Breaking News: Employees Want Respect

In other news, sky is blue and water is wet.
I will never forget the day I came around this corner in Boston near the Bell Atlantic building (Now Verizon) on my way to work and found hundreds of 411-information workers picketing. This was late summer 1998. The economy was booming beyond its bounds. The financial [...]

Popularity: 6% [?]

New Office Policy

EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY

NEW OFFICE POLICY

Dress Code:
1) You are advised to come to work dressed according to your salary.
2) If we see you wearing Prada shoes and carrying a Gucci bag, we will assume you are doing well financially and therefore do not need a raise.
3) If you dress poorly, you need to learn to manage your money [...]

Popularity: 4% [?]

How to Annoy A Recruiter

Its not fair, but recruiters pwn you when it comes to getting an interview. Until you’ve moved beyond the screening stage and your recruiter is actively working with you, TREAD CAREFULLY or some of these behaviors might lead to an eternal busy signal when calling your recruiter.
If you want to hurry up and wait, here’s [...]

Popularity: 6% [?]

Unexpress Checkout

Point-of-Sale systems hate me.
I try to do my duty as a consumer and deal with the anti-care, “self-checkout” robots, built mysteriously similar to “one-armed bandit” style casino games.
… Except, at casinos, there’s a chance you might get money back.
My most-awkward problem with any transaction these days is navigating the credit-card scanner/pin-number-entry/would-you-like-to-donate-$2-to-the-march-of-dimes/please-swipe-your-card-at-any-time teminals.
First, I swipe the [...]

Popularity: 2% [?]

Layoffs and Restructure at Google

Google announced on their blog recently that they’ve not only reduced the number of contractors they’re employing but they’re now reducing the number of recruiters on staff by about 100:

Our first step to address this was to wind down almost all our contracts with external contractors and vendors providing recruiting services for Google. However, after [...]

Popularity: 15% [?]

How is the Economy and Recession Affecting *YOU*?

Utah’s economy continues to outpace the United States, though we’re losing ground on key economic indicators, we’re losing that ground more slowly than the nation as a whole and many states around the country.

September 2008 Unemployment Rate Utah VS. USA
Click for latest employment situation report

Utah: 3.5%
U.S.: 6.1%

Year-Over Nonfarm Growth

Utah: 0.1%
U.S.: -0.4%

With economists and pundits expecting [...]

Popularity: 16% [?]

Presentation Tonight: Career Growth in a Shrinking Economy

I’m speaking tonight at the Salt Lake ColdFusion User Group at 4:30 on “Career Growth in a Shrinking Economy”
Career Growth in Shrinking Economy
In the last SLCFUG meeting for the year Robert Merrill from Utah Tech Jobs will join us. He will be speaking on how to grow one’s career in difficult times.
Click for Meeting Location
Watch [...]

Popularity: 6% [?]

What Are The Best Companies to Work For in America?

Annually, Fortune Magazine highlights the 100 best companies to work for in the US. Thanks to the economic downturn, many people are looking to recession-proof their jobs, and part of that includes changing jobs.
Here’s the latest list (below), from the February 4, 2008 edition.  Find the full Fortune 100 list online.
It’s worth noting that eBay [...]

Popularity: 12% [?]

Social Networks Keep You In Touch & Relevant: Utah CEO Magazine

I was quoted, along with my friend Jason Alba, in Utah CEO Magazine’s november issue, an article called “Making Connections” by Kevin Canterra.  Here’s a snippet:

Network success
For business professionals looking for a better job or trying to advance in a current ne, “LinkedIn is the [social networking presence] you absolutely have to have,” says Jason [...]

Popularity: 6% [?]

How to Retain Your Employees

A few months ago, I was approached by Peter Fretty, an author with Business Connect, to discuss employee retention tools employers can take advantage of.
I shared a few things with him which I am glad to say were published in this month’s magazine along with some other good, insightful thoughts from both local and national [...]

Popularity: 11% [?]