Laura Rich
Retooling: Flex Time
We don’t envy anybody in the recruiting business right now, but we think Jeff Lundwall and JD Rehm have a good plan for the recession.
When they started media search firm Mercury Group a few short years ago, they established three lines of business: executive recruiting, sales training (they’re two former ad sales execs) and career counseling. While the executive search business took off and Mercury established a foothold with major publishing firms, those “value add” lines took a backseat.
The Incredible Shrinking Severance Check
When the check comes in the mail, it’s never as big as you imagined it would be. You were promised eight weeks, but the amount is closer to six.
Before your paranoia has you wondering whether you’re finally being penalized for illicit use of the office photocopier or swiping extra cream cheese packets from the cafeteria, you could try…
Is TED a Recession-Free Zone?
Despite a dramatic change in the global backdrop, this year is no different at TED. While Scott McCloud talks about cartoons as an example of how we process information, 500,000 more jobs are being reported lost in the month of January alone here in the U.S. While Cindy Gallop is launching the website Make Love Not Porn, the government is struggling to rescue the crippled financial system and help the economy regain its footing.
It’s almost as if TED is in a recession-free zone.
The New Feel-Good Movie
It’s Friday after another long week in the recession. Boost your mood with films about these poor suckers who are far worse off than you could possibly be. Consider:
The Fly – You could be half-insect.
The Hanoi Hilton – You could be a P.O.W.
Downturn Deals: Sacco Shoes
We wander past signs like this all day long. Some of them are more surprising than others. This one definitely caught our eye and, we must admit, caused a wee bit of secret delight.
What is the deal? Shoes and boots are 50 percent off prices well below normal levels.
Read more…
Bloomberg’s No-Rehire Policy in Question
In the media industry, Bloomberg LP is perceived as a sort of Hotel California — once you leave, you can never come back. It’s said to be written into the manual that quitting the company prevents you from ever being rehired there. (We couldn’t procure a copy of that — if anyone wants to send that in, contact us via the Contact page.)
Recession Concessions: Dog Food v. Daycare
Ditching: Daycare
Keeping: Gourmet dog food
Few are immune to the necessary cutbacks that come with shrinking assets. Even dogs.
Con Ed’s Customer Satisfaction Plan
Attention New Yorkers: Con Edison does not care about making any more money off of you.
At the Future of New York City conference today, several business leaders held forth on the future of business in the recession. Jamie Dimon took issue with the pervasive view that Wall Street compensation should be purely performance-based, saying that some jobs were tough enough without performance-comp pressures. NASDAQ’s Robert Greifeld asserted that over-the-counter derivatives market could be the next area of growth. And Con Ed CEO Kevin Burke, speaking to WNYC host Brian Lehrer from the conference, said the utility giant planned to stop growing its business.
Laid Off? That’s Only the First Insult
It’s bad enough they take away your job, your income, and your subsidized lunch. Some companies have been handling their layoffs so ineptly, it’s offensive. And there are other insults that just come with the territory. Some examples:
1. One toymaker (toymaker!) wouldn’t let employees return to their offices after being laid off — not even to get their coats. Human resources staffers retrieved bags and jackets, and said the rest would be packed up and shipped.
Retooling: “Hibernate” Your Business
For a lot of companies, it’s going to be a long, cold winter — even as that winter turns to spring, summer, fall and back again. Instead of toughing it out with bridge-loan band-aids, fancy resource footwork or repeated promises to customers, one company bowed out without bowing out. In the CEO’s term, it went into “hibernation.”
In a story by Rafe Needleman on Cnet, Big Moving Picture CEO David Knight laid out his predicament and his strategy: His company, which affixes cameras to military aircraft during air shows and displays the live feed on large screens to audiences on the ground, was about to launch last fall. When the market fell precipitously in September, he put things on hold.
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