The Inside Job
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GradeGov: Reminding Congress Who it Works For
Continue reading… 15 CommentsIf it's true, as a recent study indicates, that most Americans believe members of Congress care more about their careers than about helping the people they represent, then Americans need a way to regain their attention. Here's one option: GradeGov.com, a site with the reassuring tagline, "They work for you. Remind them."
The site allows users to grade elected officials with the universally understood A through F scale. Grading can be done as often as once a day, which veers from the grade-school system quite a bit.
Site founder Elizabeth Letchworth is a Senate staff veteran. She told Politico that the site will give politicians a sense of constituent sentiment in a much-needed straightforward fashion.
“They’re so busy. And even town halls are now orchestrated to only last an hour, get in and out, five questions. So it’s really hard for them to hear from their constituents in a real way,” she said. “It’s just the way the system has evolved.”
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Sen. Arlen Specter: Party Change Renews Hopes For Employee Free Choice Act
Continue reading… 2 CommentsIt looks like the Employee Free Choice Act could be juiced again. From Politico:
A source involved in the talks confirms that Senator Arlen Specter will switch to the Democratic Party, a dramatic move putting the Democrats within reach of two votes in the Senate.
The move stands to put the White House's agenda on a fast-track, and to renew hopes among organized labor for the Employee Free Choice Act.
Specter, if you recall, indicated last month he would oppose so-called "card check" legislation, which would make it easier for employees to unionize, until the economy had improved.
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Managers' Health Affected By Layoffs
Continue reading… 5 CommentsThe public's sympathy for the distress caused by layoffs tends to be directed, understandably, toward the workers who are losing their jobs. But the act of handing out layoff notices, or of picking the workers to be laid off, is no picnic.
A decade-long study of line managers at Boeing found the long-term side effects of laying off workers can include "sleep problems, emotional exhaustion and dizziness," according to a report in Human Resource Executive.
These so-called "layoff agents" were reported to have been distancing themselves emotionally from workers--they felt they had become "calloused" and desired to tune out. They were also found to have higher rates of stress, depression and emotional exhaustion, HRE reports.
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Finding, And Keeping, a Job Without Moving
Continue reading… 0 CommentsLast year, most Americans stayed put. The Census Bureau reported yesterday that the national mover rate fell to 11.9 percent, the lowest rate since the data were first tracked in 1948. Of that 11.9 percent, only 13 percent actually moved out of state. The vast majority of the moves were actually in the same county.
William Frey of the Brookings Institution had this to say to the AP: "It's a combination of the inability to buy or sell homes, locally, as well as a drying up of jobs particularly in hot housing markets. ...The lure of the suburbs for immigrants, in particular, has been curtailed as homeownership there has proved to be elusive."
Not surprisingly, employers report paying for fewer relocations in 2008, according to Atlas Van Lines’ annual Corporate Relocation Survey. Nearly two-thirds of employers report having had employees turn down requests for relocation, largely citing housing as the reason. An ugly stat from the study that I hope doesn't hold true in this economy: "38 percent say declining an opportunity that involves relocation can hurt an employee’s career."
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Are 452,000 Americans Making a Living as Bloggers?
Continue reading… 3 CommentsA Mark Penn piece in the WSJ yesterday has been creating something of a statistical stir online. Penn looks at the available research on blogging and concludes that for 452,000 Americans, blogging is their primary source of income. That means there are more people making a living as bloggers than people making a living as firefighters, Penn notes. That is a big deal. If it's true.
What's behind Penn's math? In an update, the Microtrends columnist explains that an eMarketer report found more than 22 million bloggers in America. OK. Then a Technorati survey of bloggers found 2 percent said blogging was their primary source of income. Two percent of 22.6 million is 452,000.
So there are a few things here:
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A Happy Administrative Professional's Day to You
Continue reading… 1 CommentToday is Administrative Professional's Day in the U.S. It's traditionally been a day for managers to make a point of showing their appreciation. This year, however, even the bosses are probably aching for a little appreciation, and I was thinking that the holiday might be a little less relevant. That is, until I read this list of terrible requests bosses have made to their administrative assistants.
Some choice excerpts from Business Management Daily:
* Inspect the boss’s sandwich every day to make sure it contained no tomatoes.
* Call around for a used toilet to replace one that had broken in the boss’s rental house. “Uh, do you guys have any used toilets?”
* Send fake rejection letters from universities to the boss’s daughter as a joke.
* Take a Johnny Mathis album cover to the tailor to find material that matched Johnny’s jacket.
Read the full list here.
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Yahoo to Cut More Jobs
Continue reading… 0 CommentsThe recession continues to hurt revenue at ad-dependent media and online businesses, including Yahoo. The Internet giant said today it would cut another 5 percent of its workforce, or about 700 employees, in an effort to cut costs and ease future investments.
From Bloomberg:
“You’ve had more or less an advertising depression -- what’s encouraging right now is you can see where the bottom is,” Larry Haverty, a portfolio manager with Gamco Investors Inc. in Rye, New York, said in a Bloomberg Television interview. “The company is running very fast in a troubled environment -- they are just not running as fast as Google.”
Yahoo actually met estimates for first-quarter earnings. Moving forward, Carol Bartz--Yahoo's CEO since January--says she's looking to give customers a "wow experience."
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Suzy Welch and Tina Brown Talk Working Moms and Sarah Palin
Continue reading… 26 CommentsTina Brown, editor-in-chief of the Daily Beast, and Suzy Welch, former editor of the Harvard Business Review, both know a bit about being busy. Brown recently interviewed Welch about her new book 10-10-10: A Life Transforming Idea and they had a brief discussion of work-life balance and Sarah Palin.
Here's the excerpt:
[Brown:] I actually have always found that mixing the kids with the business does not work in any shape or form. And the whole idea—when I read about politicians that bring their kids to work I think, "Who are they kidding?" That is what obsessed me about Sarah Palin. It couldn't possibly have been happening the way she described it.
[Welch:] One thing that kills me when people bring their kids to work is the assumption that other people in the office enjoy it. They want your kids in the office? Who is actually enjoying that? That is a decision you have to make. You have to separate lives. Are you going to blend them at someone else's expense?
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Pulitzer Prize Winner Alexandra Berzon Helped Save Worker Lives
Continue reading… 0 CommentsA year ago, the Las Vegas Sun reported on a rash of construction-worker deaths on the booming Vegas Strip. In 16 months, the deaths had reached the number recorded throughout the whole 1990s Strip construction boom. Reporter Alexandra Berzon found that the dizzying rate of development was leading to lax safety protections and oversight. The stories Berzon wrote led to public outcry, investigations and, most importantly, policy changes, which appear to have made lifesaving differences.
The Sun reports: "Twelve workers had died in 18 months. But after the improvements, the deaths stopped. No workers have died since June 2008."
The Sun and Berzon today were awarded a Pulitzer Prize in Public Service. You can read the whole series here.
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Recession Hits Jack Daniel's: Layoffs at Brown-Forman
Continue reading… 3 CommentsThe liquor business is not, apparently, entirely recession-proof. Brown-Forman, the distiller of Jack Daniel's and Southern Comfort whiskeys, said today it would cut 250 jobs, mostly in the U.S. and Mexico, and offer early retirement to certain employees. The company is also slashing merit pay increases and shaving spending on travel and meetings in a bid to save as much as $25 million fiscal year 2010.
The company said last month its sales dipped 11 percent in the third quarter, thanks to the global economic slowdown.
The Louisville Courier-Journal is reporting that 57 workers in Lousville will be informed of their layoffs this week, and 51 will be taking early retirement. Brown-Forman employs 4,100 people worldwide.
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What Work-at-Home Scams Look Like
Continue reading… 3 CommentsIt's a nearly perfect recipe for job scams: an 8.5 percent unemployment rate, uncertain economic future, and a growing population of part-time workers who need more money to pay bills.
Some work-at-home job scams are relatively easy to eyeball, but the level of sophistication is growing. Here, the FBI offers some guidance on what they may look like:
- Advance-fee: Starting a home-based business is easy! Just invest a few hundred dollars in inventory, set-up, and training materials, they say. Of course, if and when the materials do come, they are totally worthless…and you’re stuck with the bill.
- Counterfeit check-facilitated "mystery shopper:" You’re sent a hefty check and asked to deposit it into your bank account, then withdraw funds to shop and check out the service of local stores and wire transfer companies. You keep a small amount of the money for your “work,” but then, as instructed, mail or wire the rest to your “employer.” Sound good? One problem: the initial check was phony, and by the time your bank notifies you, your money is long gone and you’re on the hook for the counterfeit check.
- Pyramid schemes: You’re hired as a “distributor” and shell out big bucks for promotional materials and product inventories with little value (like get-rich quick pamphlets). You’re promised money for recruiting more distributors, so you talk friends and family into participating. The scheme grows exponentially but then falls apart—the only ones who make a profit are the criminals who started it.
- Unknowing involvement in criminal activity: Criminals—often located overseas—sometimes use unwitting victims to advance their operations, steal and launder money, and maintain anonymity. For example, they may “hire" you as a U.S.-based agent to receive and re-ship checks, merchandise, and solicitations to other potential victims…without you realizing it’s all a ruse that leaves no trail back to the crooks.
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Unemployed Japanese Workers Try Farming
Continue reading… 3 CommentsJapan's unemployment rate is at a three-year high of 4.4 percent--still seems delightful compared with the U.S.'s unemployment rate of 8.5 percent--but it's trouble enough for Prime Minister Taro Aso to introduce a stimulus plan meant to preserve and create jobs.
Already, younger workers in need of jobs are being sent to work in the nation's farmland through the Rural Labor Squad program. The NYTimes reports: "In a play on words, the squad’s name in Japanese — Inaka-de-hatarakitai — is also its rallying cry: 'We want to work in the countryside!'"
The recession has provided an opportunity to mitigate the country's agricultural worker shortage for now, but agricultural jobs in Japan seem to face the same issues they do here, however: The pay can be poor and the work seasonal.
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Texas Rules for Jobs
Continue reading… 4 CommentsCheck out this map of year-over-year job gains/losses by county and you'll notice one thing as you head into 2009--the nation's face is splotchy with red job cuts, but Texas counties stay suprisingly blue. (There's a little twist on political shades for you).
The Slate map shows, for example, Hidalgo County gained more than 7,900 jobs between February 2008 and February 2009. Midland, Starr, Webb, and Maverick counties are up, along with plenty of others.
Forbes' research for the best cities for jobs (or "least worst" in this economy) bore out one thing: Texas rules. The state tops the rankings of cities both big and small, filling 8 of the top 20 spots. From Forbes:
Further, the top five large metropolitan areas for job growth--Austin, Houston, San Antonio, Ft. Worth and Dallas--are all in Texas' "urban triangle."
The reasons for the state's relative success are varied. A healthy energy industry is certainly one cause. Many Texas high-fliers, including Odessa, Longview, Dallas and Houston, are home to energy companies that employ hordes of people--and usually at fairly high salaries for both blue- and white-collar workers. In some places, these spurts represent a huge reversal from the late 1990s. Take Odessa's remarkable 5.5% job growth in 2008, which followed a period of growth well under 1% from 1998 to 2002.
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Domino's Workers Must Not Read the News
Continue reading… 9 CommentsThe big marketing story of the day involves the Domino's workers who made a video of their behind-the-scenes antics--such as sticking a shred of mozzerella cheese up a nostril before using it to make a dish, and rubbing a dish sponge on a rear end.
The video became a viral, er, "success," ripping its way around the web and whipping into the kind of frenzy that looked tough for the pizza chain to quell. It was ripe to damage the brand, and Domino's knew it. So they responded with their own video apology to consumers. They traced the damaging video back to the restaurant--which they closed and sanitized--and fired the workers involved. (Authorities have also charged the workers with distributing prohibited foods.)
But, really, what about these now-unemployed employees? They're not teenagers. They're in their early 30s. Don't these people read the news? They face charges (although they have said that the food they defaced was not actually served to customers) --but they also face the worst job market in decades. About 5.1 million jobs wiped from the nation's payrolls since the start of this recession. A recent poll found nearly half of Americans were concerned about losing their jobs in this continuing recession, and it's pretty clear that these workers were in the other half.
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Employee Seeks Pay for Lunch Hour on Day of Shooting
Continue reading… 2 CommentsIt's hard to speculate as to what prompted one Broome County employee to reportedly make a formal complaint to the county's personnel department requesting pay for a lost lunch hour on April 3--the day of the Binghamton, N.Y., shootings.
The Binghamton Press & Sun Bulletin reports the employee, who was among those confined to their offices during the shootings, made the complaint last week. The worker would not comment on the situation other than to say it was, essentially, private.
The complaint was turned down. The confinement did not violate his contract or state labor laws, according to the director of the personnel department.
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An America Bereft of Job Security
Continue reading… 3 CommentsDespite recent signs that the nation's economy may be beginning a turnaround, employed Americans are working scared. In a new poll by Harris Interactive and the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, 47 percent of respondents who were fortunate enough to have jobs said they are concerned about losing their jobs. That's quite a figure. Close to half of employed Americans are worried about being laid off.
Eleven percent of respondents said their top financial concern was losing their job--compared with 4 percent who cited the same in last year's survey.
While more respondents were worried about retirement, that's been the case for the past two years, the AICPA reports. Any workplace expert will tell you that some level of anxiety among workers is actually a good thing. These concerns reflect the reality of a deteriorated job market and uncertain timeline for recovery. Too much anxiety is paralyzing, but a realistic attitude should help workers be better prepared. The problem is--that perfect balance is incredibly tough to strike, and many employers are lousy at helping workers keep up productivity and creativity while they face the possibility of layoffs.
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5 Healthy Industries For Jobs
Continue reading… 9 CommentsIt's hard to imagine any industry turning a healthy profit over the past year, but research and analysis firm Sageworks has compiled a list of five surprisingly profitable business sectors, which job seekers may want to focus on in their searches.
Each of these industries has had profit growth of more than 17 percent and sales growth of more than 4.5 percent in the last 12 months, Sageworks reports.
1. Accounting & Tax Service Firms
2. Specialized Freight Trucking Companies
3. Offices of Other Health Practitioners
4. Offices of Dentists
5. Beer, Wine, and Liquor Wholesalers
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Jim Schwantz: Former Chicago Bear Has New Job as Mayor
Continue reading… 2 CommentsFormer Chicago Bears linebacker Jim Schwantz will be tackling a new role as mayor of Palatine, Ill., a northwest suburb of Chicago. Schwantz unseated longtime mayor Rita Mullins in last night's election and said his victory was "extremely humbling," reports the Chicago Sun Times.
The former pro athlete didn't jump directly into politics--he has been working as an executive at a moving company. During the election, Schwantz told a local paper that his name was helping him getting in the door, "but then it’s up to me and the platform I stand behind."
If Schwantz is looking for other NFL-to-politics role models, he's got former Republican VP candidate and nine-term congressman from New York Jack Kemp, as well as former Oklahoma congressman Steve Largent.
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Bet You Aren't Going to Quit Your Job
Continue reading… 1 CommentI'll bet you jumped all over the Labor Department's Job Openings and Labor Turnover report this morning. Read it cover to cover. Memorized the figures. So let's talk about the quits rate, and how American workers suddenly aren't going anywhere.
The quits rate is the number of people who have quit jobs as a percentage of total employment. The number of monthly quits has been dropping since December 2006 and the rate is now at 1.5 percent--its lowest point since the data series began eight years ago.
Workers know this isn't the time to voluntarily become unemployed--and there are certainly fewer being hired away than before the recession began. Still, the February rates stayed pretty much on par with the previous month.
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After a Layoff, Michael Lamar Finds Work as Obama Look-Alike
Continue reading… 1 CommentMichael Lamar, a software analyst laid off by JP Morgan Chase in January, has found a new career as a President Obama look-alike. (It's just like Dave!)
Lamar has an agent who specializes in look-alikes and he has already done ads for a Turkish bank and a liquor chain in the Netherlands, CNN reports.
While he might be the most successful internationally, Lamar is certainly not the only Obama mimic out there. Iman Crosson, for one, is a musical favorite. Crosson also puts his stellar vocal impression to work in Newsweek's "The District" satire.
