Recently in Business Category

Over the last few months the wife and I have talked several times about relocating if I get promoted. I did finally apply for a promotion and am on a development plan. I pretty much expected that so it wasn't a shock, particularly since right now I don't want to move.

There are a couple of different states we wouldn't mind living in depending on if we could even sell the house. North or South Carolina would be OK. My brother lives in North Carolina and while he has a few issues with the schools there everything else is OK. He moved down from the metro DC area so everything is cheaper. North Carolina health insurance, homes, auto insurance, even groceries are much more reasonable. I sure would be nice to be closer to him as well.

Most likely we will stay in the area though because if we do move the wife ends up losing something like 60% of her teacher retirement and we just can't afford that.

Things seem to be going pretty well since I took my promotion last year. I've been in my new job for 15 fiscal periods now so I guess it's not really a new position anymore.

Recently I sent in my application for promotion again. Basically that whole process is that I send in my initial app. The corporate office turns around and sent me a four page app to fill out that includes a self-assessment and other performance related score. I sent that ack last week. The next step is for my boss two levels up to interview me and decide whether or not he thinks I am ready. I have already spoken with him about it and he didn't say no but he's not the kind of person that likes confrontation so he might just be blowing smoke up my ass. Anyhow, should he decide that he thinks I am ready it then needs to be approved by one of the "team 5" that consists of the five senior vice presidents.

There's no telling when he'll do the interview. He's got either 30 or 60 days, I can't remember which even though I just recently went through the process with one of my hourly employees that wants to be a manager.

July is looking to be a pretty tough month. One of my managers started his seven day vacation today. I went in this morning and found that I was out of change, out of fives and ones, had no pens or printer paper. I was not happy in the least. After a quick run to the bank I stopped and bought some cheap pens and printer paper and then ran back to the store. I'm pretty much stuck there all week although I'm taking Wednesday off. I've got two manager trainees to run the store. They should be OK. One of my other managers goes on vacation on the 23rd and her's is ten days. That should be a blast...

Oil prices have taken a drop and David Lundberg from Standard & Poor's talks about some of the reasons why and what the outlook is for for oil companies.

In order to rescue the economy Congress has agreed on a stimulus package that includes rebates of $600-$1200. As the video points out, economists predict that the plan will do little to stop a recession.

I'm certainly not an economist but I tend to agree. Unfortunately people that earn $75000 or more get their rebate cut anyway, which means that most of the folks getting the rebate will be people that might not be quite as responsible with their money in the first place and although it will get spent, as Congress wants (I would save it) it will end up costing the Federal deficit more than it's going to help.

It's just another example of the whining mommy state we have become. When you scrape your knee mommy comes to bandage it and take care of you and people seem to expect the same kind of reaction from our governmenr. WE are the ones that need to be fixing the government, not the other way around.

It's amazing to me how fast time can fly when you are busy. It's been almost a year since the subprime meltdown occurred in February of last year. At that point in time HSBC holdings announced that they had seen a pretty large increase in the provision for loan losses as far as mortgage service operations. Due to the fact that people making late payments and losing their home was increasing all over the United States their charge for bad debts in 2006 was $10.5 billion.

The 'meltdown' wasn't something that happened overnight. It's been heading in that direction for a few years now but the announcement by HSBC was sort of a wakeup call to the entire industry. I've posted about the subprime going south several times over the last year and it seems like it's just going to continue getting worse. There is some pretty good information about the subprime meltdown at the link for you to check out as well.

So what happened? Part of it was the fact that many lenders loosened up their requirements and banks were making their lending decisions based on builder's requirements rather than good lending requirements. A couple of my customers work in the building industry and their has been more than one occasion where the lender was told to go ahead and give a loan based on the fact that they had to move houses, even though the borrower was on shaky ground or it was beyond their means. When I bought my house back in 2000 my lender even approved me for a loan around twice what I though I could afford. I went ahead and stuck with a house that would fit my budget, but a lot of people just take the word of the lender. They are the bank after all, shouldn't they know what they are talking about?

Cross-posted from Shadowscope.

I've never been to the Absurdist's site before today but came across her blog from a comment at Fab's site and down the page she has posted the 10 Dumbest Job Interview Moves, taken from an article over at CNN/Money. Being as how I get to interview people constantly I have heard or seen most of these and worse. Here are the top ten:

I commented on here post about it and then realized that I should write a little on it myself and maybe post it here. We have a process where I work to try and weed out some of the really dumb ones. Everyone that comes in has to fill out a 'mini-app'. Basically it is just the pertinent info such as name, number, address, whether you have worked for us before and the hours you are willing to work. There is also a 1-800 number that all applicants have to call and take a short, ten minute 'honesty test'. The questions range from stuff like 'how many days have you missed in the last three months', how many days have you been tardy i the last three months', and 'true or false, most people will steal if given the chance'. If they fail and don't get a confirmation number, the interview stops right there, you are unemployable as far as we are concerned. Anyone stupid enough to answer true to the last question doesn't need to work there and if you are so jaded as to think that most people steal we don't want you either.

We have some real hard-hitters too . My managers aren't supposed to hire anyone without a car or a phone. Duh. It's surprising how many people don't have either and they will damn hire them anyway...

I also have a few personal 'must-haves' when I interview people. Luckily stupidity isn't a protected disability because I have excluded quite a few people. If you can't count back change in your head I won't hire you. If you don't have at least three-quarters of your teeth I won't hire you. If you don't come dressed as if you want a job and bring a pen with you I won't interview you. I may let you borrow one and then keep your application for one of my managers to look at and deal with when they get back but I don't have time for people that don't come prepared because that tells me that you won't come prepared for work.

I generally schedule my interviews for the end of the day, shortly before it's time for me to go home. If you can't get there on time, tough shit, I go home. I don't have time for tardiness. As a matter of fact, when one of my employees is late I generally have the shift covered within ten minutes, unless they have called me ahead of time to tell me they are going to be late. I understand that everyone sleeps late, people run out of gas and get stuck in traffic. I have no problem with that as long as they pick up the phone and let me know.

The last couple of times that I have opened new stores I generally leave a box of applications and pencils OR crayons with the construction superintendent. The applications that are filled out in pen get first consideration.

I had this chick come in to apply for a job once. She had on cut-off short shorts, a halter top and wore this red bandana. She was actually pretty hot but come one, if you really want a job is it necessary to look like you were working in the yard and just decided to drop by and see if I was hiring? Show a bit of pride in your appearance and I will be more likely to interview you. It's one thing if I am applying for a job cutting grass or working in a head shop but it's quite another altogether when I want to go to work in a service position. I at least want to look professional.

According to the video, some say that the energy boom as U.S. businesses start looking for new ways to deliver energy across the country could look like the Internet boom