Atlanta's "Best and Brightest"
What makes a place a good place to work? Every time a friend is stuck in a woeful job, do you break out the pros and cons list? Some people get attached to their company's relaxed dress code or their compassionate boss, but in the end it's a lot of qualities that go into creating a work environment where most people are happy to work. The National Association for Business Resources (NABR)...
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A Lightbulb Goes Off
I was pretty excited over the weekend to get a zippier cable modem. This one had blue lights instead of green. It looked fast and somehow evil. Webpages loaded half a second faster. Recruiter.com popped up like lightning; birds chirped and all was right in the world. Bird don't usually chirp over lightning fast Internet, but I live in a strange part of the forest. Anyway, my bliss was...
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Who Wins? Five Types of Technology for Recruiting with Facebook
If Linkedin's recent IPO served as a proxy for interest in recruiting with social networks, the answer is clear: the market is white hot. While Linkedin represents a pure play on next generation online recruiting, Facebook is instead seeding numerous markets. Facebook has massive user activity and social data, but is still relegated to personal use and content sharing. Everyone knows that...
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Being Fired When You (Do Not) Have a Right to Smoke
You are a smoker who wants to defend what you believe is your right to smoke. Your company wants to limit, deny or circumvent your alleged right and, if it has the most Draconian policy of all, is prepared to fire and not hire people like you, even those who smoke only a little. You Have the Right or You Don't For the sake of argument, let's tautologically assume that either you...
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Pseudo-Fatigue
"Our fatigue is often caused not by work, but by worry, frustration and resentment."—Dale Carnegie "Energy: the capacity to do work (physics)"—dictionary definition You feel tired near the end of your day. If that happens every day or most days, it can be a psychological clue about how you feel about your job, how you are working or what you are working at, rather than...
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Changing Professions
The workforce has seen its share of upheaval in recent years. Recession and the need for companies to be leaner have both put a large number of experienced people back in the job market. It is a buyer's market as they say and those buyer's are fussy. The new economy has made it necessary to contemplate changing careers for people who really liked where they were. Still, you are not alone....
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Dept of Labor Helps NJ Deal with Lost Jobs from Base Closing
This country spends a lot on defense (about $685.1 billion in 2010, or about 20 percent of the federal budget). So, if possible, the U.S. Department of Defense should be encouraged, where possible, to cut costs. For instance, closing a military base that is deemed unnecessary. Of course, that is a politically difficult thing to do. Military bases bring jobs and commerce to local...
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Real Earnings Decline in April
Unless you got a raise last month, your paycheck didn't quite as far as it did the month before. Though the U.S. Federal Reserve has dismissed a recent rise in the consumer price index as due to "transitory" spikes in commodity prices that will eventually correct itself, real average hourly earnings for all employees declined 0.3 percent from March to April, seasonally adjusted. This decrease...
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RealTime Performance Suggests Ways to Exchange Feedback
"People have an innate desire, and a right, to know where they stand," said RealTime Performance's CEO, Sean Murray. "Without feedback, self-perception falls prey to self-delusion, and the blind spots may eventually derail one's career." Some workers are painfully aware of their shortcomings, while others are woefully blind to them. Both scenarios can essentially lead to the...
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Attributes of a Good Project Manager
You have project managers, and then you have good project managers. Employers searching for quality project managers look for certain criteria that separates good project managers from those who simply wear the title well. This criteria can vary depending on the type and size of the organization, but there are basic characteristics employers look for in general and what potential candidate should...
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Employee Appreciation – How a Big Supermarket Chain Misses the Mark
Anybody will tell you that the most important asset of any company is its people. This is true whether it's a tiny startup or a corporation that employs tens of thousands. So it's hardly surprising then that most companies deem it important enough to make their employees feel special and valued. But what they do to show their appreciation is another story. Some companies really get it. Some...
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Economic Consequences of the Mississippi Flood
The flooding along the Mississippi river has already taken a toll on the area, and will continue to for some time to come. Putting a dollar amount on the personal loss and emotional trauma that the people effected by this disaster is impossible. But economists are already starting to quote estimates of property damage so far, and projections of further economic loss. Michael J. Hicks, Ph.D....
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