Grabbing a coworker’s bottom is inappropriate. Using racial slurs is not OK. If you are in a supervisory position, showing favoritism to your husband/girlfriend/nephew is nepotism (which is bad). What do all those statements have in common (and what do they have to do with technology)? They all seem to be common sense, yet a careful company covers each idea in its policies and training. And still, HR professionals must deal with the consequences of employees who forget to abide by those simple truths.

Likewise, there are some simple tips for caring for workplace technology that employees often forget, overlook, or simply never think of that can save your company a lot of money and headaches when it comes to repairing and replacing damaged goods. It can be an employee using her first smartphone who doesn’t realize how sensitive to weather conditions mobile technology can be. It can be  the overachiever who insists on working through lunch (i.e., eating at his desk — over his keyboard). It even can be the pampered executive who is so used to getting new equipment whenever she snaps her fingers that she doesn’t take the time to read the instructions about extending laptop battery life (why do that when you can just get a new one?).

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Oh, the places we will go…thanks to Facebook, which announced this week a new feature that allows users to share their exact locations with their friends. With the new “Places” feature, you can tap a “Check In” button to announce your location to everyone on your Facebook friends list. Your “Check In” status will then appear on your profile page and in your friend’s News Feeds. Great; more intrusive technology from the world of social media. I realize it’s called “social media” for a reason, but do we really need to tell our friends where we are—every minute of the day?  What happened to “Me” time?

Evidence that the workplace cubicle is going the way of the dinosaurs as a recent poll show that a majority of U.S. workers spend their work day away from the office.

It’s time to really, really re-think those workplace theft policies. An American Airlines employee was charged Wednesday with stealing over 150 electronic items off of planes and from passenger luggage, including cell phones, Kindles, iPods and a host of other electronic gadgets. The Dallas/FT Worth police later reported that they found three pallets of stolen American Airlines property in the employee’s garage!

More countries continue to jump on the “Ban the Blackberry” bandwagon, and there’s plenty of room for nation’s both big and small: Kuwait, China, Lebanon and Austria.

James Cameron is now “King of the Classroom” as the University of Florida experiments with using avatars to help train student teachers. The project is apparently designed to help improve a student teacher’s ability to interact with students. You know it’s only a matter of time before employee avatars start invading the workplace. We’d never know about it; we’re not in the office anymore.

What else is happening?

-Ralph Gaillard

Every Friday, we’ll use this space to give you a round up of fun, interesting and offbeat technology news & information. As you will see, some of the items aren’t necessarily related to workplace technology. That’s ok; it’s Friday. The intent here is to broaden your tech knowledge beyond issues related to the cubicle with news, factoids and viewpoints from tech journalists, bloggers and other sources. Enjoy!

Consumer Reports offers a quick fix to iPhone 4’s woes involving dropped calls: duct tape. I didn’t realize you had to be MacGyver to operate Apple’s latest smartphone. What’s next? Paperclips to operate the apps?

Peter Cappelli, one of HR’s brightest thinkers, provides an insightful analysis of a big paradox facing HR and training managers. Gen Y employees can work an array of current technology gadgets the way Beethoven plays the piano, however, the Millennials don’t seem to excel at online learning like their Boomer & Gen X counterparts. Look for this to become an even bigger headache for employers as Boomers begin heading off to retirement.

The blogosphere has been on fire recently with calls for Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to be shown the door. A recent post on the Seattle PI Blog has a good, detailed re-cap of the pressures Ballmer’s faces as Apple, Google, Twitter and other tech companies battle Microsoft to become “uber-technology company of the world.”

More evidence that HR needs effective policies to regulate and monitor employee blogging, “YouTubing,” “Friending” and “Tweeting” during work hours. There’s no quick, one-size-fits-all answer to the problem. HR professionals will need to find that perfect balance that gives employees just enough freedom to social network without inhibiting their productivity. Not an easy feat to pull off.

To educate the public about the health care reform law, the White House has launched a new web portal that offers information about available health insurance options. To drive traffic to the portal, the White House has rolled out an unusual Web video, featuring President Obama, sans coat and in front of his laptop, walking users through the site’s main features. Add another job title to the President’s never-ending portfolio: Webmaster-In-Chief.

What else is happening?

-Ralph Gaillard