Archive for the ‘Human Resources’ Category

I can’t help but wonder what we’re going to hear about Freddie Mac that was so terrible he felt he needed to kill himself?

David Kellermann, the acting chief financial officer of Freddie Mac, was found dead at his home Wednesday morning in what broadcast reports said was an apparent suicide.

WUSA-TV and WTOP Radio reported that David Kellermann was found dead in his Northern Virginia home. The 41-year-old Kellermann has been Freddie Mac’s chief financial officer since September.

Could there be anything worse than we have already heard?

No wonder I can’t find a job.

The number of people filling new unemployment claims rose to the highest level in more than 25 years in the week ending March 28.

Seasonally adjusted initial claims was 669,000 nationally for the week, an increase of 12,000 from the previous week’s revised figure of 657,000, according to figures released Thursday by the U.S. Labor Department.

The four-week moving average was 656,750, an increase of 6,500 from the previous week’s revised average of 650,250.

It’s amazing what happens when we enforce the law.

Wages and employment increased for legal workers after raids on six Swift & Co. meat-packing plants in several U.S. states in 2006, a study indicated.

Noting that the plants raided were back in production within five months, Jerry Kammer of the Center for Immigration Studies said there was “good evidence” that the number of U.S.-born workers increased, concluding that the plants “could operate without the presence of illegal workers,” The Hill reported.

So much for the “jobs Americans don’t want to do”, huh?

Being part of that 8.1% I have to say, at this point, it’s all relative, isn’t it?

The U.S. unemployment rate hit a 25-year high of 8.1 percent in February as employers buckling under the strain of a recession that shows no sign of ending axed 651,000 jobs, government data showed on Friday.

Adding to the gloom, a combined 161,000 more jobs were lost in January and December than previously believed. February’s decline in non-farm payrolls was close to economists’ forecast for a 648,000 drop.

The Georgia Deparment of Labor says the state’s unemployment rate hit a record high in January.

Department numbers show the state’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate hit 8.6 percent last month. That’s the highest seasonally adjusted rate recorded in Georgia since 1976.

State Labor Commissioner Michael Thurmond said the state is “sailing in uncharted economic waters” and is suffering “a severe economic downturn.”

The highest level since 1976. How soon til things turn around?

I am now a statistic. This week’s number of new claims for unemployment benefits would be 625,999 if it wasn’t for the fact I was laid off.

The government says new claims for unemployment benefits jumped to their highest level in more than 26 years.

The Labor Department says the number of laid-off workers seeking jobless benefits rose last week to a seasonally adjusted 626,000, from the previous week’s upwardly revised figure of 591,000. The latest total is far more than analysts’ expectations of 583,000.

Verizon is clever. When buyouts like this occur, people worry about their jobs. They wonder if they will lose their job because their position will no longer be needed. It’s rather nice of Verizon to give all of their non-executive employees a one-year notice.

Verizon Wireless said Friday it has completed its $5.9 billion purchase of Little Rock, Ark.-based Alltel Corp., making Verizon the nation’s largest mobile phone company.

Verizon said Friday it will also take on $22.2 billion in Alltel debt.

Basking Ridge, N.J.-based Verizon says it will retain all Alltel employees below the executive level as the company assesses which positions need to be cut or kept under the new arrangement. When Verizon President and Chief Executive Lowell McAdam addressed an audience in Little Rock in August, he said it would take a year after closing the sale to assess employee retention.

At least they don’t have to worry for a while, right?

People have been calling for Jerry Yang to step down for months. Back when Microsoft made their initial offer to devour Yahoo, some wondered why he didn’t step down then.

Jerry Yang, the chief executive of Yahoo Inc, will step down from his role as soon as the board finds a replacement for the Internet company, Yahoo said on Monday.

Yahoo co-founder Yang, who took on the CEO role in June 2007 in an effort to turn the company around, will return to his former role as Chief Yahoo once a successor has been found.

Now he chooses to step down? How long do you think it will take before Microsoft gobbles up Yahoo now?

I love these companies that make “dual announcements“. They crack me up.

US retailer Macy’s said Wednesday it was cutting 2,300 jobs as it vies to overhaul its operations and cut costs amid a slowing economy.

Cincinnati, Ohio-based Macy’s, one of America’s best-known retailers, said the job cuts would mainly affect staff at three regional offices across the country.

“Employees laid off in this process will be provided severance benefits and outplacement assistance,” Macy’s said in a statement.

The retailer also announced it would be creating 250 new positions as part of its shake-up.

So, 2,300 people will be “let go” because the company needs to cut costs because of the slowing economy.

Yet, 250 different people will get new jobs… At Macy’s. Far be it from the powers that be to just announce 2,050 job cuts and call it a day.

Hey, if they cut that many people, who’s going to man the store when we are all out spending our “stimulus” packages?

Get a load of this story.

When he turned 18, Michael B. Elgin Jr. was a homeless father of a toddler, trying to get himself through high school while living with friends, relatives and, sometimes, in his car. Elgin did not know at the time, his lawyer says, but by failing to register for selective military service within 30 days of his 18th birthday, he broke the law.

Last year, Elgin’s employer of 18 years, the Internal Revenue Service, fired him, citing a ban on federal employment of men who have not registered, despite his exemplary record and appeals from his supervisors and co-workers. Last week, Elgin, 42, of Stoughton, challenged his dismissal in federal court in Boston on the grounds that it discriminated against him because he is a man. Women are not allowed to register.

This guy was hired by the IRS when he was 24. Just a year or so away from the upper limit of having to register in the Selective Service System. The IRS doesn’t do background checks of their applicants?

Sure, he violated the law by not registering, but they hired him 6 years into that violation. Now, it’s 18 years since they hired him, 16 since he was no longer required to register and they fire him now?

It sounds to me like someone at the IRS had it in for him, because there is no logical reason to fire someone so many years later… Except the fact that the Selective Service System guidelines clearly state,

Once you reach age 26, it’s too late to register. Even though you may not be prosecuted, you will be denied student financial assistance, Federal job training, and most Federal employment unless you can provide convincing evidence to the agency providing the benefit you are seeking, that your failure to register was not knowing and willful.

Did you catch that part? “Most federal employment”. Now all Mr. Elgin has to do was prove his failure to register was not knowingly or willful, which is impossible because everybody back then (I am his age) knew you had to register.