Archives: March 2008

The Coming Job Freeze?

Posted by: Jena McGregor on March 29

It's rare that you hear the words "blessing" and "recession" in one sentence, but in a pitch for a study by the Hay Group, that's apparently what senior VP Tom...

The Perils of Tampering with NAFTA

Posted by: Diane Brady on March 28

People have strong views about the North American Free Trade Agreement. Either it's the best thing for U.S. business, removing tariffs and other obstacles to trade, or it's the worst,...

Is it okay to copy a good idea?

Posted by: Diane Brady on March 27

I just got an e-mail from Hillary Clinton's press office, alleging that Barack Obama copied her "second stimulus" package. He, too, called for a $30 billion package AFTER she did....

Hands off My Tupperware!

Posted by: Jena McGregor on March 23

About 3:00 on Friday afternoon, a colleague in our office sent around an email with the subject line "I can't BELIEVE you took my mac and cheese." Inside: "Hope you...

Stress on Sundays....

Posted by: Jena McGregor on March 23

It's Sunday afternoon. Easter Sunday afternoon. And since I'm not terribly religious and don't have children to send on egg hunts, I'm not really celebrating. Thumbing through the Sunday paper,...

Why Business Shouldn't Boycott the Olympics

Posted by: Diane Brady on March 20

As the turmoil in Tibet rages on, calls to boycott the Beijing Olympics have mounted. Beijing, of course, says it's business as usual. The question is what other governments will...

Weekend Hours

Posted by: Jena McGregor on March 19

“I want to thank you, Mr. Secretary, for working over the weekend,” President Bush was quoted as saying in the New York Times today to Treasury Secretary and former Goldman...

There's a Theory for Everything

Posted by: Jena McGregor on March 19

I couldn't help but chuckle at the "Columbia Ideas@Work" newsletter that crossed my desk this week. The newsletter, put out by Columbia Business School and featuring its professors' research, includes...

Nice Work if You Can Get It

Posted by: Jena McGregor on March 19

Amidst all the anger and hand-wringing about executive pay, the topic of director compensation often gets overlooked. While it shouldn't, it does appear to be one more modest spot amidst...

Obama vs. Romney: How to tackle an elephant, or not

Posted by: Diane Brady on March 18

It's fascinating to look at Barack Obama's speech this morning in contrast to the one Mitt Romney gave late last year. Both men were essentially forced to talk about the...

Brain Rules

Posted by: Diane Brady on March 18

John Medina has a new book out in stores today called "Brain Rules" that offers 12 principles for "surviving and thriving at work, home and school." The rules are intuitive....

Parsons on Change

Posted by: Jena McGregor on March 17

Richard Parsons, who stepped down from the Time Warner CEO job in December, has been called the media company's fixer, a "prodigy" who stabilized one of the worst corporate mergers...

Making Leaps, No Matter the Landscape

Posted by: Jena McGregor on March 16

I was reminded of Kate Hanni today when I was traveling back from a weekend trip to Atlanta. The air travel activist was one of those sad remnants on the...

Facebooked From Singapore

Posted by: Jena McGregor on March 16

I got two emails today from students in Singapore--not the most common event in my inbox. Both were asking to become my "friends" on Facebook after their professor assigned them...

Self Sabotage 101 -- The Fine Art of PR

Posted by: Diane Brady on March 12

Public relations seems so easy, until you see how easily it can go wrong. Today, for instance, I received a generic pitch from a major West Coast PR firm to...

The Office's Fresh Perk: Fresh Fruit

Posted by: Michelle Conlin on March 11

It is 10 a.m. and the hunger crisis is on. Having skipped breakfast, I am all starvation and Knut Hamsun. Working on the 43rd floor, these riots for calories...

Judgment (or Eliot Spitzer's Lack Thereof)

Posted by: Diane Brady on March 10

Somewhere, perhaps at a rooftop bar in Manhattan, I imagine Hank Greenberg, Dick Grasso and Ken Langone toasting each other. Former New York Attorney General (and, at the moment, current...

Revising the Obama Brand

Posted by: Diane Brady on March 07

Politicians are brands, and fast-changing ones at that. Brand maven Alan Siegel, the chairman and CEO of Siegel+Gale, has put out some thoughts on what Barack Obama can do to...

Lessons from an "Involuntary Job Separation"

Posted by: Diane Brady on March 04

You've been fired, cut back, laid off, rendered redundant. So what can you learn from it all, other than the fact that you might have been in the wrong industry...

Creative Recruiting

Posted by: Jena McGregor on March 04

The economy may be striking fear into the hearts of employees everywhere. While the job market may be tightening, senior managers are still very much in demand (the news...

Close the Door, Already

Posted by: Jena McGregor on March 04

Diane mentioned MIT professor Dan Ariely's new book, Predictably Irrational, last week. For anyone who missed the New York Times piece that caused such a stir (it was among the...

Is Customer Service Getting Worse, or Are We Just Too Self-Absorbed?

Posted by: Jena McGregor on March 03

Maybe the reason customer service feels like it's getting worse is that we're all just a little too focused on ourselves. Or so says a Washington Post article from yesterday...

CEO Bonuses Down

Posted by: Jena McGregor on March 01

Feeling down after your boss scrimped on your bonus this year? You're not alone. In an early look at this year's proxy filings by compensation number crunchers Equilar, CEO bonuses...