The Hard Truth about Fat-Cat CEO’s

Sometimes Recessionwire carries a certain bias, one that supports the out-of-worker and opposes the big, bad CEO. As a fair and balanced news source, we find it necessary to provide the reader a glimpse of both sides of the coin. What really goes on in the life of some of the world’s most powerful people? To find out, we get the perspective of the CEO of DASSCC (Dynamic Analysts and Synergetic Systems Consultants Corporation), Peter B. Gibbonsworth, in a segment we like to call: Myth…And Busted…

Screwed: 2,000 at Chevron

A daily review of the employment fallout around the country and the world.

Today’s Total: 5,788

Chevron will lay off 2,000 workers this year… The financial crisis described by Westchester County Exec Rob Astorino may result in up to 1,600 county layoffs… Irish airline Aer Lingus is laying off 670 employees under a new restructuring plan…the Montgomery County Public School System in Alabama is axing 600 people…St. Mary’s paper in Canada will let go 300….Ceva Logistics in Indiana is letting go all 200 employees…The Minnesota Department of Human Services will cut 200 jobs from a mental illness care program… 110 workers have been temporarily laid off as Sierra Pacific Industries abridge operations at the Chinese Camp, CA cedar mill…NRG Energy will eliminate 70 jobs in Connecticut… 20 police officers are in danger of being laid off in Atlantic City… 18 special education teachers have been laid off from the D.C. School System… The Daily Press, subsidiary of the Tribune Co., will be instituting about 10 percent employee layoffs among the staff of 84…

How to Keep Your Job by Becoming Irreplaceable

At the risk of stating the obvious, skill, talent, and seniority no longer guarantee job security. And blackmail and corporate espionage aren’t great alternative strategies — it’s generally better to get canned than to get jailed.

But there are ways to you reduce your chances of getting targeted during the next round of layoffs. After all, every workplace has a few key players whose bosses believe the place couldn’t run without them — whether it’s the person who can run a finicky fax machine or the only staffer who maintains a good rapport with a difficult client. These people tend to be the same ones who avoid layoffs time and time again.

You can become one of them — without a lot of hard work but with a good dose of sucking up. Here are five other tips to follow…

Recession Briefing: Why Yellow Lights Are Shorter

What you need to know today to survive and thrive in the recession.

Some cash-strapped cities have been shortening yellow lights in order to nab more drivers with tickets — and raise revenue. (AlterNet)

A little-noticed effect of the recession is the incredible shrinking work shift. Millions of workers are taking multiple part-time or freelance jobs, jumping back and forth repeatedly between work, other pursuits and more work. These weird schedules are creating new challenges. (Wall Street Journal)

In an era of populist outrage and nearly double-digit unemployment, the average Wall Street bonus jumped 25% in 2009 to $123,850 as financial firms rebounded from the recession with help from U.S. taxpayers’ money. (USA Today)…

Why Entrepreneurs Aren’t Risk Lovers

Successful entrepreneurs need to have an outsized appetite for risk. They have to thrill to danger, relish the idea that they might lose it all with one roll of the dice.

Right?

Wrong, obviously, or we wouldn’t have written it that way. (Also, we probably would not have started a business.)

Many people have debunked those ideas, most recently Malcolm Gladwell, writing in the New Yorker. Using as examples Ted Turner and John Paulson, who famously made billions betting against the housing bubble, he argues that successful entrepreneurs are not braver than everyone else. Instead, they are very good at finding opportunities to minimize risk so they don’t have to be brave….

What Do You Know about the Brand ‘You’?

Personal branding is essential, whether you are just starting out in your first job, or moving up a rung on the career ladder. It’s something you need to work on so when you ask yourself the question, “Who am I?” you’ll know the answer and be able to communicate it clearly and concisely.

Some people confuse their personal brand with their “elevator speech.” The term “elevator speech” trivializes an important process that will help you understand exactly what makes you stand out from the crowd.

Your brand influences how important internal and external audiences, including your boss, your customers and prospects perceive you and what they think you have to offer them. Another way of understanding branding is that it’s the words you would want people to use in describing you.

Branding is what sets you apart from your competition. Let’s look at the brands of some famous companies and people. FedEx, for example, is positioned as the company that you can rely on to deliver your package by 10:30 tomorrow morning. Absolutely, positively. Google is the leader in search, and continues to be. The advent of new competition has hardly made a dent in its market share….

Recession Briefing: Snow Slams Job Market

What you need to know today to survive and thrive in the recession.

This month’s blizzards are battering jobs. Economists estimate that between 90,000 and 150,000 jobs could be lost in February, as the snow kept people home from work and stalled hiring during the month. (CNN/Money)

The Obama administration projected Thursday that the unemployment rate would fall this year by only a little, if at all, and would remain well over 6 percent until 2015. (New York Times)

About a quarter of the 8.4 million jobs eliminated since the recession began won’t be coming back and will ultimately need to be replaced by other types of work in growing industries, according to economists in the latest Wall Street Journal forecasting survey. (Wall Street Journal)…

How to Go It Alone

The Wall Street Journal is calling this the “age of going solo.” The reasons are obvious: more people are working independently, because they gave up on the corporate world or were chucked out. A startling 20-plus percent of US workers are freelancers, consultants, contractors or (my personal favorite) “micropreneurs.”

Are you one of them? Could you be? The Journal’s story by Richard Greenwald offers some powerful tips on how to succeed. Read the original article for more, like what to beware of in a professional network.

Think long term

You might see this as a temporary, in-between jobs situation. But it might not be. And if you think of it that way, you won’t be very good at it. And with competition for gigs fierce, your halfhearted approach won’t make you a pile of money.

Learn and teach

You need cutting-edge skills, both to justify your rates and improve your chances of getting a full-time gig, should you want one.

Recession Briefing: Relationship Rockiness

What you need to know today to survive and thrive in the recession.

Money doesn’t buy love and it doesn’t buy happiness, as we should all know by now. But money woes can certainly cause problems for couples, especially during the economic downturn. The bottom line: It’s complicated. (New York Times/City Room)

The Great Recession may be over, but this era of high joblessness is probably just beginning. Ultimately, it is likely to warp our politics, our culture, and the character of our society for years to come. (The Atlantic)

Finding a job got much tougher last year, as the number of available openings fell by nearly one quarter. At the same time, the unemployed population soared by more than one-third, leaving more laid-off workers competing for fewer jobs. (Associated Press)…

Recession Briefing: Crazy for Coupons

What you need to know today to survive and thrive in the recession.

Coupon use has risen every quarter since the end of 2008, making 2009 the first year of rising coupon use since 1992. Last year, 3.5 billion coupons were redeemed, according to Inmar, a coupon processor that handles about half of the market and publishes figures extrapolated from its own volume. (New York Times)

When you’ve flooded the economy with trillions of dollars, mopping up is no easy task. That’s the reality the Federal Reserve is confronting as it starts to explain how it will undo the aggressive growth-supporting steps that were put in place when the economy was in its deep dive — and begins to be clearer about when that may happen. (Washington Post)

When 22 recently unemployed workers agreed to be filmed baring their souls about what it was like to lose his job, they didn’t expect millions to see their confessions in the George Clooney film Up in the Air. A year later, many of these recession victims have new jobs. (Reuters)…