A good friend who runs a professional services firm told me with some shock that his most profitable employee is a single mother who works part time. So this year, she got a big bonus. Despite working for someone else, she feels recognized and rewarded. And by being part of a larger organization, she gets to have more time with her kids. This sort of story is rare – but it doesn’t have to be.
Business Trends
Companies Take Steps to Curb Worker Burnout – News OK
One strategy Goldman Sachs has been trying is to make people feel less at risk in their jobs. That\’s not easy in most companies, much less so in investment banking.
To keep junior analysts from burning out, the bank has decided to start hiring first-year analysts as permanent employees, instead of taking them on as contract workers. It is also encouraging them to not work weekends.
via Companies take steps to curb worker burnout | News OK.
Life/work balance is a choice, not another corporate initiative. You have one life. Make the right choice.
US Hospitals Look to Provide Insurance for Poor Patients – FT.com
US hospitals are exploring ways to buy “Obamacare” insurance plans for their sickest and poorest patients as they strain under the weight of tens of billions of dollars in uncompensated costs from the uninsured.
via US hospitals look to provide insurance for poor patients – FT.com.
READ THIS NOW – Writing Wednesdays: “Poof Goes the Middle Class”
People are becoming entrepreneurs. The mind-set of the employee is vanishing like the factory where it was born. It has to. We’ll all die if we wait for some force outside ourselves—business or government—to bring us jobs or teach us who we are or how we ought to live.
We have to invent our own ways, and that’s just what we’re doing.
via Writing Wednesdays: “Poof Goes the Middle Class”.
Poof goes the middle class – latimes.com.
A couple of weeks ago I caught up with my old college buddy on the phone. I asked how his son was doing after taking refuge in his parents’ basement post college graduation.
“Michael’s doing great. He moved out to Brooklyn and is doing project work. Very happy, very busy. Michael has four or five projects on the go.”
Call it what you want – freelancer, contract worker, portfolio careerist. The employee mindset is becoming a thing of the past.
Blue Bunny to Lay Off 58 workers – The Des Moines Register | desmoinesregister.com
The cut comes at a time when Iowa also is being buffeted by big layoffs at Wells Fargo & Co. and the former Aviva USA insurance company, now known as Athene. The Iowa unemployment rate increased to 4.9 percent in August from 4.8 percent in July, but it remains one of the lowest in the U.S.
Memo to Blue Bell and Braum’s:
Bigger is not always better.
MetLife To Cut 117 Workers In Bloomfield – Courant.com
The layoffs are part of a plan MetLife acknowledged for the first time publicly in March. At the time, MetLife said it will cut 650 workers in Bloomfield, leaving 1,300 at the site, over a three year period.
Transamerica Laying Off 60 in Cedar Rapids, 140 Nationwide – TheGazette
Tucker said some of the work currently performed by Transamerica employees will be outsourced to contractors.
via Transamerica laying off 60 in Cedar Rapids, 140 nationwide | TheGazette.
One Year Later, Medium Is Changing the Way Its Writers Write and Its Readers Read | Mediashift | PBS
Tablet and E-reader Ownership Update – Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project
The number of Americans ages 16 and older who own tablet computers has grown to 35%, and the share who have e-reading devices like Kindles and Nooks has grown to 24%. Overall, the number of people who have a tablet or an e-book reader among those 16 and older now stands at 43%.
Up from 25% last year, more than half of those in households earning $75,000 or more now have tablets. Up from 19% last year, 38% of those in upper-income households now have e-readers.
via Tablet and E-reader Ownership Update | Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project.
Hmmm…
Worldwide, 13% of Employees Are Engaged at Work
Only 13% of employees worldwide are engaged at work, according to Gallup\’s new 142-country study on the State of the Global Workplace. In other words, about one in eight workers — roughly 180 million employees in the countries studied — are psychologically committed to their jobs and likely to be making positive contributions to their organizations.
via Worldwide, 13% of Employees Are Engaged at Work.
No surprises here.
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