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Fewer Can Count on Holiday Jobs
Tweet Share on Facebook September 30, 2008 Comment (1)Just as more Americans will likely be looking for extra work to boost their incomes, fewer workers will be able to depend on seasonal jobs for extra income this year.
A survey of 1,000 hiring managers found that the average manager expects to hire 3.7 seasonal employees, a full third fewer than they hired last holiday season.
The SnagAJob.com survey found that more than half of managers won't be hiring any seasonal help—a figure that's increased 8 percent this year. Those managers still planning to hire seasonal help will be hiring about 9 employees each—20 percent fewer than last year.
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Cancer Patients Not Required to Share at Interviews
Tweet Share on Facebook September 29, 2008 Comment (20)Imagine that you lose your job. You begin mailing résumés, networking and touching base with friends, and you finally net an interview. As you sit down with the hiring manager—dressed in your finest, ready with answers to the toughest questions—there is one question that looms largest in your mind: Should you share the fact that you are fighting cancer?
One reader asks JT & Dale Talk Jobs how and when she should tell that she has recurring ovarian cancer. Here's a key section from their response:
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Gwen Ifill: Bearer of Brevity and Levity
Tweet Share on Facebook September 29, 2008 Comment (43)Gwen Ifill, moderator and managing editor of Washington Week on PBS and senior correspondent for The NewsHourWith Jim Lehrer, also on PBS, answered readers' questions online Thursday at WashingtonPost.com as she prepares for this week's first vice presidential debate.
A couple of her responses give great insight into Ifill's strengths as a reporter and moderator. She's confident, funny, and she doesn't mince words. (Note: Today happens to be her birthday.) Excerpts:
Motor Mouth: Have you interviewed Biden before? How in the world has he survived as a national politician for three decades without censoring his mouth? He seems to spurt out whatever he's thinking at the moment without filtering it in any manner. Has there ever been a politician like this on the national stage?
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Hank Paulson: Kneeling Before Pelosi
Tweet Share on Facebook September 26, 2008 Comment (1)Oh, how the mighty have fallen: Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson reportedly kneeled before House Speaker Nancy Pelosi last night in a bid to keep her party on board with the bailout package—while the GOP chafes and grimaces—so it can get through Congress and onto the president's desk before the credit markets seize up.
Actually, the Wall Street Journal's report said that it was really "a moment of levity in a rough day," rather than a display of humility.
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Executive Compensation: Is This the Countervailing Force?
Tweet Share on Facebook September 26, 2008 Comment (1)Executive compensation is a major bailout issue for many politicians and taxpayers. If we're forking over $700 billion to fix their mistakes, their ability to profit from future gains must be limited.
Earlier this year, I asked Ed Lawler, a professor at University of Southern California's Marshall School of Business and an expert on salary issues, about why outrage over executive pay didn't seem to be changing anything.
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Obama and McCain on Jobs
Tweet Share on Facebook September 26, 2008 Comment (2)Where do the candidates stand on issues related to work and career? Dawn Rosenberg McKay, the career planning guide at About.com, offers a highly useful rundown here.
For instance, on the issue of higher education:
McCain
- Wants to consolidate financial aid programs in order to simplify the application process
Obama
- In 2007, along with Senator Edward Kennedy, co-sponsored a bill that would increase the Pell Grant from $4,050 to $5,100 per year
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E-Mail Lies: Studies Show More Honesty in Handwriting
Tweet Share on Facebook September 25, 2008 CommentA recent pair of studies seem to indicate that people are more likely to lie in an E-mail than with pen and paper. The studies are published in a new paper, "Being Honest Online: The Finer Points of Lying in Online Ultimatum Bargaining," coauthored by researchers from DePaul, Rutgers and Lehigh universities.
In the first study, 48 M.B.A. students were given $89 and asked to divide it between themselves and another—fictional—party. The fictional party would be required to accept the offer and knew only that the sum would be between $5 and $100.
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Report: Layoffs Unlikely at Many Major Companies
Tweet Share on Facebook September 25, 2008 Comment (3)Some good news: After years of leaning, layoffs, downsizing, and right-sizing, many of the country's largest companies have cut enough.
Workforce Management reports:
Based on a survey of industry sector analysts at UBS, more than half of large companies in the Standard & Poor's 500 stock index are not likely to reduce staff.
Companies in the energy, materials, nuclear utilities, engineering and construction sectors are even understaffed—and have aging workforces to boot. Thus, those businesses may need to hire people, UBS strategists including Thomas Doerflinger and David Bianco wrote Wednesday, September 24.
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Rachel Maddow: MSNBC's Smart Hire
Tweet Share on Facebook September 24, 2008 Comment (92)The ratings for MSNBC's newest news show host are wildly impressive. Last week, her second on the air, Rachel Maddow pulled ahead of Larry King and even bested Keith Olbermann's Countdown a couple of nights. Maddow, an Air America radio host and MSNBC contributor, was given her own show after the politics-heavy channel dropped Dan Abrams's legal show Verdict.
Here are a few things Maddow's doing that are good examples for anyone starting a new job:
Avoiding office gossip. She told the San Francisco Chronicle that she doesn't follow "media issues," when asked about the channel's move to cut Olbermann and Chris Matthews from straight election coverage.
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How to Face Your Layoff Fears
Tweet Share on Facebook September 23, 2008 CommentLayoffs are enormously painful for the workers who lose their jobs, and they can be terrifying to those who stay behind. Many in the financial services industry are reportedly turning to local churches for help handling their stress. Employees often feel as if they're walking through the halls "with a bull's-eye on their back, expecting to be laid off," as one woman described workers at Nortel Networks in Ottawa, Canada, in a Canwest News Service story.
It's remarkable, however, to discover how many people rebound and find better work after losing the job they have. That may be little comfort in a market swollen with job seekers—but for people who are willing to pick up and move to a new town, switch industries, or try a whole new career, a layoff can indeed present an opportunity.
