A few years ago I wrote a series of articles for job seekers based on The Art of War by Sun Tzu. There have been numerous analogies comparing warfare to business practices, but this week, prompted by a NY Times Op-Ed piece, my colleagues and I engaged in a dialog about whether or not the perceived “skills gap” is a reality and how the “war for talent” is progressing for the long term unemployed. I… Read More »Talent Wars – The Talent Strikes Back
The topics related to waging war on discrimination, stereotypes, bias, and prejudice seem to be popular among my readers. I have often said that I write mostly for myself, but there is a certain feeling of gratification when the numbers show that people are actually reading the articles that I write. This week it seems that there was a double dose of satisfaction because I talked about things that are of particular interest to me… Read More »Reviewing This Week on Make HR Happen – Thinking About Our Prejudices
How bad is it for the unemployed today? If we were able to discount the disappointment, helplessness, and feelings of inadequacies caused by the loss of a job, there is still the daunting task of looking for work in an almost hostile environment in a weak economy. It seems that everybody is looking for a new opportunity. That includes those already working that feel the paycheck pinch and fear the ever present corporate ax that… Read More »Unemployment Bias in Hiring
I had always heard that it was Mark Twain who originated the phrase “Figures don’t lie, but liars do figure.†It sounds so Twainesque that it makes total sense to attribute that clever saying to him. Garson O’Toole writes a scholarly blog Quote Investigator in which he traces the origins of this and other commonplace phrases. He seriously questions whether or not that it was Samuel Clemens, aka Mark Twain who first used the phrase.… Read More »About Unemployment Figures and Liars
I never knew my grandfather. I wish I could have learned about courage from him as he died while trying to save another man’s life. As a proxy my father was not too shabby in passing on that message. As a boy suddenly thrust into the unimaginable situation where he and three siblings were left to be raised by a widowed mother, they clung together as a family and worked ceaselessly to endure the hard… Read More »Labor Day is a Holiday That Means Nothing … or Everything