The Inside Job
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Report: Susan Lucci Takes Pay Cut
Continue reading… 5 CommentsThe financial crisis has hit Hollywood: Advertising Age is reporting that Susan Lucci, along with others in the cast of All My Children, has agreed to take a pay cut, as soap operas contend with a pullback in advertising--particularly local auto dealer advertising--and smaller audiences. Susan Lucci has been on the TV show since 1970.
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Executive Leadership at the Holiday Table
Continue reading… 1 CommentThankgiving meals tend to be rather chaotic, democratic affairs. But how different might the holiday feast be if it gained the vision and leadership that would (ideally) come with the oversight of a chief executive?
The New York Times talks to several leadership experts about what a CEO-run Thanksgiving meal might look like. A key goal, as articulated by Stewart Friedman, a management professor at the Wharton School, would be to start with “a compelling image of an achievable Thanksgiving.” (I guess you could count on plenty of delicious corporate-speak to accompany the sweet potatoes.)
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When You're a Working Woman Among Many Men
Continue reading… 4 CommentsThis is, to be sure, 2008--Hillary Clinton is expected to replace Condoleezza Rice and Katie Couric hosts the evening news. But while female leaders/executives may be more commonplace today than they were in the past, they are often still working mostly among men. (The same goes for some women among the rank-and-file.)
The Wall Street Journal has a piece today on "ways women can hold their own" and "navigate a mostly male office." It's a bit strange to read the suggestions, such as erasing tentative-sounding vocabulary and avoiding sentences that start with "I think"; separating the alpha and beta males for separate kinds of treatment; even organizing your own work events if you're left out of the all-male social hour.
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Why Criticism Can Be Better Than Uncertainty
Continue reading… 0 CommentsIn a recent study, University of Toronto psychologists measured the responses of neurotic individuals to negative feedback and to uncertain feedback. Guess which caused them more stress?
The researchers found there was more brain activity in response to uncertainty than in response to criticism in an area of the brain associated with conflict-related anxiety.
From ScienceDaily: "The results of this study have important implications for human behavior, as they suggest that some individuals, namely those high in Neuroticism, 'prefer the devil they know over the devil they do not know.'"
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225,000 Jobs May Be Lost in New York
Continue reading… 4 CommentsThe New York state Comptroller is predicting that 225,000 jobs could be lost in the state over the two-year period ending October 2009, Bloomberg reports.
"Wall Street’s importance to the economy is so great that for each financial-sector job lost, two positions will vanish in other industries in New York City and 1.3 jobs will disappear elsewhere in the state," according to the comptroller's report.
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Obama: 2.5 Million Jobs By 2011
Continue reading… 4 CommentsPresident-elect Barack Obama said this weekend he's planning to introduce an economic recovery program that would create 2.5 million jobs by January 2011. Obama supports infrastructure and green energy spending as job creators--putting people to work building roads and bridges, hybrid cars and wind farms. Estimates show it could take between $75 billion and $100 billion in ready-to-go infrastructure projects to create 1 million new jobs.
Here are a few economists' takes on this kind of spending:
Larry Summers: "Properly designed infrastructure projects have the virtue of being helpful as short run stimulus, especially for the employment of the workers most hard hit by the housing decline, while at the same time augmenting the economy’s productive potential in the long run."
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Cobbler: Hot Job in a Recession
Continue reading… 2 CommentsAmerican consumers are increasingly keeping their wallets closed, and the halcyon days of Hollywood-driven, Main Street stilletto-mania seem a distant memory bathed in a fuzzy glow. But while consumers today may not be able to afford new shoes, they can't exactly head to work with holes in their soles.
So shoe cobblers are back in vogue. John McLoughlin, president of the Shoe Service Institute of America told USA Today that "cobblers at the nation's roughly 7,000 repair shops — down from more than 100,000 in the 1930s — are thriving, bordering on overwhelmed."
Some are even hiring.
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Friday Quiz: Favorability Ratings
Continue reading… 1 CommentHere's a little low-tech quiz for Friday afternoon:
Match the individual to their recently reported favorability/job approval rating (or, for Hollywood stars, their likability measure, called a Q score). I'll put the correct answers in the comments.
- President Bush, Sarah Palin, Angelina Jolie, Barack Obama, average female star
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Verizon Employees Take a Peek
Continue reading… 2 CommentsVerizon Wireless says several employees accessed the records of one of President-elect Barack Obama's cell phone accounts--albeit an old one that Obama no longer uses, an aide to Obama told Reuters.
The company has put the employees on leave (with pay) and promises disciplinary action against anyone who peeked at the account improperly.
Curiosity can indeed be a fireable offense. Several employees at St. Vincent Health System in Arkansas were fired recently for looking at slain TV anchor Anne Pressly's medical records.
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Obama's Change Was Moderate Before, Too
Continue reading… 1 CommentStarting a new job is tough. President-elect Barack Obama has clearly disappointed some pundits with early choices that speak more to tradition and a bit less to change.
It's not the first time his style of leadership has proven more moderate than some had expected it would be. When Obama was elected the first black president of the Harvard Law Review in 1990, a Los Angeles Times story noted that while he was escorted in on the wings of change, some students found it "puzzling" that Obama received the support of "staunch conservatives," despite his progessive social views, and he was criticized for being "too conciliatory toward conservatives and not choosing more blacks to other top positions on the law review," the Times reported.
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Employee Recognition Could Improve in a Recession
Continue reading… 2 CommentsIf cost-cutting employers chop employee rewards programs during the downturn, will workers despair over the lack of recognition? Perhaps not--if the programs are replaced with something better.
Bob Nelson, an author and expert in employee motivation, talked with Harvard Management Update about employees' favorite kind of reward: praise.
An excerpt of the interview:
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Bush Will Back Unemployment Benefits Extension
Continue reading… 180 CommentsPresident Bush is in favor of extending unemployment benefits in this market, White House press secretary Dana Perino said this morning. The Senate could vote today on a bill, already passed by the House, that would extend unemployment insurance by seven weeks--or 13 weeks in states with unemployment rates higher than 6 percent.
An extension is relief for those who have exhausted their benefits, and it's also considered by some economists to be an efficient economic stimulus, as the money goes to people who will spend it rather than save it.
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Jobless Claims Ugliest in 16 Years
Continue reading… 1 CommentThe number of new applications for unemployment insurance hit 542,000 last week, the Labor Department reported this morning. That's up 27,000 from the revised 515,000 initial claims filed a week earlier. It's also much worse than the 505,000 initial claims economists were expecting.
While these are the highest initial claims since July 1992, it's worth noting that the nation's labor force has grown by about half since the early 1980s (AP). Still, the numbers affirm expectations that the unemployment rate--at 6.5 percent in October--will continue to climb.
"Indeed, the current four-week moving average of initial claims, at 506,000, is consistent with about a 400,000 monthly drop in nonfarm payrolls," Joshua Shapiro, chief U.S. economist at MFR, wrote in a morning note. "The latest unsmoothed initial claims result of 542,000 is consistent with almost a 500,000 monthly pace of nonfarm payroll decline."
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When a $200,000 Salary Isn't Enough
Continue reading… 3 CommentsCommunity colleges in California are struggling to fill top positions that pay about $200,000 a year. That sounds like crazy talk in this economy, but the situation may be a sign of things to come nationwide, as leaders retire and applicant pools shrink, the Chronicle of Higher Education reports.
Community college positions tend not to pay as much as comparable four-year college positions, and California contenders have to weigh compensation packages against higher living expenses, "complex laws, strong unions," and a rocky state budget, according to the Chronicle.
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7 Ways to Get a Job Near Obama
Continue reading… 5 CommentsWhile job seekers are hot to land one of the more than 7,000 political appointments that President-elect Barack Obama will have to make, the cold truth is that most average Joes won't come close to scoring one of these. Lily Whiteman, author of How to Land a Top-Paying Federal Job, says those jobs are filled by people who are leaders in their fields or by people with significant political connections, especially those with the backing of an influential organization, like a union.
But take heart: If "Yes we can" is still ringing in your ears and you long for a shot working under an Obama administration, Whiteman has some great advice for finding work in a federal agency.
Here are some tips:
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Liz Lemon and Others: on Work
Continue reading… 1 CommentHere's a little break from the bailout/Big Three madness: The Boston Globe has a sweet slideshow of work-related movie and TV quotes. I am adding my own contribution from 30 Rock, a supremely good TV show about a TV show that is, really, all about work.
Here, an exchange between Liz Lemon (played by Tina Fey) and her boss, Jack Donaghy (Alec Baldwin):
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Big Three Jobs: The Nub of the Numbers
Continue reading… 4 CommentsWhile it's certain that a failure of any Big Three automakers in Detroit would bring a new kind of pain to the country's jobs market--there is some dispute over the numbers.
The New York Times Economix blog takes a look at the oft-quoted figure that 1 in 10 U.S. jobs is supported by the auto industry (a figure harvested from a 2003 Center for Automotive Research study) and offers some insights.
From Economix:
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Citigroup to Cut 50,000 Jobs
Continue reading… 0 CommentsCitigroup said today it plans to cut more than 50,000 jobs worldwide as part of a larger effort to slash expenses and regain profitability.
Reuters reports that bank sources have said the cuts will be completed within the first couple of months of 2009. Citigroup had about 375,000 employees at its 2007 peak. It now aims to bring payrolls down to 300,000.
You can see Citigroup's "town hall" presentation for employees here.
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Anthony Morrow: How to Be a Rookie Success
Continue reading… 8 CommentsEvery workplace rookie wonders how to start a new job right, and the pressure to perform has intensified in recent months, as a wider swath of companies cut their payrolls and every worker questions his or her dispensability.
This weekend, all rookies found their hero in Anthony Morrow, the Golden State Warriors player who scored 37 points in his first NBA start--the most ever for an undrafted rookie, the San Francisco Chronicle reports.
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A Great Interview Tip
Continue reading… 1 CommentWhen preparing for an interview--make use of a voice recorder. It’s very easy. Enlist a spouse or friend to mock-interview you and tape your answers.
Then, you will be able to avoid precisely what Rowan Manahan, over at the Fortify Your Oasis blog, is talking about in in his post today. Specifically, sounding like this:
