Go Green To Give A Boost To Employee Morale

ScienceDaily (Feb. 1, 2011) — In a global recession, most people are thankful to have a job, but a new study suggests that employees are more likely to be satisfied with their jobs if they are working for a company that is perceived to be "green." The financial performance of companies fails to correlate with employee happiness.

Cassandra Walsh and Adam Sulkowski, both of the Charlton College of Business at University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, wanted to know whether employee morale is typically affected when a company is perceived as taking steps to be more environmentally benign, or whether the company's financial performance has a greater effect on employee happiness.

There has been little research until now in this area. Common sense might suggest that employees who place value on environmental performance may be happier working for companies whose perceived performance in this area are congruent with their beliefs. Likewise, employees' satisfaction may be related to a firm's financial value: employees of firms with solid financial performance may be more satisfied with their jobs than are employees of firms with mediocre financial performance. To test their hypotheses, the team analyzed data on employee satisfaction and perceived environmental responsibility from 113 companies and thousands of employees using regression analysis. The same test was repeated using the employee satisfaction data and company financial performance metrics.

"The results of the analysis indicate a significant positive relationship between employee satisfaction and level of perceived environmental performance," the team says. "This study does not find a significant relationship between employee satisfaction and firm financial value."

This research suggests that companies would be well-advised to engage in communication efforts such as sustainability reporting (also known as corporate social responsibility -- CSR -- reporting, or environmental, social, and governance -ESG -- reporting). By credibly communicating about environmental performance and positive efforts to become more environmentally benign, a company is likely to improve employee recruitment, retention, and morale.

Story Source: The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Inderscience Publishers, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

Thanks to ScienceDaily
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/02/110201101626.htm

To Get Uninterrupted Daily Article(s) / Review(s) Updates; Kindly Subscribe To This BlogSpot:- http://ZiaullahKhan.Blogspot.com/ Via "RSS Feed" Or " Email Subscription" Or "Knowledge Center Yahoo Group".
Amazon Magazine Subscriptions	Amazon Books	Amazon Kindle Store
Amazon Everyday Low Prices, Sales, Deals, Bargains, Discounts, Best-Sellers, Gifts, Household Consumer Products

 

 

Six Interview Answers You Need To Get Hired

During the typical job interview, you'll be peppered with many interview questions. But do you really understand what the interviewer needs to know?

"Most [candidates] have no idea why a recruiter asks a particular question," says Brad Karsh, a former recruiting professional for advertising giant Leo  Burnett and current president of career consulting firm Job Bound. "They tend to think it's a competition to outwit the interviewer."

The reality is that employers have neither the time nor inclination to play games with you, especially when hiring. Your interviewer is not trying to outguess you -- he's trying to assess your answers to six key questions:

Do You Have the Skills to Do the Job?

According to Karsh, the employer must first determine whether you have the necessary hard skills for the position, e.g., the programming knowledge for a database administration job or the writing chops to be a newspaper reporter. "By really probing into what the candidate has done in the past, an interviewer can tap into hard skills."

But the interviewer is also looking for key soft skills you'll need to succeed in the job and organization, such as the ability to work well on teams or "the requisite common sense to figure things out with some basic training," says Terese Corey Blanck, director of student development at internship company Student Experience and a partner in College to Career, a consulting firm.

Do You Fit?

"Every organization's first thought is about fit and potentially fit in a certain department," Corey Blanck says. That means the interviewer is trying to pinpoint not only whether you match up well with both the company's and department's activities but also whether you'll complement the talents of your potential coworkers.

Do You Understand the Company and Its Purpose?

If the organization fits well with your career aspirations, you'll naturally be motivated to do good work there -- and stay more than a month or two, Corey Blanck reasons. "I don't want someone to take the position because it's a job and it fits their skills," she says. "I want them to be excited about our mission and what we do."

How Do You Stack Up Against the Competition?

You're being evaluated in relation to other candidates for the job. In other words, this test is graded on a curve. So the interviewer will constantly be comparing your performance with that of the other candidates'.

Do You Have the Right Mind-Set for the Job and Company?

"I'm always looking for someone who has a can-do type of attitude," Corey Blanck explains. "I want someone who wants to be challenged and is internally motivated to do well.

Corey Blanck points out that an employer can't train for this essential trait. "But you can hire for it," she says. "And if you don't, you'll end up with a lower-performing employee."

Do You Want the Job?

Most employers know better than to believe everyone they interview actually wants the position being offered. They understand some candidates are exploring their options, while others are using an interview with a company they don't care about to hone their interview skills.

So you have to prove you really want the job, says Al Pollard, senior college recruiter for Countrywide Financial. "I use the ditch-digger analogy," he says. "Many of us can dig ditches, but few are willing to -- and even fewer want to."

Thanks to Peter Vogt, Monster Senior Contributing Writer / Career Advice Monster / Monster
http://career-advice.monster.com/job-interview/interview-questions/six-answers-interviewers-need/article.aspx?WT.mc_n=CRMUS000666

To Get Uninterrupted Daily Article(s) / Review(s) Updates; Kindly Subscribe To This BlogSpot:- http://ZiaullahKhan.Blogspot.com/ Via "RSS Feed" Or " Email Subscription" Or "Knowledge Center Yahoo Group".
Amazon Magazine Subscriptions	Amazon Books	Amazon Kindle Store
Amazon Everyday Low Prices, Sales, Deals, Bargains, Discounts, Best-Sellers, Gifts, Household Consumer Products

 

 

What To Say In Your Thank You Letter Besides, ‘Thank You’

Have you ever felt frustrated after an interview?

Sure you have!

I know you've mentally gone over your interview answers and… you remember what you DID NOT say and you realize you missed an opportunity to REINFORCE your candidacy. Well, this is why you write a strategic thank you letter.

Of course, it all depends on how badly you've screwed things up. Sometimes, there is no backpedaling, but let's assume for a moment you can recoup or cement your candidacy… what then do you say in your thank you letter besides thank you?

The problem with most thank you letters is they are usually prepared as just a nice gesture.

Saying thank you is a very nice thing to do; it does go a long way but if written as an ordinary thank you, it is not strategic enough to add another dimension to your candidacy… it leverages not an additional qualifier… and doesn't elevate your interview performance.

In other words, use your thank you opportunity as a last marketing tool in order to gain a competitive distinction.

Here are a few things you can do to take advantage of the follow up (thank you) opportunity. Remember that now you have "insider" information you did not prior to the interview – don't waste it.

When Your Interviewer Shared a Concern

If during the interview process you were told the perfect candidate must meet XYZ and you discussed your lack in one of these areas – you need to talk about this again! Concisely bring it up, reiterate why this would not be a problem, and, in fact, promote how despite this "weakness" you are the PERFECT candidate.

When You Did Not Say What You Should Have Said

At times, we reflect and in retrospect recognize where we failed. Well, this is your opportunity. Bring up the topic and say you would like to elaborate, you would like to expand; you had time to think about this and want to convey the following.

When You Think You Sensed Apprehension

This is a bit risky because you could be wrong. Yet, what is life if not risky? If you are very good at ascertaining needs and you KNOW you identified a problem, "smooth" it out! Please do not say you think the interviewer did not understand… you NEVER want to convey you assume to know what others think but you can discuss what YOU failed to communicate.

You can state you would like to clarify a point you wish you had emphasized.

When You Really Just Want to Say, 'Thank You'

There are times when you were FANTASTIC during an interview and you sincerely just want to say, "Thanks!"

Nevertheless, you don't know how your competition performed and you are not privy as to what kind of Thank You letter they are preparing. So, in this case, thank them but fortify your candidacy even further. You could…

• Accentuate three of your top qualifications as discussed during the interview. Now you have more information than you did prior to the interview – put it to work for you! Connect your qualifications with employer needs expressed during the interview.
• Bring up information they shared about the company and express how much more interested you became.
• Sell them again on the bottom-line goal they need to achieve via your employment. Seal the deal by promising to deliver.

Keep this thank you letter concise.

While a sales tool, it does not have to be as elaborate as your resume or cover letter.

Remember, the entire job search process is a strategic marketing effort; leverage every tool and maximize every opportunity.

Thanks to Rosa Elizabeth Vargas / Careerealism
http://www.careerealism.com/say-thank-you-letter/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+careerealism+%28CAREEREALISM%29

To Get Uninterrupted Daily Article(s) / Review(s) Updates; Kindly Subscribe To This BlogSpot:- http://ZiaullahKhan.Blogspot.com/ Via "RSS Feed" Or " Email Subscription" Or "Knowledge Center Yahoo Group".
Amazon Magazine Subscriptions	Amazon Books	Amazon Kindle Store
Amazon Everyday Low Prices, Sales, Deals, Bargains, Discounts, Best-Sellers, Gifts, Household Consumer Products

 

 

Workplace Bullying: What Can You Do?

It's hard to pinpoint how it started. Maybe it was when you saw your manager's assistant noting those rare occasions when you came in 10 minutes late. Or maybe it was the time the boss half-jokingly trashed your performance -- in front of her higher-up.

There now seems no end to your tormentor's campaign of psychological harassment and personal and professional destruction -- aimed squarely at you. The nitpicking, the demeaning comments, the misleading digs and full-blown lies have all come together to exact their intended effect: to make you quit or get fired.

This is the ugly picture of bullying in the American workplace, painted by workers who describe themselves as targets and by the professionals who advocate for them. "My supervisor would take my case files to inspect them, and then write me up at the end of the day because the files weren't complete," says a former employee of a California social-services nonprofit. "He undermined me all around, which is not what a good supervisor does."

Are You Being Targeted?

 

According to The Workplace Bullying Institute Web site, telltale signs you're being bullied at work manifest themselves both in and outside the office. Just a few include apprehension about going to work; agitation and anxiety while you're there; surprise, agenda-less meetings where you're humiliated; never being left alone to do your job; and false accusations of incompetence.

 

Psychological Abuse

 

The essence of workplace bullying is to twist political and social power to inflict psychological abuse on a carefully chosen target. But the vast majority of such incidents are not illegal in the US, according to Gary Namie, PhD, president of The Workplace Bullying Institute in Bellingham, Washington, and author of The Bully at Work.

Thirty-five percent of American workers report being bullied at work, according to a 2010 Workplace Bullying Institute survey conducted by Zogby International. Sixty-two percent of bullies are men; 58 percent of the targets are women. However, women bullies target other women in 80 percent of the cases. Employers and workers can both play roles to prevent or stop bullying, which can destroy careers and lives.

Management Vigilance

Companies should be concerned about bullying, if for no other reason than its potential to damage the bottom line. "Employers are frustrated with turnover and disruption caused by bullies," Namie says. It often costs a company tens of thousands of dollars to recruit, hire and train a new employee to replace a bullied worker who left.

What should companies do to prevent psychological abuse among workers? As with any form of harassment, management's vigilance is key.

"The employer should be close enough to day-to-day activity to recognize and appropriately inquire about intimidation going on," says Craig Pratt, an HR consultant and coauthor of Investigating Workplace Harassment: How to Be Fair, Thorough, and Legal.

But such awareness won't necessarily end bullying. "Even in the best of circumstances, there will be people who behave badly," says Kim Vosburg, director of human resources for Gene B. Glick Co., an Indianapolis property-management firm. "The senior HR manager must let the bully know that that behavior will not be tolerated, period."

But be aware that employers are out to protect themselves. Often, their chief legal concern is avoiding any backlash that could result from taking action against an employee accused of bullying, says Karen Karr, special counsel at Steptoe & Johnson LLP in Phoenix. "If some harm does come to the bullied person and the employer could have prevented it, there's some liability, generally covered by workers' comp," she explains.

Pushing Back Easier Said Than Done

 

It's easy to say that targets should respond aggressively to their bullies, but it's not always possible. "A lot of people who are targeted can't fight back," Namie says. "They don't have it in them."

The alternative is to involve human resources, a higher manager or an outside advocate, such as a consultant or lawyer. But don't confide in anyone close to the bully -- that could make matters worse. And make sure you document the abuse.

If you're being bullied, leaving your job is sometimes the only way to salvage your physical and mental health. "My boss was killing me -- destroying my health," says a technical writer bullied out of her job. "I had three heart attacks during that time."

If you leave, tell the powers that be why. "The nature of the departure is what predicts your health," Namie explains. Bullied workers who go out fighting are likely to get past the nightmare relatively quickly and move on to a better work situation. "If you skulk away in silence, the bully gets to be the oral historian," he says.

Thanks to John Rossheim, Monster Senior Contributing Writer / Career Advice Monster / Monster
http://career-advice.monster.com/in-the-office/workplace-issues/workplace-bullying-what-can-you-do/article.aspx?WT.mc_n=CRMUS000666

To Get Uninterrupted Daily Article(s) / Review(s) Updates; Kindly Subscribe To This BlogSpot:- http://ZiaullahKhan.Blogspot.com/ Via "RSS Feed" Or " Email Subscription" Or "Knowledge Center Yahoo Group".
Amazon Magazine Subscriptions	Amazon Books	Amazon Kindle Store
Amazon Everyday Low Prices, Sales, Deals, Bargains, Discounts, Best-Sellers, Gifts, Household Consumer Products

 

 

Four Things That Can Send Your Resume Into The Trash

You may be the perfect fit for a job -- but a hiring manager is never going to find that out if he trashes your resume after a mere glance. Even in this age of online professional networking, a great resume is still the foundation of a successful job search.  

It's common knowledge that spelling errors and grammatical bloopers are trash triggers (and these simple mistakes top many recruiters' lists of resume pet peeves). But is there anything else that job seekers are unwittingly doing wrong? We asked some recruiting managers and career experts about the resume errors that cause them to crumple and toss a resume at first look -- and some of their answers may surprise you.

1. Your Resume Is Badly Formatted

Looks matter. Career expert Abby Kohut lists misaligned indentations and double spaces as a couple of the things that make a resume start to look like it belongs in the garbage. The fix? Use tabs for indents, and search your document for stray double spaces.

Also beware of being too creative. "I don't like it when I receive resumes with funky fonts," says Mona Abdel-Halim, co-founder of the Web-based resume tool Resunate, who echoed other experts we spoke to. "It is not professional and it makes the resume harder to read." When choosing resume fonts, opt ones that are widely used and readable, such as Calibri or Arial, and use no more than two fonts with their associated bold and italic styles.

2. Your Resume Is Immature

Other hiring managers we talked to said they had immediately trashed resumes with pictures on them -- for example, of cartoon character Bart Simpson (in the case of one applicant for a technical writing job) or of a kitten (an applicant for a customer service job). Cute resume additions like these are for kids -- not professionals.

3. Your Resume Is Too Templated

Longtime recruiter Mike Monroe says that unaltered, familiar resume templates from word-processing programs annoy him. "This won't automatically put you in the trash, but it tells me that you have put less thought into your resume than your competition," he says.

Jessica Campbell, an HR manager for talent agency Voices.com, says one of her pet peeves is "when a candidate has used a template resume," but hasn't updated it before sending it. (And if you use Word's Track Changes feature to edit your resume, make sure to accept all changes in the final version before submitting it.)

To prevent your resume from ending up in the trash for this reason, customize your resume for each job you apply for using the language of the job ad and highlighting your most relevant experience.

"When the resume is not tailored to the position, it shows you don't really understand what the employer is looking for and are just hoping your resume fits some of the criteria," says career expert Heather Huhman, author of Lies, Damned Lies & Internships: The Truth About Getting from Classroom to Cubicle. "To avoid this mistake, show the employer how you fit those [criteria] through your previous experience, skills and expertise."

4. Your Resume Is Sneaky

Kohut says she immediately distrusts people whose resumes have no dates on them. "Gaps are not a problem," she says. "The problem is when you try to be deceptive."

David S. Williams, founder and CEO of salary consultancy SpringRaise, agrees, saying that if you are or have been unemployed, don't try to hide it. "You may be doing yourself a disservice because you may be a strong candidate for a position, but you tried to hide your current status," he says.

A better tactic is to be straightforward on your resume, and then use your cover letter to tell the story of your career's progress -- including information about how you maximized your time away from the 9-to-5 routine. And do remember to write a cover letter -- not doing so is another guaranteed way to get your resume thrown into the trash, according to the experts.

 

Thanks to Charles Purdy, Monster Senior Editor / Career Advice Monster / Monster
http://career-advice.monster.com/resumes-cover-letters/resume-writing-tips/resume-mistakes-pet-peeves/article.aspx?WT.mc_n=CRMUS000666

 

To Get Uninterrupted Daily Article(s) / Review(s) Updates; Kindly Subscribe To This BlogSpot:- http://ZiaullahKhan.Blogspot.com/ Via "RSS Feed" Or " Email Subscription" Or "Knowledge Center Yahoo Group".
Amazon Magazine Subscriptions	Amazon Books	Amazon Kindle Store
Amazon Everyday Low Prices, Sales, Deals, Bargains, Discounts, Best-Sellers, Gifts, Household Consumer Products

 

 

24 Outrageous Facts About Taxes In The United States That Will Blow Your Mind

The U.S. tax code is a complete and utter abomination and it needs to be thrown out entirely.  Nobody in their right mind would ever read the whole thing – it is over 3 million words long.  Each year, Americans spend billions of hours and hundreds of billions of dollars trying to comply with federal tax requirements.  Sadly, it is the honest, hard working Americans in the middle class that always get hit the hardest.  The tax code is absolutely riddled with loopholes that big corporations and the ultra-wealthy use to minimize their tax burdens as much as possible.  Many poor people do not pay any income taxes at all.  The dishonest are rewarded for cheating on their taxes (if they can get away with it) and the ultra-wealthy have moved trillions of dollars to offshore tax havens where they can avoid U.S. taxation altogether.  Our system is incredibly unfair to the millions of hard working people in the middle class and upper middle class that drag themselves out of bed and go to work each day and try to do the right thing.  In addition, the current U.S. tax system is incredibly inefficient, it diverts a tremendous amount of resources away from more valuable economic activities, and it has chased thousands of businesses and trillions of dollars out of the United States.  The U.S. tax code is such a complete and utter mess at this point that it can never be "fixed".  The only rational thing to do is to abolish it completely, and any politician that tells you otherwise is lying to you.

The following are 24 outrageous facts about taxes in the United States that will blow your mind….

1 - The U.S. tax code is now 3.8 million words long.  If you took all of William Shakespeare's works and collected them together, the entire collection would only be about 900,000 words long.

2 - According to the National Taxpayers Union, U.S. taxpayers spend more than 7.6 billion hours complying with federal tax requirements.  Imagine what our society would look like if all that time was spent on more economically profitable activities.

3 - 75 years ago, the instructions for Form 1040 were two pages long.  Today, they are 189 pages long.

4 - There have been 4,428 changes to the tax code over the last decade.  It is incredibly costly to change tax software, tax manuals and tax instruction booklets for all of those changes.

5 - According to the National Taxpayers Union, the IRS currently has 1,999different publications, forms, and instruction sheets that you can download from the IRS website.

6 - Our tax system has become so complicated that it is almost impossible to file your taxes correctly.  For example, back in 1998 Money Magazine had 46 different tax professionals complete a tax return for a hypothetical household.  All 46 of them came up with a different result.

7 - In 2009, PC World had five of the most popular tax preparation software websites prepare a tax return for a hypothetical household.  All five of them came up with a different result.

8 - The IRS spends $2.45 for every $100 that it collects in taxes.

9 - According to The Tax Foundation, the average American has to work until April 17th just to pay federal, state, and local taxes.  Back in 1900, "Tax Freedom Day" came on January 22nd.

10 - When the U.S. government first implemented a personal income tax back in 1913, the vast majority of the population paid a rate of just 1 percent, and the highest marginal tax rate was just 7 percent.

11 - Residents of New Jersey pay $1.64 in taxes for every $1.00 of federal spending that they get back.

12 - The United States is the only nation on the planet that tries to tax citizens on what they earn in foreign countries.

13 - According to Forbes, the 400 highest earning Americans pay an average federal income tax rate of just 18 percent.

14 - Warren Buffett had an effective tax rate of just 17.4 percent for 2010.

15 - The top 20 percent of all income earners in the United States payapproximately 86 percent of all federal income taxes.

16 - Sadly, as Bill Whittle has shown, you could take every single pennythat every American earns above $250,000 and it would only fund about 38 percent of the federal budget.

17 - The United States has the highest corporate tax rate in the world (35 percent).  In Ireland, the corporate tax rate is only 12.5 percent.  This is causing thousands of corporations to move operations out of the United States and into other countries.

18 - Some tax havens are doing a booming business in setting up sham headquarters for U.S. corporations.  For example, the city of Zug, Switzerland only has a population of 26,000 people but it is the headquarters for 30,000 companies.

19 - In 1950, corporate taxes accounted for about 30 percent of all federal revenue.  In 2012, corporate taxes will account for less than 7 percent of all federal revenue.

20 - In a previous article, I discussed how many of our largest corporations make huge profits and yet pay less than nothing in taxes….

What U.S. corporations are able to get away with is absolutely amazing.

The following figures come directly out of a report by Citizens for Tax Justice.  These are combined figures for the tax years 2008, 2009 and 2010.

During those three years, all of the corporations below made a lot of money.  Yet all of them paid net taxes that were below zero for those three years combined.

How is that possible?  Well, it turns out that instead of paying in taxes to the federal government, they were actually getting money back.

So for these corporations, their rate of taxation was actually below zero.

If you have not seen these before, you are going to have a hard time believing some of these statistics…..

*Honeywell* Profits: ---  $4.9 billion --- Taxes: -$34 million

*Fed Ex* Profits: --- $3 billion --- Taxes: -$23 million

*Wells Fargo* --- Profits: $49.37 billion --- Taxes: -$681 million

*Boeing* --- Profits: $9.7 billion --- Taxes: -$178 million

*Verizon* --- Profits: $32.5 billion --- Taxes: -$951 million

*DuPont* --- Profits: $2.1 billion --- Taxes -$72 million

*American Electric Power* --- Profits: $5.89 billion --- Taxes -$545 million

*General Electric* --- Profits: $7.7 billion --- Taxes: -$4.7 billion

Are you starting to get the picture?

21 - Exxon-Mobil paid $15 billion in taxes in 2009, but not a single penny went to the U.S. government.

22 - Many wealthy Americans hide enormous amounts of money outside the country in order to avoid paying taxes.  According to the IMF, a total of 18 trillion dollars is currently being hidden in offshore banks.

23 - The number of traffic accidents spikes each year right around April 15th.  The following is from a recent Bloomberg article….

Deaths from traffic accidents around April 15, traditionally the last day to file individual income taxes in the U.S., rose 6 percent on average on each of the last 30 years of tax filing days compared with a day during the week prior and a week later, according to research published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

24 - Most of the tax debate is focused on income taxes, but the truth is that Americans pay dozens of other taxes every single year.  The following are just a few of the taxes that many Americans pay….

#1 Building Permit Taxes

#2 Capital Gains Taxes

#3 Cigarette Taxes

#4 Court Fines (indirect taxes)

#5 Dog License Taxes

#6 Federal Unemployment Taxes

#7 Fishing License Taxes

#8 Food License Taxes

#9 Gasoline Taxes

#10 Gift Taxes

#11 Hunting License Taxes

#12 Inheritance Taxes

#13 Inventory Taxes

#14 IRS Interest Charges (tax on top of tax)

#15 IRS Penalties (tax on top of tax)

#16 Liquor Taxes

#17 Luxury Taxes

#18 Marriage License Taxes

#19 Medicare Taxes

#20 Property Taxes

#21 Recreational Vehicle Taxes

#22 Toll Booth Taxes

#23 Sales Taxes

#24 Self-Employment Taxes

#25 School Taxes

#26 Septic Permit Taxes

#27 Service Charge Taxes

#28 Social Security Taxes

#29 State Unemployment Taxes (SUTA)

#30 Telephone Federal Excise Taxes

#31 Telephone Federal Universal Service Fee Taxes

#32 Telephone Minimum Usage Surcharge Taxes

#33 Telephone State And Local Taxes

#34 Tire Taxes

#35 Toll Bridge Taxes

#36 Toll Tunnel Taxes

#37 Traffic Fines (indirect taxation)

#38 Utility Taxes

#39 Vehicle License Registration Taxes

#40 Vehicle Sales Taxes

#41 Workers Compensation Taxes

When you account for all forms of taxation on the federal, state and local levels there are many Americans that pay out more than half of their incomes in taxes.

We are being taxed into oblivion, and yet most Americans do not even realize that it is happening.

It is kind of like being killed by thousands of tiny cuts.

So what do all of these taxes buy us?

They buy us a massively bloated government that wastes money on some of the craziest things imaginable.

Millions of Americans work for the federal government, and yet most of them produce very little of real economic value.  The following comes from a recentNational Review article….

By 2005, the federal government employed 14.6 million people: 1.9 million civil servants, 770,000 postal workers, 1.44 million uniformed service personnel, 7.6 million contractors, and 2.9 million grantees. This amounted to a ratio of five and a half "shadow" government employees for every civil servant on the federal payroll. Since 1999, the government had grown by over 4.5 million employees.

According to that same article, when you add in state and local government workers the numbers are even more dramatic….

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, there are 3.8 million full-time and 1.5 million part-time employees on state payrolls. Local governments add a further 11 million full-time and 3.2 million part-time personnel. This means that state and local governments combined employ 19.5 million Americans.

Yes, we do need some government.  For example, without any law enforcement at all our society would descend into complete chaos, and without any military at all we would be completely open to foreign conquest.

In order to have a stable, secure society we do need some government.

However, we definitely do not need the massively bloated government that we have today.

The truth is that most government employees are a drain on the system.  Most of them just push paper around.  I used to work in Washington D.C. so I know what pushing paper around is all about.

And as I wrote about yesterday, there are millions of other Americans that enjoy a comfortable existence at the expense of the federal government without doing any work whatsoever.

Of course the biggest welfare recipients of all are the big corporations.  All forms of corporate welfare should be eliminated immediately.

When are U.S. taxpayers going to get sick and tired of paying for all of this?

Every single year, the federal government, state governments and local governments drain massive amounts of desperately needed money from hard working middle class families.

Then they take that money and spend it on incredibly foolish things.

When are American voters going to stand up and boldly declare that they have been taxed enough already and they aren't going to take it anymore?

The current tax code is completely and utterly broken and it is beyond repair.

Unfortunately, neither the Republicans or the Democrats are proposing that we should get rid of it.

So we are just going to continue to get more of the same year after year, and it is the middle class that will feel the pain.

Thanks to The Economic Collapse Blog / Yolo Hub
http://www.yolohub.com/economy/24-outrageous-facts-about-taxes-in-the-united-states-that-will-blow-your-mind

To Get Uninterrupted Daily Article(s) / Review(s) Updates; Kindly Subscribe To This BlogSpot:- http://ZiaullahKhan.Blogspot.com/ Via "RSS Feed" Or " Email Subscription" Or "Knowledge Center Yahoo Group".
Amazon Magazine Subscriptions	Amazon Books	Amazon Kindle Store
Amazon Everyday Low Prices, Sales, Deals, Bargains, Discounts, Best-Sellers, Gifts, Household Consumer Products

 

 

Bonuses Boost Performance 10 Times More Than Merit Raises

ScienceDaily (Dec. 11, 2006) — Giving a 1 percent raise boosts employee job performance by roughly 2 percent, but offering that same money in the form of a bonus that is strongly linked to a job well done can improve job performance by almost 20 percent, finds a new Cornell study on the relationship between pay and performance.

"I looked at both how much people are paid and also how pay increases and bonuses are given," said Michael Sturman, associate professor at Cornell's School of Hotel Administration, who conducted the study. He found that "by changing the strength of the pay-for-performance relationship [awarding bonuses], you can improve performance by up to 19 percent."

When Sturman looked at the experience of a diversified services company, he found that an across-the-board raise in one year meant better performance in the following year and that paying above the market also produced higher performance.

"While both across-the-board raises and bonuses improved performance, bonuses stood out when pay was linked solidly to performance," he said.

Sturman noted that he studied only one company that had almost 700 employees working in the United States. "The point is, pay methods can be used strategically to improve performance," he concluded. "The payroll is not merely an expense to be reduced, but an investment that can be used strategically."

The study, "Using Your Pay System to Improve Employees' Performance: How You Pay Makes a Difference," is available at no charge from the Cornell Center for Hospitality Research, at http://www.hotelschool.cornell.edu/chr/research/centerreports.html.

Story Source: The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Cornell University. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

Thanks to ScienceDaily
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/12/061211124329.htm

To Get Uninterrupted Daily Article(s) / Review(s) Updates; Kindly Subscribe To This BlogSpot:- http://ZiaullahKhan.Blogspot.com/ Via "RSS Feed" Or " Email Subscription" Or "Knowledge Center Yahoo Group".
Amazon Magazine Subscriptions	Amazon Books	Amazon Kindle Store
Amazon Everyday Low Prices, Sales, Deals, Bargains, Discounts, Best-Sellers, Gifts, Household Consumer Products

 

 

Personality More Important Than Job Satisfaction In Determining Job Performance Success

ScienceDaily (May 23, 2007) — Job satisfaction has traditionally been thought of by most business managers to be key in determining job performance. The prevailing thought is if you are satisfied and happy in your work, you will perform better than someone who isn't happy at work.

Not so, according to a research project by Nathan Bowling, Ph.D., an assistant professor of psychology at Wright State. His findings, which will be published soon in the Journal of Vocational Behavior, show that although satisfaction and performance are related to each other, satisfaction does not cause performance.

"My study shows that a cause and effect relationship does not exist between job satisfaction and performance. Instead, the two are related because both satisfaction and performance are the result of employee personality characteristics, such as self-esteem, emotional stability, extroversion and conscientiousness," he explained.

Bowling, who specializes in industrial and organizational psychology, said his findings are based on reviewing data from several thousand employees compiled over several decades. His subjects, mostly in the United States, involved several hundred different organizations.

Bowling said the public, and even researchers, can get confused over the relationship between job satisfaction and job performance. "Just because two things are related doesn't mean that one causes the other. For example, there is a relationship between the amount of ice cream sold on a given day and the crime rate for that day. On days when ice cream sales are high, the number of crimes committed will also tend to be high. But this doesn't mean that ice cream sales cause crime. Rather, ice cream sales and crime are related because each is the result of the outdoor temperature. Similarly, satisfaction and performance are related because each is the result of employee personality."

Bowling said he was surprised that researchers have devoted little effort to the illusion of job satisfaction and performance, and he hopes his work will lead to further research in this field.

"This work has important practical implications. Simply put, workplace interventions designed to improve performance by exclusively targeting employee satisfaction are unlikely to be effective," he said. His next project is to look at how factors in the work environment influence job satisfaction and performance.

Story Source: The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Wright State University. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

Thanks to ScienceDaily
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/05/070523100053.htm

To Get Uninterrupted Daily Article(s) / Review(s) Updates; Kindly Subscribe To This BlogSpot:- http://ZiaullahKhan.Blogspot.com/ Via "RSS Feed" Or " Email Subscription" Or "Knowledge Center Yahoo Group".
Amazon Magazine Subscriptions	Amazon Books	Amazon Kindle Store
Amazon Everyday Low Prices, Sales, Deals, Bargains, Discounts, Best-Sellers, Gifts, Household Consumer Products

 

 

Top 100 Most Powerful Resume Words

In today's society your resume is the most important document you have to get yourself an interview.

Including power resume words will increase your chance of getting hired by 80%!

When a hiring manager is seeing the same old resume time and time again which includes the cliché words and phrases such as "highly dedicated individual" or "great team player" you are guaranteeing yourself your resume will be deleted.

Poorly chosen words and clichéd phrases can destroy the interest of the reader. Power words when chosen correctly can have the opposite effect of motivating and inspiring the reader

Power Resume Words will make help you stand out from your competition and increase your chances of getting hired!

Top 100 Power Resume Words

1. Advanced
2. Assigned
3. Assessed
4. Absorbed
5. Accelerated
6. Attained
7. Attracted
8. Announced
9. Appraised
10. Budgeted
11. Bolstered
12. Balanced
13. Boosted
14. Bargained
15. Benefited
16. Beneficial
17. Comply
18. Critiqued
19. Closed
20. Collaborated
21. Designed
22. Delegated
23. Demonstrated
24. Developed
25. Detected
26. Efficient
27. Enhanced
28. Excelled
29. Exceeded
30. Enriched
31. Fulfilled
32. Financed
33. Forecasted
34. Formulated
35. Generated
36. Guided
37. Granted
38. Helped
39. Hosted
40. Implemented
41. Investigated
42. Increased
43. Initiated
44. Influenced
45. Integrated
46. Innovated
47. Instituted
48. Justified
49. Listed
50. Logged
51. Maintained
52. Mentored
53. Measured
54. Multiplied
55. Negotiated
56. Observed
57. Operated
58. Obtained
59. Promoted
60. Presented
61. Programmed
62. Provided
63. Projected
64. Qualified
65. Quantified
66. Quoted
67. Recommended
68. Refine
69. Revamp
70. Reacted
71. Retained
72. Recovered
73. Reinstated
74. Rejected
75. Sustained
76. Skilled
77. Saved
78. Scheduled
79. Supported
80. Secured
81. Simplified
82. Screened
83. Segmented
84. Streamlined
85. Strengthened
86. Triumphed
87. Troubleshot
88. Taught
89. Tutored
90. Translated
91. Trained
92. Uncovered
93. United
94. Unified
95. Updated
96. Upgraded
97. Validated
98. Viewed
99. Worldwide
100. Witnessed

RedStarResume has successfully written hundreds of professional resumes for candidates across the globe. Their resume writing service generates unique job searches to match the goals of their clients and to help them land jobs.

 

Thanks to Red Star Resume / Careerealism
http://www.careerealism.com/top-resume-words/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+careerealism+%28CAREEREALISM%29

 

To Get Uninterrupted Daily Article(s) / Review(s) Updates; Kindly Subscribe To This BlogSpot:- http://ZiaullahKhan.Blogspot.com/ Via "RSS Feed" Or " Email Subscription" Or "Knowledge Center Yahoo Group".
Amazon Magazine Subscriptions	Amazon Books	Amazon Kindle Store
Amazon Everyday Low Prices, Sales, Deals, Bargains, Discounts, Best-Sellers, Gifts, Household Consumer Products

 

 

Los Angeles Times

Los Angeles Times

Front page from October 21, 2008
Type	Daily newspaper
Format	Broadsheet
Owner	Tribune Company
Publisher	Eddy Hartenstein[1]
Editor	Russ Stanton
Founded	December 4, 1881
Language	English
Headquarters	202 West 1st Street Los Angeles, California 90012
Circulation	723,181 Daily 1,019,388 Sunday[2]
ISSN	0458-3035
Official website	latimes.com

The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country.^[3]

History

See also: List of Los Angeles Times publishers

Otis Era

The Times was first published on December 4, 1881, as the Los Angeles Daily Times under the direction of Nathan Cole Jr. and Thomas Gardiner. It was printed at the Mirror printing plant, owned by Jesse Yarnell and T.J. Caystile. Unable to pay the printing bill, Cole and Gardiner turned the paper over to the Mirror Company. In the meantime, S.J. Mathes had joined the firm, and it was at his insistence that the Times continued publication. In July 1882, Harrison Gray Otis moved from Santa Barbara to become the paper's editor.^[4] Otis made the Times a financial success.

Historian Kevin Starr wrote that Otis was a businessman "capable of manipulating the entire apparatus of politics and public opinion for his own enrichment."^[5] Otis's editorial policy was based on civic boosterism, extolling the virtues of Los Angeles and promoting its growth. Toward those ends, the paper supported efforts to expand the city's water supply by acquiring the watershed of the Owens Valley, an effort fictionalized in the Roman Polanski movie Chinatown, which is also covered in California Water Wars.

Rubble of the L.A. Times building after the 1910 bombing

The efforts of the Times to fight local unions led to the October 1, 1910, bombing of its headquarters, killing twenty-one people. Two union leaders, James and Joseph McNamara, were charged. The American Federation of Labor hired noted trial attorney Clarence Darrow to represent the brothers, who eventually pleaded guilty.^[6]

Chandler Era

Upon Otis's death in 1917, his son-in-law, Harry Chandler, took control as publisher of the Times. Harry Chandler was succeeded in 1944 by his son, Norman Chandler, who ran the paper during the rapid growth of post-war Los Angeles. Norman's wife, Dorothy Buffum Chandler, became active in civic affairs and led the effort to build the Los Angeles Music Center, whose main concert hall was named the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in her honor. Family members are buried at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery near Paramount Studios. The site also includes a memorial to the Times Building bombing victims.

The paper was a founding co-owner of then-CBS turned independent television station KTTV. It became that station's sole owner in 1951, and remained so until it was sold to Metromedia in 1963.

Times vending machine featuring news of the 1984 Summer Olympics

The fourth generation of family publishers, Otis Chandler, held that position from 1960 to 1980. Otis Chandler sought legitimacy and recognition for his family's paper, often forgotten in the power centers of the Northeastern United States due to its geographic and cultural distance. He sought to remake the paper in the model of the nation's most respected newspapers, notably The New York Times and Washington Post. Believing that the newsroom was "the heartbeat of the business",^[7] Otis Chandler increased the size and pay of the reporting staff and expanded its national and international reporting. In 1962, the paper joined with the Washington Post to form the Los Angeles Times-Washington Post News Service to syndicate articles from both papers for other news organizations.

During the 1960s, the paper won four Pulitzer Prizes, more than its previous nine decades combined.

A Pulitzer Prize went to Times sportswriter Jim Murray in 1990.

The paper's early history and subsequent transformation was chronicled in an unauthorized history Thinking Big (1977, ISBN 0-399-11766-0), and was one of four organizations profiled by David Halberstam in The Powers That Be (1979, ISBN 0-394-50381-3; 2000 reprint ISBN 0-252-06941-2). It has also been the whole or partial subject of nearly thirty dissertations in communications or social science in the past four decades.^[8]

Modern Era

Los Angeles Times building, viewed from the corner of 1st and Spring streets

The Times was beset in the first decade of the 21st century by a change in ownership, a bankruptcy, a rapid succession of editors, reductions in staff, decreases in paid circulation and the need to increase its Web presence.

Pulitzer Prizes

The Times won a Pulitzer Prize in 2009.^[9] Reporters Bettina Boxall and Julie Cart won the Explanatory Reporting prize "for their fresh and painstaking exploration into the cost and effectiveness of attempts to combat the growing menace of wildfires across the western United States."^[10] Previously it had won thirty-eight Pulitzers, including four in editorial cartooning, and one each in spot news reporting for the 1965 Watts Riots and the 1992 Los Angeles riots.^[11] In 2004, the paper won five prizes, which is the third-most by any paper in one year (behind The New York Times in 2002 (7) and The Washington Post in 2008 (6)).

Competition and rivalry

Partial front page of the Los Angeles Times for Monday, April 24, 1922, displaying coverage of a Ku Klux Klan raid in an L.A. suburb

In the 19th century, the chief competition to the Times was the Los Angeles Herald, followed by the smaller Los Angeles Tribune. In December 1903, newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst began publishing the Los Angeles Examiner as a direct morning competitor to the Times.^[12] In the 20th Century, the Los Angeles Express was an afternoon competitor, as was Manchester Boddy's Los Angeles Daily News, a Democratic newspaper.^[13]

By the mid-1940s, the Times was the leading newspaper in terms of circulation in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. In 1948, it launched the Los Angeles Mirror, an afternoon tabloid, to compete with both the Daily News and the merged Herald-Express. In 1954, the Mirror absorbed the Daily News. The combined paper, the Mirror-News, ceased publication in 1962, when the Hearst afternoon Herald-Express was merged with the morning Los Angeles Examiner.^[14]

In 1989, the Times's last rival for the Los Angeles daily newspaper market, the Los Angeles Herald Examiner, went out of business, making Los Angeles virtually a one-newspaper city, except for smaller dailies in places like Pasadena, the San Fernando Valley, Santa Monica, Long Beach, and Torrance and the South Bay.^{[citation needed]}

Special editions

Midwinter and midsummer

Midwinter

For 69 years, from 1885^[15] until 1954, the Times issued on New Year's Day a special annual Midwinter Number or Midwinter Edition that extolled the virtues of Southern California. At first it was called the "Trade Number," and in 1886 it featured a special press run of "extra scope and proportions"; that is, "a twenty-four page paper, and we hope to make it the finest exponent of this [Southern California] country that ever existed."^[16] Two years later, the edition had grown to "forty-eight handsome pages (9x15 inches), [which] stitched for convenience and better preservation," was "equivalent to a 150-page book."^[17] The last use of the phrase Trade Number was in 1895, when the edition had grown to thirty-six pages split among three separate sections.^[18]

The Midwinter Number drew acclamations from other newspapers, including this one from the Kansas City Star in 1923:

It is made up of five magazines with a total of 240 pages — the maximum size possible under the postal regulations. It goes into every detail of information about Los Angeles and Southern California that the heart could desire. It is virtually a cyclopedia on the subject. It drips official statistics. In addition it verifies the statistics with a profusion of illustration. . . . it is a remarkable combination of guidebook and travel magazine.^[19]

In 1948 the Midwinter Edition, as it was then called, had grown to "7 big picture magazines in beautiful rotogravure reproduction."^[20] The last mention of the Midwinter Edition was in a Times advertisement on January 10, 1954.^[21]

Midsummer

Between 1891 and 1895, the Times also issued a similar Midsummer Number, the first one with the theme "The Land and Its Fruits.".^[22] Because of its issue date in September, the edition was in 1891 called the Midsummer Harvest Number.^[23]

Zoned editions and subsidiaries

Main article: Los Angeles Times suburban sections

In the 1990s, the Times published various editions catering to far-flung areas. Editions included a Ventura County edition, an Inland Empire edition, a San Diego County edition, and a "National Edition" that was distributed to Washington, D.C. and the San Francisco Bay Area. The National Edition was closed in December 2004.^{[citation needed]}

Some of these editions were folded into Our Times, a group of community supplements included in editions of the regular Los Angeles Metro newspaper.^{[citation needed]}

A subsidiary, Times Community Newspapers, publishes the Burbank Leader, Coastline Pilot of Laguna Beach, Crescenta Valley Sun, Daily Pilot of Newport Beach and Costa Mesa, Glendale News-Press, Huntington Beach Independent and La Cañada Valley Sun.^[24]

Features

Among the Times's staff are columnists Steve Lopez and Patt Morrison, music critics Robert Hillburn and Randy Lewis, film critic Kenneth Turan and entertainment industry columnist Patrick Goldstein. Controversial Restaurant Critic S. Irene Viribila is known for her"food and restaurant training in France" this included her stage as the toilet lady at Tour d'Argent on the Left Bank. She was rude to my auntie Marge and refused to give her a towel until she was tipped. I understand that after her stage in the ladies room, she was promoted to second coat check girl but was fired when she misplaced Zsa Zsa Gabor's fur coat. Later she was arrested and deported for trying to sell the same coat at a second hand store on the Rue de Bac. Sports columnists include Bill Plaschke, who is also a panelist on ESPN's Around the Horn, T.J. Simers, Kurt Streeter and Helene Elliott, the first female sportswriter to be inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame. Former sports editor Bill Dwyre is also a columnist.

One of the Times's features is "Column One," a feature that appears daily on the front page to the left-hand side. Established in September 1968, it is a place for the weird and the interesting; in the How Far Can a Piano Fly? (a compilation of Column One stories) introduction, Patt Morrison writes that the column's purpose is to elicit a "Gee, that's interesting, I didn't know that" type of reaction.

The Times also embarked on a number of investigative journalism pieces. A series in December 2004 on the King-Drew Medical Center in Los Angeles led to a Pulitzer Prize and a more thorough coverage of the hospital's troubled history. Lopez wrote a five-part series on the civic and humanitarian disgrace of Los Angeles' Skid Row, which became the focus of the 2009 motion picture, The Soloist.

Promotion

Book prizes

Since 1980, the Times has awarded annual book prizes. The categories are now biography, current interest, fiction, first fiction, history, mystery/thriller, poetry, science and technology, and young adult fiction. In addition, the Robert Kirsch Award is presented annually to a living author with a substantial connection to the American West whose contribution to American letters deserves special recognition".^[25]

Festival of Books

2009 Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, campus of the University of California, Los Angeles

Main article: Los Angeles Times Festival of Books

The annual Los Angeles Times Festival of Books in association with the University of California, Los Angeles was started by the Times in 1996. It has panel discussions, exhibits, and stages during two days at the end of April each year.^[26]

Film Festival

The Times also sponsors The Film Independent's Los Angeles Film Festival, which is held at the end of June in Westwood Village.

Notable employees

Writers and editors

J. A. Adande, sports columnist Martin Bernheimer, Pulitzer Prize for Criticism in 1982 Bettina Boxall, 2009 Pulitzer Prize Julie Cart, 2009 Pulitzer Prize Borzou Daragahi, Beirut bureau chief Barbara Demick, Beijing bureau chief, author Bob Drogin, national political reporter Bill Dwyre, sports editor Richard Eder, Pulitzer Prize for Criticism in 1987 Helene Elliott, sports journalist Carl Greenberg, political writer L. D. Hotchkiss, editor Philip P. Kerby, Pulitzer Prize for Criticism in 1976 Rick Loomis, reporter, Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting in 2007 Steve Lopez, columnist Al Martinez, columnist Usha Lee McFarling, reporter, Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting in 2007 Doyle McManus, Washington bureau chief Alan Miller, Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting in 2003 J. R. Moehringer, national correspondent, 2000 Pulitzer Prize Patt Morrison, columnist Kim Murphy, reporter, 2005 Pulitzer Prize Jim Murray (1919–1998), sports columnist, 1989 Pulitzer Prize

Sonia Nazario, feature writing, 2003 Pulitzer Prize Dan Neil, columnist, Pulitzer Prize for Criticism in 2004 Ross Newhan, sports Jack Nelson, (1929–2009), political reporter, Pulitzer Prize for Local Reporting in 1960[27] Bill Plaschke, sports columnist Michael Parks, reporter, 1987 Pulitzer Prize Mike Penner (1957–2009) (Christine Daniels), sportswriter Alex Raksin, editorial writing, 2002 Pulitzer Prize Howard Rosenberg, Pulitzer Prize for Criticism in 1985 Kevin Sack, Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting in 2003 Lee Shippey (1884–1969), columnist David Shaw (1943–2005), Pulitzer Prize for Criticism in 1991 Gaylord D. Shaw, reporter, 1978 Pulitzer Prize Barry Siegel, feature writing, 2002 Pulitzer Prize Jack Smith (1916–1996), columnist Bob Sipchen, editorial writing, 2002 Pulitzer Prize Bill Stall, editorial writing, 2004 Pulitzer Prize William Tuohy, Pulitzer Prize Peter Wallsten, national political reporter Kenneth R. Weiss, Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting in 2007 David Willman, Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting in 2001

This article is copied from an article on Wikipedia® - the free encyclopedia created and edited by online user community. The text was not checked or edited by anyone on our staff. Although the vast majority of the Wikipedia® encyclopedia articles provide accurate and timely information please do not assume the accuracy of any particular article. This article is distributed under the terms of GNU Free Documentation License.

Thanks to The Free Dictionary / Farlex, Inc. http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/p/Los%20Angeles%20Times

To Get Uninterrupted Daily Article(s) / Review(s) Updates; Kindly Subscribe To This BlogSpot:- http://ZiaullahKhan.Blogspot.com/ Via "RSS Feed" Or " Email Subscription" Or "Knowledge Center Yahoo Group".
Amazon Magazine Subscriptions	Amazon Books	Amazon Kindle Store
Amazon Everyday Low Prices, Sales, Deals, Bargains, Discounts, Best-Sellers, Gifts, Household Consumer Products