http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2009458359_apustecblockedofficeinternet.html

What are your thoughts?

My father lost more than $74,000 after responding to hundreds of letters in the mail. Investigators spent more than a month looking into this case. My dad took the bait after receiving hundreds of luring letters that offered the promise of prizes.

“They made a very good story. You just thought, well maybe there is something to this. They were saying, ‘You’ve won $1-million, or you’ve won $1.5-million,’ or whatever,”

The father made no mention to the sweepstakes to his son. His son said he made the startling discover while helping his dad move. Each contest said in order to collect the money you have to pay a registration fee. So the dad did. He mailed hundreds of checks to mysterious companies – companies that were identified only by initials.

His dad was receiving the letters by the dozen every day and answered nearly every one, spending more than $74,000. “He was writing four to five check books per month. “It was really incredibly hard to find out who was behind this, because they do everything possible to conceal their identity.

That’s when he called the investigators. After digging through corporate reports, we found all of the sweepstakes companies were linked to the same two men. The BBB handles cases similar to this everyday. They say while the front of the letter looks like it’s for a sweepstakes, there is a fine print paragraph on the back that explains you’re really paying for a list of sweepstakes and contests you can enter.

There are companies out there that are willing to take advantage of people. Be careful out there.

I own a retail store that carries kitchen accessories.  One day a man who walked in caught my eye.  I was not sure why, but he gave me the creeps and I felt I needed to keep an eye on him – just as soon as I finished the task at hand…    A few minutes went by and I started to walk around the store to check up on the guy.  I did not see him anywhere.  I did see two women engaged in conversation and focused on merchandise on “the kitchen gadget wall”.   As I walked around a display there he was slithering on his belly right at their feet looking up their dresses!  I yelled for my co worker to call 911 and the man jumped up and ran out the store.  The two women really had no idea what had even happened.  We refer to our friend as Inspector Gadget

So, do you think Letterman was off base when he made the joke about Palin’s teenage daughter?   See what Attorney Deborah King’s reaction is and her thoughts on jokes in the workplace.

http://www.nj.com/business/index.ssf/2009/06/jokes_on_the_job_not_a_laughin.html

Do you agree wt Deborah? Do you have stories of jokes in the workplace gone awry?   Share confidentially on this web site.

When companies are under financial pressure and there is a perceived need to take action quickly, the immediate focus is often on cutting costs, not raising income. Thus , layoffs is the typical response for companies that want to look good in the short run. But what about the less obvious and undesirable long-term effects? Aren’t employers losing the tremendous long-term investment they have made in their employees – key talent may be lost and those left behind most likely suffer from low morale and poor performance.

The next couple of weeks we will be discussing alternatives to layoffs, and hope you will comment on the discussions initiated by Bosse and Casey. Do you think deeper layoffs are productive or counter-productive? Should layoffs be a last resort, not a first choice? Do layoffs truly save money or do they ultimately increase expenses, at least in some situations? AND, what are some other more productive cost-cutting measures –alternatives to layoff? Are companies piecemealing too much! What about income-producing measures? Submit your owns storiees; the good, the bad and the ugly!

I am being piecemealed to death….a few weeks ago they took my free water allowance away. Now it looks like they may take my iphone….it won’t be long until there will be no more free hot dogs for our Friday BBQ. I am telling you man, I won’t stand for this……my motivation is going down the drain.

I think these companies may be better off facing their troubles face on….sharpen those knives, if you know what I mean. I am mad as hell and…….growwwwllllll.

We work with clients to hire for many different positions — from C-Level leadership all the way to production staff.

One of our assessments, commonly used for hourly positions, measures basic things like productivity, ability to get along with others, and likelihood of turnover. The assessment takes only 10 minutes to complete.

Our client had a candidate come in and apply for an hourly position. After they filled out the application, the candidate was asked to take the assessment, and then wait in the lobby. The results came through to the hiring manager immediately. The candidate scored a 1 out of 10 in the “getting along with others” category. The hiring manager invited the candidate back to ‘wrap up’ the process. When it was explained that they reviewed the application and felt that this role was not a good fit, the candidate literally lunged across the desk in anger at the hiring manager.

The hiring manager called us after the interview was over and expressed great relief at being able to predict this type of outcome before it was too late.

Not only was my manager in a mortgage company the worst leader of people I had worked for in my entire career, I was so happy I had already decided to leave my job when she was showing her direct reports how to forge customer signatures. You know, the complicated docs customers sometimes do not understand? Heck, in her case, maybe they neve even got to try and read them. So what was her great secet? She would simply take a doc the customer had signed, hold it up against a window and place the unsigned doc over it and trace the signature. So simplistic it’s stupid. But she was showing her staff how to do this!

I prep display windows in a department store. An executive on the merchandising and display team has a fixation with including live animals in the display window…. Really, what are they thinking?

It’s Easter – wouldn’t baby lambs be cute in the window with the merchandise? Well yes, they are adorable until that one gets sick with diarrhea – and rubs his rear all over the window! Ahh, the customers walking by thought it was so cute! It was loads of fun to clean up too.

Or Summer…. What could say summer better than a flock of Pink Flamingos? Do you know how tall Pink Flamingo’s are? Let me tell you. They are so tall, that when they poop it can – and it did – fall on the top of the kid size mannequins. Not the kind of image that the merchandising team was going for.

Sometimes it is the customer on display. In our store, the windows all connect to one another, so the crew can basically walk window to window for the whole block. One day, a woman walked past the first window. Unbeknownst to her, the back of her skirt was tucked into her panty hose – exposing a good portion of her butt – and yup, there was no underwear. Obviously a quick potty break gone bad. Of course all of us inside working on the window display were laughing hysterically, and some followed her all the way down the block trying to get her attention. She could not hear them – and do you know NO one on the sidewalk, or at the cross walk stopped to tell her about her “display”? Yes, they saw and were staring and laughing but no one said anything to her! I often wonder how she found out.

]]> http://hrundercover.com/archives/on-display/feed/ 0 http://hrundercover.com/archives/man-down/ http://hrundercover.com/archives/man-down/#comments Mon, 01 Jun 2009 20:29:08 +0000 Anonymous Author http://hrundercover.com/?p=765

Like many small towns, we love our minor league baseball here, and I was lucky enough to land a job working in the front office.   Since we’re a small club, some of my duties extend to outdoor maintenance, and I am always grateful for the opportunity to be outside to watch the games.  Game days are always special; the air is filled with the smell of roasting hot dogs and the sound of future ball players yelling, “Hey batter, batter, swing.”  On one afternoon, a particularly threatening sky didn’t do much to dampen fan enthusiasm, but the eventual rainfall told me there would be a delay.  I knew our ground crew was a bit short staffed and would need my help pulling the tarp over the turf.  I’m not necessarily a strong woman, but I’m pretty fit and thought I could be of help, I mean it’s just a tarp, must be like making a bed, right?  Little did I realize that “man down” means nothing when it comes to covering the field, in fact, every man for himself seemed to be the prevailing motto.

In a downpour, I found myself at the upper end of the tarp, smack in the middle dragging it across a soggy field.  The rain was pummeling down, the turf was slick and SPLASH, down I go, losing my grip and instantly being covered.  Well, imagine what’s running through my head, “should I just stay put and maybe no one will notice?” or should I inch my way through and out an inconspicuous corner?”  I decided the latter was the most sound choice (we do experience flash flooding and getting swept away to save what little dignity I had left didn’t seem a good trade-off).  As I was just about to make my escape, confident I was only inches away from going unnoticed, our announcer shouts, “MARCO.”  What choice did I have?  Out I flew from underneath the tarp hearlding, “POLO.”