TresSugar

Front Page: Unemployment Might Create a Lost Generation

TresSugar — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 08:00:22 -0700

The job crisis is hitting young people just out of college especially hard, which could have a long-term negative impact on an entire generation. - Business Week
American Elinor Ostrom has become the first woman to win the Nobel prize for economics. - BBC News
Iraq's National Theater has opened again for the first time in six years, as nightlife begins to return to Baghdad. - Telegraph
Hillary Clinton says President Obama's attitude toward America's role in the world won him the Nobel Peace Prize. - AP
Couples Retreat starring Vince Vaughn had a big opening weekend to come in first place at the box office. - BuzzSugar

Front Page: Huge Gender Pay Disparity in UK's Financial Sector

TresSugar — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 06:00:36 -0700

Women who work in the UK financial sector can earn about 80 percent less than men, according to a new inquiry. - The Guardian
An Obama adviser who came under fire for being tied to the 9/11 Truth movement has quit. - AP
President Obama will make the case for a public insurance plan when he speaks to a joint session of Congress about health care on Wednesday. - AP
As many as 800 fake polling sites were set up in Afghanistan where no one voted, but thousands of votes were recorded mostly for incumbent President Hamid Karzai. - New York Times

Could You Do Your Partner's Job?

TresSugar — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 14:00:00 -0700

Despite the passing of the "lion of the Senate," the people of Massachusetts might soon have another Senator Kennedy at their service. Democratic leaders like Sen. Orrin Hatch and Sen. Chris Dodd think that Vicki Kennedy would be an appropriate replacement for her late husband Ted. Orrin said:

"She is a very brilliant lawyer. She's a very solid individual. She certainly made a difference in Ted's life, let me tell you. And I have nothing but respect for her."

It would be up to the voters ultimately to decide if Vicki has what it takes to serve them, but her legal training and experience witnessing her husband's career in the Senate might make her qualified to replace him temporarily.

Of course not everyone could just start doing their partner's job on the spot. An English teacher probably couldn't go to work as a computer engineer right away without some serious training. Could you do your partner's job if you had to? Feel free to apply the question to past relationships, too!

How Has Being a Woman Impacted Your Job?

TresSugar — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 07:00:00 -0700

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is the subject of an extensive New York Times Magazine profile this week in which she discusses "the place of women on the court." At her confirmation hearings in 1993, Ginsburg said she hoped to see at least three or four women seated on the court after her. As she still waits for even one woman to join her, Ginsburg has noticed that she is judged differently than her male counterparts. She recounts one example:

"Once Justice O’Connor was questioning counsel at oral argument. I thought she was done, so I asked a question, and Sandra said: 'Just a minute, I’m not finished.' So I apologized to her and she said, 'It’s OK, Ruth.' The guys do it to each other all the time, they step on each other’s questions. And then there appeared an item in USA Today, and the headline was something like 'Rude Ruth Interrupts Sandra.'"

By simply interrupting a fellow woman Ginsburg was soon portrayed as rude or aggressive, while the same assertive characteristic in a man goes unnoticed. The justice's little anecdote reminds us that sometimes women face different standards in the workplace. Have you ever come across this?

What Was Your Worst Summer Job?

TresSugar — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 14:00:00 -0700

Before we all get the fabulous jobs that express our personalities and true abilities - we often have to suck it up in crap jobs.

Yes, they help us build character. Yes, we learn how to budget small amounts of money, learning the valuable fiscal lesson that no amount of saving will buy us a trip to Paris and allow us to purchase our dream wardrobes on a part-time, minimum-wage salary. And the most important lesson of all is we learn how to be employees - dealing with annoying bosses, rude customers, and weird co-workers.

I wore many hats as a teen. I served cocktails (yes, you can do that legally in Texas even if you're not old enough to drink); I slaved in a fast-food joint; and I cashiered behind the counter of a fancy French bakery. (There, I picked up two habits - one which I still have, the other which I've rid myself of: the desire for strong coffee, and the ability to smoke an unfiltered Gitane cigarette. Ouch!)

The worst Summer job I ever had? Grocery bagger. I accidentally smashed children's fingers, forgot people's food in their shopping carts (trust me, I still remember the unhappy woman who returned to retrieve her forgotten watermelon), and worst of all, I endured the hot sun on my delicate skin. I lasted a day. What was your worst summer job?

Source

Front Page: US Unemployment Rate Jumps to 9.4%

TresSugar — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 08:00:20 -0700

US unemployment has jumped to 9.4 percent, after 345,000 jobs were lost in May. Sorry, the recession's not over yet. - New York Times
President Obama is in Germany, where he visited a Nazi concentration camp in Buchenwald. - BBC News
Recovered debris found in Atlantic Ocean is in fact not from the missing Air France jet. - CNN
Tennessee lawmakers have approved a law that allows guns in bars. - AP
A nude photo of French first lady Carla Bruni has sold for $19,600 to an anonymous bidder. - AP

Source

Chronically Awesome? Don’t Put That on Your Resumé

TresSugar — Sun, 31 May 2009 01:00:00 -0700

I thought this was a joke, but this career strategist must have seen these words in resumés before if she’s cautioning job-seekers not to use them. So, uh, if you were planning on telling a prospective employer you’re “habitually pregnant” or an “awesome Republican” - yeah, don’t do that.

Here are some words not to put on your resumé:

Awesome
Democrat
Chronically ill
Habitually pregnant
Atheist

To see what else you shouldn't add to your resumé, read more

Amazing
Phenomenal
Cool
Spectacular
Liberal
Conservative
Republican
Monotheistic
Polytheistic
Healthy
Diabetic

Source

Front Page: US Sheds 598,000 Jobs in January

CitizenSugar — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 08:00:44 -0800

The US unemployment rate jumped to 7.6 percent, after 598,000 jobs were lost in January. - New York Times
The Senate worked into the night Thursday but failed to vote on the stimulus package. - CNN
President Obama will name a panel of independent economic advisers that will offer their outside advice to the White House. - Reuters

RNC Chairman Michael Steele has asked the entire RNC staff to resign, but some of the 100 staffers will get their jobs back after an extensive review. - Huffington Post
USA Swimming has suspended Michael Phelps for three months, due to a photo of him smoking marijuana. - USA Today

Source

Front Page: US Unemployment Reaches Grim High at 6.5%

LibertySugar — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 08:00:00 -0800

The US unemployment reached a 14-year high of 6.5 percent today. About 240,000 nonfarm jobs were lost in October alone. So far this year 1.2 million US jobs have been lost.- Bloomberg
The still being recounted Minnesota Senate race between Al Franken and Senator Norm Coleman came within a margin of 236 votes at the end of Thursday. - Minneapolis Star Tribune

Georgia's claims that it acted in defense against Russian aggression last summer are being called into question. - New York Times
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi started "suntan-gate" yesterday when he called Barack Obama "young, handsome, and tanned." When asked if the comment might have been misunderstood as undiplomatic or even racist, the Prime Minister told his opponents to get a sense of humor.- BBC News

Source

Young Indians Ready to Hang Up on Call Center Jobs

LibertySugar — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 11:00:00 -0700

Politicians constantly talk about how US jobs have been shipped over seas. But something else travels with the jobs - stress. While 70 percent of outsourced American jobs go to India's call centers, stressed-out Indian youth want to ditch their unhealthy posts for more fulfilling careers.

You may get frustrated when you have to call another country for customer service, but the combination of odd hours and overwork caused one 23-year-old Indian recent college graduate to have a heart attack! As you can imagine, the call center workers are getting ready to trade the higher-paying jobs for less stress and better hours. BBC interviewed workers who explained, "they quit because it was frustrating to continue to answer calls day after day, year after year. No creativity, no use of mind required. Some say their minds have become cabbage."

A recent satirical video from the Onion tracked how "Obama Promises to Stop American's Sh*tty Jobs From Going Overseas." Do you think the quality of lost jobs should be included in a discussion about outsourcing?

Source