Who doesn't like the old Chester-Chester C-M moustache? Cripes, I think that look went out of style before I was born. (no offense to readers with facial hair. I'm sure it looks good on you!
http://www.jibjab.com/view/197691 ) Votes: +1

I would like to know what the survey cost. There is a hell of a lot of money being made by this nonsense. Good for the consultants but not too good for the taxpayer. It is sort of like ag reasearch---for enough money an professor can prove that lead has the properties of levitation.

On the other issue---just who the hell cares about this stuff? I should not do this but I just can't resist. If you put Hoeven in a $3000 Armani suit, he would still look rumpled----. If he is #12, who the hell is lower---I must be careful here, if I think he should be higher, I might be admitting that he is kind of cute. This is just too over the top with useless information. Votes: +2

I haven't had time to read the whole bloody thing yet but I thought a couple of things were interesting.

- Less than 20% of WSI employees feel that policies and procedures are applied consistently.
- Less that 36% of WSI employees are satisfied with the practices of senior leaders (keep in mind that A-6 of this report indicates that 15% of WSI employees ARE senior leaders)
- Only 28% of WSI employee feel that there is no favoritism (again 15% of these respondents would be in a position to benefit from favoritism)
- One of the top "write in votes" were for the elimination of negative impact to whistleblowers

It's also very obvious by the date this survey was sent out that WSI was looking to capture the Furness honeymoon period. Appendix C showed that the survey went out in the middle of March which was just before Furness was signing on. The surveys would most likely been completely when Furness was given rah-rah speeches and WSI was holding all-employee meetings. What have you done for us lately Bruce? Votes: +7

Good for them they can now point to something positive. Almost 70% of the employees who took the survey say they believe management has integrity. Definitely a huge improvement. This is somewhat contradicted by the top 10 suggestions for improvement that includes changes to senior management. Suppose that could be explained as a segment of the 31% of employees who took the survey and feel management lacks integrity.

I don't know about you guys, but if I were senior leadership, I would want the belief in integrity near 100%. It is interesting that 11% of the respondents expressed concern about treatment of whistleblowers, favortism is still perceived as an issue, and questions remain about policies and procedures and performance evaluations.

Honestly though, good for WSI they can demonstrate some improvement in a few of these areas. One can only guess as to how that happened, if it relates to terminations of Blunt and a couple of his appointees, termination of some or all of the whistleblowers, the composition of who actually responded to the survey vs. the first one, or other factors. With so much turmoil only time will tell if the changes continue in a positive direction or if this was some kind of flash in the pan cosmic thing with no sticking power. Votes: +2

I don't know how to respond to the Hoeven is the 12th sexiest governor in the nation tidbit. And please, Chet, don't post any pictures of Hoeven in a bathing suit under the heading 'Hometown Boy Does Good'. Votes: +4

Read the last paragraph, sounds like North Dakota workers comp has given these guys a lesson.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/05/15/iraq.pentagon.waste/index.html
Votes: +1

I have been watching the polls at DakotaPolitics.com for some time now, and it seems if you look at the polls Governor Hoeven is doing pretty good, he is running at about a forty percentage rate (note this is on the all time polling numbers, not weekly polling) of people backing him. The Democrat runner up is Tim Mathern, he is holding his own at just over thirty six percent of the people polling backing him for governor. Now Hoeven is ahead, but now if you add the numbers up on the other republicans running and throw those numbers to Hoeven, he would get 42.46137311 percent of these people voting for him. Then you go and add up the democrat numbers from all the others on the list that are not running, throw those numbers to Mr. Mathern and he has 51.27863663 percent of the poll takers voting for him. Wow maybe Hoeven has something to worry about in the numbers, seems he might not be as popular out here as he is in Playboy!
Votes: +1

I see how this story ends now. The story begins with bad times at WSI that included corruption, mismanagement, a tarnished N.D. State Government image, not to mention good people raked over the coals and careers lost at the hands of certain WSI leaders who practiced mean-spirited acts and deceit (which drastically affected former employees/some current employees/whistleblowers/injured workers alike). It was a scandal with the CEO and his OH entourage he brought in, it included his "favored" members of his exec team, right down to the Chairman of the Board. Then the Governor steps in to "save the day" by soliciting help from some heavy-hitter consultants. He gains their expertise, their advice is taken, a new leader is placed at WSI (a respected man to restore integrity), whistleblowers are fired, and, gee whiz, all of a sudden all is well in "Whoville" (WSI) once again.

Is this how this story is going to end and be portrayed throughout the years? Is no one going to give a care about the past and how WSI got to the depths of Hell to begin with? (Oh that's right, we're now just looking to the future, the past doesn't matter and current WSI staff members who had a role in taking WSI to the depths of Hell, well that just doesn't matter either.) And no one will care what that Hell did to people's lives? Does no one give a care about the injustice? And by "demoting" staff at WSI, that's all it takes to cleanse them of their past unethical acts and it now makes everything o.k. and they get to keep their job - all the while, many fine WSI employees have walked out the doors of WSI and suffered ended careers and some have suffered major setbacks in their lives - all because of the unethical acts of those still in power at WSI.

What a sad, sad ending, especially when you have good people who have lost so much through the course of this story and all at the hands of those so corrupt and those who are still in power. Votes: +5