Month: January 2011

Email turned off? Is it the new pink slip?


Got a somewhat disturbing email from LinkedIn the other day.  A full 35% of my connections have changed positions last year. It made me wonder.

Is the crew I run with full of climbers or full of people who found themselves unhappy? Were these changes voluntary or involuntary? Or did they find themselves in the wrong position at the wrong time only to land on their feet?

The good news according to Challenger Gray & Christmas is that job reductions are on the decline. “The downsizing phase of the recession really came to an end in 2009. Job cutting fell dramatically in the second half of that year. The pace of downsizing continued to slow in 2010 to levels we have not seen since before the 2001 recession,” said John A. Challenger, chief executive officer of Challenger, Gray & Christmas. And here’s a handy dandy chart from their report.

The DJIA closed today at 1 2 1/2 year high today which doesn’t suck for anyone. So with a broad-brush, this is looking good. But the 35% turnover still seems kind of high to me.  If you changed jobs last year, why? Voluntary, or involuntary? Was your email turned off or did you tell tell them to turn it off.  I understand if you want to post anonymously. Have at it.

~Mike

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Are you being stalked?


Something spooked me a bit yesterday.

Got an email from one of my credit card issuers asking me how I liked my meal at blah, blah, blah.  I didn’t appreciated it and felt like I was being stalked.  Which gave me the idea to loosely document one day and just some of the times I was recorded, either digitally or in person.

1) Woke up with two cell phones on and thought, if necessary, I could be pinged by anyone who knew how to do it. Had them on me all day.

2) CVS. Photographed on multiple security cameras.

3) Swiped credit card at gas station. Photographed on security camera(s).

4) Jumped onto computer. Logged into three accounts, logged out. Digital footprints galore.

Yes there’s a security camera in the bird’s nest!

5) Metrorail parking lot. Multiple security cameras.

6) Swiped Easy Card acknowledging at least the presence of my card four times.

7) Took an escalator up and escalator down four times. Photographed on multiple security cameras.

9) Walked by a house on way to work. Security camera seemed to be pointing towards street. Flipped the bird.

10) Who knows if the Google Street View guys captured me? It captured a mugging in progress!

11) Punched in an alarm code granting me access. It knew I was there.

12) Received a “Happy New Year” e-mail listing new red light cameras in my area.

Here’s me being caught on film:

13) And I’m sure there’s a record of when I logged into WordPress, wrote this, hit publish and logged out.

How about you? Did I miss anything? Let me know. Fourth Amendment aside, do you ever think about how many times you are stalked daily?

~Mike