Technology
Teleworking Triples Over the Last Decade
In its report, “The Incredible Disappearing Office: Making Telework Work,” The Conference Board finds that the advancements in home networking over the last decade have been accompanied by teleworking gains among a number of these technology-reliant professions, including insurance underwriters 4.5 percent, up 275 percent since 2001-2003 and computer software developers 6.1 percent, up 127 percent.
via Teleworking Triples Over the Last Decade – Insurance Networking News.
You Are Not A Computer – HBR
The Internet, and all it has come to include, is the most powerful interruption technology ever invented. It slices and dices our focus, fractures and distracts it, gives us less and less of more and more. It prompts us to skim, scan, and skip rather than immerse ourselves in any one thing.
Technology has no business setting our agenda, but it has turned into our dominatrix. Masochistically — but all too willingly — we submit to it. Emailing, texting and tweeting, searching Google, checking Facebook, and surfing websites not only consumes our time and energy, it also diminishes our capacity to pay attention to anything for very long — or to resist the next digital temptation.
via You Are Not A Computer (Try As You May) – Tony Schwartz – Harvard Business Review.
STP and Product Development: Lessons Learned – Insurance Networking News
An Inadvertent Error
CEO Says Sorry to Yahoos for Borked Bio “Distraction” – Kara Swisher – News – AllThingsD.
Yahoos:
I wanted to share some additional thoughts with you related to the disclosure of my academic credentials.
As I told you on Friday, the board is reviewing the issue and I will provide whatever they need from me. In the meantime, I want you to know how deeply I regret how this issue has affected the company and all of you. We have all been working very hard to move the company forward, and this has had the opposite effect. For that, I take full responsibility, and I want to apologize to you.
In my note Friday, I said I would be focused on continuing to do what needs to get done. That’s because I feel I owe it to all of you to make sure that nothing disrupts the progress we’ve made in just a few short months due to all of your focus, commitment, and hard work. As you’ve heard me say many times, we have a tremendous business with incredible assets, and we can win by putting our customers first. The progress I shared with you in the first quarter should make clear that we intend to move fast and deliver on the potential of the business for our customers, shareholders, and all of you.
I know the board plans to conduct the review thoroughly and independently, and I respect that process. I am hopeful that this matter will be concluded promptly. But, in the meantime, we have a lot of work to do. We need to continue to act as one team to fulfill the potential of this great company and keep moving forward. You have my word that all my energy and attention will be on that mission.
Scott
How about a little truth here? The CEO of Yahoo lies about his academic credentials and the company called it “an inadvertent error”.
Genworth Cuts Jobs in Richmond, Lynchburg
The job cuts included “fewer than 40 in Richmond and fewer than 30 in Lynchburg,” company spokesman Tom Topinka said in the statement. The cuts affected the company’s life insurance and information-technology units.
via Genworth cuts some jobs in Richmond, Lynchburg | Richmond Times-Dispatch.
You can always tell which direction sales is headed by keeping tabs on who gets laid off.
The Potential Harm of Social Media
Just recently a child was hospitalized after putting a bottle rocket in his pants and others were hospitalized after holding cinnamon in their mouth for a minute. The danger is that these kids may or may not know that these stunts are dangerous. It may not be evident that a video seen online is not a credible source…
It worries me that we are being accustomed to quick messages and short hand typing that we will soon become a society of less social individuals and poor communication skills.
Taking E-Mail Vacations Can Reduce Stress
A new study released Thursday by the University of California, Irvine, which was co-written with United States Army researchers, found that people who do not look at e-mail on a regular basis at work are less stressed and more productive.
via Taking E-Mail Vacations Can Reduce Stress, Study Says – NYTimes.com.
Did we really need a study to tell us this?
American Family Information Services – 87 Layoffs – Insurance Networking News
The company has reduced its total workforce by 730 positions, or almost 10 percent, over the past four years, mainly by attrition.
via American Family Information Services Department Incurs 87 Layoffs – Insurance Networking News.
Short articles like this make me wonder what’s really happening. We don’t know the total number of staff in the company’s IT department so we cannot know what percentage of the entire staff was affected. So I went online and found the following:
The cut positions included 85 people based at the company headquarters at 6000 American Parkway and its other Madison location, off Milwaukee Street, plus two people outside Madison. There are 850 people remaining in the company’s information services division, making the job reductions equal to about a 10 percent cut there.
Life Underwriting Expert Witness Search Results on Google Alternatives
We get so focused on Google that it’s easy to forget there are alternatives to Google search. Granted, the alternatives are not nearly as popular. At 66% market share and 11.7 billion searches during the month of February 2012 alone, Google clearly is the leader. But other search engines are worth understanding — both from the perspective of when you are a searcher for information, and from the perspective of a site owner knowing that visitors may come from those other search engines.
via Google Alternatives.
I came across this article while catching up on news one Saturday morning. For fun I ran the search string “life underwriting expert witness” without quotation marks on all of the search engines listed in the article. I must admit that I was surprised at the search findings on all of the engines.
Let’s just say I’m a happy guy this morning.
lifeunderwriter.net 
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