Worcester Business Journal

wbjournal.com | November 27, 2023 | Worcester Business Journal 31 By Howard Stempler Howard Stempler is co-chair of the Alternative Dispute Resolution Committee for the Worcester County Bar Association and is the principal owner at Central Mass Mediation & Arbitration in Shrewsbury. 10) In mediation, the role of the mediator or neutral, is to listen, facilitate dialogue, and help guide parties to an agreeable resolution. 9) Mediation is a completely voluntary process, which means the parties have chosen in good faith to attempt to voluntarily participate in the process. It also means that parties are free to withdraw from the process at any time. 8) Statistics show between 65-75% of all mediated cases result in a final settlement. 7) Binding arbitration is a process where parties present evidence to a neutral third party (an arbitrator) who is empowered to make a legally binding decision. 6) Neutral case evaluation is a process where each side presents written and oral summaries of its case to a neutral evaluator. With NCE, lawyers and their clients receive independent feedback on the strengths and weaknesses of their respective cases, providing parties with a realistic assessment of the potential outcome of their case if it goes to trial. 5) The benefits of ADR over litigation are significant: A) Costs: The costs of participating in ADR are usually significantly lower than those associated with trial; B) predictability and control: ADR generally provides the parties more control over the outcome by being able to select a knowledgeable neutral and having greater say through the process; and C) speed: alternative dispute resolution techniques help to resolve the dispute in a minimum amount of time. 4) Other benefits of ADR include: A) Flexibility: ADR services can be tailored to the needs of the parties; B) privacy: alternative dispute resolution is a private process; and C) less stress: ADR is often less stressful than participating in the lengthy litigation process. 3) ADR sessions may be conducted completely remotely by Zoom. Parties may agree one or more of them will participate in ADR remotely and one or more of the parties will participate in-person. 2) ADR is used as a tool to resolve most types of disputes, including but not limited to family and probate issues, insurance coverage, commercial disputes, personal injury, and real estate and land disputes. 1) Participating in some form of ADR may be done through a private for-fee ADR firm or free of charge through the Massachusetts Superior Court system. Each party should evaluate carefully with counsel which is the best option. K N O W H O W You don't need to quit your job to earn a PhD BY EMILY MICUCCI Special to WBJ L ast holiday season, workplace par- ties were rebounding. Bloomberg reported 60% of U.S. companies surveyed planned some sort of in-person gathering, not quite at the pre-COVID level of 75%, but still a big upswing from the previous year when Omicron decimated holiday plans at both work and home. While COVID seems like a near-obsolete factor in planning such events this year, economic conditions may put a damper on the further recov- ery of holiday festivities. With inflation creating cost-of-living pressures, compa- nies may be less inclined to spend a lot on celebrations. Whether your business hosts a holiday function, in the office or at another venue, there are ways to spread cheer through the season without extravagant spending. Give. Choose a charitable project to tackle this holiday season as a compa- ny. Perhaps planning to spend the day working on boxing up food or gis for a local drive while enjoying light refresh- ments can replace a traditional party. Or, if you do host a party for employees, you can givify the event, by pledging to donate a certain dollar amount to a local charity for every employee who attends, suggests giving platform Percent Pledge. Document. Setting up a photo booth for the few weeks between anksgiv- ing and New Year's Day is an easy way to make the mood merry and bright. Indeed.com suggests creating your own using wrapping paper, lights, and tinsel. Since inclusive celebrations are a must, photo props should represent the diverse holidays of your workforce. Be sure to ask employees for input. Be sure to create a link for sharing photos. Remember remote employees. With hybrid and remote work arrangements and large companies with big geograph- ic spread, figuring out how to collective- ly celebrate is challenging. Rather than a one-time virtual event, which smacks of the COVID-19 era, consider creating an online forum for sharing fun holiday content. e Enterprise League suggests a Slack channel for sharing festive vid- eos and photos; a similar idea could be applied to your platform of choice. 10 THINGS I know about... ... Alternative dispute resolution A F E S T I V E W O R K P L A C E F O R 2 0 2 3 Alexander M. Wyglinski is associate dean of graduate studies at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. Reach him at alexw@wpi.edu. BY ALEXANDER M. WYGLINSKI Special to WBJ F or many people, a stereotypical PhD student is someone in their mid- 20s, directly out of an undergraduate program, who wants to be a professor. ey're working full time in a university research laboratory to produce a dissertation and scholarly publications that present a new theoretical research finding. Today, PhD students defy the stereotyping and have a much greater degree of flexibility not only in how they pursue their degree but how they use it. PhD education has evolved to consider diverse backgrounds, skillsets, and future career goals, reflecting a growing need within industry for the workforce to possess PhD-level qualifications, especially for individuals pursuing advanced industry research and development. National Science Foundation data show the percentage of U.S. engineering and science PhD graduates employed by the private sector (42%) nearly equals the percentage of PhD graduates entering an academic institution (43%). Here are five ways PhD studies have changed to support an industry practitioner obtaining a PhD. 1. You don't need to quit your job. It's now possible to pursue a full-time career while earning your PhD degree either part time or full time. In programs like Worcester Polytechnic Institute's Experiential PhD, the employee/PhD student, employer, and faculty advisor communicate to define expectations and time commitments. 2. You can pursue your PhD degree on a topic aligning closely with projects you are pursuing at work. A mutualistic collaboration creates a win-win-win scenario. Companies will always have technical challenges and seek innovative solutions to translate into new products and applications, while their employees are passionate about what they do for a living and can translate it into a PhD dissertation. Faculty advisors seek high- impact, real-world problems to work on, like the challenges industry oen provides. 3. You can do your PhD dissertation research remotely, even at your workplace. Students do not necessarily need to be on campus to do graduate coursework or pursue dissertation research. Most universities offer their graduate curriculum online, oen during evenings and sometimes in an asynchronous mode for student convenience. Additionally, many companies permit their employees pursuing PhD studies to use work resources for research if parameters are discussed in advance. 4. Ownership of intellectual property and publications is more flexible and open. With clear expectations and responsibilities agreed upon collaboratively, arrangements can be made in the early stages to guide all parties on how IP and peer-reviewed publications are handled when generated during PhD research. 5. You don't need to take a decade to complete your PhD degree part- time. With sufficient planning and coordination, it is possible to complete a PhD degree in a timely manner while working full time on your day job. e key is to integrate what you do for work with the research you are pursuing for your PhD – not to burn the candle at both ends. Several schools have successfully implemented their approach to supporting industry practitioners pursuing PhD degrees and their professional career objectives. At WPI, our Experiential PhD program provides a framework of support from the application stage to graduation. W W W

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