Payroll - Handled by a payroll system (SAP-HR, Cyborg, PeopleSoft, etc...) which is managed by the Compensation group in HR
Insurance Payments - Also handled as a part of the payroll system, which has to determine min/max amounts, tax implications, group discounts, etc... managed by the Benefits group of HR
Unions - A very touchy one.. handled by a qualified attorney in the HR department... there is no way an accountant or bookkeeper would have time or knowledge to handle the collective bargaining agreements, much less the difference in the benefits/overtime as handled by the collective bargaining agreements
Retirement - a super accountant? I haven't heard of that position title before.. interesting. Retirement is also handled by the benefits group, in concert with the accounting department. Someone not only has to manage the amount of payment to retirees (especially in the case of defined payment plans), but the tax implications, the trust the company has to set up to fund such a plan, and any changes in the legal status of retirees (these laws tend to change every year in the US)
Employee Data - no manager worth their weight in salt has time to manage the amount of employee data required to report federally. For instance, each employee has to have an employment date, an original employment date, a vesting date, and a service date. All of these have to be reported at year end to various reporting agencies. If each manager were required to keep this information, you'd get multiple formats and multiple layouts, making for a reporting nightmare.
EEO - you've got to be kidding. Do you think your manager is up to date on all of the EEO data required (and the data that is illegal to obtain), much less the reports the EEO requires, or their date of reporting?
Paycheck - the one area you might be correct, except where does all the data come from? A spreadsheet? And what about historical data, and reporting for 1040/1099's? You not only have to break down each pay/deduction item source, but for each paycheck for each employee for the year. Most accounting departments, again, don't have the resources to allocate to researching what types of income (again, this changes almost yearly) are taxable (qualified bonus's, etc..) or not, etc.. and then there's the issue of the senior exec bonuses (as most CEO's only take a salary of $400k but have several bonus plans that get them to the multimillion dollar range).
It's quite obvious to me that you haven't seen the accounting involved in these issues, or done the research into federal tax laws changing yearly, or you wouldn't have suggested the positions to handle these issues that you did. True, hiring is a function better performed by managers, until that person gets in the door and needs things like their payroll set up, their deductions handled, their background check, a drug test if your company so chooses, what to do in the event there is no drug test and some catastrophic event occurs because of it, tracking of their benefits, etc... HR doesn't find the people, it manages them.
As much as I hate to sit through them, meetings can be extremely functional. Sometimes it seems the only way to get people to follow up on their Action ItemsBINGO! is to force them to talk about them in front of their peers.
Also, you can get insight on each point from many voices rather than sifting through e-mail reply after e-mail reply.
The key to a meeting that's worth going to is to have someon moderate it. That moderator should remind folks when it's getting off topic, take notes, and check status on those action items on the back end.
I hated taking over the team lead role here and being stuffed into more meetings, but I find they're the best way to get a project to actually roll out on time.
Actually, somebody has to handle the payroll, the reported taxes, the feeds to the benefits companies (so that when you go to the hospital, you're actually covered), labor relations (Union agreements, etc...), retirement policies, any disputes, feeds to the financial companies (you like the 401(k) plan right?), tracking of employee data, EEO information for reporting, and a few other unimportant details.
You're right... you should work for a company with no HR department. And when you don't get your paycheck, maybe the marketing department will help you out.
My real complaints about this book centre on the abstract nature of the discussion
I also have a complaint about the target audience for this book
I also take issue with the title: this book doesn't really teach 'programming' much at all
Yet the book review rates a 5? What gives? I would think a book with more than one "I have issue with" would rate a bit lower than "the best possible rating it could get."
Damnit, my fiance's birthstone is Alexandrite (although some substitute Pearls for June... I was completely unaware that a Pearl was a gem). Diamonds are actually cheaper than Alexandrite, but I refuseed to support DeBeer's manually inflated market either.
I think maybe you misunderstand me. I'm not trying to be abbrasive at all. There are a couple of points I tried to make in my comment. One is that as we roll forward, everything is becoming more efficient. Vehicles, homes, water use, etc... People are also becoming more educated about conservation. Not everyone applies practices like turning off the water while brushing their teeth, but more and more do.
You're right that higher paying jobs do not translate to a higher standard of living. But in the US, a higher net pay (after deducting costs of transportation to work, lunch, etc...) in any urban area do mean a higher standard of living. As a matter of fact, the only example of a pay cut I can think of that wouldn't generally translate to a lower standard of living would be a telecommuting gig. There are sacrifices people will easily make i.e. taking the time to separate garbage for recycling, compost piles, fewer trips to the store to save gas, etc... without thinking too much of it. There are other sacrifices i.e. fit 5 people into a Ford Focus instead of a Suburban to save gas, make kids share a room when they used to have their own, that people will be hard pressed to switch to unless forced (loss of job, loss of industry).
As far as the economy itself goes, the President and Congress have a tough job. Both trickle-down and trickle-up economics have their problems, but both seem to work a bit in boosting a lagging economy. Either put the money in people's hands so they'll spend some of it, or put it in companies hands so they'll hire more people. Either way, it's all very cyclical, and we're on the downward side of the boom we saw that ended in 1999. I don't fear all programming jobs (I'm a programmer) heading offshore... as a matter of fact, the pulse of hiring managers in this industry seem to think at most it will outsource about 15%. What we're not getting anymore is the ridiculous sums of the late nineties (which I was guilty of to an extent), and the rate for programmers is levelling off a bit. None of that will stop me from working towards the highest rate I can possibly get, but it does ease the pain a bit of the $25k/year I've lost in the last 3 years.
None of that keeps me from wanting a bigger house, maybe a larger piece of land, more for my family. I have a question though... how could you fill a smaller house with more furniture? And bigger houses require much more labor, as well as the idea that they tend to have more labor intensive improvements... such as tile floors rather than linoleum, granite counters rather than formica, custom cabinets rather than off the shelf cabinetry, etc... All of which require more labor and keep more people in work.
Out of curiosity, where are you from? In the Houston area, the mass transit system is horrible and not getting better any time soon. Also, this is the second largest city in the US in land area, 4th largest in population. It's VERY spread out. It's easy to say "work close to home" but as a contract programmer, am I to pick up the kids and buy a different house every time my contracts expire? Or should I simply say "I'll take a lower paying job and decrease my children's standard of living, while the higher paying job is still available?"
My point is you're not going to get people to voluntarily decrease their standard of living. People with three kids in a 4 bedroom house aren't going to up and say "we should all share bedrooms now, and we won't need that gameroom anymore" when they feel like they've earned it.
Better to spend money making the house more efficient i.e. r10 windows, r30 insulation, energy efficient appliances. All of this puts people to work as well, so you're helping the economy at the same time.
Having two home builders in the family, I have to agree with the efficient home assertion. Home requirements nationwide not only force use of efficent HVAC equipment, but even water savers (those toilets that don't use much water, shower heads, etc...), and more.
but a few of the lesser reasons we all heard over here dealt with...
means I agreed with the initial reason given for the war was based on WMD, but that there were other reasons discussed at the time as well, rather than the only other reason suggested in that parent, which was geo-political.
Not really. In the USSR, large fiasco's like that weren't unheard of... see Chernobyl, the Nedelin Disaster, etc... None of those were blamed on the US, although hundreds of Soviet citizens died.
I'm not sure which news agencies you're watching/listening to, but a few of the lesser reasons we all heard over here dealt with human rights violations (I remember the strong arguement that Iraq wasn't the only country --read Saudi Arabia-- that was guilty at the time), intelligence that led to a connection between Saddam Hussein and Al-Quaeda/Osama Bin Laden, Iraq's refusal to allow weapons inspections to continue and their mockery of the inspections that had been previously allowed, etc..
I hardly think that the MAIN reason was geo-political in nature, although I'd be an idiot to think it wasn't part of the consideration. Iraq had 12 years to prove they'd eliminated their WED programs, and never could come up with any proof.
Even in business you keep an audit trail. Show some books that say you spend $$xx on manhours and materials to dispose of these weapons or convert them into something useful. At one point everyone in the world knew they had them. The burden of proof rested on Saddam Hussein's shoulders as to the disposal of those weapons, and he refused to prove it. You do the math.
What oil has been stolen from Iraq? As a matter of fact, please inform the rest of us when the US has stolen anyone's oil? As far as oil interest in Iraq go, the US's plan is to provide them with the ability to sell it on the open market, which is a great situation for them, for the US, and any other country that happens to need energy.
You make very strong points, but I do see it a little differently.
If one is a lawmaker, he/she owes it to their constituency to tirelessly research the issues and come to a full understanding on them before he/she writes legislation or votes on it. If he/she doesn't understand it, then maybe he/she should abstain from voting on it, less he/she take the wrong side due to their ignorance on the issue.
It's just my opinion (of course), but it seems politicians love to jump on the bandwagon of issues because they're the topic-du-jour and it will get them press, regardless of wether they know anything about the issues lined out in the bill or not.
From the Department of Redundancy Department... marginally informed politicians
All kidding aside, I agree with you. It embarasses me that politicians from my country seem to think the laws they pass, however good or ridiculous, should apply to the rest of the world. What happens if a local in one of their marked countries comes up with their own 1024 bit encryption? Oh, wait, I know... we send in the troops and apologize on the back end....
But with an out of the hiring book question, don't you typically get out of the interviewing book answers?
"My greatest weakness is I focus too much on the details of the project.. I want it to be perfect."
My greatest weakness is wrapped around my desire for the company to do better. I work tirelessly and sometimes that doesn't set to well at home. But my understands it's in my nature and will always continue."
My greatest weakness is wanting to do more than I'm asked. Sometimes it requires me to come in early and work through lunches, but I don't bill for that time, as I consider it a learning experience."
For each canned question, there are a ton of canned answers. What kind of answers do you typically get for that question?
I couldn't agree more. What I do, if the directions require an e-mailed resume, is skip any cover letter. Instead, I type a few short sentences describing why I'm qualified for the position they have an opening for. Something like "I am a software developer with 12 years of professional experience. I have worked with . Thank you in advance for your consideration."
Simple stuff. To date I can only think of a handful of times I didn't get into an interview over the last 7ish years of my career that folks were using e-mail for gathering resumes.
Not trying to be a troll at all, but with Linux, does it matter? It's not produced (in many cases anyway) by a US company which is bound to US law. Are there any other reasons, i.e. international law, that would restrict the use of stronger encryption than the US allows in Iraq?
One of the finer points to be made regading use of Linux is none of it (again, unless you use a distro from a US company) is bound by US law, and least that's how I percieve it.
More importantly, how would circumcision prevent masturbation? The AMA recommended it at one time because it eliminated the problems of tight prepuce and phimosis, which occurred in 2-4% of 17-18 year old males during their studies.
Slashdot Mirror
It's quite obvious to me that you haven't seen the accounting involved in these issues, or done the research into federal tax laws changing yearly, or you wouldn't have suggested the positions to handle these issues that you did. True, hiring is a function better performed by managers, until that person gets in the door and needs things like their payroll set up, their deductions handled, their background check, a drug test if your company so chooses, what to do in the event there is no drug test and some catastrophic event occurs because of it, tracking of their benefits, etc... HR doesn't find the people, it manages them.
As much as I hate to sit through them, meetings can be extremely functional. Sometimes it seems the only way to get people to follow up on their Action Items BINGO! is to force them to talk about them in front of their peers.
Also, you can get insight on each point from many voices rather than sifting through e-mail reply after e-mail reply.
The key to a meeting that's worth going to is to have someon moderate it. That moderator should remind folks when it's getting off topic, take notes, and check status on those action items on the back end.
I hated taking over the team lead role here and being stuffed into more meetings, but I find they're the best way to get a project to actually roll out on time.
Sucks for them, as they're legally required to maintain all work related documents for a term of no less than 7 years.
Actually, somebody has to handle the payroll, the reported taxes, the feeds to the benefits companies (so that when you go to the hospital, you're actually covered), labor relations (Union agreements, etc...), retirement policies, any disputes, feeds to the financial companies (you like the 401(k) plan right?), tracking of employee data, EEO information for reporting, and a few other unimportant details.
You're right... you should work for a company with no HR department. And when you don't get your paycheck, maybe the marketing department will help you out.
My real complaints about this book centre on the abstract nature of the discussion
I also have a complaint about the target audience for this book
I also take issue with the title: this book doesn't really teach 'programming' much at all
Yet the book review rates a 5? What gives? I would think a book with more than one "I have issue with" would rate a bit lower than "the best possible rating it could get."
Damnit, my fiance's birthstone is Alexandrite (although some substitute Pearls for June... I was completely unaware that a Pearl was a gem). Diamonds are actually cheaper than Alexandrite, but I refuseed to support DeBeer's manually inflated market either.
I think maybe you misunderstand me. I'm not trying to be abbrasive at all. There are a couple of points I tried to make in my comment. One is that as we roll forward, everything is becoming more efficient. Vehicles, homes, water use, etc... People are also becoming more educated about conservation. Not everyone applies practices like turning off the water while brushing their teeth, but more and more do.
You're right that higher paying jobs do not translate to a higher standard of living. But in the US, a higher net pay (after deducting costs of transportation to work, lunch, etc...) in any urban area do mean a higher standard of living. As a matter of fact, the only example of a pay cut I can think of that wouldn't generally translate to a lower standard of living would be a telecommuting gig. There are sacrifices people will easily make i.e. taking the time to separate garbage for recycling, compost piles, fewer trips to the store to save gas, etc... without thinking too much of it. There are other sacrifices i.e. fit 5 people into a Ford Focus instead of a Suburban to save gas, make kids share a room when they used to have their own, that people will be hard pressed to switch to unless forced (loss of job, loss of industry).
As far as the economy itself goes, the President and Congress have a tough job. Both trickle-down and trickle-up economics have their problems, but both seem to work a bit in boosting a lagging economy. Either put the money in people's hands so they'll spend some of it, or put it in companies hands so they'll hire more people. Either way, it's all very cyclical, and we're on the downward side of the boom we saw that ended in 1999. I don't fear all programming jobs (I'm a programmer) heading offshore... as a matter of fact, the pulse of hiring managers in this industry seem to think at most it will outsource about 15%. What we're not getting anymore is the ridiculous sums of the late nineties (which I was guilty of to an extent), and the rate for programmers is levelling off a bit. None of that will stop me from working towards the highest rate I can possibly get, but it does ease the pain a bit of the $25k/year I've lost in the last 3 years.
None of that keeps me from wanting a bigger house, maybe a larger piece of land, more for my family. I have a question though... how could you fill a smaller house with more furniture? And bigger houses require much more labor, as well as the idea that they tend to have more labor intensive improvements... such as tile floors rather than linoleum, granite counters rather than formica, custom cabinets rather than off the shelf cabinetry, etc... All of which require more labor and keep more people in work.
As many have pointed out, the main reason was geo-political in nature.
Pretty damned close though.
Out of curiosity, where are you from? In the Houston area, the mass transit system is horrible and not getting better any time soon. Also, this is the second largest city in the US in land area, 4th largest in population. It's VERY spread out. It's easy to say "work close to home" but as a contract programmer, am I to pick up the kids and buy a different house every time my contracts expire? Or should I simply say "I'll take a lower paying job and decrease my children's standard of living, while the higher paying job is still available?"
My point is you're not going to get people to voluntarily decrease their standard of living. People with three kids in a 4 bedroom house aren't going to up and say "we should all share bedrooms now, and we won't need that gameroom anymore" when they feel like they've earned it.
Better to spend money making the house more efficient i.e. r10 windows, r30 insulation, energy efficient appliances. All of this puts people to work as well, so you're helping the economy at the same time.
Having two home builders in the family, I have to agree with the efficient home assertion. Home requirements nationwide not only force use of efficent HVAC equipment, but even water savers (those toilets that don't use much water, shower heads, etc...), and more.
For the reading impaired..
but a few of the lesser reasons we all heard over here dealt with...
means I agreed with the initial reason given for the war was based on WMD, but that there were other reasons discussed at the time as well, rather than the only other reason suggested in that parent, which was geo-political.
Not really. In the USSR, large fiasco's like that weren't unheard of... see Chernobyl, the Nedelin Disaster, etc... None of those were blamed on the US, although hundreds of Soviet citizens died.
Mod this one Extremely Insightful(+5)
I'm not sure which news agencies you're watching/listening to, but a few of the lesser reasons we all heard over here dealt with human rights violations (I remember the strong arguement that Iraq wasn't the only country --read Saudi Arabia-- that was guilty at the time), intelligence that led to a connection between Saddam Hussein and Al-Quaeda/Osama Bin Laden, Iraq's refusal to allow weapons inspections to continue and their mockery of the inspections that had been previously allowed, etc..
I hardly think that the MAIN reason was geo-political in nature, although I'd be an idiot to think it wasn't part of the consideration. Iraq had 12 years to prove they'd eliminated their WED programs, and never could come up with any proof.
Even in business you keep an audit trail. Show some books that say you spend $$xx on manhours and materials to dispose of these weapons or convert them into something useful. At one point everyone in the world knew they had them. The burden of proof rested on Saddam Hussein's shoulders as to the disposal of those weapons, and he refused to prove it. You do the math.
What oil has been stolen from Iraq? As a matter of fact, please inform the rest of us when the US has stolen anyone's oil? As far as oil interest in Iraq go, the US's plan is to provide them with the ability to sell it on the open market, which is a great situation for them, for the US, and any other country that happens to need energy.
You make very strong points, but I do see it a little differently.
If one is a lawmaker, he/she owes it to their constituency to tirelessly research the issues and come to a full understanding on them before he/she writes legislation or votes on it. If he/she doesn't understand it, then maybe he/she should abstain from voting on it, less he/she take the wrong side due to their ignorance on the issue.
It's just my opinion (of course), but it seems politicians love to jump on the bandwagon of issues because they're the topic-du-jour and it will get them press, regardless of wether they know anything about the issues lined out in the bill or not.
Funny... on Mirko's page only one comment is listed as modded 'Troll'
Er.... I'm going to have to write that down.
From the Department of Redundancy Department... marginally informed politicians
All kidding aside, I agree with you. It embarasses me that politicians from my country seem to think the laws they pass, however good or ridiculous, should apply to the rest of the world. What happens if a local in one of their marked countries comes up with their own 1024 bit encryption? Oh, wait, I know... we send in the troops and apologize on the back end....
You've obviously never coded for JPMorgan Chase Bank......
But with an out of the hiring book question, don't you typically get out of the interviewing book answers?
"My greatest weakness is I focus too much on the details of the project.. I want it to be perfect."
My greatest weakness is wrapped around my desire for the company to do better. I work tirelessly and sometimes that doesn't set to well at home. But my understands it's in my nature and will always continue."
My greatest weakness is wanting to do more than I'm asked. Sometimes it requires me to come in early and work through lunches, but I don't bill for that time, as I consider it a learning experience."
For each canned question, there are a ton of canned answers. What kind of answers do you typically get for that question?
Doh! Blocked by WebSphere. I'll check it out when I get home... and thank you for the link. You ought to be modded informative(+1).
I couldn't agree more. What I do, if the directions require an e-mailed resume, is skip any cover letter. Instead, I type a few short sentences describing why I'm qualified for the position they have an opening for. Something like "I am a software developer with 12 years of professional experience. I have worked with . Thank you in advance for your consideration."
Simple stuff. To date I can only think of a handful of times I didn't get into an interview over the last 7ish years of my career that folks were using e-mail for gathering resumes.
Not trying to be a troll at all, but with Linux, does it matter? It's not produced (in many cases anyway) by a US company which is bound to US law. Are there any other reasons, i.e. international law, that would restrict the use of stronger encryption than the US allows in Iraq?
One of the finer points to be made regading use of Linux is none of it (again, unless you use a distro from a US company) is bound by US law, and least that's how I percieve it.
More importantly, how would circumcision prevent masturbation? The AMA recommended it at one time because it eliminated the problems of tight prepuce and phimosis, which occurred in 2-4% of 17-18 year old males during their studies.