April 30, 2004

How Google views its workers
Posted by Jason Butler at 12:24 PM

Google filed for an IPO this week. Among the items they released was a letter from the founders.

I found the following passage, in which they describe the company's plans for its employees, especially enlightening.

Our employees, who have named themselves Googlers, are everything. Google is organized around the ability to attract and leverage the talent of exceptional technologists and business people. We have been lucky to recruit many creative, principled and hard working stars. We hope to recruit many more in the future. We will reward and treat them well.

We provide many unusual benefits for our employees, including meals free of charge, doctors and washing machines. We are careful to consider the long term advantages to the company of these benefits. Expect us to add benefits rather than pare them down over time. We believe it is easy to be penny wise and pound foolish with respect to benefits that can save employees considerable time and improve their health and productivity.

The significant employee ownership of Google has made us what we are today. Because of our employee talent, Google is doing exciting work in nearly every area of computer science. We are in a very competitive industry where the quality of our product is paramount. Talented people are attracted to Google because we empower them to change the world; Google has large computational resources and distribution that enables individuals to make a difference. Our main benefit is a workplace with important projects, where employees can contribute and grow. We are focused on providing an environment where talented, hard working people are rewarded for their contributions to Google and for making the world a better place.

I ::heart:: Google.

Steve Bailey, on the other hand, finds them to be full of it.

Two sentences into the letter Google's two founders wrote to all those potential investors panting to get a piece of maybe the most highly anticipated IPO in history, and I am already gagging. Hey, I love Google, too, but maybe Mom and Dad (or their investment bankers, at least) should remind Larry Page and Sergey Brin of one thing: Like many smart people who came before them, they are running a company. They are not saving the world.

John Battelle thinks their attitudes are going to backfire.

That thought came to mind as I read the five-page, Warren Buffet-inspired letter which opens Google's S1, entitled "An Owner's Manual" for Google Shareholders, which was written in the first person by Larry Page (full text in extended entry below). I can only imagine the eyes rolling at Kleiner Perkins, Morgan Stanley, and the rest of the veterans as the founders insisted on this, and I can imagine this letter is what broke the camel's back last week and engendered the "let's not get too cute" comment in the New York Times. The letter, which is unusual for an S1, borders on hubris. It's personal, discursive, and rather defensive in tone, and it attempts to address an investor's most pressing questions about the company. It claims, several times over, that Google is different, special, and remarkable. It also acts as something of a caveat, a pardon for future sins, claiming that going forward, Google will not act like public companies are supposed to act, because it is unique and long-term focused. "We're different, and better than others," is the tone. "Don't ask why we do things the way we do them. We know best." To be honest, the letter made me cringe a bit. "Yow," I said to myself (and now to you...). "Do they really want to set themselves up like this?"

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We all know what happens when we "assume"
Posted by Diane Danielson at 10:23 AM

But now you might also be in violation of a court of law. This week the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that it's illegal for employers to assume that working mothers will not take their work seriously. This ruling may make it easier for working mothers to bring discrimination suits against their employers.

Stereotyping about the qualities of mothers and their ability to balance work and home is a form of gender discrimination, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Wednesday.

The court said that gender discrimination based on attitudes toward motherhood can be alleged "in the absence of evidence about how an employer treats fathers," in Back v. Hastings on Hudson Free School District, 03-7058.

The decision concerned alleged discrimination against Elana Back, a school psychologist at the Hillside Elementary School in New York's Westchester County. She claimed that her superiors launched a campaign to deny her tenure after making several comments about her commitment to the job when she returned to work after having a baby.

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The blog of the invisible adjunct
Posted by Jason Butler at 9:38 AM

In my product development role here at the Globe, I'm charged with creating better ways for us to help people find jobs. To be successful, I need to hone my empathy for Boston's job-seekers; as a result, I love reading blogs about "what it's like to be a ...," blogs that give you insight into others' lives at work.

One of my favorites -- especially as we've been building out our new Higher Education channel -- was the blog of the Invisible Adjunct. In her blog. the anonymous author told her stories of life as an adjunct professor, a woman who knows that a Ph.D. is not always a ticket to the top.

The Chronicle of Higher Education wrote an excellent piece on her, why she shut down her blog, and the general state of adjuncts in academia.

After five years of being an adjunct and a year after starting one of the most popular academic Weblogs, she is giving up and getting out. More than a decade after entering graduate school with great promise, she hasn't landed that full-time, tenure-track spot she dreamed of. So although she's unsure what comes next, she is quitting the academy and shutting the blog down.

...

Her departure from the classroom at the end of this semester will cause barely a ripple on her campus. No farewell parties. No mentions in the department newsletter. Remember, no one can really see her. But on the Internet, her goodbye spurred an emotional cascade.

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Can anyone work at work anymore?
Posted by Jason Butler at 9:12 AM

The Wall Street Journal takes on cubicle culture, and how it's impossible to get anything done in a cubicle environment.

Can anyone work at work anymore? Cube designers and many managers maintain that open-office plans allow for the "free flow of ideas." But here's a sampler of what bosses would hear if they cracked their office door: an elegy to the end of a mortgage refinancing, the saga of someone's bunion and the ping of fingernails being clipped.

In a sign of just how loopy the line between work and home has become, it sometimes seems as though the home is better suited to work, while work is better suited to, say, wedding planning.

Not that I would ever spend any time at work planning my upcoming wedding...

Is working at home the answer?

Of course, homes have their distractions, too. Bosti shuttered its physical offices a few years ago, and Ms. Weidemann concedes she can be derailed to her deck by sunshine or by her pug-terrier Hopper. But though dogs can be as insistent as colleagues, at least they don't think their in-law troubles are gripping enough to shout about. Another difference, she says: "I can't shut a colleague in the other room."

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April 29, 2004

Gay marriage affects domestic-partner benefits
Posted by Jason Butler at 6:22 AM

Massachusetts' gay marriage rules are causing some of the largest private employers in the area to rethink their domestic-partner benefits.

Many large Massachusetts employers began offering domestic-partner benefits to be fair to, and attract, gay employees. But once they can get married, the discrimination rationale disappears.

Robert Webb, a partner with the Boston law firm of Nutter, McClennen & Fish who advises companies on benefits, predicted that gay marriage may be "the death knell for domestic-partner benefits."

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April 28, 2004

For even more on women and the VC disconnect ...
Posted by Diane Danielson at 2:45 PM

Check out the blog Worthwhile, and specifically, Halley Suitt's post on a VC forum held last night featuring the CEO of J Crew, Millard Drexler. The men were there, but where were the women??? (According to my last post, they're busy launching "service" oriented companies, which are not the darlings of the VC world). But c'mon ladies, it's time for us to stop sitting around waiting for an invitation, and instead start crashing the VC party!
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Manufacturing on the rebound in Massachusetts
Posted by Douglas Eisenhart at 10:13 AM

Great news from today's Boston Globe:

The region's battered manufacturing sector is finally making a comeback as surging demand for technology products boosts orders, profits, and payrolls.

After a long lull, business activity is accelerating to levels not seen since the boom of the late 1990s, executives at Massachusetts and southern New Hampshire manufacturers said in interviews. With orders pouring in, companies are not only gaining confidence that the recovery is at last here, but also doing what they haven't done in years: hire.

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Behind every fast growing company is ... a woman
Posted by Diane Danielson at 8:15 AM

The New York Times reports today that companies owned by women are growing at double the rate of all small businesses in the nation.

"We estimate that women-owned firms are growing at close to twice the rate of all privately held firms, 17 percent versus 9 percent," said Myra M. Hart, a Harvard Business School professor and chairwoman of the center.

According to the the Center for Women's Business Research study, businesses owned by women are found in all industries, but 45 percent, or 4.9 million, are service companies; 16.4 percent, or 1.8 million, are in retail; 9 percent, or 966,662, in finance, insurance or real estate; and 6 percent, or 652,807, in construction. The focus on service companies explains the disconnect from the VC world mentioned in earlier posts (see Trying a reverse WAVE).

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Companies find some computer jobs best done in U.S.
Posted by Jason Butler at 6:30 AM

The New York Times reports on the obvious: some programming jobs are better done in the U.S.

[E]ven though programmers in India cost Bladelogic $3,500 a month versus a monthly cost of $10,000 for programmers in the United States. "The cost savings in India were three to one," [CEO] Mr. Ittycheria said . "But the difference in productivity was six to one."

Bladelogic's chief technology officer, Vijay Manwani, born and educated in India, predicts that once the "hype cycle" about Indian outsourcing runs its course, projects will come back to the United States "when people find that their productivity goals have not been met."

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April 27, 2004

Better educated but, are we better paid?
Posted by at 3:03 PM

CNN|Money's "Woman's work? Almost anything" examines the stats on which gender is receiving the majority of college degrees and which traditionally male-dominated industries women are entering:

This year, for the first time in the history of Harvard University, the number of women offered admission to the incoming undergraduate freshman class outpaced the number of men....
Women now earn more associate's, bachelor's and master's degrees than their male counterparts. In the academic year 2001-02, 57 percent of bachelor's degrees and 59 percent of master's degrees were awarded to women, according to data from the National Center for Education Statistics....
Women also earned nearly half of the Ph.D.s (46.3 percent) as well as first professional degrees (47.3 percent), which include medical, law and dental degrees.

While women are becoming better educated, the problems of lack of equal pay and glass ceilings still remain. (See also this entry from last week: "Today is Equal Pay Day.")

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Build your portfolio
Posted by at 9:25 AM

In How a Portfolio Can Help Land the Job, Judit Price discusses the merits of creating a portfolio of your work so that you can discuss your suitability for the job when a hiring manager calls for a phone screen.

Here's one way to create a portfolio: First, investigate the web space you probably have free with your email account. Make sure you know how to access it and post to it. Now, review your last job. Write down your accomplishments, in more detail that what's on your resume. If you have any publishable artifacts from that job, scan them, or include them in the detail. Translate that writing to html, and post on the your web page. Ask several people to help you review the writing to make sure your portfolio is well-written. Repeat, for each job in the past ten years, or the most relevant jobs for the position you want now. (It's not fast to do, but it's worth it.)

If you take the time to create a portfolio, you'll also benefit, because you'll have thought about the contexts in which you were most successful, had the most pride in your work, and were most productive. You can look for those similarities (or differences) in your current job search.
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April 26, 2004

The science in creating business execs
Posted by Colin Moor at 6:12 PM

Mass High Tech this week explores the problem of overcoming a relatively small labor pool of executive leaders in biotech.

So where do we find more? Converting scientists to businesspeople is one answer. "With the growth locally of biotech and pharmaceutical industries, opportunities for scientists in the private sector continue to increase,"says Vicki Sato, president of Vertex Pharmaceuticals in Cambridge.

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Sleeping tiger
Posted by at 1:58 PM

OnPoint radio takes an in-depth look at India as the world's largest democracy heads to the polls. In this era of outsourcing, is India a U.S. competitor or ally?
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Follow-ups to the Wal-Mart HIV story
Posted by Jason Butler at 12:16 PM

I linked Friday to the story of the HIV-positive Wal-Mart employee who has no health insurance. Rivka has posted a follow-up.

Steve Verdon has a much different take on the situation.

Here is my problem. I didn't want to get caught up in the emotion. I wanted to look at the issue of making an employer cover the medical expenses of a worker who has a pre-existing condition. Now while Rivka didn't actually advocate such a position, it was strongly hinted at in the initial post. I looked at how insurance works, and why in this poor woman's case it can't work for her. Yes I am looking at this from an abstract point of view. You have to do this to look at all the potential problems with policy. You cannot ignore the impact on incentives...or if you do, you do so at your own and many other people's risk. I know it is a favorite "trick" of politician's to put a "human face" on a situation, but that is to some degree an argument by pity. Feel sorry for them, and then vote for me.

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How to start a business and keep your day job
Posted by Jason Butler at 8:47 AM

Here is an interesting article on Startup Journal on ways to get your business running while keeping your day job.

[B]alancing a start-up with a day job can be quite a trick, fraught with all sorts of difficult questions: How much do you tell your employer or co-workers? Do you call in sick to meet with potential clients? By trying to do two things at once, don't you run the risk of doing both things badly?

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April 23, 2004

Wal-Mart, health insurance and more
Posted by Jason Butler at 3:47 PM

Nothing better on a rainy Friday afternoon here in Boston than a story which will set your blood boiling.

A blogger tells of how she works at an HIV clinic, and how it surprised her when she was visited by an uninsured full-time Wal-Mart employee.

She works 40 hours a week at Wal-Mart. Like many of their employees, she can't afford their health insurance plan. Even if she could, they wouldn't cover her HIV care because it's a pre-existing condition. It isn't even about paying for the drugs, which are expensive - she qualifies for the state AIDS Drug Assistance Program, which picks up all of her prescriptions for her. Wal-Mart won't pay for office visits to an HIV specialist, and they won't pay for the blood tests she needs to monitor her condition.

So you, the federal taxpayer, will be paying for her medical care. Today you also gave her $40 worth of food vouchers, because after she pays her rent (which eats more than half her wages, and she lives in a slum) there's not a lot left over to buy food. I'm sure you're glad to do it, right? You don't want her to die.

Make sure to click on the comments link; several insightful commenters on both sides of the issue have weighed in.

For what it's worth, I shop at Costco. Costco believes in taking care of their workers.
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Earthlink CEO gets raise amid layoffs
Posted by Jason Butler at 3:02 PM

Earthlink lays off 25% of its workforce. The Chief Executive Officer gets a 76% increase in bonus.
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Old boy's network - London style
Posted by Diane Danielson at 9:55 AM

It looks like our female colleagues in the UK are not much better off when it comes to the glass ceiling (unlike our Scandinavian counterparts). Here's an interesting article from across the pond that accurately depicts some important changes in the old boy's network dynamic.

The old boys' network is still alive and kicking, with a new form of informal male bonding reinforcing the glass ceiling against women, says a report published today.

Policies that were intended to help female workers, such as flexible employment, may even be making the position worse because they miss out on after-hours drinking and other social occasions, research by the think-tank Demos has found.

But there is some good news. In the Demos report, they also found "growing evidence that women’s professional networks have the potential to change work place culture in a way that benefits women." So whether you have a flexible work schedule, or are considering one in the future, it's time to make an extra networking effort. Check out www.bizwomen.com for a comprehensive list of women's organizations in the Boston area.

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Clueless managers try to be spin doctors
Posted by Jason Butler at 6:04 AM

The Wall Street Journal has an outstanding article on managers who try to spin bad news.

These spin measures might be well-intentioned efforts to preserve the fragile filament of workplace morale, but bosses often torch them. Resistant to admitting a mistake or leveling with employees, executives endlessly find themselves putting lipstick on pigs.

As it turns out, employees aren't stupid; they often resent being treated like idiots.
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April 22, 2004

The joys of Spring
Posted by at 4:38 PM

There's nothing like the rapidly changing weather of a New England Spring to make you feel great. The birds... the bugs... the flowers... the spring colds!?

For those of you who like to go to work hacking, sneezing, and coughing, and think you're doing the company a favor when you show up sick, think again. Read: Study: Do your boss a favor and call in sick

Sick employees have difficulty concentrating, work more slowly and have to repeat tasks, bogging down productivity, according to the study. (They also get their co-workers sick, but those costs were not counted in the study.)

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You get what you pay for
Posted by at 11:45 AM

USA Today has an interesting write-up on whether hiring interns is legal or illegal and/or whether it's a good and/or bad thing for both intern or employer. The answer as Jason might put it is, well, "it depends."

As we enter intern-hiring season, employers should remember that internships -- paid or unpaid -- sap enough of an employer's resources to make sense only if you hire many of your interns after they graduate. Better pay lures better interns. Better interns mean more employees you'd want to hire. While unpaid internships save a company money for a summer, in the long run, they're just bad business.

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Romney: Towns pay workers too much
Posted by Jason Butler at 6:13 AM

Governor Mitt Romney is trying to shift blame for municipal shortfalls.

Romney said that despite substantial cuts in state aid to cities and towns over the past two years, "the idea that somehow the state has caused cities to see a huge reduction in their revenues isn't quite right." Property tax revenues have continued to increase in almost every city and town across the state, the governor said, keeping municipal finances fairly stable. So if local officials are cutting services and firing workers, it's because they haven't controlled spending.

"If you add costs faster than the revenues are likely to come in, at that point when you sign that contract, when you add those costs, you're saying, 'yes' to layoffs," Romney said. "We in the public sector have gotten used to the idea that we can just keep on growing and growing and grow faster than the rate of the incomes of the people we tax."

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April 21, 2004

One very expensive diversity training program
Posted by Diane Danielson at 1:38 PM

According to today's NY Times business section, the amount of money Merrill Lynch is paying out to female employees on discrimination claims just went up another $2.2 million (so the count is now $102.2 million with more claims to go).

Merrill Lynch & Company, the nation's biggest brokerage firm, discriminated against women who worked as stockbrokers, according to a panel of arbitrators that has awarded $2.2 million to one of them.

That decision, which was made Monday but not disclosed until yesterday, was the first legal ruling to find that a Wall Street firm had engaged in systematic discrimination. The finding could be used to bolster the claims of about 40 current and former Merrill brokers who have not settled their discrimination claims against the firm. Merrill has already paid more than $100 million in settlements with hundreds of other women who joined a class-action case against the firm more than five years ago.

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April 20, 2004

Overtime guideline changes... will they impact your pay?
Posted by at 3:49 PM

How will the proposed new overtime guidelines affect you? Check out the latest on the revisions: White House revises overtime overhaul

[Labor Secretary Elaine] Chao said the regulations would allow more white-collar workers and low-wage earners to remain eligible for overtime than in a draft proposal issued 13 months ago. The election-year revisions would permit those earning up to $100,000 a year to continue collecting premium pay if they log more than 40 hours a week.

The initial proposal ... marked the first comprehensive revision of the overtime standard since 1949. The guidelines were drawn up at the urging of businesses and employer groups, who said that out-of-date standards were creating confusion in the modern workplace about overtime eligibility. The result, they said, was a wave of lawsuits by workers demanding overtime eligibility.

Learn more about overtime and fair labor laws at the U.S. Department Labor's website: www.dol.gov/fairpay. For Massachusetts-specific laws, visit the Department of Labor and Workforce Development's website: www.mass.gov/dlwd.

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Today is Equal Pay Day
Posted by at 1:41 PM

A Globe op-ed piece today highlights the fact that today is Equal Pay Day, the date that women, counting from January 2003, will pull down as much in earnings as men had by Dec. 31. The article also squares off on the fact that women still continue to earn an average of 76 cents for every dollar earned by men.
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When I grow up I want to be: An astronaut, a race car driver, a ballerina...an IT manager??
Posted by at 12:56 PM

Although it's doubtful Little Johnny or Little Mary have voiced aspirations to become middle management when they grow up, Intel has created a Flash-based, "Sim City" -like game that simulates what it'd be like to run a corporate IT department.
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How to deal with "You're fired!"
Posted by at 10:29 AM

From CNN/Money, five tips to keep in mind if the Axe "HR" man/woman cometh to your door.
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Marathon bloggers
Posted by Jason Butler at 6:03 AM

Congratulations to our very own Job Blogger, Sarah Hubbell, on her running of the Boston Marathon yesterday. Sarah finished in 4:41 while raising money for Brigham and Women's Hospital.

Congratulations also to BostonWorks GM Tim Murphy, who finished in a speedy 3:23.
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April 18, 2004

Answering the weakness question
Posted by at 4:35 PM

I don't entirely agree with Michael Neece's advice in What Are Your Weaknesses?. Neece claims When interviewers ask this question they really don't care what your weaknesses are. Well, I wish I believed him. I don't. I know too many managers who think candidate will answer this question blindly.

My initial advice is to answer the question, couching the answer in a way that turns a weakness into a strength: "Well, during the end of a release, I tend to work too many hours to make sure the release is successful." Neece claims interviewers see through this answer. My experience is different. The people who ask this question don't see through this kind of answer. They really are looking for an answer about strengths or weaknesses.

But if you're concerned your interviewer is more experienced, here's my advice for answering this question: "Tell me more about your concerns. Then I can explain some experience from my background that will answer your concerns more fully." If you've built rapport with your interviewer, stop there. If you need more information, add "I can address how I plan and finish my work, or how I get along with people, or how I solve problems."

What you want is to understand the interviewer's concerns and address them. That requires more than a canned answer. Make sure you reframe the weakness question, whether you use Neece's advice or mine or some other technique.
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April 16, 2004

Boys do make passes at girls who wear glasses ...
Posted by Diane Danielson at 9:46 AM

and have graduate degrees. Finally some good news for the highly educated women of Boston. According to a brand new study featured on the front page of today's Boston Globe business section, while it's still more likely for a forty-something woman with only a high school diploma to be married when compared to her peers with graduate degrees, the gap is closing!

[Elaina] Rose, who presented her findings at a Population Association of America conference in Boston this month, said that in 1980 a woman 40 to 44 years old who completed three years of graduate school was about 14 percentage points less likely to have been married at some point than a woman with a high school diploma. By 2000, that 14-point gap had shrunk to 5 points, suggesting that changing social mores and women's pursuit of education have affected the marriage market.

Thank goodness. No more pretending to be the perfume gal at Filene's. (I swear that was the only way I could get dates back in law school!)

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April 15, 2004

Civilian workers' danger in Iraq
Posted by Jason Butler at 2:46 PM

Here is an AP story on independent contractors going to the Iraqi warzone to find a job. When confronted with the reality, many are coming home. Too many are coming home in bodybags.

An estimated 15,000 contract workers are helping to rebuild the war-torn country. In recent weeks, they have increasingly become the targets of insurgents trying to end the U.S. occupation.

Tommy Hamill, 43, of Macon, Miss., was reduced to driving a milk truck after hard times forced him to sell the dairy farm that had been in his family for 30 years. With two children at home and a wife in need of open-heart surgery, Hamill felt he could not pass up an offer from Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg Brown & Root of $80,000 base pay to drive a fuel truck in Iraq for a year.

Hamill was eight months into the job when Iraqi militants attacked his convoy last Friday. Hamill's kidnappers vowed to kill him on Easter if American troops did not leave the city of Fallujah, but that deadline passed with no word about Hamill's fate.

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Spring is in the air
Posted by at 12:27 PM

This time of year you can be certain of three things; taxes, rain/unstable weather, and spring cleaning. While you may be cleaning your home, don't forget to do a little spring cleaning at your home away from home - the office. Remember, your desk space says a lot about you (whether deliberate or inadvertently) to your boss and office mates.
To provide some tips about what's good and not so good in cube décor, ABCNews.com offers the "Top 10 Tips for Decorating Your Work Cube"

Work station, cubicle, panel system - no matter what you call it, one thing is for certain - it's not a private office space.

...what many cubicle-dwelling workers don't know is that less is often better than more when it comes to your work space.

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!#$%!@#$% !@#$% !@#$% !@#$
Posted by Jason Butler at 9:16 AM

It's 40 degrees, it's windy, it's rained for a week, and I just walked 15 minutes to the Central Square post office to drop off my !#@$ %!# %^$! #!@$ !#$ % !@#% !@#$ %!#$ #% !#@$ %^@#%$ ~@#$ ~!@#$ % !@#$ @#$ @#~$ !~@#$ taxes.

Oh well, the sun will come out tomorrow. You can bet your bottom dollar.
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April 14, 2004

Situation wanted for unemployed professional
Posted by Jason Butler at 12:13 PM

Times are tough. The New York Times reports that one thing people are beginning to do is post classified ads looking for jobs.

Jobs-wanted advertisements, also known as positions-wanted or situations-wanted ads, were once the domain of domestic workers or tradespeople, but more unemployed professionals like Mr. Mourer have taken them out in newspapers and online, and with varying degrees of success.

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April 13, 2004

All's fair in love and networking
Posted by Colin Moor at 1:49 PM

In the April issue of Fast Company Magazine there is an article about the developing trend in online business networking.

If it works for romance, why not commerce? A handful of companies have begun using Friendster-style social networking to help businesses and professionals find a perfect match. We're not talking romantic partners here, mind you, but access to previously unreachable customer leads, investors, business partners, job candidates, and employers.

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Bank of America creating jobs at Fidelity
Posted by Jason Butler at 11:11 AM

Here's one positive aspect of the BOA/Fleet merger: Fidelity will create some jobs.

Bank of America yesterday awarded Fidelity a large chunk of its human resource work, which will create about 375 jobs in Marlborough and Merrimack, N.H.

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April 12, 2004

It's a blog new world
Posted by Douglas Eisenhart at 4:21 PM

Well, we may think we're pretty cool and cutting edge here in the BostonWorks Job Blog, but if we don't watch it we're in danger of becoming obsolete. John Mello's Personal Tech column from today's Globe explores some of the fresh territory opened up by new blogging tools and features, including wireless and photo-based blogs:

Moblogging [mobile blogging] allows bloggers to add postings to their blog sites from almost anywhere at any time, using a cellphone, RIM Blackberry, or wireless handheld computer.
- - - - -
Camera phones have given a whole new dimension to moblogging and rise to a new kind of blogging site that caters to images rather than words.

We can connect the dots (pixels?) between Mello's story and another one published by BostonWorks yesterday, how, with the proliferation of camera phones, employers are wary of potential abuses in the workplace. Imagine taking a clandestine photo at work, then putting it on the web via blog self-publishing technology, for the world to see, in minutes. Maybe it's not such a pretty picture.

Tomorrow morning all will be made crystal clear by none other than BostonWorks' blogging guru Jason Butler at a special panel on online job tools (sorry, closed session). It is indeed a blog new world.
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To work or not to work, that is the question ...
Posted by Diane Danielson at 12:45 PM

For some maybe. But for the rest of us it's not really a relevant question (either fiscally or mentally). However, the latest book weighing in on the topic is nicely summarized by Cathy Young in today's Globe editorial, Rebalancing work and motherhood.

["Maternal Desire: On Children, Love, and the Inner Life" by Daphne de Marneffe] does not paint a rosy, Hallmark-greeting-card picture of motherhood or shy away from its more frustrating aspects. But the author chafes at the not-uncommon feminist assumption that women who stay home have been merely guilt-tripped into giving up their own lives for domestic misery. Often, she points out, it's working women -- even ones who love their jobs -- who feel terrible when they have to leave their children.

De Marneffe may have tried to address both sides of the issues in her book, but she appears to be taking more of an "either/or", "all or nothing" stance. As Young rightly points out at the end of the article, it's more about "striving toward equality while recognizing reality, and seeking the best possible balance." --------

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It's not just about the cookies
Posted by Diane Danielson at 11:16 AM

The Girl Scouts was not really the most progressive organization back when I wore the uniform. In the old days, in addition to selling thin mints and samoas, we also had to earn badges that included sewing (not my strong point), cooking (again, not my strong point), and camping (my first and last camping experience - I only did it for the badge). But the Girl Scouts of today have many more badge options - from Business to Aerospace to CyberGirlScout - and a lot more learning opportunities.

In Sunday's BostonWorks section, columnist Maggie Jackson outlines a weekend spent at the Patriots' Trail Girl Scouts' "Camp CEO," the goal of which is to encourage young girls to go into business.

''Even though boys don't know much about business, they still perceive it as a place they would go as a career," says Gail Deegan, a retired publishing executive who is on the board of the Patriots' Trail Girl Scout Council and helped create Boston's Camp CEO. ''Girls really rank helping others and making the world a better place as key motivators in choosing careers -- and they don't see how business fits with that."

But the Girl Scouts are trying to change that perception. And the 15 girls at last weekend's camp, who worked their way through paycheck calculations and projected cash flow sheets, learned a lot more than simply how to sell the most cookies.

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April 9, 2004

The Colonel meets The Donald
Posted by at 12:59 PM

Looking to get in on the game before it ends, KFC is planning to offer The Apprentice runner-up the position of chief sales officer for a week to help the chain roll out its new oven-roasted-chicken line.
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Trying a reverse WAVE
Posted by Diane Danielson at 12:09 PM

Last month some bleak statistics about women in the venture capital industry were released in a study called The Diana Project. Funded by the Kauffman Foundation, the report put a spotlight on not only the lack of women in the industry, but on the fact that they tended to leave at a more rapid rate than men.

In an attempt to stem the tide of women flowing out of venture capital, and in fact never venturing to even test the waters, attorneys Susan Keller and Sarah Camougis of the law firm, Edwards & Angell, are taking action. As reported in Mass High Tech:

Dismayed in 2002 by the paltry representation of women at the 2002 Private Equity Analyst Conference — 98 women among the more than 1,100 attendees — [Keller and Camougis] began work on a national organization for women in the venture capital industry.

The name of the organization: The Women’s Association of Venture & Equity, or WAVE.

The aim, Keller said, is “to create the same sort of network that happens naturally with the men’s old boys’ network.”

While I couldn't locate a website for this organization yet, let's hope it gets rolling along real soon. For more about women and their VC troubles, see the USA Today Story, Start-ups by women face cash hang-ups.
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Opportunity for entrepreneur
Posted by at 11:41 AM

Anita Sharpe in Is This Healthy? bemoans the fate of people who feel trapped in their jobs because the cost of health insurance is so high. Any of you unemployed entrepreneurs want to take a crack at this?
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What it's like to be a software developer at Microsoft
Posted by Jason Butler at 11:23 AM

Here is a posting on the fabulous Technical Careers @ Microsoft blog in which a software developer describes life at Microsoft.

I am a dev lead (SDE Lead) on the Outlook team. The Outlook dev team is a group of about 40 developers (the whole team adds another 40 testers and 20 PM’s). My responsibilities consist of all the things that an SDE does in addition to managing the time and career of those that work on my team. First, I’ll talk a little about the SDE role, and close with a few words about being a lead.

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April 8, 2004

The trauma of waiting
Posted by Jason Butler at 12:20 PM

Here's an excellent blog posting about the Bank of America job cuts, the double-speak, and the view from beneath the heel of the boot.

I'd say that YES, it has been constant stress since the announcement back in October and the subsequent waiting and putting your life on hold, but really not enough stress to cause 3.500 people associates to go out in this economic nightmare looking for new jobs.

Via Boston Common
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April 7, 2004

Zzzzz. Do not disturb...I'm working
Posted by at 10:31 AM

Some years ago we used to have a programmer who had finagled an arrangement to take power naps in one of the company supply closets. He'd pulled an extra couch out of the lobby into the room, and was left pretty much undisturbed during his hour-long, on-the-clock sabbatical, save for a rap on the wall every now and again to stop his chainsaw snoring routine.

The programmer, of course, claimed it gave him vitality and made him more productive. And not unexpectedly, of course, few of us ever noticed him laboring particularly hard on anything of any import even during his waking hours.

Now the coup de grace: It appears we may have to admit that he was right all along according to a BU researcher who says work day naps boost productivity.

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She can bring home the bacon
Posted by Diane Danielson at 10:09 AM

As reported in today's Globe women are making significant gains in vying for higher paying jobs.

A study released yesterday said the number of women earning $100,000 a year or better more than tripled during the past decade.

In 2001, 861,000 women earned $100,000 or more, compared with just 242,000 women in 1991, according to federal wage and salary data analyzed by the Employment Policy Foundation, a Washington research organization funded by business and foundations.

That was an increase of 256 percent for top female earners during the 1990s economic boom. There was a similar increase in the number of women in the next wage bracket, those earning between $80,000 and $99,999.

While I'm all for the number of women making six figures tripling, keep reading. The number of men making the same was numbered at 4.3 million. Which means that women still only make up 20% of our nation's six figure employees. Yet with Harvard being one of several colleges now taking more women than men, we may just yet see this figure double in the next decade.

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April 6, 2004

Bane of visa seekers may be boon for local job seekers
Posted by at 12:41 PM

Summer employers seek alternatives to visa cap on foreign workers

Cape Cod employers that rely heavily on foreign seasonal workers are looking for ways to cope with a federal cap on visas for such workers....

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services cut off applications for immigrant workers on H-2b visas on March 9, when the agency had enough applications to meet its annual national cap of 66,000. It was the first time the agency cut off applications before the end of a federal fiscal year....

The Cape Cod Chamber of Commerce has sought alternative ways that employers can fill the mostly low-skilled jobs in the hospitality industry, including a recruitment drive for college students, a seasonal job fair in Hyannis and legally sharing H-2b workers that do obtain visas.

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It's tax time... again
Posted by at 11:42 AM

Another reason why you should always check your pay stubs... IRS alerts employees, businesses to watch for employment tax evasion

The Internal Revenue Service on Monday urged employees to watch for and businesses to avoid payroll tax evasion.

Federal law requires employers to withhold certain taxes from their employees' paychecks and send the money to the IRS every three months. Taxes collected include federal income tax and Social Security and Medicare taxes. Businesses also must pay unemployment tax.

If you're having trouble with taxes or have questions, check out Boston.com's tax section for tips and help.

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Weblogs and jobs
Posted by Jason Butler at 9:36 AM

I'm giving a speech next week on the impact weblogs and such have on how people are looking for and getting jobs. So, I'm invoking the lazy web and asking for pointers from our readers on these two questions:

1. What are the best weblogs out there for finding job-related information and news, hiring tips, salary negotiation, interviewing, etc.?

2. Are there any examples (other than Robert Scoble, whom I've already written about) of people who've gotten jobs through their weblogs?

If you have any thoughts, please drop me a line. After the presentation, I'll publish my talk and my notes.

Thanks!
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April 5, 2004

How to handle squabbling salespeople
Posted by Jason Butler at 12:04 PM

Here's an article from Entrepreneur magazine about managing the inevitable conflicts among salespeople.

The sales field attracts strapping and competitive personalities, so it's no wonder dissent in the ranks can ensue. Fights over territory, commissions and leads can all wind up causing strife. Do what you can as a manager to remove reasons for rancor by establishing clear sales objectives. You'll also want to wear your empathy hat when diagnosing problems

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Networking: who have you contacted today?
Posted by at 11:14 AM

If you're unemployed, you know that networking with people is a necessary part of your job hunt. The more you network, the more likely you are to find a job. Here's what I suggest to people when they start to network.

• Make a list of everyone you know. That includes your old friends from high school or college, your aunt who lives across the state or country, people you know from previous jobs (especially previous managers).
  
• If you're a geek like me, develop a little script so you know what you're going to say. I use an outline that includes introducing me, reminding the other person how he or she knows me, and what I'm looking for. I offer to help that person in some appropriate way.
  
• Now the hard part: work your way down the list. Call or email (although calling is better, it's more personal).
  

Job hunting is hard. Networking is a great way to make sure people know you're looking and that you're available. The WIND (Wednesday is Networking Day) groups do a great job helping people learn to network.
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Appalling practice of the week
Posted by Jason Butler at 9:50 AM

The Times had a great article yesterday on the practice of "time-shaving" in which the manager goes in and alters the workers' timecards to reduce their hours.

Experts on compensation say that the illegal doctoring of hourly employees' time records is far more prevalent than most Americans believe. The practice, commonly called shaving time, is easily done and hard to detect — a simple matter of computer keystrokes — and has spurred a growing number of lawsuits and settlements against a wide range of businesses.

By the way, this practice is horribly illegal, so if it happens to you, fight it.

Send a note (anonymously, if you think that's best) to your company's headquarters telling them you'll drop the dime unless they stop.

Contact Tom Reilly, the Massachusetts Attorney General.

Hell, drop us a note here at the Globe; we're all about taking down frauds.
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Blame India Watch
Posted by Jason Butler at 9:41 AM

With all the sniping going on about offshoring, someone needs to keep it in check. Here is Blame India Watch.

Blame India Watch is concerned with the increasing anti-Indian/anti-India sentiment among tech workers, as well as media coverage that focuses disproportionately on Indian workers or propagates anti-India(n) sentiment. What began a few years ago as IT grumbling about Indian-specific H-1B "Temporary Guest worker" and L-1 "Intracompany Transfer" workers and immigrants has now morphed into the outsourcing issue, and is now gaining international attention. We aim to highlight this scapegoating, encourage IT workers to put a stop it, and redirect the anger to where it belongs.

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April 2, 2004

One small step for Katharine, one giant leap for womankind
Posted by Diane Danielson at 3:12 PM

While women have progressed to having their own list in Fortune magazine, did you know that Katherine Graham was the first woman to crack into the Fortune 500? In 1972, the same year that the Washington Post made news with Watergate, The Washington Post Co. debuted on the list at No. 478, making Graham the first female executive to head a company on the list. Thirty-two years later and we’ve progressed to a total of eight women-led companies on the list. Maybe it’s time for another giant leap?
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Languishing in a bad economy
Posted by Douglas Eisenhart at 2:33 PM

In the persistent down economy, we've heard a lot about unemployment statistics, job loss, extended job transitions, outsourcing, all stories about those out of work. Grim tales indeed. But what about those folks still working? A less reported but perhaps just as angst-ridden story is how thousands - millions? - of folks who are currently working have had to sacrifice and compromise just to hang on to their jobs and a paycheck. Today's Globe picks up the trail of the story:

Career stagnation and backsliding go hand in hand with the worst job market in decades. The US economy generated a paltry 21,000 jobs in February -- the March unemployment report comes out today -- while Massachusetts lost 9,500. For the growing numbers of employees who are unhappy, unchallenged or unsettled at work, it is difficult to escape to a new job and a fresh start that will put their careers back on track.

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It's all right, it's ok, we'll all be your boss someday
Posted by Jason Butler at 10:24 AM

Apparently we wacky Gen X'ers don't cotton to the old corporate rules.

But the driving characteristic of younger workers seems to be the need for "experiences." And this is fundamentally at odds with a corporate world traditionally operating by hiring for "experience."

To Karen Ward, the issue is really about making a life as opposed to making a living. "What's driving this is not 'What kind of job do I want' but 'What kind of life do I want?' " says the 30-year-old freelance consultant who has worked helping companies understand the needs of adults in their 20s and 30s.

And unless they've repealed the laws of aging, we'll soon be in charge. Bwah ha ha. (Via the Monster Blog)
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How to make a good last impression
Posted by Jason Butler at 10:19 AM

CareerJournal reminds us that first impressions are critical, but last impressions matter too.

Sure, office wisdom dictates that one shouldn't burn bridges. But that doesn't take into account how flammable office departures can be. Charged with emotion, such exits range from acts of hostility and sabotage to gushy valedictions that, though well intentioned, can easily end up being evidence of just how far someone has ranged from the reservation called reality.

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April 1, 2004

Options to stock options
Posted by at 2:54 PM

Here's one alternative Jason, do it the google way.

[John Battelle on Google's S1 filing]

The employee stock option plan, long believed to be the impetus to a public filing, has been dumped in favor of a private shadow equity plan modeled after the Economist magazine. "It's the only magazine we read that hasn't put us on the cover," Page explained. "We kind of hoped this hat tip might change that."

Via Boing Boing.
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Always wanted to be a forensic accountant or corporate librarian?
Posted by at 2:48 PM

CareerJournal lists ten hot jobs where demand for talent still exceeds supply.

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Not so lucky in Ireland
Posted by Movable Type Administrator at 1:42 PM

One high-profile Irish lawmaker loses his post due to the newly enforced smoking ban.
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I miss the new economy
Posted by Jason Butler at 1:13 PM

Boy, the way that Moby played as we grew rich with options paid folks like us, we had it made. Those were the days.

Stock options are going away. Far, far away. Can we come back with alternatives?

Barring a last-second reprieve from an increasingly reluctant Congress, companies are going to have to follow some new rules from the Financial Accounting Standards Board -- rules that will require them to subtract the cost of options from reported earnings.

Yes, there are some flaws in the board's logic. But instead of fighting an all-or-nothing battle, the tech industry would be smarter to help FASB tweak the new rules.

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How to be a programmer
Posted by Jason Butler at 9:22 AM

Here is a really interesting (and long) article with tips on being a successful professional programmer.
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More jobs online says new tracking index
Posted by Jason Butler at 8:54 AM

Our friends at Monster.com in Maynard have come up with a new index for tracking how many employers are hiring online. The good news: It appears to be trending up.

The index - which measures the number of new online help-wanted ads, weighted by variables like the size of the businesses posting them - was first set at 102 in October, fell to a low of 86 in December and climbed to 102 in January, 107 in February and 109 in March. "What you see is a consistent trending up," said Jeff Taylor, Monster.com's founder. "It provides a bright spot in a confusing economic recovery."

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