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For their own good Fifty years ago, they were screwed-up kids sent to the Florida School for Boys to be straightened out. But now they are screwed-up men, scarred by the whippings they endured. Read the story and see a video and portrait gallery.
Five employees of a Clearwater trade journal have no excuse for not making it to the polls today: They've been given the day off to vote.
And employees of WCI Communities Inc. in Bonita Springs, headed by Republican fundraiser Al Hoffman, have an added incentive to pick up an "I Voted" sticker when they leave the voting booth. They can use it to enter a company-sponsored raffle for a free trip to Walt Disney World. They , as well as other voters, can use the sticker to get a free chocolate chip cookie at any DoubleTree Hotel.
With a dead heat in the presidential race and crowds anticipated at the polls, a growing number of employers have become more proactive in encouraging their employees to vote and rewarding them when they do.
Though Clearwater' s Value Retail News with its Election Day holiday is the exception, several bosses in the Tampa Bay area said they're ready to be flexible should workers need extra time at the polls.
Craig Sher, president and chief executive of Sembler Co. in St. Petersburg, said he thinks Election Day should be a national holiday. But since it isn't, Sher's concession has been to move a regularly scheduled 8 o'clock managers' meeting this morning up to 9.
"And if they end up waiting in line and don't come in until 10 a.m., who am I to complain?" Sher said. "Nobody is going to be penalized for exercising their rights. Nothing could make me happier than if 100 percent of our staff voted."
Russ Thomas, chief executive of Gold Standard, a medical software company in Tampa, is telling workers to come in late or leave early if they need the time to vote. Thomas, an avid Bush supporter who met the president this year, said his 63 employees have spent plenty of time debating and discussing election issues in recent weeks.
"We have a very politically astute and diverse work force," he said. "You'll see a little bit of every political ideology represented there. I encourage it."
Several area companies spent unprecedented amounts of time educating their employees about how and where to vote in the months leading up to the election.
JP Morgan Chase in Tampa, with more than 5,000 employees, hosted an on-site voter registration drive last summer. PharMerica, with 380 workers in Tampa, had the county election supervisor offer voting machine demonstrations in its cafeteria. The company's intranet gave workers information on polling locations and hours, and on requesting absentee ballots and profiles of the candidates. Hours and locations of early voting sites were posted in PharMerica's elevators and cafeteria.
"We've even given lists of yard-sign requests to both campaigns," said Jon Rawlson, vice president of government affairs for PharMerica, which operates an institutional pharmacy. "We want to take advantage of the impact this election will have on the future, certainly in health care and the pharmacy industry."
At Ceridian Benefit Services in St. Petersburg, president Jim Corcoran spearheaded a get-out-the-vote drive among the company's 1,300 employees that included dissemination of voter registration forms, encouragement of early voting and a mock presidential debate, with the candidates represented by two executives in masks.
Corcoran, who admitted to being "the taller one" in the company debate, said workers have been encouraged to wear red, white and blue today in recognition of the election.
But Ceridian workers shouldn't expect any special treatment for exercising their civic duty today.
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Fifty years ago, they were screwed-up kids sent to the Florida School for Boys to be straightened out. But now they are screwed-up men, scarred by the whippings they endured. Read the story and see a video and portrait gallery.
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