There’s at least one retailer refusing to give in to the pressure to open on Thanksgiving Day. Cost Plus World Market just posted this on their Facebook page…
Thanks for giving your employees a break Cost Plus – A nice alternative to the current landscape of profits before people.
While many highly competent job seekers, out of work through no fault of their own, hit the pavement each day looking for jobs that will pay them even a fraction of what they used to earn, the individuals below made colossal errors in judgment and mismanaged companies into the red, yet they bounced back, landing jobs or severance packages that paid them far more than what their previous performance suggested they were worth.
Here’s a look at some of the execs who managed to land on their feet, and our heads…
Apparently it pays to fail BIG.
Click here to check out the Yahoo! Finance list of 11 corporate titans who profited after failure.
your employees must sign pledges promising not to commit suicide. After a rash of suicides last summer, Taiwanese company Foxconn, component producer for Apple products, added the clause requiring employees to forego suicide as an option.
An option to what? Well while Foxconn execs claim ignorance as to the cause of the suicides, employees report a list of grievances, including:
A 22-year-old woman who was interviewed about the conditions at Foxconn responded, “”Some of my roommates weep in the dormitory. I want to cry as well but my tears have not come out.”
Following the suicides, Apple went to Foxconn to monitor conditions. They found that appropriate measures had been taken to ensure worker safety. But a report by the Center for Research on Multinational Corporations and Students & Scholars Against Corporate Misbehavior (SACOM) found that conditions at one of Foxconn’s manufacturing facilities don’t meet Apple’s own Supplier Code of Conduct standards.
Read SACOM’s full report here, and learn more about the conditions under which Foxconn employees are forced to work here.
So, what’s your iPod worth to you, and should we, as Apple consumers, be more concerned with where our gadgets come from?
I got an interesting email the other day from a casting company in Southern California. They’re working on a real-life version of the wildly popular “The Office.” The fictional U.S. version of The Office documents the shenanigans of bad boss with a good heart Michael Scott and his team of sidekicks. Here, for example, is Diversity Day at The Office…
The Casting Firm is asking the question, “Would your real life office antics be entertaining to watch?”
CASTING FOR A NEW DOCU-SERIES: A Major Cable Network is seeking midsize offices full of big personalities that can carry a show. Would your office antics be entertaining to watch?
Is there anything coming up in your workplace that would be exciting to watch unfold? Moving offices, restructuring, new owners, new human resource policies, etc?
Are your coworkers the best….or the worst? Do you all get along or are office politics out of control? Is your boss amazing? Incompetent? The real life Michael Scott? We are looking for every kind of story, whether you have the dream job or work in a disaster zone! Tell us about the cast of characters in your workplace, and why you would all make great Television!
Casting for the first season is taking place in Southern California ONLY. So if your office has 10 employees or more and all are legal residents of the U.S., The Casting Firm wants to hear from you. If you’re interested send your name, contact details, the name of your company, along with photos of you and your coworkers to casting.docuseries@gmail.com. Make sure you include a contact number so someone from their staff can contact you. For more information visit The Casting Firm’s Office Intervention link here.
Good luck!
Disclaimer: Really Bad Boss is not affiliated with The Casting Firm.
And this girl has got to go back to work. Like 9-5, morning commute, fire-breathing-dragon-for-a-boss work. After two (almost) blissful years of no weave wearing diva giving me orders or insane little person demanding I demonstrate loyalty by “drinking the kool-aid”, it’s time to get back to the grind.
I will miss not having to show up to work half-deaf and blind with a sinus infection because my suspicious boss doesn’t really think I’m sick. I’ll miss never feeling secure enough to take my weeks and weeks of accumulated vacation because I just might be replaced while I’m gone. And I’ll miss the complete and utter sense of freedom I’ve felt over the last couple of years. But alas, freedom is not free. Bills need to be paid, and my history of incredibly bad bosses aside, the 9-5 beckons. Sort of. Here’s what’s different this time around. I’ve finally, finally learned a few hard earned lessons about being gainfully employed. Wanna hear it? Here it go…
My bosses don’t owe me anything except the paycheck I get in return for my work. They are not required to be nice, respectful, honest, fair or just. It would be awesome if they were, but unless I work at a Sunday School, I’m not expecting to see any Christ-like tendencies among my bosses. Unlike 15 years ago when I first entered the workforce with visions of receiving nurturing and growth from a company from which I’d retire 20 years later – 401K and pension intact – I now realize that helping prepare me for my future is not a company’s responsibility, it’s my own.
Companies are in business to make money for themselves, not for Denise. And no matter how brilliant, hard-working or loyal I am, for them I am simply a means to an end. I am not their friend, trusted companion or loyal supporter, and they aren’t mine. And by I and mine, I mean you and yours. Are many bosses incompetent, ridiculous and infuriating? Absolutely. And, as long as they continue to be, I’ll be writing about them here (and then I’ll pass the mantle on to my grandchildren, who’ll pass it on to their grandchildren…you get the point.) But, there’s a difference between wanting them to change their behavior and needing them to. I want my bosses to be competent, generous, intelligent people, but I no longer need them to be. Why? I’ll tell you on Wednesday.
Do you need your boss to be competent, intelligent, nice…? Share your thoughts on what we should and shouldn’t expect from our bosses and our jobs in the comment section.
Solid waste company Republic Services was found to have discriminated against 21 employees who were over the age of 40. Now the Phoenix based company must pay close to $3 million to settle the age discrimination lawsuit filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). From the EEOC’s website:
According to the EEOC, Phoenix-based Republic terminated and denied job transfer opportunities to about 21
employees over the age of 40 at its facilities in southern Nevada between 2003 and 2005 because of their age. The list of terminated employees includes garbage collectors, drivers, and supervisors, some of whom were employed by the company for more than 25 years. The EEOC contends that those jobs were then offered to younger employees who were subsequently held to lower performance standards. The EEOC further charged that Republic engaged in a form of hazing called “break him off,” in which some employees were worked to the point of exhaustion, often making it difficult for them to do their jobs.
“No one should be harassed at work or forced out of a job for discriminatory reasons,” said EEOC Chair Jacqueline A. Berrien. “The law clearly prohibits mistreatment or dismissal of older workers on account of their age, and no workplace should lose productive and valuable employees because of illegal age stereotyping.”
“Our hope is that other employers implement practices to ensure that age stereotyping does not occur in any facet of employment,” said P. David Lopez, General Counsel of the EEOC. “As illustrated by this settlement, the EEOC will insist on substantial and meaningful relief for victims of illegal age discrimination.”
According to the agreement, Republic Services must also provide annual anti-discrimination training to its employees, designate a corporate equal employment opportunity compliance officer and conduct an audit of its employment policies.
Read the whole story here.
Let’s start off by establishing that it is entirely possible, and probably more common than we know, for men to be victims of sexual harassment. But in the case of Britney Spears’ ex-security guard, I’m kind of leaning to the “seriously dude?” side.
Fernando Flores, who Spears hired in February of this year, claims that the singer exposed herself, insulted him and threatened to fire him over a slurpee incident (wth?), leaving him emotionally scarred. The suit, which seeks unspecified damages was filed in LA Superior Court on Wednesday and claims that Spears made repeated unwanted sexual advances toward Flores and summoned him to her room “for no other purpose or reason than to expose her naked body or near-naked body.” Flores also states that Spears engaged in sexual acts in front of him and her children.
Spears’ lawyers say that the suit is just an attempt at taking advantage of the Spears family. Even Spears’ estranged husband has weighed in on the suit saying it’s motivated by money. Britney Spears has been guilty of many things, but this, this seems to be outside of even her realm of crazy. Which still leaves me asking “seriously dude?” Thoughts?
Read the rest of the story here.
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