Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap, but by the seeds you plant.Robert Louis Stevenson

Inner Life Directions

Expanding Reality

Ggids

  • Consequences of $70,000 a Year

    The CEO 0f a company who had raised his company’s minimum wage to $70,000 now says his revenues have tripled.

    Six years ago Dan Price CEO of Gravity Payments,  a credit card payment company, made news because  he raised the company’s minimum wage to $70,000 a year. There are those who applauded him and those who thought he was foolish. What has happened since? We now know. The company has tripled its revenue. And that was last year, the year many companies lost money because of the pandemic. Their revenue was 11 billion dollars. This year it is slated to go to 13.5 billion. Price said recently that when you pay workers enough they are less stressed and worried about certain problems and can better focus on their work. And not only that he added they can also better focus on their career progressions, that includes expanding their capabilities. He further believes that when people make a living wage there is a sense of pride,  a sense that their voice matters, and all that is good for productivity.

    When Price made his announcement in 2015 many businesses were shocked. He had learned that some of his employees had second jobs. One of his employees was working at McDonalds in order to make ends meet. He decided no one should have to do that and came up with the $70,000 figure as what would be a living wage.

    Now the number of  his customers has grown so has the number of his employees. Also employees  have felt more confident to have children and buy homes. Price calls it a baby boom. Employees were in addition able to pay down their debts and  pay into their 401-k

    Let’s hope Dan Price’s success begins a trend having proven the positive effects of a living wage.

  • National Inventor’s Hall of Fame

    The National Inventor’s Hall of Fame made news by having 2 black women as inductees.

    The National Inventor’s Hall of Fame. Have you heard of it? I hadn’t I regret to admit. They’re about 50 years old located in Alexandria, Virginia and honor people who work in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. They have a museum and each year they have inductees. This year they are making news because 2 of their 2022 inductees are black women. It’s not the first time their inductees are black, there are 30 black inductees and it is not the first time there are women, there are 48, it is the first time black women have been inducted. They are part of the 29 people who make up the class of 2022 and who join the some 600 inductees since their inception.  One of the 2 women is engineer Marian Croak who has been instrumental in voice over internet technology, something that has enabled video conferencing and telecommuting so important during the pandemic, such as in zoom for example. She is currently with google working with AI and human centered technology. She holds about 200 patents. The other is Patricia Bath, an ophthalmologist who invented laser phaco a minimally invasive device to better remove cataracts and which is very widely used. Deceased in 2019 she also held many patents. Both not only break ground in terms of being part of this hall of fame, they follow in the institution’s claim that the people they honor contribute not only to our quality of life but also are behind the engine that help the economy grow.

  • Mental Health Days for Teens

    Mental Health days off from school are now allowed in several states.

     Teens have spearheaded a new movement, one for having mental health days off from school. That’s because children and teens do have their own pressures, which we adults often don’t recognize. Several states now allow mental health days off from schools in some form or with similar names, Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Maine, Nevada, Oregon and Virginia have all passed bills  allowing students to be absent for mental or behavioral  health reasons. And in Utah a valid excuse  now includes mental or behavioral health. The legislator who sponsored the bill said it was his daughter’s idea after experiencing the pressures of college. Utah used the term behavioral health to stretch the meaning of mental health and to avoid  the idea of mental illness. Mental health is broadly defined in general and in the context of mental health days for students it is too. But also there is an attempt not to stigmatize its use and somehow adding behavioral health is deemed helpful.

    Psychologists suggest that  parents be alert to signs of problems requiring more serious  attention than just a day off, signs of insomnia, anxiety, depression, lack of interest in normal activity or too much sleeping. These mental health days are meant to be a break so that a student can have an opportunity to recoup. They even suggest to use mental health days as a celebration after a big project is finished.

    New York, California and Florida, the 3 largest school systems in the nation have no mental health days off . Given that we are increasingly aware of the stresses high schoolers and even those in college are under, one hopes that students, teachers, parents or whomever can spearhead expanding this movement.

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