The Inside Job
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Caterpillar Workers in France Take Bosses Hostage
Continue reading… 22 CommentsWorkers in a French Caterpillar factory are holding four executives in their offices--the third time this month that French workers have used the tactic to jumpstart negotiations. Employees at Caterpillar's Grenoble plant are protesting the company's layoff plans. Caterpillar says the workers hostage-taking is "not helping." Indeed.
From CNN:
The workers were angry that Caterpillar had proposed cutting more than 700 jobs and would not negotiate, said Nicolas Benoit, a spokesman for the workers' union.
They did not want to harm the Caterpillar executives, Benoit told CNN.
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Making Work Pay Tax Credit: What You Need to Know
Continue reading… 8 CommentsStarting in April, workers will be getting small additions to their paychecks, thanks to the stimulus package "Making Work Pay" tax credit. The fatter paychecks will continue through 2010--totalling up to $400 a year for working individuals, and $800 a year for married joint filers.
Here are a few things to know:
Look out if you have two jobs: If both of your employers pay you the full tax credit, you may owe money when tax season rolls around next year. To avoid the situation, make sure your employer is witholding the proper amount. (In fact, the IRS says there's a good chance you're not withholding enough if you have multiple jobs; a working spouse; income that isn't subject to withholding, such as capital gains or rental income; or you owe other taxes like self-employment tax.)
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Jake DeSantis: A Defense of AIG Bonuses
Continue reading… 211 CommentsJake DeSantis, an executive VP in AIG's financial products unit, is getting out. We know this because the NYTimes has his resignation letter, penned to CEO Edward Liddy.
It's a comprehensive rebuke of the AIG-admonishers in Congress and of Liddy himself, who was "not strong enough to withstand the shifting political winds," and committed a "breach of trust" in allegedly asking for the bonus money to be returned only shortly before his Congressional appearance last week, DeSantis says.
Here's excerpt that gives a good insight into how the AIG employees are feeling. Note that DeSantis was not among the group that dealt in the ultimately poisonous credit default swaps:
As most of us have done nothing wrong, guilt is not a motivation to surrender our earnings. We have worked 12 long months under these contracts and now deserve to be paid as promised. None of us should be cheated of our payments any more than a plumber should be cheated after he has fixed the pipes but a careless electrician causes a fire that burns down the house.
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Desperate Measures May Lead to Post-Recession Regret
Continue reading… 22 CommentsI recently chatted with an economist about divorce. Specifically, he was concerned about the things that people do during recessions that they are bound to regret in the recovery--everything from selling a home at a major loss when there may have been a way to keep it, to leaving a relationship because of financial stresses related to the downturn. The conversation came to mind this morning when I read that the recession is prompting a growing number of women to enter the adult entertainment industry.
Even industry executives are reportedly concerned about the women making decisions out of desperation. An excerpt from the AP story:
Makers of adult films cautioned that women shouldn't rush into the decision to make adult movies without considering the effect on their lives. "Once you decide to be an adult actress, it impacts your relationship with everyone," said Steven Hirsch, co-chairman of adult film giant Vivid Entertainment Group. "Once you make an adult film, it never goes away."
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Bernanke: Why Executive Compensation Matters
Continue reading… 3 CommentsFederal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said today he wants bank compensation practices more closely monitored to prevent "mismatches between the rewards and risks borne by institutions or their managers." It's about more than quelling public and congressional anger, then.
From the AP:
Banking regulators have observed that "poorly designed compensation policies can create perverse incentives that can ultimately jeopardize the health of the banking organization," Bernanke told a meeting of smaller "community" banks in Phoenix, Ariz.
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Dogs at the Office: Secret to Work-Life Balance?
Continue reading… 4 CommentsRemember when stories about working life weren't all about preventing layoffs, layoff anxiety, the layoff aftermath, surviving a layoff, alternatives to layoffs, and the unemployment rate after massive layoffs? It's Friday, so how about a temporary reprieve from the steady diet with a story on office dogs. Plus, this one has pictures.
At Burgess Advertising and Marketing in Portland, Maine, employees have the freedom to cart their canines to work. Four dogs--Charlie, Moxie, Tar and Dodge--regularly spend the day at work with their owners, reports the Maine Switch magazine. There are real benefits to the practice--one dog owner says it's given her "a lot more flexibility with my time. ... I don’t feel rushed to get home at a certain time.”
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Jobless Claims and the Madness of Numbers
Continue reading… 1 CommentJobless claims--the weekly measure of first-time applications for unemployment benefits--dropped by 12,000 last week to 646,000. The drop is good, but there are other numbers that would seem troubling: nearly 5.5 million people continued to collect unemployment in the week ended March 7--a record high topping previous weeks of record highs.
Also, the four-week moving average of continuing claims hit a record high of nearly 5.3 million.
But remember that the scope of our labor force is huge--about 154 million, or double what it was in the late 1960s--and no one would argue that our job market isn't lousy. That means you can probably expect to set absolute number records when it comes to data such as jobless claims.
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Brazilian Wandering Spider Trapped By Grocery Store Employee
Continue reading… 0 CommentsA Tulsa, Okla., grocery store employee examining imported bananas reportedly encountered the world's deadliest spider Sunday--a Brazilian Wandering Spider--and then she trapped it.
And you thought your job was dangerous? (I can see it now: Grocery stores--the new setting for Discovery Channel's "Deadliest Catch.")
Check out this National Geographic segment for an upclose look at the deadly spiders:
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Top Chefs Struggle As Restaurant "Euphoria" Fades
Continue reading… 2 CommentsTurns out this country may have been in a bit of a restaurant bubble, and highly talented chefs are lining up for openings. A restaurant soon to open on Manhattan's Upper West Side posted an assistant position at $25,000 with no benefits and 300 people applied (9 had PhDs), according to the NYTimes.
Two years ago, Forbes Traveler said of the Las Vegas dining scene: "Top resorts are working feverishly to provide upscale restaurants for their increasingly upscale clientele." Today, the Las Vegas economy is in bad shape, thanks to spending-averse consumers and a lousy housing market. MGM Mirage reported a $1.1 billion loss in the fourth quarter.
The National Restaurant Association projects total industry sales will slip an inflation-adjusted 1 percent in 2009. Not surprisingly, "the top trend restaurateurs see for 2009 is an expanded focus on value," according to the association.
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Andrew Ross Sorkin Plays the Contrarian on AIG Bonuses
Continue reading… 9 CommentsPresident Obama is using his precious (precious) time to lambast AIG's executive bonuses. Sen. Chuck Grassley is suggesting the executives resign or commit suicide, er, metaphorically. Everyone keeps raging about how everyone is raging ... and then NYTimes reporter and MSNBC regular Andrew Ross Sorkin bravely goes where no one else seems to have considered going. In today's Dealbook column, Sorkin writes: "Maybe we have to swallow hard and pay up, partly for our own good."
Sorkin's points: The government needs to preserve "the sanctity of contracts." Setting a different precedent now would worry the business community--and who knows what the effect would be.
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Alice Waters: Why Her Waiters Don't Expect Traditional Tips
Continue reading… 13 CommentsRestaurateur and slow-food maven Alice Waters was profiled on CBS' 60 Minutes last night about her "crusade for better food." Waters is interesting for several reasons, including for her choices as an employer.
Waters does not believe that traditional tipping is a just way for restaurant employees to be paid, as chefs and cooks who are integral to the quality of the dining experience don't take part. At her restaurant, Chez Panisse, Waters adds a service charge to every check, and the money is split between staff in the front and back of the house.
The New York Times Magazine covered the issue back in October. From the piece:
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Lose Your Job? There's Lots of Advice Out There
Continue reading… 18 CommentsHere's your guide to some of the recent advice online for the unemployed:
What to do right after you've lost your job:
- Apply for unemployment insurance, and then prioritize your finances, Clark Howard writes. When figuring your financial priorities, consider that you may need to put off paying down your credit card debt (house and food come first), but you may need to hang on to your car for the benefit of having transportation during your job search.
- Look for a LaidOffCamp--or other local community groups and events geared toward networking or job search help.
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March Madness: More Like March Mildness This Year
Continue reading… 0 CommentsEvery year around this time, we begin to see the stories on March Madness and its deleterious effect on employee productivity.
But not this year. Challenger, Gray and Christmas isn't even estimating the effects this year. “In light of the fact that employers and employees have more important things to worry about, we feel that any attempt to estimate the impact of March Madness on productivity would be counterproductive and inappropriate," John Challenger said in a statement.
Not only this--Challenger thinks employers ought to embrace and boost March Mildness this year:
“Companies can use this event as a way to build morale and camaraderie. This could mean putting televisions in the break room, so employees have somewhere to watch the games other than the Internet. Employers could also offset productivity losses by using the Tournament to boost morale. Employers might consider organizing a company-wide pool, which should have no entry fee in order to avoid ethical and/or legal questions."
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Bank CEOs and University Presidents: What's the Difference?
Continue reading… 0 CommentsThere's some noise this week about the salary caps for some TARP-taking bank executives, and the non-capped salaries of university presidents, who often make more than the $500,000 limit placed on bank execs, and are often running institutions reliant on taxpayer funds.
The comparison appears to have first been made by the authors of a commentary for the John William Pope Center for Higher Education Policy. Ball State University professors Clarence Deitsch and T. Norman Van Cott pointed to the over-$500,000 compensation packages for many presidents of large public research universities and research-intensive private universities and asked: "Higher education has long occupied the role of scold, with its de facto CEOs being the high priests and priestesses of rebuke toward the business sector. ... The priests and priestesses have been ensnared in their own words. Have any offered to drop membership in their $500,000 plus club?"
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Congress Battles Over Automatic Pay Raises
Continue reading… 9 CommentsThis year, members of Congress will see their pay raised 2.8 percent, but they won't have to face the ailing and angry American public's censure with an awkward vote on the raise--they'll get it automatically.
Lousiana Republican Sen. David Vitter is leading an effort to oppose the practice during this ugly economic slowdown. Vitter is reportedly likely to get a vote today on his amendment to repeal the law allowing for the automatic pay raises. “Most Americans don’t have a formula at their jobs set to give them pay increases automatically. Congress shouldn’t either," Vitter said in a statement.
There's a twist, though: Vitter's amendment is included on the $410 billion omnibus spending bill, and CQ reports:
The upcoming vote on Vitter’s amendment is problematic for supporters of the underlying spending measure. A vote against the amendment could put a senator in the politically perilous position of defending automatic pay increases for lawmakers at a difficult economic time for nearly all Americans. If the amendment is adopted, it could prove to be a poison pill, eroding support in both chambers for the yearlong spending measure, and forcing a House-Senate conference.
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Bono Would Have Gone to Fordham, Maybe
Continue reading… 4 CommentsU2 played Fordham University's Bronx campus today in a small, students/staff-only show televised on Good Morning America. Bono told the crowd, “I joined a rock & roll band so I could get out of going to college,” then gave the crowd a rather large boost when he added, “Maybe if it looked like this, and felt like this, things could have been different."
That's music indeed to this Fordham alum's ears. Here's the video:
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Yes, You Should Go Back to School
Continue reading… 2 CommentsTo go back to school, or not go back to school, that is the recessionary question. I recently lobbed that toughie at economist Peter Morici and he handled it deftly--if somewhat painfully for this reporter.
His advice: if you're a youngish person who was planning to go back to school anyway--do it now, while the market is poor and the opportunity cost is lower. Do it now and do it smart, as in, get a degree that will pay off in a real, substantive way at an institution that has brand loyalty among the employers you intend to work for. Think degrees in accounting or finance--or schoolwork that will move you toward a useful certification or licensure. If you want to be a teacher, this may be a good time to go get a master's, Morici says. If you're a teacher already, this may be a good time to get an administrative degree.
What degrees are poor investments? "You want to avoid a masters in Journalism," Morici says. ("Whoops," goes this reporter.) Remember, too, that there are plenty of poor MBA degrees. The goal is to find a degree with obvious payout.
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Layoff Trends: NYT vs. WSJ
Continue reading… 2 CommentsEarlier this week, political strategist Mark Penn wrote in the Wall Street Journal that the newest recessionary microtrend is layoffs of professionals--lawyers and doctors and the like. While "America has been losing manufacturing jobs for decades," it's now seeing a new phenomenon of the "wholesale loss of professional jobs," Penn writes.
Penn laments that these professionals "worked and studied hard to get to the next level in life, only to have their jobs and careers wiped out along with so many others."
Today, in the New York Times, we read this:
Unlike the last two recessions--earlier this decade and in the early 1990s--this one is causing much more job loss among the less educated than among college graduates. Those earlier recessions introduced the country to the concept of mass white-collar layoffs. The brunt of the layoffs in this recession is falling on construction workers, hotel workers, retail workers and others without a four-year degree.
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Dentists in Demand: Mountain Dew Mouth and More
Continue reading… 8 CommentsAs someone who inherited high-maintenance teeth, I am very sensitive to the significance of dentists. In a recession, we talk so much of job losses and payroll cuts, it's easy to forget that people in many professions provide functions that are vital to our society's health and its ability to function--like dentists.
Three recent headlines are a useful reminder:
- Kentucky dentist Edwin Smith spent $150,000 on a mobile dental clinic to treat the rampant problem of "Mountain Dew Mouth" in Central Appalachia, where Mountain Dew serves as "a kind of anti-depressant for children," ABC News reports. Some parents reportedly put the highly caffeinated soft drink in baby bottles.
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Mark Penn: We're Unprepared for Layoffs of Professionals
Continue reading… 4 CommentsMark Penn, the political strategist and microtrend columnist for the WSJ, writes today about the newest microtrend--mass layoffs of workers who identify themselves as professionals. Lawyers, engineers, newspaper editors, and so forth.
Penn writes:
We are totally unprepared for this new phenomenon. We have safety nets for the chronically unemployed, for the fast-food workers let go (oddly they may be the only ones keeping their jobs in this recession), and for the manufacturing plants that have been shuttered. The stimulus will create construction jobs galore. But we have nothing for the tens of thousands of displaced advertising creatives and newspaper writers and editors that are among the newly unemployed. They can't build roads -- all they learned how to do was to write ads and draft editorials.
