Hasta La Gadget!

You are annoying your boss and colleagues any time you take your phone out during meetings, says new research from USC’s Marshall School of Business, and if you work with women and people over forty they’re even more perturbed by it than everyone else.

The researchers conducted a nationwide survey of 554 full-time working professionals earning above $30K and working in companies with at least 50 employees. They asked a variety of questions about smartphone use during meetings and found:

• 86 percent think it’s inappropriate to answer phone calls during meetings

• 84 percent think it’s inappropriate to write texts or emails during meetings

• 66 percent think it’s inappropriate to write texts or emails even during lunches offsite

• The more money people make the less they approve of smartphone use.

The study also found that Millennials are three times more likely than those over 40 to think that smartphone use during meetings is okay, which is ironic considering Millennials are highly dependent upon the opinions of their older colleagues for career advancement.

TalentSmart has tested the emotional intelligence of more than a million people worldwide and found that Millennials have the lowest self-awareness in the workplace, making them unlikely to see that their smartphone use in meetings is harming their careers.

Why do so many people—especially successful people—find smartphone use in meetings to be inappropriate? When you take out your phone it shows a:

• Lack of respect. You consider the information on your phone to be more important than the conversation at hand, and you view people outside of the meeting to be more important than those sitting right in front of you.
• Lack of attention. You are unable to stay focused on one thing at a time.
• Lack of listening. You aren’t practicing active listening, so no one around you feels heard.
• Lack of power. You are like a modern-day Pavlovian dog who responds to the whims of others through the buzz of your phone.
• Lack of self-awareness. You don’t understand how ridiculous your behavior looks to other people.
• Lack of social awareness. You don’t understand how your behavior affects those around you.

I can’t say I’m surprised by the USC study’s findings. My company coaches leaders using 360° assessments that compare their self-perception to how everyone else sees them. Smartphone use in meetings is one of the most common coworker complaints.

It’s important to be clear with what you expect of others. If sharing this article with your team doesn’t end smartphone use in meetings, take a page out of the Old West and put a basket by the conference room door with an image of a smart phone and the message, “Leave your guns at the door.”

Want to learn more from me? Check out my book, Emotional Intelligence 2.0.

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Breaking with tradition, the White House under President Donald Trump did not host an iftar dinner, the meal Muslims eat to break their daily fast during Ramadan.

The dinner, which has been often attended by prominent members of the U.S. Muslim community, began in 1996 during former President Bill Clinton’s White House tenure and continued through the subsequent Bush and Obama administrations.

But Trump and first lady Melania simply issued a brief statement Saturday that offered “warm greetings” to Muslims celebrating Eid al-Fitr, which marks the close of Ramadan, Islam’s holy month of fasting.

On behalf of the American people, Melania and I send our warm greetings to Muslims as they celebrate Eidal-Fitr.

Muslims in the United States joined those around the world during the holy month of Ramadan to focus on acts of faith and charity.  Now, as they commemorate Eid with family and friends, they carry on the tradition of helping neighbors and breaking bread with people from all walks of life.

During this holiday, we are reminded of the importance of mercy, compassion, and goodwill.  With Muslims around the world, the United States renews our commitment to honor these values.

Eid Mubarak.

Trump’s decision to skip hosting the dinner comes after he released a controversial statement meant to mark the beginning of Ramadan. Many members of the Muslim community condemned the message, which largely focused on terrorism.

“This year, the holiday begins as the world mourns the innocent victims of barbaric terrorist attacks in the United Kingdom and Egypt, acts of depravity that are directly contrary to the spirit of Ramadan,” read a White House statement issued in May. “Such acts only steel our resolve to defeat the terrorists and their perverted ideology.”

Trump’s remarks starkly contrast with those by then-President Barack Obama during Ramadan last year. In June 2016, Obama and then-first lady Michelle announced plans to host an Eid celebration in the White House and praised American Muslims for their contributions to the U.S.

“Muslim Americans have been part of our American family since its founding,” the Obamas wrote in a statement roughly five times longer than Trump’s Ramadan message. “We look forward to welcoming Americans from around the country to celebrate the holiday.”

U.S. secretaries of state have also traditionally hosted Iftar dinners since 1999 ― but not this year. Trump’s top diplomat, Rex Tillerson, declined an invitation this year from the State Department’s Office of Religion and Global Affairs to host an Eid al-Fitr celebration, according to CNN. 

With its break from precedent, the Trump administration shunned an opportunity to reach out to the U.S. Muslim community whose leaders have said has been ostracized by the president’s rhetoric and his policies, including his proposed travel ban.

Imam Talib Shareef, president of the Nation’s Mosque in Washington, D.C., called Trump’s decision “disappointing.”

“To stop it doesn’t send a good message” Shareef told Newsweek.

Referring to one of Trump’s main pastimes, he added: “You get the chance to go golfing and all this other kind of stuff. How come you don’t have time for a population of your society that needs some assistance?”

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Authorities are investigating two possible hates crimes against Islamic centers in California during the last days of Ramadan, officials said.

A burned Quran filled with bacon ― a food forbidden in Islam ― was found outside the Masjid Annur Islamic Center in Sacramento on Saturday. Law enforcement officials discovered the defiled book of religious text hanging by a handcuff on a fence after a citizen reported the incident around 2:30 p.m.

The Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department said it was investigating the incident at the mosque, the largest in the Sacramento area, as a possible hate crime.

“The Sheriff’s Community Relations Unit contacted leaders of the Islamic Center to offer any assistance,” the department also said in a statement.

A representative for the Masjid Annur Islamic Center did not immediately respond to request for comment.

About 20 miles away, the Islamic Center of Davis was the site of a possible hate crime on Friday. Officials told The Sacramento Bee that someone driving by threw ripped out pages of the Quran as members of the mosque gathered inside during Ramadan Taraweeh prayers.

This isn’t the first time the center has been the targeted. In January, a woman was arrested and charged with a felony hate crime after leaving bacon strips by the mosque’s entrance and breaking some of its windows.

Sheikh Ammar Shahin, the center’s imam, did not immediately respond to request for comment.

Basim Elkarra, the executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations’s Sacramento chapter, thanked law enforcement officials for their quick response to the “troubling incidents,” which took place as Ramadan, the holy month of fasting for Muslims, came to a close.

“Decisive action by law enforcement authorities sends a strong message of deterrence to anyone who contemplates turning their bigoted views into acts of intimidation,” Elkarra said in a statement.

The recent incidents reflect a pattern of increased hate crimes against Muslims. The Council on American-Islamic Relations released a report last month that found a 57 percent increase in anti-Muslim incidents from 2015 to 2016. 

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