FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

A TULSA COMPANY IS ELIMINATING JERKS/STRESS IN THE WORKPLACE

TULSA, OKLA. (June 2009) — As Road Science, LLC™ embarks on its new beginning in the road paving industry, the company has become an early adopter of the “Jerk-Free Workplace” with the help of The People Group, LLC, a Tulsa company specializing in positive people practices consulting. Adopting this policy adds Road Science to a short list of only 15 companies in the United States, and the first in Tulsa, who have made a commitment to establishing a jerk-free and bully-free work environment.

According to the employee experience brochure, “Road Science is committed to providing all Team Members a healthy and safe work environment,” and labels bullish behavior as “unacceptable, because it breaches principles of equality and fairness.” Kevin Kennemer, founder and partner of The People Group, holds a passionate view on the importance of operating a workplace free of incivility and bullying. Kennemer said, “jerks can be high performers, but create problems. By Road Science adopting an intolerance to bullying, it will prevent harmful workplace issues, and allow the company to provide, undoubtedly, the best work environment in Tulsa.”

In addition to providing a positive work environment, The People Group and Road Science hope to prevent health-harming issues that are a product of continuous psychological mistreatment and result from being subjected to bullying. Stress-related illnesses can cause employees to withdraw from their peers, friends and family, and can also cause performance on the job to suffer, ultimately, leading to a negative impact on the entire organization.

Brian Majeska, Chief Operating Officer at Road Science, commented, “our management team believes that extraordinary businesses care about three people: the teammate, the customer, the owner. Today, one of our primary focuses is the teammate; each other. Any success we achieve in the future will be based on the environment we are creating today; an ethical environment of trust, belief, collaboration and innovation.

Through this partnership, The People Group is able to provide positive people practice strategies to Road Science in order to attract and retain the best talent through innovative compensation and benefits, as well as a revolutionary, healthy and attractive work environment.

For more information about enacting a Jerk-Free and Bully-Free work environment, please contact The People Group at 888.797.9992.

Road Science, LLC is the leading technology company for the road paving industry. The company focuses on developing long-term business relationships with contractors, manufacturers and agencies. With a team of nearly 100 professionals, Road Science specializes in differentiated products and services for contractors and asphalt manufacturers, as well as assists agencies in creating greater value by protecting and re-using pavements.

www.roadsciencellc.com

The People Group, LLC was founded on the premise that positive people practices are primarily the missing component of average performing companies. Founder Kevin Kennemer, a Tulsa, Okla., native, has twenty years of valuable people practices experience and was formerly the chief human resource officer of an international energy company that rose from obscurity to #5 on Forbes list of largest privately help companies, and was known for their great work environment.

www.thepeoplegroupllc.com

Media Contacts:

Amy Chiconas
Road Science, LLC
Office 918.524.7100
achiconas@roadsciencellc.com

Kevin Kennemer
The People Group, LLC
Office 888.797.9992
kevin@thepeoplegroupllc.com

How does an employee prevent leaving one toxic work environment only to take a position inside another toxic culture?  There was an interesting column recently in J.T. & Dale’s Talk Jobs column that addressed this very issue.  The question was asked how to avoid taking a job in a toxic work environment.

The wise words of wisdom from the authors was this: “Rather than look for a different industry, your best hope is to find an organization whose culture is aligned with yours.”

They further stated, “the best way to do that is to interview an employer as much as he or she interviews you.”

There are good leaders out there who want to create rewarding work environments and that don’t send employees home at night confused, deflated, depressed and anxious.  Just as good employers perform their due diligence on new employees, those in the job market need to decide what is important to them.  What are your work environment non-negotiables?  Develop some questions around those requirements to ask your potential boss.

Below are a few questions to consider asking at your next interview?

• Are employees allowed to take risks and develop innovative solutions on the job? If yes, what is a recent example of employee-led risk taking or innovation?
• What happens to a good employee who makes an honest mistake?
• When there are openings in the company does the leadership look to fill those spots from the inside first?  Who are some people who have recently been promoted?
• Is this company’s leadership flexible with the work/life demands of employees?  What are some examples of current flexible work arrangements?
• Do company leaders provide telecommuting options to get work done?
• Does this company prevent workplace bullying?

ATTENTION A**HOLE BOSSES!
Sid Citrus launches campaign to be crowned your King.

Orange Rebel Productions today announced the launch of a new comedy web series, Sid Citrus: A**hole Boss, in partnership with inaugural corporate sponsor, The People Group. “Sid’s goal in life is to be universally acclaimed by his peers as the King of all corporate assholes. Sid Citrus already stands head and shoulders above every other jerk boss out there,” laughs writer-director Fred Emmer. “Or rather I should say, he floats.” Sid Citrus is an orange. A floating, philandering orange to be exact, who wears a tie, including Saturdays. And he’s not very nice.

“I laughed my head off when Fred gave me the script. I immediately knew we had to get this made,” recalls workplace consultant Kevin Kennemer, principal of The People Group. “That Sid Citrus, what an absolutely amazing jerk!” The first three webisodes tell story of how rookie cube dweller Brett comes to realize that his floating orange boss is a bully and an a**hole and that standing up to him can lead to lethal consequences, literally. “Of course Sid as a character and the story events are beyond farcical,” says Emmer. “But we actually are trying to say something.”

“The issues are real and I deal with them every day,” adds Kennemer, whose consulting practice specializes in helping corporations put people friendly practices in place. “Incivility in the workplace creates huge costs no company can afford to ignore. The effects of psychological mistreatment on
the workforce is brutal and allowing it to go on is immoral. I think Sid Citrus makes the point with humor.”

Fred explains Sid Citrus’s origin. “A friend of mine had recommended Kevin’s blog to me and after reading a few posts I couldn’t believe how candid he was in condemning a**hole behavior in the workplace,” said Emmer. “It hit me viscerally and I was thinking about his post as I strolled to the fruit bowl in the break room. Someone had left a Sharpe marker by the bowl. Two minutes later, Sid Citrus was born,” stated the writer-director from Tulsa, Oklahoma.

One school of thought is that every organization should have one a**hole. That might be okay if the asshole is kept around so their behavior can be used as a bad example, and if they are not too high in the organization. Kind of like an object lesson in a**holeology. But most organizations aren’t
that sophisticated. Inevitably corporate a**holes wind up breeding like rabbits, eventually poisoning the entire organization.

“I’ve already heard it from my wife, don’t be a Sid,” says Emmer. “He’s not even real and he’s already helping me put a check on my own behavior. I hope we can spread this around,” states Emmer. “Don’t be a Sid.” Sid Citrus: A**hole Boss can be viewed at: www.youtube.com/sidcitrus and at www.SidCitrus.Com.

About Orange Rebel Productions
Orange Rebel Productions is a Tulsa based media production company specializing in viral
video production for the web.

About The People Group
The People Group is a Tulsa based consulting firm committed to improving employee lives,
business performance and society through positive people practices consulting. The company
was founded on the premise that positive people practices result in better organizations.
The People Group proved that a leadership team that adopts, models and promotes positive
people practices benefits business, for people, for customers and society.

Kevin Kennemer, The People Group founding partner, provides a short article on A Word About the Term A**hole.

Media Contacts

Fred Emmer | Writer-Producer | Orange Rebel Productions | 918.519.6206 | sidcitrus@gmail.com

Kevin Kennemer | Founder & Partner | The People Group | 1.888.797.9992 | kevin@thepeoplegroupllc.com

Throughout my life I have chosen not to engage in the use of profanity. It stems from my devoted faith in God and respect for others taught to me by my parents.  However, in our YouTube movie series, Sid Citrus: A**hole Boss, we have purposefully adopted the term.  There is no other term that properly grabs the attention and isolates the severity of the psychopathic actions of the highly toxic and abusive manager.

Although I am not completely comfortable with the use of the term in our movies and in my writings, I am even more uncomfortable with the terribly costly psychological abuse occurring every day at the hands of corporate assholes, a.k.a., jerks and bullies.

According to the Workplace Bullying Institute, prolonged exposure to workplace psychological abuse leads to debilitating anxiety, panic attacks, clinical depression, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), gastrointestinal diseases, high blood pressure, diabetes and even suicide.  The affects of long-term psychological abuse in the workplace can set-off a tidal wave of physical and mental health conditions that can forever alter the target of the corporate a**hole’s wrath.  Bottom line, the unchecked, health-harming treatment that continues with the complicit approval of company leaders is more offensive to me than the term, a**hole.

We understand there is a certain amount of resistance to the term.  Realistically, when the word is used in a movie it would, at worst, provoke a PG rating.

The more important issue is not the term but our unified actions to eliminate such health-harming behavior against targets all across American workplaces.

To learn more about the high cost of these workplace deviants, read Stanford Professor Robert Sutton’s book, “The No A**hole Rule: Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One That Isn’t” and Workplace Bullying Institute Founder Dr. Gary Namie’s book, “The Bully at Work.”

Working diligently and faithfully to create a civilized workplace.

Respectfully,

Kevin Kennemer
Founder & Partner
The People Group
Certified Great Workplace