February 2009 Archives

I have been seeing this grammatical error more often lately. It's simple to overlook and an easy mistake, but it can hurt your reputation when others notice.

From Wikihow:

1. Use there when referring to a place, whether concrete ("over there by the building") or more abstract ("it must be difficult to live there").
   • There is an antique store on Camden Avenue.
   • The science textbooks are over there on the floor.
2. Use their to indicate possession. It is a possessive adjective and indicates that a particular noun belongs to them.
   • My friends have lost their tickets.
   • Their things were strewn about the office haphazardly.

Just take a second to think before you write it and use the correct word.

Now that jobs are being slashed all across the country, I'm seeing different ways that companies layoff employees. What is the best way to layoff staff with a minimal impact to the individual as well as the company?

I've experienced a layoff where the company announced there was no definite timeline, no specifics about who was going to be cut, and no details about how many were losing their jobs. Even further, a Q&A email was sent out to help ease everyone. However the ease was minimal as there were no straightforward answers in the email. Each question was answered: Plans are still being finalized and the company is committed to providing proactive and straightforward answers.

Now do a 180 degree turn and take a look at Target corporation a month ago. By the time the public announcement of a layoff was made, the layoff had already happened. Employees received an email at 8:45 telling them to go to the auditorium for a 9:30 meeting. Once the meeting started, they were told that there was a layoff and those that did not get the email were already laid off. Imagine the relief everyone in the auditorium felt.

When employees are left wondering about who, when, how many, etc, company productivity takes a direct hit. People start talking, proverbial water cooler chatting, looking for other jobs on company time, etc.

On the other hand, if you are sent packing with no warning, that can leave many people very surprised after having made no plans not even knowing it was coming. This can be very detrimental to families and those who have commitments to mortgages, kids, debt, etc.

So comparing the two examples, which do you think has less of an impact on an individual as well as company productivity? There must be a common ground between these two schools of thought. Companies must look at their own interests as well as their employees to evaluate the best method of cutting work force.

Network providers will never give it up. With their recent decision to block Boxee from streaming HULU shows, they are driving people to use torrents to watch television.

As Gizmodo says, content providers are never for technology that will actually help them. People are willing to watch commercials, they just want to view it in their own way. Technology will always prevail though.

Alternatives:

Watch HULU through Apple's Frontrow: Understudy
TVShows: Click "subscribe", we do the rest
TVRSS and Miro are a great marriage

Last night I checked my T-mobile bill online to see where I was for the month. I immediately noticed that I had been billed $87 for text messages despite switching to the unlimited messaging plan online over a month ago.

I called customer service to see what was going on. The rep said there was no record of me adding the plan (system error), so I still had my usual 1000 messages. The additional charge was because I had gone over my limit by 500 messages. She explained she could not credit our bill because it has already been sent out, but she could add the plan to our upcoming month. I said fine and hung up very frustrated.

After I got off the phone, I double checked the bill again and noticed that I had a total of about 500 text messages, definitely not over the 1000 included. T-Mobile had been billing us for every single text message. I didn't catch it and neither did the rep.

Since we have the family plan, I explained the situation to my mother who might be able to rectify the situation. She called, got a different rep, she noticed the error, and immediately credited our bill.

This just goes to show how much variance there can be between representatives in customer service. The first one stated she could not go back and change our bill, the second one was able to do so. The second one immediately saw the error as well.

If you don't get the answer you are looking for, just call back and get a different rep.

I logged into my Yodlee account last friday and was greeted by a message saying there were new features to my service. One of the features is called Financial Calendar. It simply displays all your debits/credits on a 30 day calendar. It even shows you what days future bills are due.

You can then visualize to see which days you are spending more money on than others. For me, I saw that I do quite a lot of spending on Fridays. Eating out, going out with friends, all potential threats to saving money. But hey, you gotta have fun on fridays!

This is an awesome new way to view your spending and put things into perspective. I feel that it gives you a much better way to look at your money rather than just seeing a list of debits when logging into your online bank account.

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• Best Online Personal Finance Tool (bargaineering.com)

The blatant misuse of company profits, bailout money, stock options, and bonuses by CEOs of is something that really bothers me. Greed in corporate America is running rampant because of a lack of checks and balances.

I mean seriously. These guys are fleecing us American citizens for all we are worth. Citigroup was planning on buying a new jet with their free bailout money. Where did that money come from? US citizens who will eventually pay for it with our tax money. Then there's the lavish parties thrown after receiving bailout money. And new million dollar offices and bathrooms made with bailout money. These guys should be locked in jail.

How can CEOs  give themselves raises and bonuses when companies are not performing well? A bonus is compensation for a job well done and which shows improvement. Just because you are a CEO does not mean that you should give yourself more money for a job that you are not doing well. I realize that lot of a company's success vacillates with the state of the economy, but CEOs have to ride the wave too. You're not exempt just because you're c-level.

Not all execs are like this of course, but we are all hearing more and more about situations like this all the time. Ego and greed has consumed the souls of American CEOs. Wake up! You are a slave to your ego!