, several “outages” were reported on the gossip Web site – a pattern that also occurred with Perez Hilton’s blog, Twitter and the Los Angeles Times, which was the first mainstream media outlet to confirm his death.

And there’s much more to report. Nearly 500 edits were made to Jackson’s Wikipedia profile in less than 24 hours, while CNN reported a fivefold rise in traffic involving an astounding 20 million page views within an hour of the news pulsing across cyberspace. AOL’s instant messenger service, which was down for about 40 minutes, issued a provocative statement which read: “Today was a seminal moment in Internet history. We’ve never seen anything like it in terms of scope or depth.”

The King of Pop was planning a comeback and rehearsed the night before his death for 50 London concerts that were to kick off July 13. It’s a shame we’ll never get to see and hear what he had up his infamous white-gloved sleeve, but at least we’re left with a lasting legacy of pure musical genius that will continue to brighten our lives.

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How Much $ is Enough?

2009

By Bruce Shutan

The furor over insurance giant AIG’s $165 million in employee bonuses runs deep and is understandable to most average Americans. As someone who has been covering that industry for more than two decades, it’ll be fascinating to see if the company can survive the constant drumbeat of criticism and public outrage, which has become so intense that officials decided to remove the American International Group name from the building where the firm is headquartered.

This fiasco begs many larger questions about our comfortable, albeit often misguided, way of life.

The sub-headline in a BusinessWeek article by Jack Welch, who used to run General Electric, and his wife, Suzy, summed up what defenders of capitalism usually have to say about this issue: “The free market may at times overcompensate. But there’s not a better system.” They acknowledged that “underperforming CEOs sometimes end up getting huge sums of money just to go home.”

Then the couple went on to explain that some folks like Carly Fiorina, HP’s former head honcho, have generous severance deals (also known as “golden parachutes”) built into their employment contract as an incentive to sign on, while Chuck Prince and Stan O’Neal left Citigroup and Merrill Lynch, respectively, with stock grants and compensation earned during happier times. “Such endings look wrong and quite understandably give critics a platform,” they wrote before launching their defense, lamenting the rising tide of political correctness on this issue and decrying the mere thought of government involvement.

Give me a break!

The business imperative associated with executive compensation means there’s a certain price to pay for attracting and retaining a superstar in the corner office. Fair enough. I don’t have a problem with CEOs being paid well for exemplary performance, though God forbid they should be allowed to fly away in a golden parachute after not meeting earnings targets or burnishing shareholder value. It’s the American way and cornerstone of a free-market economy, which, in theory, is a smart and noble way to work, but when put into practice, it can be a messy proposition.

To me, there’s clearly a moral imperative that trumps this thinking, especially during the nation’s worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. The question is, how much pay is enough to live on comfortably without arrogance and disregard for one’s underlings? Is it $3 million? Is it $50 million? Is it $1.5 billion? I have a close friend in Portland, Oregon, who can stretch a greenback like nobody’s business and manages to live fully and happily on just dollars a day.

So-called variable pay packages that reward performance and encourage employee ownership once held great promise but were overshadowed by questionable executive comp packages and golden parachutes. Other factors have included stock-option backdating scandals, as well as so-called underwater pricing following the dot-com bubble burst and lopsided 401(k) plans that were overloaded with company stock (Enron and WorldCom produced two of the most frightening cautionary tales).

The trouble is that a growing concentration of wealth means a greater gulf between occupants of the corner office and average working Americans. There has been a sixfold increase in CEO pay among the Fortune 500 since 1980, and depending on the source, chief executives are said to have earned anywhere from 179 to 369 times the pay of an average worker.

Even if the most conservative estimate were accepted as the gospel on this issue, you’d be hard pressed to find many, if any, true believers who could argue that this disturbing phenomenon stands for anything more than greed and an embarrassing concentration of wealth.

One economist suggested that the earnings gap between the elite and middle class in the U.S. is twice as much as in the U.K. and three times France, which is a whole other argument. It’s no wonder so many of us have to deal with the “ugly” American stereotype abroad.

As a result of this hot-button issue, Uncle Sam and corporate-governance proponents have kept a much more watchful eye on incentive pay packages to help keep executives in line and save employees from themselves. Although well-intentioned, the danger is that too much oversight can serve to choke off business innovation. So we have to be careful about the delicate balancing act between preserving capitalism and creeping too far afield toward socialism, as conservative commentators fear.

I’d like to see a return to the days when hope was in the air about employees being able to share in the spoils in an increasingly competitive global economy. I’d also like to see more corporate chieftains willing to make sacrifices for the good of team and lead by example. Some of the more notable cases in recent years include:

• Robert Shillman of Cognex, who stopped taking a salary in April 2001 and bonus in 2004.
• Robert Miller of Delphi Corp., who cut his annual salary to just $1 after asking for cuts of up to 40% from hourly workers.
• Doug Parker of US Airways, who declined a $770,000 bonus in deference to employees who endured their share of painful cutbacks.
• Susan Lyne of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, who asked her board to salt away $200,000 of a $625,500 cash bonus in 2005 as seed money for an employee bonus pool.
• John Mackey of Whole Foods, who despite his recent troubles, has presided over a culture that sought to cap the executive pay ratio at 14 times the average worker’s pay.

I’m not suggesting a Marxist-inspired redistribution of wealth nor begrudging CEOs for banking well-earned dollars – just a rethinking of Capitalist zeal to ease the system’s extremes, correct any perceived imbalances and aspire to true pay-for-performance packages. There’s just no escaping this moral imperative and the time to act is now.

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Struggling to Save

2009

By Bruce Shutan

As I wrote in the lead paragraph of a forthcoming trade-magazine article, “it’s still hard to fathom the enormity of last year’s seismic shift on Wall Street that triggered serious cracks in nest eggs whose fragile shells were still hardening across America’s rural, suburban and urban landscapes.”

Many working Americans dreaded the arrival of quarterly investment statements in their mailboxes last year, and I’m no exception. We collectively sustained some major damage to our savings plans. After all, this has been described as the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.

The nation’s 78 million Baby Boomers are just a knee-replacement away from retirement, but most of their anguish won’t be physical. My sense is that after writing about retirement-planning efforts in the workplace for more than 20 years, a sizeable segment of society will be in for a major rude awakening. No doubt, they will dream about a comfortable retirement. The trick will be saving enough money from Social Security, corporate pensions and personal savings such as 401(k) plans and individual retirement accounts (a formula called the “three-legged stool” in the industry I cover).

A perfect storm threatens to gut portfolios for several generations of working Americans as the economic climate worsens, coupled with a frighteningly volatile stock market performance, negative national savings rate, shift in financial investment risk onto consumers and inability of politicians to show the necessary political will to reform Social Security. I can’t help but notice that employers not only have been “freezing” or abandoning the traditional pensions that emerged after World War II en masse, they’ve also been ending retiree medical benefits dating back to an arcane regulatory change in the early 1990s that forced them to expense those obligations on their balance sheets.

In the meantime, participation in 401(k) plans and IRAs, as well as the way average people invest in those vehicles, continues to fall short of expectations. Fewer than 10% of investors are thought to save the maximum amount allowed in a 401(k) plan and their decisions are often uninformed or arbitrary, if not downright careless.

For example, about one-quarter of workers recently polled who say they’re 10 years away from retirement invested more than 90% of their 401(k) in stocks (the amount was for roughly half the survey respondents). And since the fourth quarter of 2007, pensions have reportedly fallen by $4 trillion worldwide. Another disturbing statistic I recently ran across suggests that 70% of people have assets totaling less than $10,000. That scares me more than being forced to ride a rollercoaster against my will.

Most experts on the retirement-planning topic suggest that workers will need to salt away more than $1 million in order to live comfortably after they quite working, which these days could last as long as 30 years considering advances in medical science that have extended the average lifespan. About 25% of those dollars will be spent on health care bills, which have been rising faster than the rate of inflation for many years.

The strange thing is that despite living longer, our quality of life has eroded. A national obesity epidemic has taken its toll, causing a host of so-called co-morbidity factors that include elevated levels of cholesterol, triglycerides and glucose that lead to heart disease, stroke, diabetes and hypertension, not to mention asthma and other chronic diseases. I recently watched the documentary “Supersize Me” and was astounded by the outcome.

In an earlier blog entry, I surmised that the time has come to view basic health care as a human right – not a privilege. The free-market and entrepreneurial spirit inside me cannot arrive at the same conclusion about retirement, which I do think is a privilege and not a right. But on the other side of the coin, I think putting too much weight in tax credits or privatizing Social Security isn’t the answer, which probably lies somewhere square down the middle of a conservative and liberal mindset. Clear heads must prevail in both policymaking and the general populace, and honoring either extreme isn’t in our best interest.

Left to their own devices, people in a culture of conspicuous consumption will simply live beyond their means and be a burden to the rest of us – sort of like a distant cousin who has overstayed his welcome. Let’s be careful not to penalize people who don’t have a clue about how to hold onto a buck and leverage their savings. Even seemingly sophisticated investors stumble. Look how many poor rich souls were taken in by Bernie Madoff’s alleged $50 billion Ponzi scheme.

The time has come for us to adopt a more efficient national savings system so that people aren’t struggling to make ends meet and have the security of knowing they won’t become impoverished or destitute and a burden to loved ones or friends in their old age. That will require a more meaningful partnership approach between government and its citizenry.

How do we achieve this lofty goal? I’ll leave that up to the experts. I’m just a working journalist who’s charged with knowing a little bit about a lot of things. But as my knowledge about the intricacies of this complex issue expands, it would be nice to actually be a part of the story instead of covering it as a detached observer. Maybe by then I’ll have a much different job title.

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Cult of Personality

2008

By Bruce Shutan

When the 2008 U.S. presidential campaign began about two years ago, scores of politicians from the two major political parties began throwing their respective hats into the ring and hitting the trail. Perhaps no other campaign in history has felt so ponderous and emotionally exhausting, with more lead changes than a stock-car race.

But my biggest pet peeve isn’t how methodical or mechanical these races have become. It’s much more about how the cult of personality surrounding the presidency and many of the candidates (Barack Obama and Sarah Palin commanded the most attention this year for obvious reasons). The mainstream media, and I count myself as a usually proud card-carrying member of this oft-maligned elitist organization, always misses the boat. And here’s why: there’s far too much emphasis on the job description of president when the position is merely a cog in the wheel of Democracy, albeit a pretty important one.

Not nearly enough substantive attention is devoted to how the congressional and judiciary branches of the federal government must work in concert with the executive branch. After all, there are 100 senators, 435 congressmen, nine U.S. Supreme Court justices, 15 members of the presidential cabinet and half-dozen cabinet-level administrators, including the vice president.

As in any democratic society, there always will be a fair number of crooks and cooks among the people in power. But the vast majority of these players are highly educated and talented people who probably have worked hard to get where they are in life. Some of them, dare I say, are even sincere and inspiring.

The good news is that regardless of who becomes commander in chief – even if it’s Palin, whose mere presence on the GOP ticket has outraged many folks on the left and some moderate Republicans – there are still quite a few power brokers in Washington, D.C., who play a meaningful role in establishing foreign, domestic, fiscal, monetary, social and economic policies that affect the daily lives of all Americans.

They can all respectfully agree to disagree if they wish, though respect seems to be in short supply at a time of vicious partisan politics – as does the presence of a viable third party to challenge Democrats and Republicans, both of which are far-too-easily bought by special interests. But in the end, we’re all winners when we eventually pull the lever on Election Day and cast our votes.

Now that’s what I call Democracy at work.

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iPhone uPhone

2008

By Bruce Shutan

Okay, I’ll admit to considering lining up with the hoi polloi on July 11^th to gaze with admiring eyes upon Apple’s first official iPhone upgrade before plunking down hard-earned dollars for a gee-whiz product the company now markets as “Twice the memory. Half the price,” with an asterisk connoting that sales start at $199.

The excitement had been building as early as December when, on my birthday, dear-old Dad and Mom kicked in a chunk of change toward this eventual purchase. I was ready to go out and buy an iPhone the next morning until a few friends imparted some sage advice: Hold tight until they work out the kinks with a next-generation release.

So I waited patiently for another seven months before that day finally arrived. What then transpired was an eye-opening enough experience that it compelled me to write this blog entry, and I still haven’t yet made a purchase.

Known as the 3G, ostensibly because of its triple-play killer application of cell phone, iPod and Internet access, this sleek product featuring touch-screen technology once again has everyone talking – and buying. One million 3Gs sold that opening weekend, whereas

Apple CEO Steve Jobs pointed out in news reports that “it took 74 days to sell the first one million original iPhones,” prompting one critic to snarl about an unfair comparison  given that the new version now sells in 21 countries instead of just one.

But be that as it may, an industry analyst recently noted that sales are expected to exceed everyone’s forecasts before promptly lowering his financial rating and earnings estimate on competitor Research In Motion, maker of the Blackberry, aka “Crackberry,” to reflect a greater threat from Apple than anticipated. He added that any attempt to duplicate the 3G model would “have no hope of matching the secret sauce of the iPhone: the tight integration of hardware and software that creates a unique user experience.”

That could be the case, even despite a few widely reported connection glitches for new products sold exclusively in Apple and AT&T Stores (the former Ma Bell serving as the sole cell phone partner). This is probably the most exciting gadget to hit the market in years, perhaps decades.

Still, I was left scratching my head after learning there’d be a four hour wait at the Apple Store in the Glendale Galleria in suburban Los Angeles, the closest store to my home. It was shocking to see a line stretching through the mall and knowing people are willing to cue up for that length of time when they could just as well return any other day to buy the 3G. It reminded me of stories about people in the former Soviet Union cueing up for anything from food to blue jeans with nary a complaint.

Why the hurry? To be the first on one’s block to boast having one of these gizmos? Has our keeping-up-with-the-Joneses culture of conspicuous consumption become so crass that people can’t figure out a better use of their time? What I witnessed speaks volumes about how perverse I believe our society has become. 

As for me, I bolted to my car upon hearing news of the wait and plan on returning when I’m not too busy to care how soon I own one of these products.

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Courtesy is Contagious

2008

By Bruce Shutan

For the second time in my life, I’m deeply inspired by a visit to the place they call the Land of the Rising Sun. About 24 hours from now, I will fly home toL.A.fromTokyowhere memories of my month-long trek acrossJapanin 1981 are still top of mind. Today’s lesson is the same as it was 27 years ago: Americans sure do have a lot to learn from the Japanese.

But first a bit of the back story. As a college student, I cemented a lasting friendship with a resident ofNagoya, the nation’s fourth most populated city. If not for a falling out with my first-semester, second-year roommate that forced me to move down the hall of my dormitory at Boston University right before the Christmas-New Year’s break, I might never have met Hiroshi Kondo, an unusually tall presence among scores of short people whose even bigger personality and generous heart have served him well as a politician and entrepreneur. We barely knew one another before he extended to me and two other American college chums an invitation to stay at his home when school let out that May.

My first trip toJapanwas full of revelations. As an angst-ridden sophomore out to save the world, I observed in a journal entry on June 14, 1981 that Japanese are “more courteous, generous, polite and honest than many Americans.”

Ten days earlier, I was confounded by “an immense respect conveyed by the youth of Japan” toward visitors with American faces, especially after visiting the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum where I remember having an intensely visceral reaction to gruesome details about the August 6, 1945 atomic bomb blast that eviscerated a once-thriving city of roughly 420,000 residents.

Another observation I made: “It’s obvious that everyone here is eager to forget about the past and concentrate on a productive and prosperous future.”

These thoughts square with what I just witnessed during an eight-day vacation, five of which were spent with my parents who have long had a soft spot in their hearts for my Japanese pal and his family. Kindness and generosity are so ingrained in Japanese culture that nearly every conversation among the begins and ends with the kind of diction

Americans just aren’t accustomed to hearing anymore, with “yes,” “please,” “thank-you,” “I’m sorry” and “you’re welcome” strung together in about five seconds flat. People are also always bowing to one another, regardless of whether you’re a friend or stranger – the ultimate sign of respect.

Speech and gestures are just part of the equation. Cleanliness actually might be a notch above Godliness in a nation whose residents take great pride not only in keeping their homes and streets free of debris but also handing out hot or cool towels before meals or travel. Spa treatments featuring quality time spent in a sauna, wet steam or whirlpool also are highly valued, as are a nice warm bath. I was fortunate to have been pampered at the elegant Resort Trust XIV inKyoto, which is just two years old and one of 16 such facilities spread acrossJapan.

One also can’t help but notice that our Japanese friends are very much into physical fitness, nutrition, meditation and mind-body balance, though much of this health-conscious nation still seems to be as addicted to cigarettes as I remember back in 1981.

But at least they respect the environment, which I was reminded of after walking into an Earth Day rally inNagoyaon April 22 and then a few days later driving past the building where the Kyoto Protocol was formulated in hopes of reducing greenhouse gas emissions blamed for causing a significant change in the world’s climate.

As the rising sun now sets on the second of what I hope will be more trips to Japan, I imagine how great it would be to bottle this unique spirit and genuine affection for people and places, and pour it everywhere. The world would be a much better place with a touch of Japanese courtesy, which is absolutely contagious once you’ve been able to experience it first hand.

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Society Sans Any Labels

2007

By Bruce Shutan

I loathe labels.

They unfairly categorize and pigeonhole entire groups of people. They also cast suspicion on our differences rather than celebrate them. And they breed intolerance and contempt, which, in turn, feed the ugly beast of bigotry, spark wars and ultimately threaten to destroy civilization.

I’m still trying to figure out why the Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds hate each another so much inIraq. But then I’m reminded of countless other regional conflicts around the globe.

Think of the nearly limitless possibilities from the past and present: Arab Janjaweed militias spearheading atrocities against Dinka, Nuba, and Neur populations inDarfur– the latest genocide on record. Serbs, Croates, Albanians and Muslims slaughtering each other in the Balkans. Tutsis and Hutus inRwanda. Hindu Tamils and Sinhalese Buddhists inSri Lanka. Palestinians and Jews inIsrael. Fatah and Hamas factions in the Palestinian territories. Pashtun and Hazara groups inAfghanistan. Blacks, whites, Hispanics and Asians in the U.S. Crips and Bloods onL.A.’s mean streets.

I could go on and on, and if you ask me, it’s beyond shocking just how little humanity is left in this dangerous world of ours.

At this time of year, we hear a lot about the elusive quest for goodwill and peace on earth – timeless messages that underpin the spirit of Christmas, despite always seeming to get lost in the culture’s crass commercialism. These themes should be atop everyone’s personal list of New Year’s resolutions each and every year, regardless of how devout or cynical one might be.

But the trouble is that people generally get too wrapped up in themselves to really care about the dire consequences of continuing to fuel our suspicion of one another based on differences involving race, religion, creed or color. Call it the Age of Narcissism or the Age of Conspicuous Consumption. Maybe even the Age of Denial or the Age of Ignorance, which could apply in both developed and third-world nations.

We’re all God’s children, with far more in common than we might think. Any differences are increasingly meaningless in the Information Age, which takes the Age of Enlightenment a bold step further than anyone born a few hundred, much less thousand, years ago would have ever imagined. Thanks to the Internet, people from far-flung places are just a click of the mouse away from understanding, respecting and even embracing one another’s culture, philosophy and way of life.

The prospect for world peace has never been greater – or more at risk. These are challenging and heady times, but if we’re able to collectively turn our guns toward a war on intolerance (our worst enemy) rather than one another, then we might just be able to enter the Messianic Age.

Now I realize that’s a slippery slope. We’re all terribly familiar with how religious fundamentalists envision their respective versions of Judgment Day when only “true” believers will be rewarded for surviving the cesspool here on earth. It’s bollocks of the highest order.

Eradicating intolerance, war, crime, pollution, disease, hunger, unfair trade practices, unemployment, inflation and any other scourge afflicting the planet and causing untold human suffering is in everyone’s best interest. So for God’s sake, let’s harping on our differences, start recognizing common goals and find solutions for our own damn good. Let’s rock this world and make it a better place for all of us.

I’d like to wish everyone everywhere around the world a very happy and healthy New Year.

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Privilege or a Right?

2007

By Bruce Shutan

Everyone’s talking about health care these days – and for good reason.

First and foremost, there are the voluminous 2008U.S.presidential debates in many interesting formats in far-flung locales, as well as statements from the campaign trail from candidates in both parties.

Mitt Romney, for instance, is pushing his ability as a former Republican governor in heavily Democratic Massachusetts to pass a universal coverage plan, though recently he has distanced himself from the mandated-benefits approach taken by theBayStateand embraced his party’s free-market solution. Democratic frontrunner Hilary Clinton, whose failed attempt to expand coverage for all Americans when she headed up a task force on the issue as First Lady, was humbled into realizing incremental reform has a much better chance of winning support from the public and politicians alike.

Credit also goes to guerrilla documentary maker Michael Moore’s ever-amusing but serious indictment of the American health care system. His horror-genre inspired title, “SiCKO,” yielded rather anemic box office numbers – earning just $24 million in the U.S. versus $119 million for his previous outing, the incendiary “Fahrenheit 9/11”, which is the top-grossing documentary of all time that went on to earn $222 million worldwide. But at least “SiCKO” recently surpassed domestic numbers for “An Inconvenient Truth,” which must mean the U.S. electorate thinks finding affordable health insurance coverage for all its citizens is more important than combating global warming.

Be that as it may, I can’t help but thankfully think consensus is finally building that something needs to be done. When leaders from Big Business and Big Labor hold a press conference calling for universal health care in hopes of removing nearly 47 million Americans off the uninsured rolls, we know the issue has some major traction.

The trick, of course, is agreeing on an approach. Democrats usually favor taxes. Republications usually tax credits. But at least members of both parties, including President Bush, have found agreement for the need to end what they consider corporate welfare in the form of tax credits for employer-provided group health plans – an issue I’ve written about in human resource trade magazines for nearly 20 years.

My own sense is that given the enormous competitive pressures that are an inherent part of an increasingly global economy, captains of industry, union bosses, operations executives, financial and HR professionals all essentially want the same thing: predictable health care costs following several consecutive years of double-digit premium hikes, whether the plans are fully insured or self-insured. Their mounting frustration bodes well for the prospect of compromise, though how exactly that might look is hard to say since the financing and delivery of health care is one of the most complex public policy challenges facing the nation.

Perhaps at the core of any argument before we move forward is a simple philosophic point of discussion: is health care a right or a privilege?

My own feeling is that we should embrace the former and not the latter. And here’s why: a national obesity epidemic in this country (two-thirds of the population is considered overweight), coupled with a sedentary lifestyle for many Americans, means too many people are prone to developing diabetes, heart disease, hypertension and other co-morbidity factors that also could include depression. Moreover, there was some alarming research recently that suggested future generations could see their lifespan decrease if the status quo is allowed to continue for much longer. Our quality of life is eroding.

We’re all going to pay for the treatment of high-risk populations in some way shape or form. It makes perfect sense from an actuarial point of view to evenly spread any insurance risk among the uninsured, or growing underinsured, segments of theU.S.population who must manage chronic conditions on a daily basis with maintenance drugs in conjunction with a healthier diet and exercise. So it’s in our best interest to act on this problem before it becomes an even bigger headache for lawmakers, policymakers, insurers, employers, physicians and patients.

We also need to pay physicians and nurses based on patient outcomes as opposed to patient volume – the most perverse system I can think of – as well as encourage people to take more responsibility for their health. That means making healthier decisions about food and exercise, as well as striking a better work-life balance for greater mental health and peace of mind. A big part of improving health care consumerism is to dismantle our junk-food culture by making more healthy choices available in fast-food restaurants, corporate cafeterias, vending machines and sidewalk kiosks. The other part of it is to encourage and reward people who join a gym, run, walk or bicycle around town.

To what extent the government becomes involved and we risk another bloated bureaucracy, or a private solution helps raise the bar on the competition for new ideas to solving this mess, is anyone’s guess. As I said, the issue is complex and there are clearly two schools of thought on how to deal with it. But clearly the time to act is now. Let’s hope and pray that political and business leaders are able to reach a consensus.

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Recharging One’s Batteries

2007

By Bruce Shutan

With summer in full swing, it’s as good a time as any to reflect on the sad reality of U.S. work-life imbalance.

Summertime is perfect for recharging one’s batteries, particularly for families whose children are out of school. But Americans are pummeled into feeling guilty about taking vacations or not working overtime. And this thinking is incredibly destructive to morale, as well as an individual’s ability to make a substantial contribution to society over the long haul. The problem runs deep in a society that places a high premium on its long-standing puritanical work ethic and getting things done faster than ever.

There’s plenty of eye-opening research on this topic that wouldn’t hurt human resource professionals to get reacquainted with before they head out on their own summer vacation – that is, if they’re even taking one.

Consider Expedia.com’s seventh annual Vacation Deprivation survey, which estimated that 51.2 million Americans will not use all of the time coming to them despite gaining two extra days of paid time off since 2005 (14 versus 12). With an average of three unused vacation days per person, that’s more than 438 million days drained from paid time off pools this year.

The findings were reinforced byHudson’s national survey of more than 2,000U.S.workers, which found that 56% didn’t use all their allotted paid time off, either. The worldwide recruitment service estimated that 30% of those polled used less than half their days off. Moreover, one in five plan to leave town only for long weekends this year.

While 39% of the Expedia.com survey respondents reported feeling better about their job and more productive upon returning from vacation, 19% cancelled or postponed their plans because of work-related responsibilities. Nearly a quarter checked e-mail or voicemail while away from the office versus 16% in 2005.

The popular travel Web site found that paid time off in the U.S. pales in comparison to European nations, with only 14 vacation days earned on average compared with 24 in Great Britain, 26 in Germany, 30 in Spain and 36 in France. It’s no doubt on the minds of researchers at the Center for Economic and Policy Research, a Washington think tank, who caution that despite most U.S. firms offering vacations, the lack of government guarantees means one in four private-sector workers do not get paid leave.

Of the 1,800U.S.workers recently polled by Yahoo! HotJobs, 74% said they have two or more weeks of vacation time available each year but 45% didn’t use all of their vacation days last year. Moreover, 36% of the respondents griped that they’re just too busy to take a vacation while 34% couldn’t afford to go away. And for those who take a full-fledged vacation, 70% report being distracted by work-related thoughts during part of the time they’re away.

A seminal 2005 survey of more than 1,000 wage and salaried employees by the Families and Work Institute in 2005, Overwork in America: When the Way We Work Becomes Too Much, found that 30% of Americans are chronically overworked, while 54% have felt overwhelmed by how much work was on their plate. “For a significant group of Americans, the way we work today appears to be negatively affecting their health and effectiveness at work,” according to the research.

One problem in the Information Age is that technology has blurred the line that used to separate an individual’s work from his or hr life. The Institute found that ubiquitous electronic devices such as cell phones and personal digital assistants means employees are more accessible than ever to their co-workers, supervisors and customers in the 24/7 economy. Of those polled, 33% said they were in contact with work once a week or more beyond normal work hours.

The trouble, of course, is that Americans value the opportunity to get away. Of more than 1,200 full-time employees polled in MetLife’s Fifth Annual National Survey of Employers and Employees, 55% described vacations as their most important benefit – tied with 401(k) or 403(b) plans for second place behind medical coverage at 82%.

But supervisors aren’t as supportive of their underlings taking paid time off than HR professionals might think, according to a recent report from the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM). For instance, while about 83% of HR pros said managers encouraged annual vacation use, just 63% of employees agreed with this assessment. Another example is that while 31% of employees said managers discouraged vacations longer than a week at a time, just 26% of HR pros concurred.

This snapshot offers a vital lesson for employers across every industry, and if buttoned-up accountants can be pulled away from their calculators long enough to enjoy a vacation, there’s no reason other working stiffs can’t follow their lead. That’s about all I have to say on the subject, so please excuse me while I plan my summer vacation.

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Practicing What’s Being Preached

2007

By Bruce Shutan

            Through nearly 20 years of writing about the nation’s health care crisis, I didn’t always practice what so many of the pundits preached to me about how critical good nutrition was in helping improve outcomes and reduce cost.

My lifelong fondness for red meat and dairy products, coupled with a serious sweet tooth, finally caught up with me. In May 2006, I began taking Lovastatin, a drug class of so-called statins used for lowering cholesterol and preventing cardiovascular disease, both of which run in my family. It’s also worth noting that my father was in the meat business, and I remember the entire family being carnivores around the dinner table at least a few times a week growing up in the 1960s at a time when the public wasn’t cautioned about overdoing the consumption of cows as it is today.

At the tender age of 45, it seemed far too soon for me to throw in the towel on lifestyle changes aimed at normalizing elevated levels of cholesterol and triglycerides. But I decided to let modern medicine do the hard work, sit back and wait for the results, which for the most part were okay – just not great.

Total cholesterol fell to 164 in April 2007 from a high in recent years of 240 (many of us have become educated enough to know anything higher than 200 is considered elevated).Missionaccomplished, right? Not exactly.

There were some gray areas in the blood work, and I can only imagine how common this dilemma must be for millions of fellow Americans who live in a nation whose fast-food and sedentary culture has left two-thirds of the population overweight and at risk for developing heart disease, hypertension and diabetes.

My HDL (“good” cholesterol) was still on the low side at 36 when it should have been 40 or higher, while my LDL (“bad” cholesterol) was good but not great at 96 (less than 130 is considered normal). My triglycerides, which the American Heart Association defines as “the chemical form in which most fat exists in food as well as in the body,” was too high at 159 when it should have been 150 or lower.

The chief culprits for me have been over-consumption of “comfort” foods and beverages high in fat, saturated fat, trans fat and sugar. You’d never know it from my appearance. I’ve always enjoyed a fast-burning metabolism thanks in large part to my maternal grandfather’s genetic makeup but also years of physical workouts. But on the inside, my blood stream had been riddled with a level of toxicity that eventually would weaken my heart and possibly cut short my life.

To make matters worse, I’ve long been an insomniac and restless sleeper who tested about six years ago for sleep apnea because I had a few of the key symptoms. Apart from an over-active mind, I place most of the blame on years of ingesting chocolate and candy as though every day of my life was Halloween. I can remember as a young boy stuffing my face with Mounds, Almond Joy and Charleston Chew bars that my dad used to so lovingly pick up for me from a factory near his place of business. While I was never a huge consumer of alcohol, which can cause a spike in triglycerides, I probably should have been more careful to drink in moderation.

Sometimes we all require a push to try harder, and for me, it was a dear new knowledgeable friend in whom I found inspiration and motivation to eat and drink more mindfully. So now I’m in the midst of a three-month experiment to determine whether my quest to significantly lower or eliminate these toxins from my diet will pay off the next time my blood work is drawn.

Regardless of the outcome, I have a new-found appreciation for health food stores and the art of nutritional label reading. Next time I interview of few more pundits, which at any time now could include controversial filmmaker Michael Moore about his upcoming documentary, “Sicko,” for an article about the nation’s health care system, I’ll take great comfort knowing that I’ve made a serious effort to practice whatever they might be preaching.

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Appearance Culture: Quiet Tyranny

2006

By Bruce Shutan

I once had something in common with Parisian playwright Cyrano de Bergerac and comedian Jimmy Durante: a prominent nose. But that changed on Feb. 1, 2007 following elective surgery to correct a deviated septum, which was accompanied by a reconstructive procedure euphemistically called rhinoplasty.

How fitting that a culture obsessed with appearance could conjure up a term so deeply pejorative and offensive that it’s nearly impossible to utter the word without blushing or breaking into uncontrollable laughter. The implication, of course, is that one’s nose is so large that it must be compared to a rhinoceros, “derived from the Greek words rhino, meaning nose, and ceros, meaning horn; hence “horn-nosed,” according to a description on Wikipedia.

Please allow me to make another appropriate animal analogy: sporting a bump on the bridge and extra cartilage at the tip of my God-given schnozolla was the unacknowledged elephant in the room for me (enormous trucks serving as the undeniable common denominator). My fragile male ego long suffered in silence.

            Just about everyone is born with a facial feature or body part they’d like to fix. It’s human nature. Nowadays, an over-emphasis on appearance has unleashed such a sinister force that scores of young women have developed eating disorders in hopes of living up to airbrushed images of fashion models andHollywoodcelebrities, while plastic surgeons prey upon people’s insecurities.

            Although my primary motivation for undergoing the knife was to breathe easier and, hopefully, sleep better, it would be disingenuous for me to suggest that vanity didn’t play a role. Upon announcing the news to a few close confidants, I remember joking about having lived inL.A.a bit too long. But there’s a kernel of truth in that observation, and after two years immersed in one of the world’s most intimidating singles scenes, it’s easy to see how people can get so caught up in the external at the expense of the internal.

            Despite gaining confidence about my new presentation, I’m still sickened by a culture so obsessed with appearance that it drives some perfectly rational people to act rashly or risk a life of quiet desperation.

This modern-day phenomenon clouds inner beauty. Society should place more value on the virtues of humor, charm, compassion and intelligence. But it’s impossible to un-ring the bell, as they say, and it’s anyone’s guess what we can expect during a time when medical science continues to gradually reveal the kind of significant breakthroughs that offer us all a taste from the fountain of youth. Let’s just hope most of us still have the sense not to nose around with the formula for physical perfection and risk losing sight of what’s truly important in life.

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MLK Dream, Poverty Nightmare

2006

By Bruce Shutan

What’s a white man to do on Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday?

I’d venture to say that most of us in this position are grateful for a day off from work or a break from the mail. But then there are those like myself for whom that’s just not enough.

The most fulfilling MLK Day I ever experienced was attending a non-denominational church service at theCaliforniaStateUniversitycampus in Northridge where the guest speaker was none other than Oprah’s long-time beau, Stedman Graham, who earns his living giving motivational talks. And on that night, it was easy to see why the world’s most wealthy and powerful African-American woman would be drawn to him. He’s a gifted orator, and we were hanging on his every word.

A few years have since passed, and I’m ashamed to say that I haven’t attempted to duplicate this memorable time by checking into similar local events to honor the legacy of Dr. King with whom I share an Alma Mata. We both attendedBostonUniversity, which makes me just as obligated to properly remember him as being aU.S.citizen who believes intensely in the right of equality.

So when MLK Day 2007 rolled around, I winced upon realizing my complacent pattern once again had taken hold, and I’d end up using most of the time getting caught up on doctor appointments.

Then as if the hand of Dr. King himself reached down upon me, I found myself in the middle of two jarring encounters that reminded me just how far we have to go before realizing his dream. The chief obstacles: hunger and poverty.

At about 6:30 in the evening on my way home from a periodontal appointment a few blocks from the UCLA campus, I stopped in at a Subway restaurant to grab a quick bite to eat. That’s when the double irony took hold. As I was enjoying a quiet dinner while reading a chapter on slavery in “The People’s History of theUnited States” by Howard Zinn, who was a beloved professor of mine atBostonUniversity, a disheveled black man who appeared to be homeless walked in to inquire how much it would cost to order a submarine sandwich. Upon learning he didn’t have enough money in his pocket, the man looked dejected and left the restaurant.

I couldn’t help but overhear the conversation and followed him out the door. Fully aware that another missed opportunity was hanging in the air, I sprang into action and offered to buy the man dinner. He was eternally grateful and repeatedly wished me a happy New Year, saying how hungry he was and appreciative of the gesture. It was at that moment when I knew this was about as good as it gets for someone like myself to spend a federal holiday from which I’m ethnically and emotionally removed. I also wondered how Dr. King would have viewed my gesture and hoped he’d approve.

Earlier in the day, I was hit with a similar reminder. A black man holding an earnest sign asking for money to help him care for his family with the words “may God bless you” scrawled upon it was making the rounds by car windows at a major L.A. intersection down the street from where I live. I’ve also seen white men and even women panhandling on the same corner many times. On this particular day, I reached into a pile of coins I keep handy for parking meters and handed them over to the gentleman before the light turned green. He smiled broadly and offered a sincere thanks before I drove off.

It was a tiny gesture and, unfortunately, also a Band-Aid over what continues to be a shameful and serious problem in this country. What’s so damn disconcerting to me is that at a time when we’re fighting a highly unpopular war halfway around the world, Americans continue to abandon their own war on poverty at home. That has to change. About 40 million to 50 million Americans live in poverty, and the gap between the haves and the have-nots continues to widen.

Our democracy and free-market system are held up as a model for the world to emulate, and if you ask me, it’s probably as close to a Utopian society that humankind has been able to achieve. The American way of life is awe-inspiring and the envy of everyone. It certainly doesn’t take long to fully appreciate it when traveling to a foreign land. But we must do so much more to take care of our own.

“Give us your poor, your tired, your huddled masses longing to be free,” it says on the Statue of Liberty. More than 200 years following the birth of this nation, we’re still scrambling to feed the hungry and shelter the homeless. Well, I have a dream, too. And that dream is for us to band together as never before to eradicate this scourge not only from our beloved country but the face of the earth. A tall order, for sure, but unless we make more of an effort, our way of life might well implode under the weight of continued strife.

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Giving Peace A Fighting Chance

2006

By Bruce Shutan

I’m sure the history books will consider 9/11 the start of World War III. The trick is keeping humankind alive long enough so that we can continue to publish history books and hopefully learn from the many mistakes of yesteryear.

This is everyone’s biggest fear in the so-called war on terror. It doesn’t matter if you’re liberal or conservative, Democrat or Republican, American or Middle Eastern, Christian, Jew or Muslim. We’re obviously all in this together.

I find it disconcerting that the United States, often viewed as a beacon of hope and now the sole superpower in a troubled world, seems to be more divided than any time since the Civil War – an observation former President Jimmy Carter made with which I happen to agree.

We’ve been partitioned into red and blue states thanks to Electoral College maps drawn from consecutive presidential elections that were dead-heat contests. A once collegial Congress has nearly buried bipartisanship deep inside theWashington,D.C., Beltway. And look at what’s been happening in the heartland with all this incendiary cultural warfare: The Dixie Chicks rail against the president, lamenting his Lone Star connection, while Toby Keith waves the flag, cloaked in patriotism.

What’s going on here?

Emotionalism seems to trump rational thought. Manners are completely out the window. Cynicism has become a way of life. Critics on both sides of the political aisle are generally short on solutions but long on bitching about the issues of the day. Which, of course, makesAmericasuch a great – albeit imperfect – nation in the first place that we can pretty much say whatever we’d like without being too paranoid about the consequences – unless we’re somehow carted off to jail courtesy of the Patriot Act.

I’m not sure how we can possibly broker a peace with people who abhor the modern world so deeply that they’re willing to fly commercial airlines into skyscrapers, detonate car bombs on a daily basis and hide among innocent civilians.

We live in the most complex and treacherous time in the history of civilization. But we’re also on the cusp of breathtaking scientific, medical and technology breakthroughs that also make the 21^st century the most exciting time to be alive. It’s well worth fighting for our collective survival.

How we get there is anyone’s guess. I suppose the best we can do is work together, make a positive daily contribution to our local and global communities, show tolerance and compassion, celebrate our differences, carefully listen to one another and, if I can paraphrase John Lennon, give peace a fighting chance.

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Rockin’ in the Free World

2006

By Bruce Shutan

FCC Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein is aWashingtoninsider who advised former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-SD) on telecommunications following Capitol Hill stints with David Pryor (D-AR) and Donald W. Riegle, Jr. (D-MI). His academic credentials are impeccable, with teaching experience at Stanford and Harvard where he did his undergraduate and graduate work with high honors.

But there’s a lighter side to this seriously accomplished individual. Jon once played a mean harmonica for a group of ragtag musicians who performed a tasty mix of jazz, soul, rock, rhythm and blues and cocktail lounge-style ditties in various bars and clubs that dotted ground zero of the free world.

I had both the privilege and pleasure of occasionally backing him up on the drums for a few years in the 1990s. Our bandleader was an equally charismatic and enigmatic fellow who went by the name Dr. Hot Pepper. He played keyboards and sang, claimed to be fromKansas City,Mo., but never revealed his real name or age. Friends in high places included singer-saxophonist Junior Walker, whom I was thrilled to meet backstage just months before he passed away, and legendary DJ Wolfman Jack. The good doctor attended both of their funerals and has since joined their collective spirit in the sky.

He battled alcoholism and seemed to live a hard life with little money in his pocket, albeit tremendous passion and boundless love in his heart thanks in part to his involvement with a D.C. church and un-abiding faith in a higher power no matter how horrific things became for him. Learning of his death several years after moving 3,000 miles away from the nation’s capital left me sad but grateful for knowing this unique and special soul who sat in with the band at my 1995 wedding and wowed the crowd.

Jon and I were fortunate to be part of a biracial band that brought together folks from all walks of life who were united in their love of music. We were the token Jews who toiled away alongside two of our African-American brothers in arms, tethered by a shared history of oppression deep into our gene pool.

I often described Hot Pepper, who very much respected our Hebrew heritage, as a cross between Sammy Davis Junior and James Brown. He covered the latter’s “I Feel Good” not once, not twice but often three times a night – closing each set with the mega-hit that became his signature song and sound. As the night progressed, his performances often would degenerate into barely recognizable chord progressions, and when we’d pack up our gear, you could almost see the defeat in his eyes. The bottle seemed to always win out in the end.

To me, this destructive pattern seemed to capture the malaise of many black musicians in theU.S.before him whose spirit and life savings were crushed by the white-run business machinery around them. We owe these creative cats a major debt of gratitude for having paved the way for a soulful musical expression that has lifted our spirits, brightened our lives and been passed onto multiple generations the world over.

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Passion for Prose in the Laundromat

2006

By Bruce Shutan

Pilfering a copy of The Wall Street Journal wouldn’t seem like a crime of passion, but that’s exactly the way this misdemeanor unfolded in the eyes of one particularly rabid reader on a gorgeous Sunday afternoon inLos Angeles.

It all happened when I innocently sauntered into a 1950s-style Laundromat nestled in the corner of aWest Hollywoodstrip mall – only to be aggressively tapped on the shoulder by a troubled patron who questioned where I picked up the Saturday edition in my right hand.

“I’m a subscriber,” was the only possible reply that came to mind.

“That’s interesting,” he said with a hint of suspicion in his voice, “because I left my copy of The Journal briefly unattended on top of one of the garbage cans, along with a folder that contained some important documents, and now they’re gone.”

Then he added: “Your paper is slightly yellowed from the sun like mine was.”

Of all the times I really needed my subscriber info emblazoned across the label that comfortably sits just to the Northwest of American journalism’s famous nameplate, go figure that it wouldn’t happen on the day I stood accused of stealing a prized back issue. All it said was “Not For Resale. Sample Replacement.”

How coincidental. What are the odds of finding more than one reader of this exclusive newspaper in, of all places, a seedy Laundromat? Toss in two front pages that were faded by the sun and it gets downright scary. Who knew I’d be walking into a real-life episode of The Twilight Zone probably mere miles away from where the classic TV show was originally penned or at least produced.

“Here, you can read my copy while I’m tied up on a cell phone call I’m about to make and then we can always share it afterward,” I immediately offered without missing a beat, realizing readers of The WSJ must stick together in times like these.

His reaction could only be described as tentatively appreciative. So it shouldn’t have come as any surprise when 30 minutes later this tall and lean gentleman with a clean-cut visage rudely interrupted my call to say the following: “You know something, I thought about what you said and think you took my paper.”

Flabbergasted, I politely asked the party on the other line to hold while I deal with a pressing matter. “How dare you excuse me of stealing your paper when I’ve done nothing of the sort!” I crowed, throwing in a few deleted expletives along the way. This, of course, came as quite a shock considering the good deed I had performed earlier.

So while I angrily snatched back from his hands my copy of the paper, he threatened to callL.A.’s finest and then quizzed me to see if I was a subscriber or thief. “How much does the paper cost a year?” he asked. Unfortunately, I couldn’t remember the exact figure, which fed his suspicion. Blame it on automatic bill paying. But I did at least correctly describe all four sections of the paper. Beginner’s luck is probably what he muttered under his breath.

About 20 minutes later, two L.A.P.D. officers pulled up in a squad car to investigate the mysterious caper. We each patiently told our side of the story. He was asked whether his copy of the paper contained personal information or the same resale warning as mine. He couldn’t recall, admitting that on occasion the label would feature the latter. With absolutely nothing to hide, I invited the male and female cop back to the guesthouse I rent around the corner from the Laundromat so that they could see a back issue with my name and address on it and verify that I do, indeed, subscribe.

The final step was bringing one of these issues to the beleaguered reader who, they later told me upon returning the paper, apologized for fingering the wrong man. “Sorry officers,” I said upon their departure. “I realize you have more important things to do.” They both smiled broadly and rolled their eyes, almost in unison, as they drove off into theL.A.sunset.

            Several people have asked me whether this really happened. It did indeed. Just remember that truth sometimes is stranger than fiction.