June 2007
Monthly Archive
Work-Life26 Jun 2007 08:20 pm
Please let me talk to a human being…
It’s the ATM’s 40th birthday everyone.
The first one was installed in London on June 27, 1967 by Barclays Bank.
I remember when the ATMs became prevalent in the 1970s. I was aghast at the idea of it. A machine replacing a human being! They are AUTOMATED TELLER MACHINES. Teller machines. Not tellers, but teller machines.
It creeped me out a bit. I thought, “Man, what will the poor tellers do when they are replaced by machines.” Humans obsolete.
I refused to use the ATMs because I didn’t want yet another well paying job to be replaced by technology. And also, I lived on the Lower East Side of Manhattan at the time and ATMs, housed in small glass vestibules in front of banks, became mugging nooks.
Anyway, I sort of felt about ATMs the way I feel about automatic checkout lines at supermarkets today. I boycott those. Mainly because I don’t want people to lose their jobs, but also, these machines have a long way to go before they’re as fast as the seasoned checkouts that speed through the order and actually know what arugula is.
Okay, not every checkout gal or guy knows that. I actually had a young kid ask me what strawberries were once. No kidding. (Hello obese America.)
Maybe I’m fighting a losing battle at banks where I still look for that human interaction. Maybe some day I won’t be able to talk to a real person, hand them my check and have them deposit it. (Yes, I don’t get direct deposit on many of my checks. Come on folks, I’m a freelancer, we’re lucky to get our paychecks at all.)
Even if I’m a relic, I think I’m doing my little part to help the American workforce keep at least a handful of jobs that pay a descent wage.
Come on people. Go into the bank. Celebrate the ATM’s birthday by talking to a live teller. I dare you.
Work-Life25 Jun 2007 08:06 am
Wallow or take charge of your career…
We know it’s tough out there folks, but even in this economy people need to find their true career callings and support themselves as best they can.
My column today on MSNBC.com is a response to some important letters I got from readers. Many say the job market for new grads is horrible, and they’re right when it comes to many different fields. But do we wallow or bring out the I’m-not-giving-up fighting gloves?
On another note.
Is it bring your dog to work week? I’ve got my new puppy with me today. He wants attention and is distracting me a bit already and it’s not even 8:30 a.m. I put him in the back room where there is little he can chew up and destroy, but I want him hanging with me, under my desk. Like my dog Henry used to do.
Oh Henry. We used to joke that he wasn’t a dog at all, but two little old Greek men in a dog suit. Henry was the definition of a mellow dog.
Will I ever mellow this little black lab/saint bernard doggie?
Work-Life21 Jun 2007 08:04 am
A fair wage isn’t too much to ask for…
Work-Life20 Jun 2007 02:00 pm
Why don’t Republicans court unions…
The latest presidential campaign news is how Democratic candidates are courting unions, but what about Republicans?
I could see Mitt Romney and John McCain getting chummy with John Sweeney, the head of the AFL-CIO. Well, I’m sort of kidding about that. I met Sweeney and he never stuck me as a guy you could chummy up with.
Anyway, why is it always left to the Democrats to toot labor’s horn. And I mean not just when it comes to organized unions. Why don’t Republicans stand up and yell for more worker rights?
Is it all about the almighty dollar. Any support of an employee is a lack of support for corporations, the free market?
I don’t see it that way. There has to be a balance between bolstering capitalistic ideals and the good of the working stiff.
Come on Elephants get to a picket line pronto!!
Work-Life18 Jun 2007 08:57 am
My pay is my pay, right…
Work-Life11 Jun 2007 09:06 am
Can Career Divas also be Moms…
Work-Life07 Jun 2007 08:26 am
Pay among the non rich just won’t budge…
American workers can’t catch a break.
Whether you make minimum wage or you’re considered middle class, pay checks are not keeping up with productivity growth among the rank and file, and compared to the top corporate honchos your wallets are anorexic.
Here’s the latest from the Associated Press:
If 6,694 people earning minimum wage worked for one year, they collectively would have made as much as the highest-paid CEO last year of a Standard & Poor’s 500 company.
When the minimum wage rises from $5.15 to $7.25 an hour, it will take 4,755.
That’s roughly the equivalent of 1,434 people earning $50,000; or 574 people earning $125,000 a year.
And there was more disheartening news from a group called the Economic Mobility Project. Turns out American men in their 30s are among the first generation to be worse off than their fathers financially, and family income just can’t catch up to the productivity gains made by workers and companies since 2000. That means any profits that came from such productivity improvements did not go in the pockets of the poor saps that did most of the running.
The study stated that “the up escalator that has historically ensured that each generation would do better than the last may not be working very well.”
The escalator may someday end up going down. Just look at recent examples of how wages have been squashed.
Circuit City recently announced it would be laying off a bunch of sales associates and replacing them with lower wage workers. See my recent story. How can workers be expected to move forward, beyond their parents’ generation if things like this happen?
My column this week is on how many young adults are still living with their parents. I got a lot of letters from people in their early 20s after the column appeared, many angry letters telling me how I just don’t realize how hard it is out there for them to find jobs and get their lives started on their own.
While I think it’s never easy for people starting out in their careers, I must admit it may be tougher for this generation than generations before.
UPDATE: Talk about timing. The New York Times magazine today has devoted almost the entire issue to the income gap between the rich and poor. I just started reading it and there are some eye-opening articles, especially the piece on an island in Florida filled with some of the richest people on earth, and the underclass of individuals being paid next to nothing for maintaining their Shangri-La.
Work-Life04 Jun 2007 08:37 am
Would you pay to find a gig…