Banco Popular de Puerto Rico

According to Walgreens, last flu season resulted in 100 million lost work days and nearly $7 billion in lost wages. In addition, Walgreens projects that nearly 2 million business trips were cancelled last flu season.

I know of someone who is surviving the unthinkable, the impossible. Perhaps an indication that I've been in this business too long, her loss made me wonder about bereavement policy.

I love hearing about random national holidays—like National Banana Day and National Hug Day. The latest I heard about actually occurs today (Oct. 4): Get out your party hats for National Improve Your Office Day!

My way of helping to honor Breast Cancer Awareness Month is through today’s guest post from Deborah Sternberg, EVP at Always Care Benefits and Starmount Life Insurance Company, who articulates better than I could the important role your benefits plans play in combating breast cancer. Enjoy, and as always share your thoughts in the comments.

According to a new CareerBuilder survey, some of my fellow teleworkers are giving in to their darker angels. The survey finds that teleworkers confessed to their top distractions when working from home.

A genie tells you that she’ll grant you one wish for your employee benefits programs. It will take effect immediately, and will cost you nothing in time, talent, money or morale. What would you wish for?

Us EBNers are heading down to Big D this weekend for the 24th annual Benefits Forum & Expo (Sept. 25-27 at the Hyatt Regency Dallas). We’ve heard everything’s bigger in Texas, so we’re ready to wow all of our guests a truly Texas-sized agenda, featuring more content than before to help you rein in your most pressing benefits cost, compliance and communication problems.

So, what are they, you ask? Not so fast. Tweet your best benefits communication pearls to EBN Associate Editor Lisa Gillespie (@EBN_LVGillespie). Her favorite will win a copy of “You Can’t Not Communicate 2: More Proven Solutions that Power the Fortune 100,” by David Grossman.

On Tuesday, Sept. 27, I’ll be moderating the keynote panel discussion at EBN’s Benefits Forum & Expo, featuring four HR/benefits professionals from companies listed on Fortune’s 100 Best Places to Work. If you had the panelists as a captive audience (here’s who they are, by the way), what would you ask them?

One of Benefits Forum & Expo's keynote speakers will be NFL Hall of Fame quarterback Roger Staubach, who played nine outstanding seasons with the Dallas Cowboys. Staubach has graciously volunteered to autograph some Cowboys memorabilia for EBN to give away to one lucky Twitter follower.