king henry ii and understanding your employer

8/14/2019 King Henry II and Understanding Your Employer

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King Henry II And Understanding Your Employer



Under King Henry II In The Twelfth Century…

England established a common law. This was a

body of law that was common to all parts of the country. Throughout Europe at the time, there was a wide body of

law that was applied—there were feudal customs,Germanic customs and other differing customs. Forexample, French King Louis IX was well known for havingallowed each province of France to have its own laws andprocedures after becoming part of France. He created aParliament of Paris to hear appeals from the feudal lords

around France.



Each Year, King Henry Sent Out Circuit Judges…

To hear various civil and criminalcases. One of the more interesting sorts of trials

that developed during the time was in criminal

law. If a person was accused of a crime and therewas no specific accuser, witnesses, or writtenevidence, and the judges believed the person hada bad reputation, they held a “trial by ordeal”.



Under This Sort Of Trial…

A person was bound by their handsand feet and dropped into a body of water, such as a river or a lake.Water was believed to be somethingthat was pure and would reject anyfoul or unclean substance.Accordingly, it was believed that theinnocent person would sink, and theguilty person would float. God wasbelieved to determine guilt orinnocence and not people.



Because This Procedure Was Something That The King

Believed…Often resulted in people who

seemed to be guilty beating thesystem and not being punished,King Henry did not like the system.

In the thirteenth century, a trial by jury of 12 people was eventuallydeveloped. Here, many people wereinitially suspicious since people, andnot God, were determining guilt andinnocence. Eventually, the idea of a

trial by jury was something that wasaccepted by people and becamepart of how things were done in theWestern World. We have come toappreciate and believe that themost important thing for the

accused, and in disputes betweentwo parties, is that they be



When I Got Out Of Law School, My First Job Was…

For a judge inside a federal court. There is a processthat happens when cases come into any court, and theprocess is very similar in every court across the United

States. In fact, in one form or another, this sameprocess has been followed in courts in England, theUnited States and other common law courts–a law

common to and accepted by the entire country– forhundreds of years. This entire process is set up so thecourt and/or the jury can eventually understand what is

going on in a dispute between two parties.It is amazing the work thatgoes into understandingdisputes.



I Think The Process Has Developed The Way It Has Because…

We believe that it is exceptionallyimportant to understand where twoparties are coming from before

passing any sort of judgment. It is afoundation of our justice system thattwo sides need to be understood aswell as possible before we can makeany judgment one way or another:



Someone typically files a complaintof some sort with the court aboutsomething they are upset about. It

could be a contract dispute or theviolations of a copyright statute,for example. In other cases, aprosecutor may charge someonewith a crime in the court. In manycases, the parties will file various

motions regarding the complaintand whether or not it is even valid.

1)

The Process



Following discovery, one ormore of the parties willgenerally ask the court to

throw out the case after filingwhat are called motions forsummary judgment. If thecase is scheduled for trial,they may file what are calledmotions in limine to throw outvarious causes of action.

3)



A case will go totrial after all of

these aspects of the case have

beenadjudicated.

Following averdict in thecase, the casemay beappealed.

5)

4)

End



This Is Essentially, In A Nutshell…

What goes on in most cases that go to court. This issomething that costs companies, individuals and othersan incredible amount of money to consistently go through

and manage. When you step back and look at this what ishappening is pretty simple.

Essentially, twosides are seeking to

be understood andhave a decisionmade about aparticularmisunderstanding.



•A company may believe a

contract means one thing andnot another.

•An individual may believethat someone has wronged

them and wants justice.

• Two people have a differentinterpretation of one event

than one another.



We Are Appalled When Judgments Are Passed On People And…

Individuals without due processand taking the time to

understand them. For example, Irecently saw the movie

Changeling with Angelina Jolie.

This is about a mother who iswrongly thrown in a psychiatric

institution without due process.

The movie Rambo is about aman who is wrongly imprisonedand then escapes without dueprocess. I watched 60 Minuteslast night and the biggest story

was about improper witnessidentifications, and one being

wrongly thrown into prison dueto a mistaken identification.



I Read The New York Times This Morning And A Lead Story…

On the cover was aboutpeople being wrongly

imprisoned in Chinawithout due process. Ourculture is obsessed withpeople being understoodbefore judgments aremade about them. We

want to ensure thateveryone is understood,and the right thinghappens. This issomething that is part of the fabric of our society,

who we are, and what webelieve.



When I Got Out Of Law School…

I started practicing law with law firms. What I

noticed is that most of the disputes that companies andindividuals spend millions of dollars in legal fees on could betaken care of by the two sides sitting down over a cup of

coffee and discussing the issues and being willing tounderstand the other side. In almost every case that I saw,the lawyers actually get in the way of the two sides workingthings out.



The Lawyers Do Not Want People To…

Communicate and understand each

other because, if this happens, then the

lawyers will have nothing to do.Accordingly, the lawyers go back andforth with motions and arguments for

months until the client eventuallydecides it is not worth paying for andsettles, or until the case goes to trial.

Most disputes can be settled quiteeasily.



The Reason I Know Most Disputes Can Be Settled Quite Easily

Is…

because I saw it in action. When

I worked for the Judge, he would generallyput the two sides in separate rooms rightbefore the case was about to go to trial,

and discuss the matter with each of themindividually. He would try to get each sideto see the other’s point of view. In almostevery single instance, he managed tosettle the conflict right there, and the casenever went to trial.



I Often Wondered Why This Particular Thing Never Occurred…

Before the case was so close to trial.In more complex cases that involvedmultiple plaintiffs and defendants, he

would bring in to what was called a“Settlement Master”. These weretypically portly men in their early 60swho looked like they had just had a

good steak dinner with friends. Theywere friendly men who were all

smiles and everyone liked them. They would always settle cases. They

would just get people to understandone another.

This is an incredible skill.



This Brings Me To You

I think a lot of the current economic crisis thiscountry is going through could be solved if peoplelearned to understand one another better. Whenit comes to our jobs and what we feel we believe,

however, we are more likely to dig our heels inand not understand the other person’s point of

view–or our employer’s point of view.



Lately, I Have Seen A Lot Of Businesses Closing Around My

Neighborhood

This is due to the economic downturn, of course, but businesses are always closingin all parts of the country at all points intime. The reasons businesses close is often

due to the people within them just notbeing able to understand the point of viewof the employer. Usually, these businessesare closing for reasons which are prettystupid and generally unnecessary. This isupsetting to me. I want to see people

working around me and businessesbecoming successful. Whenever I can, I tryand step in and see if there is anything Ican do.



I Am Not An Expert In Saving Businesses By Any Stretch Of The

Imagination

However, something I have seen time and time

again is that virtually any business can be saved and

does not have to fail. Literally any business can workand survive if the right actions are taken. Businessesdo not need to fail and jobs can be saved quite easily.



There Is A Business Up the Road From Me That Just Went Out Of

Business

It did not take me long to figureout what was wrong with thebusiness-the employees were

being paid too much. This wasa good business, with goodpeople, providing a goodservice. The business also has atremendous upside. It is asmall business that does about

$1,000,000 a year in revenue. The problem is that the salariesof the people working there aremore than $1,000,000 a year.



In the business farmore than it needed to

pay them. The company

was paying full-time people$70,000/year to do many of these jobs. The business hadother jobs that in many

companies would pay $30,000a year for. However, thisbusiness was paying $60,000 ayear for the same type of work. The more I looked at things themore disturbed I became.

The Business Was Paying Virtually Everyone Working…



The Employees Of This Particular Company Did Not Want To Be

Paid Market Rates

They wanted to be paid “whatthey were worth,” and now theydo not have jobs.

The company is out of business. Theemployees had no solution to fix theproblem, because they were the problem.Now the company is completely out of business. Most of the people from the

company are not working and are collectingunemployment.



The owners blamedthe employees for

not being flexiblewith their wages. They did not want to

listen to my

suggestions.

The employees blamed

the owner for notbringing in enough

business. They did notwant to listen to the

employer’s side of things.



Here, If I Were The Owner Of This Company, I Would Have…

Cut all of the wages and explained to the employeesthere was no way the business could survive unless thiswas done. There is nothing wrong with not being paidtwo to three times what you are worth. The employeesdid not want to listen to this, however, and because of this they are yet another casualty of the economicdownturn.

A good business has failed.



All Over Businesses Are Failing And…

more often than not, many of these businesses do

not have to fail. The problem is that people want thingsto be a certain way and are afraid to listen to what needsto be done to change this. Auto companies have too

many costs and need to eliminate costs. Certainbusinesses have too much space and need to eliminatespace. Often, the easiest changes can have a massiveimpact on fixing broken down companies. In order forthis to occur, however, people need to be willing tolisten.



I Stepped In And Tried To Talk To The Employees About…

This situation even after the businesshad been closed. I felt I could still

rescue the business. None of them had jobs. Still, none of these employeeswere flexible with their wages, evenafter losing their jobs.

They explained that “goodpeople need to be paid goodwages.”



failing to listen to another person’spoint of view. Here, had the employees really

been able to listen to the concerns of the businessowner, the business would not have failed. The failureto listen to others is something that is almost at a crisispoint in many circles. We assume we know whatpeople want and need.

•Governments do this with social programs.

•We do this when we speak to others

•We reach conclusions about people, placesand things without first getting all of theinformation we need.

One Of The Biggest Mistakes We Can Make Is…



I See This In The Recruiting World All The Time

There are numerous recruitersout there who take one look ata candidate and assume theyknow exactly what this persondoes or does not need. This issomething the least successfulrecruiters do. The bestrecruiters spend a great dealof time getting to know thepeople they are working withand gathering information. Itis only after gathering a greatdeal of information thatmost recruiters are evenremotely in a position to makea recommendation about

someone’s career.



When I Look At Companies And People…

People assume they know what someone else

needs or what they are entitled to. People do thiswithout having any information whatsoever about

where the other person is coming from. Thisnever works.

I see something thatrepeats itself over andover again.



We Put A Great Deal Of Faith And Energy Into…

Ensuring that people are not falsely accused withoutdue process. We require that people be

understood.

The most important thing you can oftendo to keep a job, get a job, and more is

take the time to listen and ensure you

king henry ii and understanding your employer

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