The working world: July 2008 Archives

Interesting story today in the New York Times about how many companies are cutting worker hours rather than cutting workers with outright layoffs.

The reasons? Employers have to pay fewer health care costs for part-timers. And, computer skills of all things are a huge factor.

Stringing people along with a little bit of a job keeps them available to come back to work if/when times get better, and it works better for a company because then they don't have to train a brand new hire in advanced and/or company-specific computer skills.

You have to read kinda deep into the story to find that and other good "why" info.

The computer skills reason might sound like something for just the high-tech sector to consider at first, but I know even the cash register at the local diner would confuse me for awhile. (It's a computer, too, most likely).

A lot of people already complain about the lack of a "living" wage in America. Particularly in York County, it comes in the form of higher-paying manufacturing jobs leaving, with lower-paying retail jobs becoming an alternative.

Do you know anyone who has had hours slashed because of the economy? Is it better or worse for employees to get hour reductions as opposed to just getting let go?

Every time something new comes along, we "make" time for it. But unfortunately, "making" time is an illusion, and some real smart physicist out there should write it into every text book along side that Law of Conservation of Mass we had to memorize in high school.

"Matter is neither created nor destroyed in a chemical reaction." I remember that.

But where was the "Anything that gets put into your schedule or to-do list must have the equal and opposite result of kicking something out of said schedule or to-do list."

Stephen Hawking, I'm waiting.

My big pet peeve with the whole making time concept is that when you think you have "made" time for something, you have actually kicked something out of your schedule without knowing it. And often, it's something that will come back to haunt you later.

Just admit you can't "make" the time and cut something. It'll hurt a lot less later.

If you have a story to share about how you made time, and it turned out poorly, post a comment.

In the meantime, here is a lengthy-but-comprehensive look at how to prioritize your time. "Making" time might be an illusion, but this tells you how to fool people into thinking you know how to do it.

Let me know if you plan to try this, or if they forgot something.

$3.89! $3.89! $3.89!

I figured for sure it would get over the $4 hurdle this time around, but gas prices are falling pretty quickly this week. I watched a pretty steady price of $3.95, down a few from that $3.99 high, dwindle to $3.92 and now to $3.89 this morning.

Thank goodness gasoline is cheap again. Finally, I can get back to my All-American to-do list! I thought we were all in trouble there for a sec.

1. Buy a house 75 miles from my job with no money down, on a plot of land that was producing food this time last year ...

2. Get that extra credit card so we can finally afford to go out to a nice dinner on Friday and Saturday nights ...

3. Cancel that order for a Prius. That thing looks like a shipping box after a disgruntled employee vented his or her aggression anyhow. I hear Hummers are pretty cheap nowadays ...

And lastly, 4. Do something even bigger and better than 1, 2 and 3 within six months of accomplishing to-do list items 1,2 and 3.

Viva Pax Americana!

Interesting story about people rallying around their Starbucks locations in today's Wall Street Journal.

I'm not too surprised to hear about it. After all, if you mess with someone's morning cup of coffee, you've hit a huge nerve. And when you hit a nerve that early in the morning, there are a lot of waking hours left in the day to stew and get even more angry.

Has anyone heard about such an outcry for the company's North Hanover store, which was on the company's list of 600 stores to close?

Another work week has come and gone and here's your round up of the latest and greatest business stories of the week.

If you haven't check out our week-long DUI special, you'll want to catch up on the coverage here.

Harley-Davidson and Johnson Controls released their earnings reports.

McDonald's gets a facelift.

Americans less fishy.

Environmentalists sue the EPA???

And for fun, here's the ad campaign I'm currently obsessed with:

I don't know too many people who would object to the idea of a four day work week.

Are any of your companies considering offering it as an option? I'd love to hear about it if they were. Leave a comment and let me know!

Gas is $5 in some places

- Brent M. Burkey (July 15, 2008 9:33 AM)

I've been watching gas prices elsewhere in the country and heard about gas nearing $5 in California from my brother-in-law. But this picture was unnerving.

Anyone want to guess when we'll see something like that? Or even when we'll see the local gas stations stop holding the line at $3.99 9/10, or a little lower in some places? It's got to be hurting them, as oil prices have gone up a good bit since $3.99 gas hit.

It's kind of a "no-duh" idea: Depending on where you drill for oil, it's going to be more or less expensive to get out of the ground. Obviously, drilling on land in Texas is less costly than drilling on an ocean floor in the Gulf of Mexico covered by several hundred feet of water.

But exactly how much of a difference is there, and what does that mean for our gas prices today?

It's Friday so there's always time for a ridiculous YouTube video, like this one of a bunch of professional soccer players attempting to sing James Blunt's You're Beautiful and playing with a puppy in the locker room. Too funny.

(Thanks to Behindthebadge.com for this!)

And now, your business news before you head out for the weekend.

Apple released its newest toy today.

Comcast could be in hot water with the FCC.

Who knows the fate of the planned Steve & Barry's.

Harley begins layoffs.

Arm and Hammer is A'OK to Jackson Township.

I don't mean that I'm literally getting fatter over here, but I thought some of the information in this TreeHugger series is really interesting.

First the blog includes this map showing the obesity percentages in each state.

The answer: An extra 20 hours per week for two months. A standard 60-hour workweek for eight weeks, according to authorities in Japan.

The overworked nation's labor bureau made the ruling on the subject in the case of a Toyota engineer who was working on developing the hybrid version of the Toyota Camry. He died of a heart attack at age 45.

See the story here.