Would Your Company Hire an Unemployed Job Candidate?

Not Working? Sorry, Not Interested – Businessweek

Rejecting unemployed job candidates out of hand is really stupid business, on top of being shockingly rude and unprofessional. When we say, “We don’t hire unemployed people, period,” we’re sending a loud signal to the talent population, our employees, our customers, and our vendors that we don’t have a clue how to manage people. It’s pretty easy to separate the wheat from the chaff in a selection pipeline. No one has yet won a Nobel Prize for innovation in recruiting, because it’s just not that complicated a topic.

Fascinating article and IMHO a MUST read.  If companies don’t hire the unemployed just because they are unemployed then we will have millions of people spinning their wheels looking for work until they end up dead or on government assistance.

Hamsters one and all.

 

FME’s – 2011

CDC Features – Prescription Painkiller Overdoses in the U.S.

Overdose deaths from prescription painkillers have skyrocketed in the past decade. Every year, nearly 15,000 people die from overdoses involving these drugs—more than those who die from heroin and cocaine combined.

Thinking About Heath..Just Another FME | Underwriting Solutions LLC

It’s been over three years since I posted about Heath Ledger and his unfortunate FME (Fatal Medication Error).  Fresh research from the CDC indicates the problem is getting worse.  The current state of the US economy virtually guarantees the staggering increase in prescription painkiller abuse and overdose will get worse before it gets better.

Richard Lehman’s Journal Review – October 2011

BMJ Group blogs: BMJ » Blog Archive » Richard Lehman’s journal review – 3 October 2011

BMJ Group blogs: BMJ » Blog Archive » Richard Lehman’s journal review – 10 October 2011

BMJ Group blogs: BMJ » Blog Archive » Richard Lehman’s journal review – 17 October 2011

BMJ Group blogs: BMJ » Blog Archive » Richard Lehman’s journal review – 24 October 2011

Here are the links.  Happy reading.

Quiet Please…Life Underwriting Expert Witness Personal Branding Exercise in Progress

Only Your Brand Will Save You – Dorie Clark – Harvard Business Review

Starting today, think about how you can own your niche and build your audience. If you care about insuring yourself against hard times, the only true safety is in developing a personal brand that’s better known — and therefore more powerful — than that of your competitors, or even your employer.

Olanzapine – Think Bipolar and Schizophrenia

Medical News: FDA Okays Generic Version of Zyprexa – in Psychiatry, Schizophrenia from MedPage Today

The FDA has approved a generic version of atypical antipsychotic drug olanzapine (Zyprexa) to treat schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.

According to the AP story:

Drugs like Zyprexa can cost up to $500 per month. Generic versions can cut the cost by up to 80 percent.

This is great news.

Scary Chart of the Day 10.21.11

 

Economist’s View: “First Look at US Pay Data, It’s Awful”

The median paycheck — half made more, half less — fell again in 2010, down 1.2 percent to $26,364. That works out to $507 a week, the lowest level, after adjusting for inflation, since 1999.

A VERY Scary Chart

I had gotten away from posting Scary Charts.  There were just too many to pick from.  But when I came across this graphic, well I just had to post it.

Every Step Becomes a Twist of Fate

Watershed
by Emily Saliers
Thought I knew my mind like the back of my hand,
The gold and the rainbow, but nothing panned out as I planned.
And they say only milk and honey’s gonna make your soul satisfied!
Well I better learn how to swim
Cause the crossing is chilly and wide.
Twisted guardrail on the highway, broken glass on the cement
A ghost of someone’s tragedy
How recklessly my time has been spent.
And they say that it’s never too late, but you don’t get any younger!
Well I better learn how to starve the emptiness
And feed the hunger
Up on the watershed, standing at the fork in the road
You can stand there and agonize
Till your agony’s your heaviest load.
You’ll never fly as the crow flies, get used to a country mile.
When you’re learning to face the path at your pace
Every choice is worth your while.
Well there’s always retrospect to light a clearer path
Every five years or so I look back on my life
And I have a good laugh.
You start at the top, go full circle round
Catch a breeze, take a spill
But ending up where i started again makes me wanna stand still.
Stepping on a crack, breaking up and looking back
Every tree limb overhead just seems to sit and wait.
Until every step you take becomes a twist of fate.