Archives: June 2008

An About-Face at Netflix

Posted by: Jena McGregor on June 30

Netflix will not be eliminating its "profiles" service after all, an email in my inbox just informed me. In the process, it just saved thousands of DVD-watching marriages nationwide. For...

Email Overload Can be a Good Thing, Too

Posted by: Jena McGregor on June 30

There's a smart post over at the Harvard Business Review's Editors' Blog about email overload, and whether it's really as bad of a thing as everyone's talking about. Editor Paul...

How Secure is Your CEO?

Posted by: Jena McGregor on June 25

They get paid for dying. They get to ride in private airplanes. And a good number of them--at least 91 out of the 247 major company proxies recently reviewed by...

The Worst Jobs in HR

Posted by: Jena McGregor on June 24

Human resources blogger Kris Dunn--an HR VP at a software company--has a great post --and article--up about the worst jobs in HR. Corporate wellness specialists (the ultimate corporate party killers)...

Are You Taking a Vacation? Or a Fauxcation?

Posted by: Michelle Conlin on June 24

Taking a long weekend is not a vacation. It is a fauxcation. Wheeler-dealering above on his cell phone--in medias massage--is a lawyer I wrote about last fall on a...

A Meeting of the Minds at AIG?

Posted by: Jena McGregor on June 23

Last Thursday, Maurice "Hank" Greenberg and incoming CEO Bob Willumstad met, perhaps a signal at some executive-level detente at troubled insurer AIG. As the Wall Street Journal noted this morning,...

A Dress Code for Global Warming, Part Two

Posted by: Michelle Conlin on June 16

Last summer all workplace-wackness erupted here on the 43rd floor of the BusinessWeek mothership. Taking a cue from Microsoft's happiness czar Lisa Brummel--she who has worn shorts every day...

Should Willumstad break up AIG?

Posted by: Diane Brady on June 16

AIG's new chief executive Bob Willumstad has a lot to mull over as he steps into leading a company with record losses and a stock price that has been sliced...

Managing Calendar Overload

Posted by: Michelle Conlin on June 16

A story in this morning's Wall Street Journal about packed calendars ruling over executives got me thinking about overload-slayer and SAS Institute founder Jim Goodnight. SAS was a worker's...

AIG's Sullivan Stepping Down, Reports Say

Posted by: Jena McGregor on June 15

American International Group CEO Martin Sullivan is stepping down, the Wall Street Journal is reporting, following a Sunday meeting of the insurer's board. Following weeks of outspoken shareholder dissent calling...

Are You an Underearner?

Posted by: Michelle Conlin on June 13

This week's story in the Wall Street Journal about the debtors' culture new answer--Debtors Anonymous--got me thinking about the underside of overspending: underearning. As if you needed another problem....

Is the 4-Day Workweek The Answer to $4-Gas?

Posted by: Michelle Conlin on June 11

Recently I wrote a story about how $4 gas was finally breaking workers' petroleum addiction. That, and our upcoming summer double issue on balancing work and life, got me...

Are Two Heads Better than One at Martha Stewart?

Posted by: Jena McGregor on June 11

Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia CEO Susan Lyne has stepped down. Replacing her is not one, but two CEOs--and no, neither of them is Martha. They are Robin Marino, MSLO's president...

Layoffs Below, Hires Up Top

Posted by: Jena McGregor on June 10

Layoffs may be getting announced with greater frequency than gas price increases these days. Last week's unemployment rate made the biggest one-month jump in decades. But the carnage isn't affecting...

Is Google Squeezing Its "20% Time"?

Posted by: Jena McGregor on June 06

Silicon Valley blog Valleywag had a post yesterday about "Google's Ever-Shrinking 20% Time." Google's now infamous management practice, which allows employees to spend 20% of their time working on...

Smart Advertising

Posted by: Diane Brady on June 05

I skip past most ads but I enjoy seeing ones that show sparks of creativity. As I was watching the NBA Finals tonight, I noticed an ad for the movie,...

Consumers may suffer but their dogs do fine

Posted by: Diane Brady on June 03

Consumer spending may be on the decline but a new survey finds that there's one place many of them refuse to cut back: pet pampering. An online poll by Petfinder.com...

Need more Welch?

Posted by: Jena McGregor on June 02

If you're somehow not getting enough of Jack and Suzy Welch (BusinessWeek's management columnists record podcasts, write columns and tape videos), they now have their own Web site. There, the...

Why Work Sucks And How To Fix It

Posted by: Michelle Conlin on June 02

A year and a half ago, I wrote a cover story about a radical workplace experiment roiling Best Buy's headquarters in Minneapolis. Two guerrila HR types had secretly started...

Thompson Out at Wachovia

Posted by: Jena McGregor on June 02

Just weeks after Wachovia's directors stripped the bank's CEO, G. Kennedy Thompson, of his chairman duties, they've gone and taken the CEO job, too. This morning, Wachovia announced that Thompson...