employer

I was drinking in the notion that, according to the Global Status Report on Health and Alcohol, Germany is the 22nd most inebriated country in world (the U.S. came in a pathetically puritan 57th), when I discovered some fine and sober German ingenuity.

BMW, the folks who make cars for the highly self-aware, has just opened a factory where, aside from Watson's distant uncles, all the employees are aged over 50.

Somehow, we get lured into believing that all technological progress is created by young, slightly impersonal people in gray t-shirts who will put on a white one (with a collar) … Read more

Men, sometimes, cannot help themselves. This, it seems, includes civil servants.

I am moved to this dour view of life by the case of an Australian civil servant who took his government-issued laptop home.

The Sydney Morning Herald tells the tale of this man, a senior government employee, who, once at home, chose to google the word "knockers".

This, for those of you not influenced by English colloquialisms, is a pejorative word used by little English boys to refer to women's chests.

Unfortunately, the Australian Government has in its employ a program called Spector360, which tends to … Read more

It is now an accepted wisdom that sharing yourself on Facebook can add to your woes.

However, a bank worker in the U.K., Katie Furlong, may have encountered a new form of Facebook anguish.

According to the Daily Mail, Furlong was told by her employer, the Royal Bank of Scotland, that she might enjoy a change in her conditions of employment. She was reportedly told by phone that her own place of work would be shut down.

Being a woman of modern mien, Furlong then reportedly turned to Facebook to express her glee at receiving this sudden windfall, posting: &… Read more

There are some things about which Google doesn't comment. However, it is entirely true that many Google employees are human beings with feelings, sometimes even strong ones.

So, though the company itself refused to go into detail after an employee was reportedly fired for leaking news of a $1,000 cash bonus and 10 percent raise for every one of Google's more than 23,000 employees, there are Googlies who are whispering that they'd like to say something publicly. They'd like some of the internal feelings to be made known.

What else is Technically Incorrect for … Read more

A federal agency recently brought a complaint against a Connecticut medical-services company for allegedly firing an employee over a Facebook post.

But it may not be wise to take that as carte blanche to go online and type in exactly what you think of your boss.

The general rule is that employers can still fire workers for off-color or unsavory things they say when blogging (or facebooking or tweeting) on the job or about their job.

"It would be a mistake for people to say that, 'Just because I'm on Facebook, I can say whatever I want,'" … Read more

Persistent high levels of unemployment affect everyone, whether you've been jobless for months or are happily and securely employed but worry about the dwindling prospects for out-of-work friends and loved ones. Plenty of Web sites offer to help people find a new or better job. The challenge is distinguishing the legitimate online employment services from the many job scams cluttering the Web.

The preliminaries: Cover letters and resumes Job-search counselors highlight the importance of well-crafted resumes and cover letters. Jobweb offers plenty of resume advice geared mostly to recent college graduates but applicable for nearly every job seeker. It … Read more

Zynga, the social-gaming company responsible for sensations like FarmVille, Mafia Wars, and Pet Society, owes a big chunk of its runaway success to Facebook and the network of social connections that its developer platform opened up. But has its weed-like growth meant that it now even surpasses Facebook in employee head count? Maybe.

Bret Taylor, Facebook's chief technology officer, said in an onstage interview at this week's Web 2.0 Expo in New York that he believed Zynga now had more employees than Facebook. If that's accurate, it's an astonishing statistic considering that not only is … Read more

I hear wailing, screeching, and the sound of a Zimmer frame scratching on an old wooden floor.

I hear the downhearted and downtrodden banging hard on the door of the inner temple, begging to be invited inside. I hear the dark accusations of sexism, ageism and even, it seems, dumb-and-dumberism echoing around the halls of the Web.

Yes, it is time to examine tech's navel and wonder why it is that navel is smooth, male, and full of Special K and croissant crumbs.

You see, this week, important sectors of society have been expressing their pain at being shut … Read more

Editors' note, Wednesday 6:52 a.m. PDT: TheChive.com has fessed up: It's a hoax. "We couldn't have pulled this one off without the help of this adorable young woman," an actress named Elyse Porterfield, the Chive-sters said in a short, photo-filled blog post.

Heroism is in even shorter supply than employment these days.

So how can one not be transported to a better place by the story of the personal assistant who seems to have had enough of her boss and decided to reveal his true being? Which, as Mark Zuckerberg has taught us, … Read more