The Philadelphia Inquirer from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania • Page 62

Worklife G4 The Philadelphia Inquirer Tuesday, February 8, 1994 A nine -year study of workers finds those who shape up save firm money By Sally Squires WASHINGTON POST Employees who improve their health habits by giving up smoking, cutting back on alcohol and exercising slice dollars off their company's health-care costs, according to a nine-year study at the University of Michigan. Researchers studied medication. Based on their responses to the questions, participants were classified as either high-risk or low-risk individuals. They were offered smoking-cessa-tion classes, weight reduction, stress management and membership in a low-cost athletic club, During the next six I I I 'v l- J'j; r' By comparison, employees who were considered high risk in 1985 and were still in that group in 1988 saw their average claims rise more than $500 annually, from $1,155 to $1,677. Employees who were low risk in both 1985 and 1988 had medical costs that stayed essentially the same.

But the biggest losers were those who were low risk when the study began but slipped into the high-risk group. Their medical claims more than doubled, from $655 in 1985 to $1,513, the study found. The study shows that "if you facilitate an environment where people can make health changes, they will, and their health-care costs will follow," Edington said. But the findings also point out that "you need to pay attention to the low-risk people, too," Edington said. "You can spend all your time trying to convert high-risk people to low risk, but you also need to pay attention to the other side." Workers who changed risk factors slashed their medical claims, say the researchers.

half of the 8,000 employees of Steelcase manufacturers of file cabinets and other office equipment based in Grand Rapids, Mich. Participants had an average age of 44 when the study began. Of the workers studied, 75 percent were men. years, University of Michigan researchers tracked medical insurance claims for both risk groups. Employees who were high- risk when the study began in 1985 but who shifted to a low-risk profile by 1988 "had much lower medi Respondents answered a health-risk questionnaire about their lifestyles, including whether they smoked, drank or exercised, what stress they were under and what their eating habits were, and whether or not they used seat belts.

Participants indicated whether they had such health problems as high blood pressure and elevated bipod cholesterol or were 20 percent or more overweight, how many days annually they missed because of illness, and if they required regular cal claims from 1988 through 1990," said D.W. Edington, the director of the University's Fitness Research Center. Average annual medical claims for these participants dropped from $1,155 in 1985-87 to $537 in 1988-90, a savings of $618, said Edington, who conducted the study with Louis Yen, an assistant research scientist in the department. If everyone in the company had made those same changes, Edington, said, the savings would have amounted to $20 million over three years. For The Inquirer BRAD BOWER The Herrins married in 1986 after meeting initially over the company computer in 1982.

Cupid's timing was good. Stan and Dianne, at home in Honeybrook, no longer work for the same firm. Although the atmosphere at work has changed, Cupid is still on the job PSORIASIS Chemist has developed new ointment that produces fantastic results. WIT DISTRIBUTION (206) 747-2084 4540 133rd SE Bellevue, WA 98006 Careers in Data Processing Computer Operator (AS400) ON THE txcei. opp IV wiin a growth oriented company located in Paoli.

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P.O. Box 176c Paoli, PA 19301 mmm mmqm "You know the person is responsible. You know he will be there the next day." After six months, they moved in together. At the time, neither had any reservations about dating a co-worker. "It's a big company," Stan said.

Besides, "Where else are you going to meet people?" But, he agreed, love at the office can cause heartache. He had dated others at the office, making for "a little awkwardness" when the relationship ended. And once a supervisor scolded Dianne because he thought she was spending too much time talking to her significant other. "It shouldn't have mattered," she said, "because I was getting my work done." Later, she returned to school and changed jobs. In 1986, they got married.

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Send resume AMSNAI, 770 Woodlane Suite 53, Mt. Holly, 08060. Donald and Margarita Montanaro ti Hi 0 in in Data Processing Do you ENJOY: Being Underpaid? Being Underappreciate? If so, stay right where you are. if not, call TelTech today! A Siemens Nixdorf, the influence of today's clientserver tech-inologies is completely focused on building the information Jlsystems of tomorrow. As a cutting-edge supplier and integra-1 tor of computer systems, software and peripherals, we are posi-1 tioned to provide customers with a worldwide level of expertise, supporting them through all stages of consulting, planning and total integration.

A talented software professionals, if you have experience in installing and supporting a wide variety of software applica-. Jltions, preferably in a UNIX-based clientserver environment and are ready to progress your career with the backing and support of a major global force in information technology, look to us. SOFTWARE CONSULTANTS Requires 5 years' experience in the installation and support of various software packages related to Manufacturing, Distribution, Order ProcessingSales, Finance and Human Resources. Proven ability to interact with customers and positively influence the sales process is essential. Successful candidate will participate in pre-sales activities which include demos, discussions of customer needs and proposal preparation.

Must also be capable of installing software applications, training and providing on-going support. Prior experience in a consulting environment a plus. Excellent communication, skills, a solid technical orientation and the ability to travel is required. R3 and R2 experience is a definite plus. We offer attractive compensation and benefits.

Relocation assistance is available. Postions are located in our Boston area office. For immediate consideration, please fax or send a resume to: Patricia A. Bleheen, Employment Manager, Siemens Nixdorf Information Systems, 200 Wheeler Road, Burlington, MA 01803. Fax: 617-221-0231.

Interviews will be scheduled in the Philadelphia area. Siemens Nixdorf is an Equal Opportunity Employer, MFDV. TelTech, an Internationally-recognized firm celebrating 20 years in the computer consulting business, is seeking talent in the Philadelphia area dynamic individuals who respond to great assignments, top rales, leading edge technology and an easy commute to NY, NJ Washington, DC. We are offering high-paid, full lime (with full benefits) and consulting assignments to staff coun-sultants whose accomplishments include: WALKER AR-AP SYBASE Programmers POWERBUILDER A snapshot from the Herrins' family album shows them at Blue Marsh State Park in Berks County in 1992. French restaurant or dancing? It was an electronic mail message sent by him.

She responded except that he didn't send the message. A colleague had part of an effort to set up Stan Herrin and Dianne Taylor. It worked. For the next month, the two, then editors for trade magazines published by Chilton Co. in Radnor, romanced each other in bits and bytes, tapping out carefully crafted computer messages.

(Dianne, it seems, made good use of the thesaurus.) All that time, the two never spoke a word to each other not face to face, that is. Finally, they agreed to meet. "I was so nervous to actually talk to her," said Stan, now 35 and an editor of the trade magazine Review of Ophthalmology at Chilton. He called her during work and said, "Hello. This is Red Dog." Red Dog was a code name.

(It's a long story.) That was in 1982. The romance bloomed. He was impressed with her work; she had won a trade industry award. She, too, liked what she saw at the office. "It's safe," said Dianne, now 32 and product manager at Synthes in Paoli.

Donald Montanaro was introduced to Margarita Csonka at a birthday party in the '60s. Since then, the two have made sweet music together! She plays the harp, that most elegant of instruments, for the Philadelphia Orchestra. He, the clarinet. "We became very good friends at first," Margarita said after a recent Saturday rehearsal at the Academy of Music. "From there, more developed." It was harmony at first sight.

The couple spent hours together, seven days a week. They toured together, rehearsed together, performed together. After they married and had a family (two boys), the children went along, too. Margarita remembered nursing her babies backstage at the Lincoln Center. Of course, the two still spend all their time together.

"For us, it just works out," she said. "If the schedule is very difficult, it's very easy to understand what the other is going through," he added, explaining her words. "We can also discuss what we're doing," she said, completing his thought. "It's great to have that very honest input. "We rely a lot on each other," they said, in concert.

Hi 0 LOVE AT WORK from G1 sure, Michael Crichton tackles the story what he says is fiction based on fact of former lovers vying for a coveted executive spot, charges of sexual harassment and the ruthless world of business. It all makes for less romance in the workplace, says Lisa A. Mainiero, an associate professor of management at Fairfield University and author of the 1989 book Ofice Romance: Love, Power Sex in the Workplace, which showed peer liaisons actually improved office productivity. "I think there's a lot of unrequited love out there," she said in a telephone interview. And for those who do venture to ask a colleague out, "I think more people do more dancing up front exercise much more caution in the early stages of the relationship." As one man said, the current climate of sexual harassment suits, most of us are afraid to even approach a co-worker, let alone ask for a date." Is the office romance dead? No, say the experts.

Cupid, it seems, hasn't abandoned the 9-to-5 shift, and is still shooting his arrows during business hours. It can't be helped, said Mainiero, who pointed out in her book that closeness to co-workers of the opposite sex makes romance inevitable. "Shop talk," she writes, "leads to pillow talk." Said Mainiero: "People do continue to have office romances. They just keep it quiet." Demchenko and Wollaver One June morning in 1981, Dick Wollaver paid a visit to the employee cafeteria. "Vera was there," said Wollaver, looking at her fondly.

"You goofy," Vera Demchenko said, touching his white shirt as she sat next to him in his corner office on 21st Street. Wollaver, executive director of Management Information Services for the district, blushed. That day, he bought a cup of coffee for himself, walked past her and returned to his office. "I thought, 'Why am I doing I took a trip back and said, The two started to chat. "He asked me who that girl was walking by," said Demchenko, who then worked with affirmative-action issues.

"And I said, 'You mean the She explained why that might be offensive. Later, she noticed that Wollaver all of sudden began spending more time in the ninth floor hallway. They often debated some feminist issue or other, said Demchenko, now an assistant principal at Furness High School in South Philadelphia, "One day he said to me, 'You know, you seem to be a tough And I said, 'Well, the only way you're going to find out is if we go to she said, laughing. They did, on July 7, 1981 a first date the two celebrate each year with lunch. "It clicked," Demchenko, all smiles, said of their relationship.

"She was perfect," added Wollaver, still sounding like a newlywed after more than 10 years of marriage. The two found many common interests swimming, skiing, sailing. And school the "glue that made it easy," he said. "When the conversation gets slow, you can get back to school." For 18 months, they dated. Wollaver said his productivity improved; he was happy.

And both shared ideas, offering constructive criticism on each other's school projects. At the office, the two ate lunch together. But other than that, it was strictly business. "It was a rule," Wollaver said. "I don't think you should let a personal relationship interfere with a job you have to do." Stan and Dianne Herrin WhicA do you prefer: Tailgang at the Eagles' game, dinner at a fancy SIEMENS NIXDORF (Hyperion a plus) IDMSCICS IDMSADSO CICSFX SWIFT wCiCS 0mni7-SUNwMAC Workstations -Open Rate VAXVMSRDBFORTRAN 0S2LAN MGRUNIX TRANSACTSQL wIRWIN AS400 wCOBOL FOXPRO 2.5 UNIX SYSTEMS ADMINISTRATORS wSOLARIS If vou have these or other DP skills, Teltech would like to discuss your future plans.

Please callsendfax Your resume to: R. Sutler, 39 Broadway, New York, NY 10036, ohone 1-600-648-2372, 24-hour fax (212) 5145504. Cars Management ficlenea Programmers Corporation PROGRAMMERANALYSTS Business growth has created the need to add 3 PA's to our systems development support group. 2-3 vrs exp on MF's using COBOL and CiCS and exposure to PC software packages are required as is a 4 yr degree. Salary range $31'3BK, depending upon exp.

Full benefits program. Forward resume to: PO Box 1047, Westtown, Pa 19395 or fax 610-430-6678 Japan and harassment TELTECH S4S-175K ENGINEERS CLIENTSERVER Growing Blue Bell firm is seeking highly qualiiied individuals in the following areas: Senior ProgrammerAnalyst with four years of more experience in COBOL, PL1 or assembler in the MVS, Cics, VSAM, DB2 environment. PC Senior PrwrammerAnalvst with three years or more experience in Turbo Pascal, and OS2, SNA, (3270, LU6.2, TOKEN RING) Composition or Graphics a plus. Senior System Programmer with 4 years or more expeirence in DB2, CICS, Large Scale MVS Systems, background and knowledge of PC systems. If vou are Interested in pursuing a career with us, please submit your resume and salary requirements to: Volt Information Sciences, Inc.

P.O. Box 716 Blue Bell, PA 19422 Attn: Personnel POSITIONS AVAILABLE IN SOFTWARE ENGINEERING, DATABASE MANAGEMENT, AND RESEARCH ANALYSIS Care Management Science Corporation, a leading developer ot software that analyzes health care outcomes and costs, is seeking talented software engineers, database managers and research analysts to expand a software development and data analysis team. Knowledge of patient dischatge or charge master data a plus. Positions available include: Database engineer with three to five years experience in ORACLE. Experience with both very large and clientserver data required.

Graphical met interface engineer with extensive knowledge of Windows 3.1 user interlaces on PC platforms. Must have completed multiple projects and supported customer software. Research analyst with detailed knowledge of and experience with SAS modeling procedures andor mathematical programming as well as general research design. Advanced statistical training required. Salary will be commensurate with experience.

Benefits provided. Qualified persons should submit resume to: Care Management Science Corporation 3600 Market Street, Sixth Floor Philadelphia, PA 19104 Data Processing TAD DATA SERVICES would like to talk to you! immediate short long term DelVal contract positions Application Managers ProgrammerAnalysts System Analysts Software Architect Data Communication Spec. Exp in mainframe needed with: COBOL, COBOL II, SQL, CICS COMMAND, MVS, IMS DB'DC. DB2. Call Ian Paul at 610-962-9900 or fax 610-962-9988.

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Call Len Schwartz ACCOUNTING PROS 546-5462 stepped down as director of the research center in August and gave up his university teaching job in December, citing personal reasons. At year's end, he went into seclusion at a Kyoto Zen temple. News reports said he sent friends a letter saying he "just decided to give everything up, to search my soul." Iguchi said some of Yano's former female colleagues believe he fled to the temple to head off any formal finding of wrongdoing. After Yano resigned, the school dropped its investigation without ruling on whether the harassment charges were true. The professor himself has refused interviews.

He reportedly told friends he intended a Zen disciple-ship of at least a year, but that temple life was tough no newspapers, no talking aloud, no heating. Rigors or no, his stay didn't last long. A group of female academics took the temple to task for sheltering him. They launched a petition drive demanding his ouster, and at the head priest's request, Yano left at the end of January. During his temple stay, the professor told friends he had been contemplating "how fragile things are in this world." Iguchi agreed but said Yano was no pawn of fate.

"He exploited his position fully he knew no one could speak against him," he said. "But we think there should be social punishment. We don't want other victims to give up." HARASSMENT from G1 ton novel Disclosure the story of a power-hungry woman boss who sexually stalks a male colleague is topping the bestseller lists. Three young Japanese "office ladies," when told of the novel's plot, burst into peals of incredulous laughter. In sex harassment cases, legal action is rare.

Japan's first such case wasn't filed until 1989. Perhaps in part because respect for authority is so ingrained here, women are hesitant to accuse a man in a powerful position someone like Toru Yano. At 57, the Kyoto University professor was the recipient of many academic honors, a member of the Swedish Royal Academy of Sciences, which picks the Nobel prize winners. He served as director of the university's well-regarded Center for Southeast Asian Studies. Last spring, eight of the professor's personal assistants quit in rapid succession, and rumors spread that they had been harassed.

The school began an investigation after one of the former assistants formally complained. Her lawyer, Hiroshi Iguchi, said the woman, then 20, told him she was browbeaten and intimidated into having sex with Yano, and afraid to speak out because the professor told her no one would believe her. Three other women were considering coming forward with similar accounts, he said. Amid the growing scandal, Yano My 10 year old client company Is searching lor six (6) Software Develoomenl Engineers (3 yrs exp) and four (4) Senior Lead-Systems Engineers (5 yrs exp) for their fast growing companies. In addilon to client-server and Unix, other pluses would be Cast tools, Oracle tools, the ability to take projects from requirements specification through to final delivery.

You should have had experience In the development and integration of clientserver prolects with a Unix based server and PC based applications. The ability to assist in development of functional requirements, design database structure and schema, design the user Interfaces, user environment and implement the database design using Case Tools. For the software engr and consultants who demand and give excellence; in addition to salary there are bonuses and equity (stocks). For further Information concerning these positions that offer the successful candidates unlimited advancement potential, contact: John M. Long TECHNICAL RECRUITING RESOURCES INC.

Shetbourne Court Wayne, PA 19087 Telephone: (10) 647-1300 FAX: 1610) 647-0560 Join our expanding software development team desianino busi ness systems for the wholesale distribution industry. A degree in Computer Science, a strong aca demic average and an interest in developing business software are required. TECHNICAL WRITER Excellent writing skills and the ability to relate business information in a clear, user-friendly style are essential requirements for our TECHNICAL WRITER position. The selected individual will be responsible for producing documentation for business applications running on IBM's RISC 6000 platform. Working knowlege of Word, Word for Windows and Page-maker required.

We seek a quick learner and team player to ioin our Programming Suporl Team. 1-3 yrs. related experience preferred. Ideally located fn Bucks County, Prophet 21, Inc. is a nationally recognized computer company with a history of 25 years of sales and service to the wholesale distribution industry.

We otter fully paid medical dental benefits, profit sharing401K, 100 tuition refund and much more. For Immediate consideration, sendfax resume with salary requirement to: PROPHET 21, INC. 19 West College Avenue 19067 FAX: (215) 321-8009 PLACING A CLASSIFIED IS AS EASY AS (215)563-5000 Cull Inquirer Classified. It's where the action is. Prophet 21, Inc.

is a national computer company headquartered in Bucks County. As an 'IBM Business Partner', we market total business systems to the wholesale distribution industry, nationally and in Canada. Our software runs on IBM's RISC System 6000 under Applications develop-mont it done in PROGRESS. 4GL SYSTEMS ADMINISTRATORS VAX Entry level or individuals with 1-3 yrs experience are encouraged to apply. PROGRESS experience is a plus.

Please forward resumes SUPERVISORY To50K JR. TO20-30K Cenlral Phila, Fee paid Contact Howard Levin RSVP SERVICES P.O. Box 8369 Cherry HilUNJ 08002 609-667-4488, with saiai requirements to. Human Resources Department PROPHET21.INC 19 West College Avenue Vardley, PA 19067.