Entries for October 2008

Google employees--long envied for their perk-riddled workplaces--are now, like the rest of us, facing the fallout of the economic slowdown, and the future looks a little less perky.

The company’s stock is now trading around $359, down from $741 last November, and management wrote in a memo to employees that they are looking to “find areas where efficiency can be improved,” reports the New York Post.

The details of the efficiency effort suggest employees will not likely find the changes a major hardship, nor solicit much sympathy from the rest of the working world.

Here's a look at today's job-related data:

Initial jobless claims (the number of Americans filing for unemployment insurance the first time) last week were 479,000—the same as the week before, the Labor Department reported. Claims in the comparable period last year were 332,000.

Ian Shepherdson, chief U.S. economist at High Frequency Economics, says: "There can be no question that the labor market is deteriorating; the only issue is the speed of the decline and the eventual peak in unemployment."

So, last month, the country lost 159,000—the biggest monthly loss since companies started shedding jobs in January. (You can check out the chart yourself here.) Shepherdson thinks we're headed for a monthly loss of 200,000 jobs. He also thinks we'll see the unemployment rate, now at 6.1 percent, top out at 8.5 percent, which is still considerably lower than the 10.8 percent rate seen in 1983.

Four female former human resources executives have filed suit against Dell for gender and age discrimination. The lawsuit claims Dell has targeted women and older workers for layoffs, and the plaintiffs are seeking class-action status, opening the door for other claimants.

Some details from Reuters:

"We believe the claims of this suit are without merit," Dell spokesman David Frink told Reuters.

"Dell does not tolerate discrimination in any aspect of employment and we'll vigorously defend any claims that we are not acting in accordance with the law or our policies," he said, declining to give additional details.

A recent survey from MetLife and Civic Ventures suggests the nonprofit world offers some hope for older workers with corporate experience.

From the Chronicle of Philanthropy's Philanthropy.com:

Half of nonprofit employers say people who decide they want to work for charities late in their careers or after they have retired are highly appealing job candidates, while 39 percent say they are somewhat appealing, according to a new survey.

Any woman worth her salt knows Patrick Swayze's golden moment was his gruff line in Dirty Dancing: "Nobody puts Baby in a corner."

But that's past tense—stick it back in the cupboard next to the issues of Sassy and the patterned hair scrunchies. Patrick Swayze's golden moment is now. The actor who was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in January is working 12-hour days on the Chicago set of his new cop drama, The Beast, reports the New York Times. Says Swayze: "I just love to work hard." Swayze, along with his producers, anticipates a second season as well. From the NYTimes:

An adaptation of Ron Alsop's new book on generation Y millennials (those born between 1980 and 2001), The Trophy Kids Grow Up , ran recently in the pages of the Wall Street Journal . In response to Alsop's portrayal of the generation as entitled and fairly swollen with a sense of superiority, millennial Whitney Seaman Watson wrote this letter to the editor. From the WSJ:

I take offense at Ron Alsop's patronizing profile of the millennial generation in "The 'Trophy Kids' Go to Work" (Personal Journal, Oct. 21). The so-called "negative" traits he describes are the very traits that will help millennials succeed. I was born in 1981, and I happily acknowledge that I possess many of the traits. The desire to "know how [I'm] doing weekly, even daily." Check. Placing "a high premium on success, filling resumes with not only academic accolades but also sports and other extracurricular activities." Check. The confidence to "brashly fire off emails to everyone from the CEO on down, trying to get an inside track to a job." Check. Don't those sound like good traits in this economy?

Even the remarkably sage Seth Godin has had his share of failures, and he was kind enough to list them in his blog today. Here are a couple to help you unwind from your fetal position (see, everybody fails sometimes!):

The Boston Bar Exam. My two partners and I spent a lot of time and money building this our last year of college. It was a coupon book filled with free drinks from various bars in Cambridge and Boston. The booklet would be sold at the bars, encouraging, I dunno, drunk driving. Lessons: Don't spend a lot on startup costs, don't sell to bar owners and don't have three equal partners, since once person always feels outvoted.

The Internet White Pages. This was a 700 page book filled with nearly a million email addresses. It took months to create and IDG, the publisher, printed 80,000 copies. They shredded 79,000 of them. Lesson: If the Internet Yellow Pages is a huge hit (it was), that doesn't mean the obvious counterpart will be. A directory that's incomplete is almost always worthless.

It's a strange world. The next place the government might spend our tax dollars: funding layoffs in Detroit. The Clusterstock blog helpfully finds this gem in a recent Wall Street Journal story about merger talks between General Motors and Chrysler. Both companies are "locked out of the credit markets and burning cash rapidly," which adds considerable pressure to the merger prospect and to the potential "assist from the federal government."

That assist would help the companies reorganize, including implementing layoffs and plant closings, but would most likely head off much deeper payroll cuts. From the WSJ:

"Title inflation" isn't a new idea. The term has been around for a few decades and the idea has been around since the beginning of time, but it picks up serious momentum in economic downturns like this one. Companies can't boost salaries, so they offer up bigger and better titles to reward top performers. The New York Times reports:

Another round of title inflation may be at hand, because managers often dole out chiefdoms, directorships and vice presidencies in times of economic weakness as a substitute for raises and bonuses.

This year, Mr. Gross said, "employers will use the recognition value of a title" in lieu of pay increases.

If you get an inflated title rather than a salary increase, think of it like a promotion—it's nice for the resume and a boon when introducing yourself at cocktail parties.

The term "American dream" was coined by James Truslow Adams in 1931. Adams wrote: "The American Dream" is "that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement."

He also detailed what the dream was not: "It is not a dream of motor cars and high wages merely, but a dream of social order in which each man and each woman shall be able to attain to the fullest stature of which they are innately capable, and be recognized by others for what they are, regardless of the fortuitous circumstances of birth or position."

The unemployment rate rose to 6.1 percent last month from 4.7 percent a year ago. It's a statistic, but it's real people losing their livelihood, income, and stability. In a recent Chicago Tribune poll, a quarter of respondents said either they'd lost their jobs or a relative had lost a job within the last 12 months. The newspaper yesterday told the story of Jeff Santucci:

Jeff Santucci was laid off in May 2007 as an auto mechanic, a job he had held for nearly 30 years.

He never dreamed he wouldn't find another. Now, at a time when Santucci, 48, should be planning for retirement, he's watching his life savings dwindle at an alarming rate.

For all that the media tends to talk about employees being stretched thin and overworked in an economic slowdown, when payrolls get lean and workloads double, there are still plenty of people who don't have enough to do.

Take for example, the discussion underway over at Yahoo's Shine site.

Margie H launched the issue. She writes:

OK, this is crazy! I hope no one finds me but I had to blog about this cause I sit here in a large corporate company and do nothing almost 95% of my day!

Many people are paying close attention to signs that they may be next up for a layoff. Job shedding has accelerated since the start of the year, and mass layoffs in September were the highest they've been since 9/11.

So here's one sign to watch out for: the boss's cold shoulder. The Wall Street Journal reports that managers who have become unhappy with an employee's performance, or who fear having to break bad news, may begin pulling away—shunning meetings, conversation, invitations, and the like.

So, those suits Sarah Palin's been wearing—the ones that are so supremely stylish she gets none of the Hilary Clinton pantsuits snickers but, rather, leaves Alec Baldwin drooling—it turns out they're not from Wal-Mart. What?! Politico reports that the Republican National Committee has spent "more than $150,000" on clothes and accessories for Palin, including some megareceipts from Neiman Marcus and Saks Fifth Avenue.

Is this a big deal?

My dad is a dapper dresser. I remember mornings as a kid, when I would look up from my oatmeal to appraise his pinstriped suit, patterned tie, suspenders, and polished shoes. Sometimes I approved, sometimes I objected, but always I appreciated the effort.

The most notable recessionproof industries used to be the vice industries: tobacco, alcohol, and pornography—the things people turn to in difficult times. But a new book called 150 Best Recession-Proof Jobs by Laurence Shatkin finds there are jobs to be found in more virtuous business sectors.

Here are Shatkin's top 10:

1. Computer systems analysts
2. Network systems and data communications analysts
3. Network and computer systems administrators
4. Registered nurses
5. Teachers, postsecondary
6. Physical therapists
7. Physicians and surgeons
8. Dental hygienists
9. Pharmacists
10. Medical and health services managers