"... the Romans reserved this very harsh technique for unusual events. They were not dumb enough to do this to every unit on a routine basis!"
Neutron Jack was right about companies accumulating dead wood. They can and do. Used on a one time basis to get shed of non-productive workers, Rank and Yank is highly effective. But then they keep doing it on a routine basis. On subsequent iterations, they get rid of good people. They become so fixated on this process, it becomes an end in and of itself. I wonder whether Welch knew what he had set loose upon the world.
This concept was foisted upon the world by former GE CEO Jack Welsh. It has ruined one company after another and is an example of the cure being worse than the disease. Watch out when your company hires in HR people from places like GE, IBM, Microsoft, Nortel, AT&T, etc.. They will try to get a promotion by implementing a slightly different version of this which will have about the same results.
Utilities don't have enough staff to handle severe-storm outages - the expense would send rates soaring - and so they rely on out-of-state utilities to send help..."
So the CEO says it's a choice between soaring rates and prolonged outages. These outages cost something too. If your business depends on electrical power, you're shut down. We're liable to end up with backup generators everywhere.
They used to have adequate numbers of linemen. But ever since the waves of mergers and the CEOs began lining their pockets, they cut way back on the staff.
So now, widespread T storms knock out power for a week. I shudder to think of how long power would be out now after a cat 3 hurricane or a widespread ice storm. It could be weeks.
Then they lost their way, management started all sorts of retarded internal competition games...
Bad management is why most of the high paying jobs have disappeared over the last several decades, due either to incompetence, crookedness or a combination of the two. Nokia is just the latest in a long line of mismanaged companies going belly up.
There are probably a good number of plagiarized papers out there that have launched careers. No doubt some of their authors have a pucker factor worrying that somebody with too much time on their hands will examine their paper.
This is IBM's new business model. They make the books look good by laying people off. Go for it! At the rate IBM is shrinking, they'll be gone soon enough and the world will be shed of them.
This is yet another attempt to talk up engineering careers. There ain't many young people buying it because they see what it takes and what they will make. They've been watching large companies laying off engineers by the tens of thousands in mid-career. They know wages have been stagnant for the past 2 decades. They're doing a cost benefit analysis and concluding that there is too much stick and not enough carrot.
"I used to be a heroin addict, Now I'm a methadone addict."
Yep. Methadone has all the addictive qualities without all the pleasing euphoria. A recent post on/. says it's killing people, both the use of methadone and withdrawal from it.
There's no telling what side effects this vaccine will have, assuming it works as intended.
There ain't very many pre-1983 pennies in circulation because collectors and metal investors cull them. Those are worth nearly 3 cents each. Some call copper the poor man's silver. It will be interesting to see whether the zinc pennies will be culled as zinc goes above $1/lb. What would they make the new ones out of? plastic?
Perhaps it doesn't get you "high" but it is highly addictive. It was once used to wean junkies off heroin. Nearly every user becomes an addict. And once addicted, they become tethered to a methadone clinic where they must go and jump through hoops to receive their dose.
Now comes reports that methadone kills. It'll be interesting to see whether the FDA does anything. They dragged their feet until 50,000 heart attacks and untold fatalities occurred with Vioxx. But they pulled PPA based Sudafed, which had been sold for nearly 4 decades, off the market due to the potential for strokes.
You can work in tech into your 50s but the odds are against it. Keeping your skills current is a constant battle that will eventually wear anyone down. Changing jobs gets harder. Changing careers is an undertaking. As a tech worker in my mid 50s, I see mostly younger tech workers around me. My boss prefers to hire them and has said so. And with the current labor climate, older tech workers have little job security. To those smug individuals who think their skills are so great they'll retire a tech worker, I say they have another thought coming.
Untold numbers of high paying jobs in the US disappeared as the US lost it's manufacturing base primarily because the leaders of US companies discovered they could vastly increase their profits by manufacturing their products in low wage countries.
The Apple facility only needs 50 highly specialized engineers and techs. Other than some of the admin, security, maintenance and other misc. personnel, that's pretty much all they need. It is unlikely many of the technical people will be found locally.
It is unrealistic to expect US unemployment/underemployment problems to be solved or even significantly mitigated building facilities like this. It is also unrealistic to expect all these displaced manufacturing workers to retrain to become technical workers or medical workers. Even if they did, there's only so many of those jobs to go around.
Slashdot Mirror
The US will experience a massive outage like this one. India is handling this a lot better than we will.
"... the Romans reserved this very harsh technique for unusual events. They were not dumb enough to do this to every unit on a routine basis!"
Neutron Jack was right about companies accumulating dead wood. They can and do. Used on a one time basis to get shed of non-productive workers, Rank and Yank is highly effective. But then they keep doing it on a routine basis. On subsequent iterations, they get rid of good people. They become so fixated on this process, it becomes an end in and of itself. I wonder whether Welch knew what he had set loose upon the world.
This concept was foisted upon the world by former GE CEO Jack Welsh. It has ruined one company after another and is an example of the cure being worse than the disease. Watch out when your company hires in HR people from places like GE, IBM, Microsoft, Nortel, AT&T, etc.. They will try to get a promotion by implementing a slightly different version of this which will have about the same results.
Utilities don't have enough staff to handle severe-storm outages - the expense would send rates soaring - and so they rely on out-of-state utilities to send help ..."
So the CEO says it's a choice between soaring rates and prolonged outages. These outages cost something too. If your business depends on electrical power, you're shut down. We're liable to end up with backup generators everywhere.
They used to have adequate numbers of linemen. But ever since the waves of mergers and the CEOs began lining their pockets, they cut way back on the staff.
So now, widespread T storms knock out power for a week. I shudder to think of how long power would be out now after a cat 3 hurricane or a widespread ice storm. It could be weeks.
Then they lost their way, management started all sorts of retarded internal competition games ...
Bad management is why most of the high paying jobs have disappeared over the last several decades, due either to incompetence, crookedness or a combination of the two. Nokia is just the latest in a long line of mismanaged companies going belly up.
Amen. It's either buy or do without.
Surely VP of SAP doesn't need to be doing that?
Some sort of mental illness of thrill-seeking?
He's just a sophisticated kleptomaniac.
There are probably a good number of plagiarized papers out there that have launched careers. No doubt some of their authors have a pucker factor worrying that somebody with too much time on their hands will examine their paper.
I salute IBM in cutting jobs ...
I salute them too, but in a different way.
This is IBM's new business model. They make the books look good by laying people off. Go for it! At the rate IBM is shrinking, they'll be gone soon enough and the world will be shed of them.
Let's test that the way they did long ago. The ones who are reporting the seafood to be safe should be required to eat it.
We'll watch them for a few months to see whether they become ill.
what will they want later?
If they are acting like this now, what will they be like later?
The house doesn't like to lose.
This is yet another attempt to talk up engineering careers. There ain't many young people buying it because they see what it takes and what they will make. They've been watching large companies laying off engineers by the tens of thousands in mid-career. They know wages have been stagnant for the past 2 decades. They're doing a cost benefit analysis and concluding that there is too much stick and not enough carrot.
Our best schools are teaching people who go work in other countries...
That's because most of the work is in other countries.
Ah, yes. Perhaps if we redesign landfills to harvest natural gas from then they'll be taken over by Exxon, BP, et al.
"When shit becomes gold, the poor will have no assholes."
-- an unknown but astute source
"I used to be a heroin addict, Now I'm a methadone addict."
Yep. Methadone has all the addictive qualities without all the pleasing euphoria. A recent post on /. says it's killing people, both the use of methadone and withdrawal from it.
There's no telling what side effects this vaccine will have, assuming it works as intended.
There ain't very many pre-1983 pennies in circulation because collectors and metal investors cull them. Those are worth nearly 3 cents each. Some call copper the poor man's silver. It will be interesting to see whether the zinc pennies will be culled as zinc goes above $1/lb. What would they make the new ones out of? plastic?
There ain't much on TV I care about except sports, weather and the occasional movie. The rest is crap.
Smart TV? for what? It's just more stuff that can break. I don't want some smart TV or cable box wigging out on me while the damn game is on.
The desire of everyone in the US, and similar countries, to live MASSIVELY beyond their means is why America can't stop it.
So if we want to live a middle class life, we are living massively beyond our means? As opposed to what? living as neofeudal serfs?
The rich are rich because they know how to give people what they want, not because they are stealing anything.
Like hell they aren't.
Perhaps it doesn't get you "high" but it is highly addictive. It was once used to wean junkies off heroin. Nearly every user becomes an addict. And once addicted, they become tethered to a methadone clinic where they must go and jump through hoops to receive their dose.
Now comes reports that methadone kills. It'll be interesting to see whether the FDA does anything. They dragged their feet until 50,000 heart attacks and untold fatalities occurred with Vioxx. But they pulled PPA based Sudafed, which had been sold for nearly 4 decades, off the market due to the potential for strokes.
You can work in tech into your 50s but the odds are against it. Keeping your skills current is a constant battle that will eventually wear anyone down. Changing jobs gets harder. Changing careers is an undertaking. As a tech worker in my mid 50s, I see mostly younger tech workers around me. My boss prefers to hire them and has said so. And with the current labor climate, older tech workers have little job security. To those smug individuals who think their skills are so great they'll retire a tech worker, I say they have another thought coming.
Untold numbers of high paying jobs in the US disappeared as the US lost it's manufacturing base primarily because the leaders of US companies discovered they could vastly increase their profits by manufacturing their products in low wage countries.
The Apple facility only needs 50 highly specialized engineers and techs. Other than some of the admin, security, maintenance and other misc. personnel, that's pretty much all they need. It is unlikely many of the technical people will be found locally.
It is unrealistic to expect US unemployment/underemployment problems to be solved or even significantly mitigated building facilities like this. It is also unrealistic to expect all these displaced manufacturing workers to retrain to become technical workers or medical workers. Even if they did, there's only so many of those jobs to go around.
Typically they just issue new shares and dilute current shares ...
It's yet another reason stock options are frequently a soggy deal for the rank and file.
Threatening to sue has all the weight of someone threatening to beat you up over the internet.
Agreed. Actions speak louder than words. Just do it.
The quality of life is poor for many if not most of the elderly.