Lay offs

<p>You can’t finish up a year without 10-Best-Lists appearing everywhere, not to mention 10-Worst-Lists too. So it only figures that someone came up with the 10 Worst Employees of the Year. This one seems to have originated with CareerBuilder.com <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.careerbuilder.com/Article/CB-1067-The-Workplace-10-Worst-Employees-of-2008/">(10 Worst Employees 2008)</a> and it’s proliferated like mosquitoes in a swamp across the media, both on and offline.</p> <p>On the other hand, the list naming the 10 Worst Corporations of 2008 hardly made a dent in the media rounds. <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-weissman/#blogger_bio">(10 Worst Corporations of 2008)</a> Do we take more delight in the fall of the individual? Read More »

<p>With two different holiday parties to attend this past weekend, I got to thinking about the party I wasn’t invited to this season.</p> <p>I was sacked the week before my company held their annual holiday soiree. To be honest, my days of delighting in corporate parties -- or embarrassing myself at them -- are behind me. There’s something about not remembering how I found my way home that I’ve outgrown. But that doesn’t mean I don’t want to be invited.</p> <p>It’s like being the kid in the class who didn’t get invited to the cool kid’s birthday party. Even if you didn’t especially like that cool kid, no way did you want to be the one left out.</p> <p>Everyone knows school is a powerful social setting for kids and teenagers. So is work for grown-ups. We might think we work for a paycheck, or to feel a sense of satisfaction and fulfillment, but how many of us talk about the people we work with as ranking high on our workplace checklist? Read More »

I’ve now realized that job security is an oxymoron. Seriously, the two words just do not go together as they once may have. So when I was offered the chance to accept a 3-month contract, there wasn’t much to think about. <br><br>Yes, I accept! You’ll take me – even if you don’t know if you want me past 3 months!<br><br>At an earlier time, I may have held out for a permanent position. (There’s another oxymoron). Yet in some pre-economic-meltdown era I would have second-guessed this about a hundred times. I would have wondered if accepting the short-term offer would mean missing out on a permanent job that was just around the corner.<br><br>But now? Is there much to think about? Read More »