Interns have been used as a cheap labor force, thousands upon thousands of internships each year in the U.S. are illegal, which has gone global and is completely unregulated, and the system is indeed inefficient and unethical in a variety of ways.
We’re actually eating our young.
Amen. You should get paid for work. Never work for free.
Remember we have choices.
The planned job eliminations mean that about 780 of the 1,800 people employed at Aviva USA on May 1 have either left or been told their jobs are being eliminated. That’s 43 percent of the workforce at a time when states are spending millions to battle one another for jobs.
via Aviva confirms additional 326 planned layoffs | Des Moines Register Staff Blogs.
MetLife (NYSE: MET) has begun its layoffs in the Northeast for jobs that are moving to North Carolina this fall, per its agreement to the state in March to create 2,600 jobs in Cary and in Charlotte in return for more than $100 million in economic development incentives.
via MetLife begins layoffs to prep for Cary entrance – Triangle Business Journal.
Tired of dealing with uncollected dog waste, the local council in the Spanish village of Brunete came up with an interesting and unconventional approach: They deployed 20 volunteers around town to watch for offending dog owners and, by striking up a casual conversation, get the dog’s name and breed. With this information, they then found the pet in the local registry, along with its owner’s name and address. Later, they personally hand-delivered the dog’s leavings to the owner, on the claim of returning “lost property.”
via Hi There…Just Wanted To Return This Pile Your Dog Left | IdeaFeed | Big Think.
Seth’s Blog: Basting the turkey.
Basting the turkey might sound like your job description, but ultimately, we’re known by the projects we get involved in. Saying “no” or even “stop” is the hallmark of the professional you want on your team.
Almost one in five large- and mid-sized U.S. companies plans to reduce the hours that part-time employees work in order to limit exposure to coverage mandates under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), according to a study by the Society for Human Resource Management.
Once employer mandates of the sweeping federal health reform laws begin going into effect in 2014, employers with at least 50 full-time workers (determined by ACA to be those working at least 30 hours per week) will be required to offer health benefit plans to 95% of qualifying employees or incur a $2,000 per employee tax penalty.
Two reports released by SHRM on the impending impact of the health care reform law indicate that 18% of companies with between 500 and 2,499 employees will reduce part-time schedules to less than 30 hours per week to mitigate costs related to the addition of new members to the plan. And approximately 19% of large firms with 2,500 to 24,999 employees plan to cut part-time employees’ hours.
On the other hand, the study found that smaller employers, those with fewer than 500 employees, were less likely to cut part-time employees’ hours. Just 5% of employers with fewer than 100 workers expect to reduce part-time hours.
Does anyone out there (besides me) believe company managements need to manage as if people mattered?
Bidding began at $42,000. It shot up to six figures within seconds. When the auction ended 15 minutes later, the lucky winner agreed to pay $560,000 — nearly double the $313,000 median sales price of a single-family home in Massachusetts.
“This is just amazing,” said Ken Tutunjian of Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage, declaring the price a new parking space high. “God bless America.”
via Tandem parking spots sell for $560,000 – Business – The Boston Globe.
Presented without further comment because you really don’t want to know what I think of this!
MetLife has about 5,000 advisers who sell insurance and investment products, down from 7,500 in February of 2012, Eric Steigerwalt, head of MetLife’s U.S. retail business, said at a May 21 investor day presentation. The New York-based firm lowered the number of agencies to about 60, from 85, he said.
“We’re not financing advisers who, frankly, were never going to make it in this business,” Steigerwalt said. “Our productivity is way up and we’re saving a lot of money.”
via MetLife Cuts 2,500 Advisers Seen Lacking Chance of Success – Businessweek.
Many employers believe that one of the best ways to raise their profit margin is to cut labor costs. But companies like QuikTrip, the grocery-store chain Trader Joe’s, and Costco Wholesale are proving that the decision to offer low wages is a choice, not an economic necessity. All three are low-cost retailers, a sector that is traditionally known for relying on part-time, low-paid employees. Yet these companies have all found that the act of valuing workers can pay off in the form of increased sales and productivity.
“Retailers start with this philosophy of seeing employees as a cost to be minimized,” says Zeynep Ton of MIT’s Sloan School of Management. That can lead businesses into a vicious cycle. Underinvestment in workers can result in operational problems in stores, which decrease sales. And low sales often lead companies to slash labor costs even further. Middle-income jobs have declined recently as a share of total employment, as many employers have turned full-time jobs into part-time positions with no benefits and unpredictable schedules.
Valuing people. What a strange concept, eh?
lifeunderwriter.net 
You must be logged in to post a comment.