Archive for B2E/HR

Blogging her way out of a job…in France

The Seattle Times: Nation & World: “La Petite Anglaise” blogs way out of job and into limelight

She kept her popular blog anonymous, never revealing her full name or workplace. But despite her attempts at secrecy, her employer found out and fired her, unusual in France, where workers have strong legal protections.

Now we will see how a country with very strong laws that protect employment handles a blog firing. Of course one has to wonder if the facts presented are truthful. It certainly does not seem like she has done anything to warrant unemployment, but do we know all the facts. If empoyers start firing people for sending personal e-mails, we might soon find office buildings in the USA empty. Keep an eye on this one.

21 July, 2006 | No comments

Former AOL Employee Who Stole Entire E-Mail List Sentenced To Year And Three Months In Prison - 08/18/05

Former AOL Employee Who Stole Entire E-Mail List Sentenced To Year And Three Months In Prison - 08/18/05

NEW YORK — A 25-year-old former America Online employee who admitted he became a cyberspace “outlaw” when he sold all 92 million screen names and e-mail addresses to spammers was sentenced Wednesday to a year and three months in prison.

The defendant speaks,

“I know I’ve done something very wrong,” the soft-spoken and teary eyed Jason Smathers told U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein as he apologized for a theft that resulted in spammers sending out up to 7 billion unsolicited e-mails.

True to the mantra of a popular cable news network consisting of “fair and balanced” coverage, the prosecutor speaks,

“The Internet is not lawless” was the lesson of the case, said Assistant U.S. Attorney David Siegal.

“The public at large has an interest in making sure people respect the same values that apply in everyday life, on the Internet,” Siegal said.

The stolen list of 92 million AOL addresses included multiple addresses used by each of AOL’s estimated 30 million customers. It is believed to be still circulating among spammers.

The judge refused a Probation Department recommendation that Smathers be banned from his profession as a software engineer, saying he trusted Smathers had learned his lesson.

19 August, 2005 | No comments

Self-Service Human Resource Portals: Win/Win for Companies and Their Employees

Local Tech Wire

The timing seems perfect. Employees are increasingly comfortable taking responsibility for the maintenance of their health care and retirement benefits. Managers adopting the capabilities of self-service are realizing immediate value by realigning their human capital investments and by having on-demand access to the critical information needed for short and long term planning. Rarely has an emerging HR trend been so highly acclaimed by management and employees.

Portals are a natural in the HR function. The ability to create an environment where the employee can get the information they want when then want it as well as the ability to free up the HR people to handle the exceptions is outstanding.

5 August, 2005 | No comments

One Soldier, One Blog, One Punishment

FOXNews.com - U.S. & World - One Soldier, One Blog, One Punishment

We see this happening over and over again. An employee starts a blog, an employee gets upset with their employer, the employee writes a bit too much, the employee gets in trouble. Except this time it is not an employee, this time it is a soldier.

4 August, 2005 | No comments

IT Workers Confront ‘Job Shock’ - Computerworld

IT Workers Confront ‘Job Shock’ - Computerworld

If you wanted to continue to feed yourself, you’d need to do three things:

1. Network with the people in your local economy who best understand the trends and current economic “rents” associated with a given set of skills — the IT staffing firms. They have great data and would love to talk to you.

2. Understand the next three strategic steps your organization is going to make, and build deep personal relationships with the executive platoons that are going to drive those initiatives.

3. Get yourself trained and educated.

Some good advice for understanding and adapting to the changing IT environment. As I tell my classes all the time, technology for technology sake does not add value to the firm. This is a key for any profession, but specifically IT as it is starting to be seen as more of a utility.

4 August, 2005 | No comments

Online Recruitment - The magazine for recruitment and HR professionals involved in internet recruitment

Online Recruitment - The magazine for recruitment and HR professionals involved in internet recruitment

TipTopJob broaden their candidate reach by partnering with Job Warehouse to allow all jobs to be fed onto their website and Internet portals. TipTopJob covers 34 Industry sectors so will now provide candidates who visit the Jobcentres across the Country with thousands of varied roles and positions to search through.

Anytime the reach can be extended in a job hunt that is a good thing. But there is still a need for the involvement or professional firms for more specific needs or sensitive positions.

26 July, 2005 | No comments

Offshore use on the rise but savings lag

Offshore use on the rise but savings lag

At the same time, more than 50% of the offshore engagements Hatch reviewed had no savings or costs increased. A key reason for offshore failures, according to the report, lies with the client.

“The ultimate success or failure of any offshore strategy hinges on the performance of the implementing executive,” Hatch says.

Outsourcing has been a topic we have looked at from time-to-time at DS. There are good things about it and not so good. One of the biggest “goods” cited by many is the cost savings. But apparently the savings have not been as good as they had imagined.

21 July, 2005 | No comments

PortalsMag.com: A Better Portal

PortalsMag.com: A Better Portal

The call center example illustrates one aspect of Wachovia’s portal, which is to provide content support — what Jones calls “reducing the time needed to find information to do a job.” But there is another way in which the portal provides a more direct application experience — in collaboration. “Teams have a destination site that is their own space,” says Jones. “That alleviates the current dependency on e-mail. With collaboration, you can share ideas in the moment.

This article addresses how Wachovia when it merged with First Union addressed the portal issue. It also elaborates on why the project has been so successful.

14 July, 2005 | No comments

Chicago Tribune News : Technology - Time To Explode The Internet?

Chicago Tribune News : Technology - Time To Explode The Internet?

In came the hackers, the viruses, worms, spyware, phishing, and spam; the purveyors of pharmaceuticals and porn sites; and Nairobi bank presidents and generals promising to wire millions of dollars into your bank if you’d kindly give them your account number.

According to a Washington Post report last weekend, Carnegie Mellon University CERT Coordination Center logged 3,780 new computer security vulnerabilities in 2004. In 2000 the center logged 1,090. In 1995, it was just 171.

“The Internet is stuck in the flower-power days of the `60s during which people thought the world would be beautiful if you are just nice,” computer scientist Karl Auerbach told the Post. Formerly with Cisco Systems Inc., Auerbach now volunteers with engineering groups to try to improve the Internet. Auerbach is part of a handful of groups now looking into whether the entire Internet needs an overhaul, or, in Web-speak, a Version 2.0.

4 July, 2005 | No comments

Online Resumes Turn Risky / Job Seekers Post Data That Can Be Used By Identity Thieves

Online Resumes Turn Risky / Job Seekers Post Data That Can Be Used By Identity Thieves

Increasingly, news and information services are discussing the manner in which online criminals are exploiting the anonymity and convenience of the Internet for their own self-serving gain.

In the case of the following San Francisco Chronicle article authored by staff writer Carrie Kirby, the notion of online job seekers having their identities stolen is the lowest possible form of crime of which one can think, in my opinion.

Job seekers are trying to better themselves, personally and professionally, only to be sabotaged by unsavory characters online.

By Carrie Kirby, Chronicle Staff Writer
Monday, July 4, 2005

The big benefit of posting your resume on the Internet is that anyone, anywhere can access it and offer you a job.

The big drawback? Anyone, anywhere can access it and offer you a job.

4 July, 2005 | No comments

HoustonChronicle.com - Employers tracking e-mail, Web use

HoustonChronicle.Com - Employers Tracking E-Mail, Web Use

Surveys show more companies are monitoring their workers

By ANDREA COOMBES
Marketwatch

SAN FRANCISCO - The time you spend at work surfing online or shooting off e-mails to friends and colleagues may feel like an island of private time in the public sea of your workday, but don’t trust that feeling.

25 June, 2005 | 1 comment

Oracle Hires Ex-Microsoft CFO - 06/25/05

Oracle Hires Ex-Microsoft CFO - 06/25/05

The Associated Press

REDWOOD SHORES, Calif. — Business software maker Oracle Corp. on Friday tapped former Microsoft Corp. executive Gregory B. Maffei to be its new president and chief financial officer.

25 June, 2005 | 1 comment

Major Advertisers Caught In Spyware Net - 06/25/05

Major Advertisers Caught In Spyware Net - 06/25/05

By Michael Gormley / The Associated Press

ALBANY, N.Y. — Unwanted software slithered into Patti McMann’s home computer over the Internet and unleashed an annoying barrage of pop-up ads that sometimes flashed on her screen faster than she could close them.

Annoying, for sure. But the last straw came a year ago when the pop-ups began plugging such household names as J.C. Penney Co. and Capital One Financial Corp., companies McMann expected to know better.

Didn’t they realize that trying to reach people through spyware and its ad-delivering subset, called adware, would only alienate them?

“It irritated the heck out of me,” said McMann, a 45-year-old former corporate executive from Klamath Falls, Ore. “It took a week to take off every little piece of crap that was put on my computer. Every time I rebooted, it started to come up again.”

25 June, 2005 | No comments

USATODAY.Com - Women, Minorities Lag Behind In Technology Jobs

USATODAY.Com - Women, Minorities Lag Behind In Technology Jobs

By Rachel Konrad, The Associated Press
SAN FRANCISCO — Women and some racial minorities are “significantly underrepresented” in the U.S. technology industry, according to a new study from the industry’s trade group. Women made up 32% of the tech work force in 2004, a drop from 41% at its peak in 1996. That’s largely because of the shrinking number of administrative jobs in the tech industry, the Arlington, Va.-based Information Technology Association of America said.

24 June, 2005 | No comments

Beyond Wi-Fi: Laptop Heaven But A Price - New York Times

Beyond Wi-Fi: Laptop Heaven But A Price - New York Times

By DAVID POGUE
E-mail: Pogue@nytimes.com
Published: June 23, 2005

PLENTY of technologies can get you online wirelessly these days, but there’s always a catch. Wi-Fi Internet hot spots are fast and cheap, but they keep you tethered to the airport, hotel or coffee shop where the hot spot originates. A Bluetooth cellphone can get your laptop online, but at the speed of a slug. And smoke signals - well, you know. The privacy issues are a nightmare.

23 June, 2005 | No comments

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