March 31, 2004

Massachusetts poised for recovery
Posted by Jason Butler at 3:00 PM

A new study proclaims that Massachusetts is poised for a recovery, mostly due to our investments in technology and science.

[Milken Institute director of regional economics Ross] DeVol encouraged regional planners to boost biotechnology and life sciences funding to universities and offer tax incentives and other deals to woo tech firms. He dismissed concerns about offshore outsourcing, the migration of white-collar jobs to relatively low-paid workers in India, China and other developing countries.

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Increase your value continuously
Posted by at 10:43 AM

If you're one of the technical people who's still looking for work, check out Dave Thomas's It's Up to Us. It's worth reading the whole talk, but if you're looking for just the high points, look at slides 35 and on. Dave talks about functional skills (how you know what to do in a job), domain expertise (how to apply that to a new product), tools and technology (languages and environments), and industry expertise (specific issues that apply to an industry, such as regulation). Dave's message is: Continuously improve your value to your employer. When you increase your value, you help the company improve what it does, which increases the chances of keeping your job or helping you to find a new job.
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Fighting for flexibility
Posted by Diane Danielson at 8:23 AM

While some magazines might focus on the minority of women who choose (or are forced) to “opt out,” the Wall Street Journal’s Carol Hymowitz put forth some statistics and suggestions for the rest of us (otherwise known as the majority) – women who don’t want to choose between work and home. Check out yesterday’s “In the Lead” column, "While some women choose to stay home, others gain flexibility."

Lately there has been a lot of buzz about executive women who are choosing to drop out of high-pressure jobs rather than kill themselves trying to do it all. Workplace participation by married women with a child who is less than one year old fell to 53% in 2000 from 57% in 1997 and hasn't risen since. But that still leaves 72% of mothers with children under 18 in the work force, and many of them don't want to have to choose between a life that is 24/7 business and 24/7 domesticity.

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Convention traffic nightmares
Posted by Jason Butler at 6:50 AM

Here's something to look forward to: 93 will be shut down during the Democratic National Convention, and North Station will be closed.

State and city officials had hoped for more limited disruption to commuters and had argued that shutting down both the highway and the rail and subway service would create a transportation nightmare the last week of July. But the closure of North Station commuter rail, in particular, became nonnegotiable after the March 11 train bombings in Madrid, according to one of the officials.

I travel right by the Fleet Center each day on my commute from Central Square to Morrissey Boulevard. I may become well acquainted with the Red Line that week. Or maybe I'll just work from home.
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March 30, 2004

Heard in the halls
Posted by at 3:16 PM

Our friends at Boston.com today asked for your thoughts on the Massachusetts (un)employment scene.
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New bar to prove age-bias
Posted by at 2:21 PM

The Supreme Court said yesterday that it will clarify what older workers must do to prove age-bias.

The number of workers 40 and older averaged 74.5 million last year and the figure is now about 1 million more, the government estimates. Overall, workers 40 or older are about half the nation's work force, and the number is growing. The federal government predicts that by 2010, 51 percent of workers will be 40 or older, a 33 percent increase since 1980.

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Just, plain, scary
Posted by at 2:11 PM

Tax filings, income figures and social security numbers. Sensitive financial data and account numbers. Medical records. Scads of personal information. To some degree this kind of information has always been "out there" for anyone intelligent enough to find it, or willing enough to pay for it. But as other businesses (beyond IT) offshore this kind of data, a dangerous, new privacy risk is emerging, opening the door to identity theft, fraud and other criminal activities.

Lubna Baloch sat in her office in the sprawling Pakistani commercial center of Karachi and gazed at the e-mail she'd composed. She tried to imagine the reaction half a world away when the people at UC San Francisco Medical Center saw what she'd written.

The famous U.S. hospital would have to take her seriously, Baloch knew, when it realized she was prepared to post its confidential patient records on the Internet. That is, unless UCSF helped her get the money she was owed from the mysterious Tom Spires, her link in a long chain of medical transcription subcontractors.

"Your patient records are out in the open to be exposed," Baloch wrote in her e-mail, "so you better track that person and make him pay my dues or otherwise I will expose all the voice files and patient records of UCSF Parnassus and Mt. Zion campuses on the Internet."

Then the kicker: "Just to make you believe that I am not bluffing I am attaching latest voice file and text of your hospital." Baloch had included private discharge summaries for two UCSF patients.

She clicked the send button on her computer screen.

From "Outsourced UCSF notes highlight privacy risk: How one offshore worker sent tremor through medical system" by David Lazarus as part of a San Francisco Chronicle special report on offshoring.
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We're #1
Posted by at 1:59 PM

Duh-oh. In job losses that is.
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No good deed goes unpunished
Posted by Jason Butler at 10:16 AM

When I lived in Seattle, I would always shop at Costco, partly because the service workers were always helpful. As it turns out, it may be because they are better paid than most other retail workers.

Of course, on Wall Street, this practice of "be good to your employees and they'll be good to your customers" cannot go unpunished.

Costco's kind-hearted philosophy toward its 100,000 cashiers, shelf-stockers and other workers is drawing criticism from Wall Street. Some analysts and investors contend that the Issaquah, Wash., warehouse-club operator actually is too good to employees, with Costco shareholders suffering as a result.

"From the perspective of investors, Costco's benefits are overly generous," says Bill Dreher, retailing analyst with Deutsche Bank Securities Inc. "Public companies need to care for shareholders first. Costco runs its business like it is a private company."

I think it's time for a Costco buycott.
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Teaching MBAs how to offshore jobs
Posted by Jason Butler at 10:15 AM

Our newly-minted MBAs must be able to proactively ship jobs overseas.

Outsourcing has become a prime subject for business students. Thousands of white-collar jobs are moving overseas every year, and at least 3.3 million jobs in service industries, accounting for $136 billion in wages, will leave the United States by 2015 for lower-cost countries, according to Forrester Research.

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March 29, 2004

Bringing home the bacon
Posted by at 11:33 AM

Jobs in Security and Law Enforcement are areas expecting to see big growth over the next decade according to some economic forecasts, and today's Globe reports that Boston police are among the highest paid in the nation. Although an average salary of $78,906 for rank-and-file police officers may at first glance seem like a nice chunk, it still doesn't seem like a lot for what is likely among the most difficult and dangerous jobs going.
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The bigger we are, the harder we fall
Posted by at 9:40 AM

Globe Business writer Charles Stein yesterday applies some reasoning to why historically, Massachusetts' job market has been hit harder than others.

The heart of the problem seems to be the boom and bust nature of the local economy. Massachusetts soared in both the 1980s and 1990s. Trouble is, when the state fell to earth at the ends of both decades it fell harder and farther than just about any place in the country. ''Our highs are higher but our lows are also lower," said Michael Goodman, an economist at the University of Massachusetts.

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March 26, 2004

The anonymous voice of America's unemployed
Posted by Jason Butler at 1:46 PM

A columnist for the Arizona Republic gets a voice mail from a recently laid-off woman.

"I'm calling in, and I'm promising myself not to cry," says the woman on the phone. Even as she says this, however, her voice quivers. She often hesitates as she speaks, seemingly to compose herself.

"You always write about things that are going on and the current events," she continues. "I'm wondering, has anybody noticed in America all of us that are unemployed? I'm 43 years old, and I've been working since I was 16. My husband is 45. We've been married 22 years, and we've always worked. A year ago I lost my job. Six months ago his job was outsourced to India. We have three children, one that's 18. We were going to try to help them get through college but, um . . . anyway, I was just wondering. There are so many of us and people don't seem to notice what's going on.

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Not working for a living
Posted by Jason Butler at 1:43 PM

Here is an extremely well-written unemployment blog called Not Working For a Living.

Via John Sumser.
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Welcome to commuting Hell
Posted by Jason Butler at 1:40 PM

The worst traffic tie-ups of the Big Dig start April 3rd. And, oh yeah, 95 is on fire.
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Where The Boys Are
Posted by Diane Danielson at 8:06 AM

Today's Globe reports on a new study documenting that venture capital remains the last true male bastion in finance, with fewer than 10% of senior posts held by women.

Not only are female partners rare at these elite investment firms, but women who started in entry-level positions in the industry left at twice the rate of their male peers from 1995 to 2000, according to the study, which was funded by the Kauffman Foundation and is slated for release today at a Small Business Administration entrepreneurship conference in Washington, D.C.

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March 25, 2004

Tough market for college grads
Posted by at 9:31 AM

Today's Globe business section highlights the problem college grads are having finding work in today's job market.

The [Economic Policy Institute, a liberal research group in Washington, D.C.] findings suggest a college education no longer guarantees success in a labor market where 39.9 million workers have degrees. In 2003, for example, the percentage of employed college graduates aged 25 to 35 was 84.3 percent, down from 87.4 percent in 2000, EPI reported. For those workers, real hourly wages fell by 2 percent over a two-year period, from $22.45 in 2001 to $21.99 in 2003.

If you're bound for graduation, maybe our April 5 Career Connections job fair can help.
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March 24, 2004

Can lone coders reverse the outsourcing trend?
Posted by Jason Butler at 7:30 PM

Here's an interesting short piece on what would happen if every laid-off programmer started writing programs in her living room.

Rich?
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Bosses best in Boston
Posted by at 2:35 PM

Via CNNMoney, La-la land: workers happiest in L.A.: Workplace survey finds that Boston has best bosses, but Detroit is Mope-town.

Boston, meanwhile, had the highest percentage of workers saying they were happy with their current boss (50 percent)....

Boston also ranks 3rd in the "'Thrilled' or 'happy' with current job" category and 2nd in the "Feel appreciated" category.

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He's retired, she's working, they're not happy
Posted by Jason Butler at 7:04 AM

What happens to a couple when the man retires but the woman keeps working? Stress.

Some men are threatened by the role reversal; others are impatient to travel or to move someplace warm. Some women resent having their husbands lie about all day, rarely taking on additional housework. A Cornell University study of 534 retirement-aged men and women found that working women whose husbands were retired or disabled were the least happy with their marriages. Working men whose wives stayed home were the most.

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March 23, 2004

Life of a stickie note
Posted by at 4:45 PM

What happens when workplace pranksters get a hold of a co-worker's empty office, two free hours, and some 2,500 post-it notes.

A beauty via Boing Boing. --------

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Content can be offshored too
Posted by Jason Butler at 12:26 PM

Builder.com, a site for techies, is offshoring its editorial content.

The last paragraph [of a leaked internal memo] said, "And it gets worse. I hate to have nothing but bad news in this email, however they (they == TPTB) [The Powers That Be - Ed.] want me to try outsourcing some of our content. So we are currently negotiating a trial period with an outsource editorial firm in India (yes, India). They will provide a certain number of Builder articles over the next couple months. That will further reduce the number of freelance articles we purchase in Q2. The India contract is just a 2-month trial so I don't know at this time whether it will affect the number of articles we purchase in Q3. I'll try to keep everyone in the loop as we move forward on this effort."

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Outsourcing helps some small businesses create more U.S. jobs
Posted by Movable Type Administrator at 11:19 AM

Rajeev Thadani, owner of a small medical billing company, employs 35 people in Bombay and 5 in New Jersey. As business picks up, and Thadani looks to hire more U.S. employees, he claims he never could have expanded were it not for the possibility of hiring workers in India.

At a time when the U.S. has lost 2.3 million jobs over the past three years, foreign outsourcing -- to India in particular -- is frequently blamed for the jobless economic recovery. But recent employment trends suggest the moves also can trigger the creation of new U.S. jobs.

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Self-employment: I feel your pain
Posted by at 10:49 AM

Ah yes, it's that olde familiar tax time again. When a self-employed person's quarterly angst turns to outright dread and that inevitable, "Egads, how much did you say I owe???" As anyone who's been or is self-employed knows, the annual drill goes something like this: Should I go SEP or Roths? 19% self-employment tax? Full payout for Social Security? I'm in what tax bracket? Yes, I know Ms. tax accountant; I'll work on getting those deductions up NEXT year.

If you're currently staring down your own slew of 1099s, and are mired in sea of faded receipts and crumpled forms, you may find some solace in Boston.com's 2004 tax section, or at least some answers to questions like, "Can I deduct a job training course?"
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Unemployment and new job growth
Posted by Douglas Eisenhart at 9:19 AM

From today's Globe, two pieces on the structural shifts taking place in the economy, specifically the job market. One piece looks at how several local professionals are responding to lost jobs by starting up new enterprises, in fulfillment of Harvard economist Joseph Schumpeter's "creative destruction" thesis:

Economists say it is this process that propels the economy forward, making room for better technologies, products, and jobs by getting rid of obsolete ones, much as buggy makers were replaced by automobile manufacturers. The process, however, is not a neat one.

The other, an op ed piece co-authored by Paul Harrington and Andrew Sum of Northeastern's Center for Labor Market Studies, provides empirical support for this shift while deciphering some otherwise confusing recent reports:

Unable to find regular payroll employment, many workers are accepting second choice self-employment, contract labor, or off-the-books work arrangements. In other words, the growth in nonformal payroll employment over the past two years has acted as a labor market safety valve. American workers are finding that for now, their best and maybe only alternative lies somewhere between a regular wage and salary job and unemployment.

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Romney proposes anti-outsourcing initiative
Posted by Jason Butler at 6:56 AM

Governor Mitt Romney proposed a $29 million plan to keep jobs in Massachusetts.

Under Romney's three-pronged plan, which he unveiled at a Hyannis plastics company, the state would give more than $8 million in capital loans to Bay State companies looking to stay or expand here; provide $10 million in grants to companies that create 250 or more jobs in-state; and distribute a total of $11 million, in $2,000 grants, to companies that hire longtime Massachusetts workers who lost their jobs more than a year ago.

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March 22, 2004

Missing: Jobs
Posted by at 3:52 PM

From Business Week's March 22, 2004 issue: "Where are the Jobs?"

Economic growth is very strong, but America isn't generating enough jobs. Many blame outsourcing. The truth is a lot more complicated.... The link between strong growth and job creation appears to be broken, and we don't know what's wrong with it. Profits are soaring, yet no one is hiring. Angry voices are blaming Benedict Arnold CEOs who send jobs to India and China. If highly educated "knowledge" workers in Silicon Valley are losing their jobs, who is really safe?

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The Fudge Factor
Posted by Diane Danielson at 11:03 AM

It began with "The Opt Out Revolution" by New York Times reporter Lisa Belkin in October, 2003; and the story continued in last week’s Time magazine cover story, "The Case for Staying Home." (I highly recommend reading Globe columnist, Eileen McNamara’s accurate take on the Time story, “Recycled Stereotyping”). But according to BusinessWeek, all eyes will now be on Ann Fudge who, after a two-year break, has "opted back in" to Corporate America as chairman and CEO of what is now called Young & Rubicam Brands and includes the flagship ad agency of Y&R.

No wonder that what really intrigues Fudge's female peers isn't that she left but that she went back. Or, just as important, that she could go back. Few high-level women dropouts have the opportunity to rejoin the corporate elite with their credibility intact. And even for Fudge, that is anything but certain: At Young & Rubicam, she has been welcomed with as much skepticism as enthusiasm. Fudge was an unconventional choice as chief executive, and she is taking an unconventional approach -- importing a management rigor and an inclusive style rarely associated with advertising. Fudge's leadership could result in dramatic improvements or end in very public failure.

No matter what the results, Ms. Fudge should be credited with taking on the challenge of a company in turmoil (she is the third CEO in four years), in an industry that is difficult for women, let alone minority women who have "opted out." Let's hope that this is just the first of many "opt in" success stories. --------

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Job of the week: Office of Homeland Security Entertainment Liaison
Posted by at 10:59 AM

Via Boing Boing, a rather interesting help wanted listing seeking an Entertainment Liaison for the OHS.

The Entertainment Liaison Office supports the Office of Public Affairs by influencing how the Department of Homeland Security is portrayed in mass entertainment media. It helps to ensure accurate portrayal of the department’s mission, policies, and activities, while proactively working to help the American public better identify DHS functions.

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Will Boston become a land of headquarters?
Posted by Jason Butler at 9:40 AM

Can you imagine a hive with only queens? Silicon Valley is hiring again, but the workers bees are overseas.

While some companies are doing things the old-fashioned way, an increasing number of jobs that once were the guts of valley life -- technical support, programming, even some computer-system design — are now handled in places as remote as Bombay, India, and Bucharest, Romania.

Will this happen in Boston, too?

(via Employment Digest blog)
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March 19, 2004

Of glass houses and ivory towers
Posted by at 12:17 PM

Norm Brodsky, a veteran entrepreneur and contributing writer for Inc. Magazine recently had an eye-opening experience during a recent flight on Jet Blue where he found the airline's founder and CEO, David Neeleman, asking him, "how can I serve you better?"

"Nice airline you have here," I said. "Where do you come up with all these great ideas--like the televisions?"

"I get most of my ideas on flights like this one," Neeleman said. "The customers tell me what they want."

"Oh, listening to your customers," I said. "What a novel idea!"

Via Kottke.
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Trump seeks to trademark 'You're Fired!'
Posted by Movable Type Administrator at 10:50 AM

It was only a matter of time before The Donald decided to take his favorite saying to the next level.

The U.S. fast food firm Wendy's asked diners "Where's the beef?," and Nike commanded sports nuts to "Just do it." Now Donald Trump is seeking to trademark another pithy phrase: "You're fired!"

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March 18, 2004

Do Women Really Have Cleaner Hands?
Posted by Diane Danielson at 3:04 PM

We know that Martha Stewart likes to point out when something’s a “good thing,” yet has a little trouble knowing when and how to do the “right thing.” But is Martha’s ethical slip an exception or just an example of what’s to come as more women move into positions of power? Christian Science Monitor’s Stacy A. Teicher looks at both sides of the gender morality issue when she asks the question "Do Female Execs Have Cleaner Hands?".

There's a camp that argues women are going to bring a different perspective based on their historically and culturally accepted caretaking roles," says Debra Meyerson, professor of education and organizational behavior at Stanford University. "And there's another perspective that doesn't buy into this [argument] that women and men are different in some fundamental way.

So, do we all wash with the same soap? Or do some of us act like Martha and make our own?

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March 17, 2004

Q&A with Fortune's Anne Fisher and stats show Massachusetts is wicked smart
Posted by at 2:13 PM

Fortune.com's Anne Fisher answers "What are the 'hot' industries these days," issues around overseas outsourcing, and how to find the companies that are hiring in ASK ANNIE: Where the Jobs Are Now--And How to Get Them.

Ever so slowly, some sectors of the U.S. economy are starting to bring more people aboard. In many cases, the ones doing the most hiring are relatively small, nimble, fast-growing outfits--and the skills they're looking for reflect that.

Also, a wicked smart reason why businesses should move/create their companies here: "The Smartest People Live Here" (Massachusetts ranks 2nd after Washington, D.C.).

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A pint of Guinness, and thou
Posted by at 1:56 PM

To say Boston is an Irish town, is to say the least, a "wicked" understatement. In honor of St. Patricks Day and after work bar room conversations that will surely abound this eve around a fine pint or three, tests confirm that beer bubbles do fall seemingly defying laws of physics.
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Rain, sleet and snow
Posted by at 10:40 AM

It's cold out. You were ready three weeks ago for winter to end. You're out of a job. And you're probably parked in front of your computer, bunny slippers and robe, mug of cocoa in hand. Might as well take a respite from the chase and look at some really, really bad art.

[plus, the physical museum is in Dedham. Road Trip! - Jason]
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Ewwww, and double ewwww
Posted by at 10:35 AM

The BBC reports on a University of Arizona study that shows your work space is probably more filthy with germs than the average bathroom.
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March 16, 2004

Power women
Posted by at 2:01 PM

If you caught the final season of HBO's Sex & The City you may recall the character named, Charlotte, is be-friended by an art world klatsch of successful, powerful women. "They've got it all," Charlotte exclaims. "Great cloths, lots of money and power, and perfect, perfect shoes."

Now The Globe reports on a recent survey by the Simmons School of Management on women and leadership that dispells the societal myth that women must choose between success and family. In fact, the survey shows, professional women proactively seek and excel in their individual quests for corporate, social and political, power, status and prestige.

Forty-five percent of the 571 businesswomen surveyed said they aspire to the highest leadership positions in their organizations. Even more, 56 percent, under age 34 do.

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Coming in last, no cigar
Posted by at 11:10 AM

A Milwaukee-based staffing firm's quarterly job market survey predicts that 28 percent of 16,000 employers interviewed expect to hire more workers from April to June. With the arrival of warmer weather sectors such as construction, wholesale and retail services and transportation normally get a bump. But here in the NorthEast, we apparently just can't get thar from here.

Of some 16,000 employers polled, 28 percent expect to increase hiring from April to June while six percent will cut the number of workers they hire. Most employers -- some 62 percent -- will maintain their current staffing levels. This is the third consecutive quarter that employers reported an uptick in hiring.

Adjusted regionally, employers down South expect to offer job-seekers the most abundant opportunities, with 24 percent planning to hire. The Northeast, which is lagging well behind other regions, will have the fewest opportunities. Only 18 percent of employers plan on adding to their payrolls in coming months.

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Good things still happen
Posted by at 11:00 AM

Tim Rivers, 24, was laid off last week from his job at a tractor factory in Salem, Indiana. With a wife and two kids, things might have begun to look a little grim, that is until Saturday when he realized he was the sole winner of an $89 million Powerball prize.
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DNC causes employers to scramble
Posted by Jason Butler at 9:10 AM

The Democratic National Convention will disturb many a working life.

Uncertainty about transportation options and fears about the congestion from this summer's Democratic National Convention already are forcing many local businesses to encourage employee vacations or to consider shutting down altogether for the week -- a development that is sure to diminish the economic impact of the much-anticipated event.

Of course, I may just rent out my apartment for the week and disappear.
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March 15, 2004

Send lawyers, guns and money
Posted by Jason Butler at 9:46 AM

Lawyers may not be free from the threat of offshoring.

While computer programmers, radiologists and tax preparers have watched some of their business move off shore, lawyers, bound by intricate ethical rules and licensed by states, have been largely protected from foreign competition. But as companies from BorgWarner to General Electric start to experiment with using foreign lawyers for discrete legal projects, that is starting to change. Offshoring, as the practice is called, is "not a foreign concept to manufacturers because so many jobs are already going overseas," Ms. Horiszny said.

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March 12, 2004

Aiding and abetting excuseville
Posted by at 10:39 AM

Not long ago, it wasn't uncommon to visit a job board and find a "panic button" feature of the site. For those unfamiliar, the button, once activated, quickly pulled a fictitious news story or spreadsheet up on your screen should your boss or co-worker stroll by while you trolled for jobs on the company clock.

Now the AFP is reporting that a German technology company has come up with a similar take on covering one's derriere. Munich-based firm, Simeda GmbH's "sound alibi generator" recreates on your cell phone, the background noise of being stuck in traffic or getting work done at the dentist. It's supposedly perfect for those looking for an excuse to break off a phone conversation, say they can't make it into work, or are going to be late for a meeting.
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March 11, 2004

The numbers confirm what many know
Posted by at 5:09 PM

Recent report indicates: "State tops US in job loss rate: Mass posts 6.2% decline since '01 peak."

Most economists agree the nation's employment picture is disappointing despite strong economic growth. Not only is job creation limping along -- the economy grew only 21,000 new jobs in February, all from the public sector -- the quality of new positions is deteriorating. Of the 290,000 payroll jobs created since last April, according to government figures, 215,000 have been temporary with limited benefits.

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Ni shi wo de hao peng you
Posted by Jason Butler at 9:13 AM

I was a blond god. I was a Chinese rock star. I was on Yantai television three separate times.

How, you ask? Well, I spent a few months in 2001 teaching English in the People's Republic of China, a place where a six foot two blond Bostonian stands out from the crowd.

It was one of the most challenging times of my life, but it helped my professional growth immensely, giving me experience looking at our common assumptions from a different perspective. If you've ever wondered "What the heck is Marketing thinking?," then you know how important it is to step outside your own world and look at things from theirs.

WorldTeach, the organization I went to China with, is starting up a new program in Hunan beginning in early August. You should definitely check it out.
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March 9, 2004

Contemplating changing lanes? Just do it
Posted by at 3:50 PM

If there's one thing I've learned, there is "never a good time" to: [insert your own huge, life-altering topic here] get married, move, buy a house, have kids, and of course, change jobs or careers. While another of life's truisms is that timing is indeed everything, those who wait too long for the perfect lunar alignment to decide something big, too often get left in the cold.

Fortune Magazine's Anne Fisher a.k.a. "Ask Annie" reminded me of this sage advice for changing careers with her recent reply to a 45-year-old software engineer contemplating a switch.

"No one was born into his or her career. It's never too late to keep learning," says Doug Seville, DBM managing consultant. "Above all, don't get bogged down in your uncertainty for too long. The most successful career-changers are the people who decide on a path and just go do it."

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March 8, 2004

Providing the tools to start over
Posted by at 12:42 PM

The Globe's Business & Innovation section today highlights the work of Impact Employment Services, Inc., a company that offers a range of electronic job-hunting tools and conveniences to the homeless, recovering alcoholics, drug addicts, battered women and ex-offenders looking to re-enter the workforce.
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March 5, 2004

But would The Donald do it?
Posted by at 3:05 PM

Recently executives of Loews Hotels, Song Airlines and the California Pizza Kitchen restaurant chain agreed to work for a week in lower-level jobs in their own companies for The Learning Channel's new reality-based show, "Now Who's Boss?"

During their respective stints, the executives gained perspective on their workers' daily lives by cleaning bathrooms, scrubbing dishes and waiting on customers. In most cases they realized how tough the work was and even enacted some changes based on their experiences. And apparently some supervising employees got to serve up a little payback to the big whigs upstairs.

At Loews Miami Beach Hotel, housekeeping supervisor Sara Roiz was charged with training CEO Jonathan Tisch to perform various tasks -- from making beds to cleaning bathrooms. When asked if she would hire him as a hotel employee, she replied: "We'd have to see if he can make it through the three-week training period. Frankly, I don't think he can take it."

I'd venture a guess that some of those fired Apprentices would love to put such screws to The Donald...
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Putt-putt, splutter...plaaaah
Posted by at 10:31 AM

No that wasn't the sound of my "classic" 92' Jeep Cherokee in its final throes, but it is the sound the job market made last month. While unemployment held steady at 5.6 percent, the number of new jobs being added fell short yet again.

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March 4, 2004

Long-haired hippie freaks need not apply
Posted by at 1:29 PM

Or even clean cut, intelligent, ready-to-work teenagers for that matter, as a Page One Globe story today highlights how teenagers are often the losers in the competition for jobs as they continue to be elbowed out for hourly and part-time positions by legions of displaced professionals and new immigrants alike.
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March 3, 2004

The art of war, and job-hunting
Posted by Jason Butler at 12:05 PM

Navigating the employment classifieds is like navigating the ancient Orient, let Sun-Tzu be your guide.

After that, comes tactical manuvering, than which there is nothing more difficult. The difficulty of tactical manuvering consists in turning the devious into the direct, and misfortune into gain.

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Romney seeks to cut benefits for jobless
Posted by Jason Butler at 6:19 AM

Governor Romney wants to cut unemployment benefits.

Governor Mitt Romney said yesterday that employers are "outsourcing" jobs out of state because of the state's relatively high unemployment insurance costs, an assertion disputed by legislators, economists, and some of the governor's business supporters.

Romney urged lawmakers to lower employers' payments to the unemployment insurance fund by approving his plan to cut the number of weeks that workers would be eligible for benefits to 26 weeks and by extending to 20 weeks the period that employees must work to qualify for unemployment checks.

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March 2, 2004

An alternative to "The Apprentice 2"
Posted by at 2:28 PM

If you're looking for something a little closer to home than "The Apprentice 2," local radio station, KISS 108's a.m. morning show, "Matty in the Morning," is holding a contest for one lucky winner to be "Patrick Lyons' ("Boston's Donald Trump") apprentice." Patrick Lyons heads Lyons Group Ltd., a large Boston-based nightclub and restaurant group.
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Be on "The Apprentice 2"
Posted by Jason Butler at 1:22 PM

If you want a chance to be on the next version of "The Apprentice," you must submit your application by March 4th.

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Some Tech industry highlights
Posted by at 1:21 PM

Business Week has a special "Tech Rebound" section from February. While not all of the news is positive, it does present a variety of analysis and commentary on the Tech industry. For a specifically employment related read, there's "Tech Hiring: No Longer an Oxymoron: The worst of times seems to be over as an uptick in IT spending spurs recruitment, especially for the experienced and the versatile"

For a recent piece outsourcing (a popular topic in the Job Blog), there's, "Seismic Changes in Software" and Outsourcing Isn't "a Zero-Sum Game" - a Q&A session with Marc Andreessen, Netscape's cofounder, from Business Week's "Careers" section.
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Seven steps to better presentations
Posted by Jason Butler at 11:18 AM

It's important to be able to give good presentations; here are seven useful tips from Jeffrey Veen.

1. Tell stories. Seriously. People could care less about the five ways some XML vocabulary will enable enterprise whatever. Rather, put a screenshot of your project up, tell people what you learned while doing it, then give them a slide that reiterates those ideas in easy to digest bullets. That's do not go from bullet-point slide to bullet-point slide trying to tell people what to think.

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For the boss, days of sweat and fumbles
Posted by Jason Butler at 11:14 AM

TLC is launching a new reality show called "Now Who's Boss?," in which senior executives are forced to work their company's front lines.

Hilarity ensues.

"The truth is, we would have been fired from every job we undertook," [California Pizza Kitchen co-chief executive Larry] Flax said. "We were completely incompetent." In other episodes, Jonathan M. Tisch, the chief executive of Loews Hotels, plays bellhop at the Loews Miami Beach Hotel and does not get a tip after lugging 15 bags for a family of 10; Dan Brestle, group president of the Estée Lauder Companies, works as a makeup artist at a cosmetics counter and balks when a young woman tells him she wants to look like "J. Lo"; and John D. Selvaggio, president of Song, the low-fare service of Delta Air Lines, wrestles with the hoses connecting a plane to a sewage truck.

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March 1, 2004

I do it all, and I do housecalls
Posted by at 2:04 PM

The Globe's Business and Innovation section today is running a story about how some entrepreneurial techies have turned the tech downturn into a turn-around by launching their own companies to meet the demands of the increasingly wired household.

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