Archive for February, 2009

Ryanair, a low-cost, no-frills airline that serves Europe out of its Great Britain hub, is pondering a pound-sterling coinbox on its toilet doors. “One thing we have looked at in the past and are looking at again is the possibility of maybe putting a coin slot on the toilet door so that people might actually [...]

To be honest, I’d never heard of this phenomenon before, so I thought I’d better share it. It seems that young Thai university students pay $3,000 and up to come to the U.S. and work in a fast-food joint for the honor of listing “foreign work experience” on their resumes. Now, $3,000 in Thai current [...]

Personnel Concepts, according to those I’ve spoken with there recently, is making a big push to create interactive tools for companies to create documents and posters to comply with OSHA and other regulations. First to come out was the Fire Prevention Program CD-ROM. OSHA requires that every place of business create, print and distribute to [...]

NEWS ITEM: At least 30 states have contracted with banks to provide direct-deposit unemployment benefits, some of which come in the form of a debit card. This saves the states the cost of printing checks and mailing them. REALITY: Some banks are abusing the system by charging fees to use these unemployment debit cards. Try [...]

A week ago, I warned you about the skyscraper index: As more cloud-hugging buildings are built, the economy goes the other direction, down, in other words. Now, here are a couple of more useful, or maybe useless, indices. The first one is the cardboard box index, reportedly a favorite of ex-Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan, creator [...]

The federal deficit for 2009 has already surged past the $1-trillion mark, supposedly for the first time in U.S. history, with the passage of the so-called stimulus plan optimistically named the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. But wait, the deficit for 2008, though officially announced as $455 billion, actually topped the trillion mark. [...]

A sign of the times, no doubt: A company is now marketing a bed with a safe under your pillow in which to stash your cash and a plasma television at feet’s end for your viewing pleasure. Like Uncle Scrooge, you can now stay home all day and count your dough while watching your favorite [...]

A lot is being written, human resources- and management-wise, about so-called millennials in the workplace, millennials being those born between 1980 and 2000. One respected HR authority whom I routinely read, Susan Heathfield, even offers “Eleven Tips for Managing Millennials.” First, however, she describes the traits of working millennials: “Millennials have a ‘can-do’ attitude about [...]

I’m still not clear on the difference between EMRs (electronic medical records) and EHRs (electronic health records), but now we have PHRs (personal health records). At least PHRs I think I understand. Back to the first two: I’ve read where there’s no difference between EMRs and EHRs except that EHR is designed to be more [...]

Businesses in Milwaukee are fighting a referendum that mandates up to nine days of paid sick leave for all employees working within the city. Voters overwhelmingly approved the referendum this past November, but last week a coalition of business owners got a court to slap a restraining order on its implementation. The measure will be [...]