From today’s New York Times online:
Spam, that annoying but ignorable scourge of the Web, has finally recovered from the jolt it received last November, when Internet backbone providers cut off McColo Corp., a California Web-hosting service that spammers were using to coordinate e-mail attacks.
The average seven-day spam volume during the latter half of March is now at roughly the same levels as October of last year—around 94 percent of all e-mail—according to anti-spam company Postini, a division of Google.
Read the entire article Spam Back to 94% of All E-Mail for more details.
If you’re reading this, be forewarned: tomorrow is April Fool’s Day…It’s always a good thing to know about ahead of time so you can BE PREPARED.
This year we might need some little prank or laugh more than ever before. So here’s a nice little suggestion from FoxBusiness.com.
A new book from Adams Media, THE ULTIMATE OFFICE PRANK BOOK by Mae B. Fired promises to make cubicle life more fun this April Fool’s Day — no matter how dire the economic outlook might be.
Whether it’s filling the vending machine with a coworker’s desk supplies, attaching fishing wire to phones and keyboards, or putting gelatin in the toilets, a good office prank can lighten the mood quicker than your boss can utter “cost-cutting controls.” Split into chapters labeled Entry-Level, Middle Management, and Executive, jokesters are entertained with over 200 increasingly dangerous pranks. A collection that is bound to improve any April Fool’s Day, THE ULTIMATE OFFICE PRANK BOOK saves the recession-dreary day.
Mae B. Fired is the pseudonym of three notorious office pranksters who found that setting out on their own business ventures was safer than risking a long career of pink slips in the corporate world.
Read the rest of the article at your own risk! And from the description printed, um, try stuff at your own risk. Please don’t say you read about it here!!!!
But seriously:
HAPPY APRIL FOOL’S DAY!
Last week, the Families and Work Institute, a nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization released a study that showed significant and surprising changes among men and women at work. The report was produced by the Families and Work Institute (www.familiesandwork.org) and funded by IBM. It is the first report issued based on data from FWI’s 2008 National Study of the Changing Workforce (NSCW), the only study of its kind to provide 30+ year comparisons (from 1977 to 2008), of life on and off the job. The report is also supplemented by other public data to provide as broad and current a picture as possible.
According to the March 26, 2009 press release for the first time, young women want just as much to advance to jobs with more responsibility as young men. Moreover, being a mother does not significantly change young women’s career ambitions.
The changes in attitude reflect women’s evolving roles in the workplace. The share of dual-earner family income contributed by women has risen to 44% and 26% of women now earn 10% or more than their husbands. At the same time, men have increased the amount of time they spend with young children and are experiencing more work-family conflict than women. These are among the findings of a newly released report entitled “Times Are Changing: Gender and Generation at Work and At Home,” which examines the evolution of work-related gender roles over the past three decades.
The press release went on to say:
The gradual increase of women in the labor force over the past half century, combined with various work life trends and economic pressures, has resulted in a shrinking gap between how men and women view their careers, family roles, and the fit between their lives on and off the job2. From the desire to take on greater responsibility at work, to how men and women share responsibilities at home, the new report highlights how differences between the genders are in many cases narrowing.
“Our findings are striking and surprising,” said Ellen Galinsky, president and co-founder of Families and Work Institute and lead author of the study. “There are many firsts in this study—the first time that younger men and women feel the same about job advancement and the first time that there is no statistically significant difference between men and women in their views of appropriate gender roles.”
“The results of this study highlight the need to understand what motivates different generations and ensure your programs meet their needs,” according to Ron Glover, Vice President, Diversity & Workforce Programs, IBM. “IBM has conducted Work/Life Surveys since 1986 and we have seen a steady increase in work/life challenges for men. Work/Life difficulty is no longer a women’s issue — it’s a people issue.”
Some of the very notable trends identified in the report include:
- Women in dual-earner couples are contributing more to family income. In 1997 women contributed an average of 39% of annual family income. That figure rose to 44% in 2008. In 2008, 26% of women living in dual-earner couples had annual earnings at least 10 percentage points higher than that of spouses/partners, up from 15% in 1997.
- Among Millennials (under 29 years old), women are just as likely as men to want jobs with greater responsibility. In 1992, 80% of men and 72% of women under the age of 29 wanted jobs with greater responsibility. Today the figure is 67% of men and 66% of women. The figure reached its low point for both genders in 1997.
- Today, there is no difference between young women with and without children in their desire to move to jobs with more responsibility. Whereas 60% of women under 29 with children and 78% of women without children wanted jobs with more responsibility in 1992, today the percentages are 69% (with children) and 66% (without children).
- Men and women are both less likely to embrace traditional gender roles. Only 41% of employees in 2008 believe it is better “if the man earns the money and the woman takes care of the home and children,” down from 64% in 1977. The drop is even more pronounced among men (74% to 42% versus 52% to 39% of women). Now there is no statistical difference between men and women in their views.
- Greater proportions of both men and women agree that employed women can be good mothers. In 1977, 49% of men agreed (strongly or somewhat) that a mother who works outside the home can have just as good a relationship with her children as a mother who does not work. Today, 67% agree. From 1977 to 2008, the percentage of women agreeing moved from 71% in to 80%. Both men and women who grew up with employed mothers exhibit greater acceptance of working mothers than those whose mothers did not work outside the home.
- Employed fathers, especially Millennials, are spending more time with children today than their age counterparts did three decades ago, where as employed mothers’ time has not changed significantly. On average employed fathers of all ages spend 3.0 hours per workday with children under 13 today compared with 2.0 hours in 1977. For employed mothers of all ages, time spent with children has remained at 3.8 hours. Today’s Millennial fathers spend 4.3 hours per workday compared with the 2.4 hours spent by their age counterparts in 1977. Mothers under 29 today average 5.0 hours compared with 4.5 hours in 1977.
- Men are taking more overall responsibility for the care of their children. In 1992, 21% of women said that their spouses or partners were taking as much or more responsibility for the care of their children as they were. By 2008, that percentage has risen to 31%.
- Interestingly, 49% of men reported taking as much or more responsibility for the children as their wives, indicating a perception gap.
- Changing gender roles appear to have increased the level of work life conflict experienced by men. Men’s work-life conflict has increased significantly from 34% in 1977 to 45% in 2008, while women’s work-life conflict has risen less dramatically and not significantly from 34% to 39%.
- Fathers in dual-earner couples experience more work life conflict than mothers . In 1977, 35% reported experiencing some or a lot of conflict. In 2008, that figure has risen to 59%. The level of conflict experienced by mothers in dual-earner families has not changed significantly during that time period (41% in 1977 and 45% in 2008).
The report on “Gender and Generation at Work and At Home” is downloadable free of charge at www.FamiliesandWork.org
These should not be dirty words these days – FUN AT WORK! But I have noticed there is a decrease in the amount of available information on this topic since the economy went bad.
But Gail Rosenblum, a columnist for the StarTribune.com of the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, is reporting on this topic:
I want to tell you about a genuinely spirited group of workers making the rest of us look bad. They’ve created a “Fun Committee.” A fun committee in these trying times? Apparently, that’s their point.
Nearly every Friday since October, the group has coaxed together as many as 40 of their 70 colleagues in the Minnetonka-based Medica Finance Department for an hourlong fun-fest. Their secret weapon? Food.
Shrimp salad. Turkey. Curried pork. Venison Sloppy Joes. Apple pie.
Financial analyst Brian Swenson, 37, one-upped everybody. He brought meat from an estimated 545-pound bear that he shot in the Beltrami Forest in 2007. Not a big fan of surprises, Swenson included a field photo of the dead bear in front of his offering, with a sign — “You are eating bear” — in case anybody missed that detail. He served it on French bread, with dipping sauce. (Chianti, unfortunately, off-limits).
One of the best outcomes of these events is who it brings together?
Millennials, Gen Xers, Boomers, Traditionals. “We all need to eat, and this bridges some of the gaps we may have in working styles.”
Read the entire article here and be sure to note that these events all are paid for by the employees themselves. Pretty clever concept if you ask me!
Looking for techniques and methods to get more done? If you can invest 3.04 minutes of time to watch a video by the Wall Street Journal’s Matthew Rivera, you’ll get some good ideas.
The video focuses on two main approaches to productivity improvement. One, called “life-hacking,” emphasizes technology and encourages the use of gadgets and software. The second, sometimes called GTD for “Getting Things Done,” emphasizes to-do lists and focusing on one task at a time.
Click here to find the article and the video.
The Wall Street Journal is running an online article entitled ‘Start Over as an Intern.” It says:
When I was in school just over a decade ago, internships were only for college students. The jobs we performed were unglamorous.
But in today’s professional world, internships have gotten a facelift, and mid-career adults are flocking to them as a way to reinvent their careers.
This could provide a nice opportunity for someone who is looking to make a career change. It listed the Center for Interim Programs in Princeton, N.J. which places mid-career professionals in short-term positions. The article also said thatemployers like Sara Lee and Goldman Sachs are welcoming interns with solid career records and transferable skills. Those internships can lead to full-time work, making a mid-career internship a good option for career changers or layoff refugees.
Could this turn out to be a help to organizations that cannot hire but need manpower?
The possibilities are large here and it does open the potential for a new way of getting qualified people into an organization. What better way is there to hire than to have had someone actually on the job?
There is a terrific article this morning on the New York Times online entitled LinkedIn Privacy Settings: What You Need to Know .
Since LinkedIn doesn’t require you to share the same types of personal information as you do on Facebook, the service’s privacy settings appear to be much more straightforward than its less business-oriented competitor. But if you leave the default settings in place, you might be surprised to know what information you make public on LinkedIn.
If you are a LinkedIn user, be sure to take a couple of minutes and read this. You can find it right here.
Microsoft Corp is set to publicly launch Internet Explorer 8 sometime around noon, today, Thursday, March 19th.
The application, an integral part of Microsoft’s eagerly awaited Windows 7 operating system, can be downloaded from Microsoft’s website from 9 a.m. Pacific time, free for people using licensed Microsoft operating systems.
Microsoft said IE8 – Internet Explorer 8 – will run with Windows Vista, its latest operating system, and also Windows XP.
New features include:
Google Voice could revolutionize telephones. It unifies your phone numbers, transcribes your voice mail, blocks telemarketers and elevates text messages to first-class communication citizens.
Currently is open only to GrandCentral users. GrandCentral was the company that Google purchased in 2007 that set up these systems.
What can it do for you?
According the the google blog:
The new application improves the way you use your phone. You can get transcripts of your voicemail (see the video below) and archive and search all of the SMS text messages you send and receive. You can also use the service to make low-priced international calls and easily access Goog-411 directory assistance.
As you may know, GrandCentral offers many great features, including a single number to ring your home, work, and mobile phones, a central voicemail inbox that you could access on the web, and the ability to screen calls by listening in live as callers leave a voicemail. You’ll find these features, and more, in the Google Voice preview.
The Wall Street Journal reported today that some companies are unveiling new benefits such as child-care centers, backup child care, scholarships for employees’ kids, concierge services, adoption benefits and expanded health care.
Why now in this economy?
These companies have an unusually long-term view and a refreshing note of optimism that underlies it. Staffs are already lean, and eventually the economy will rebound. If companies lose more workers, they fear being too understaffed to cash in when that day comes.
Consider this:
A study cited last year in Harvard Business Review said even a small layoff shocks and demoralizes survivors so much that many walk out the door at the first opportunity, raising voluntary quit rates an average 31% above previous levels. Source
Installing these programs now can help eliminate that concern.
A few of the companies mentioned included Intel, Discovery Communications, Brown-Forman, USAA, Yum! Brands and Cardinal Health.