The $85 billion in automatic cuts working their way through the federal budget spare many programs that aid the poorest and most vulnerable Americans, including the Children’s Health Insurance Program and food stamps. But the sequestration cuts, as they are called, still contain billions of dollars in mandatory budget reductions in programs that help low-income Americans, including one that gives vouchers for housing to the poor and disabled and another that provides fortified baby formula to the children of poor women. (The New York Times)
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The first official day of Spring may still be 20 days away, but the Spring housing market is already underway. Buyer traffic is rising along with home prices, but one traditional Spring phenomenon is sorely absent: rising supply. The raw number of homes for sale is now at its lowest level in over 13 years, according to the National Association of Realtors, and the numbers continue to fall. (CNBC)
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Although wiggling your nose as if you were on the TV set of "Bewitched" or clicking your heels three times like Dorothy of "The Wiz" won’t lend you prophetic abilities, tapping into your emotions might. Several studies have shown that emotional intelligence (EI), an ability to self-regulate and identify the emotions of oneself and others, could also predict workplace outcomes. (Black Enterprise)
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I'm sure it's happened to you: You're in a tense team meeting trying to defend your position on a big project and start to feel yourself losing ground. Your voice gets louder. You talk over one of your colleagues and correct his point of view. He pushes back, so you go into overdrive to convince everyone you're right. It feels like an out of body experience – and in many ways it is. In terms of its neurochemistry, your brain has been hijacked. (Harvard Business Review)
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Jobs may get done when employees work from home, but careers are made in the office. The outcry surrounding a decision by Yahoo Inc. – led by new Chief Executive Marissa Mayer – to end work-from-home arrangements has shown just how strongly many companies and employees have embraced remote work, but it also underscores tensions between workers' need for flexibility and their need for visibility. (The Wall Street Journal)
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Since we're all media companies now – thank you, social networks – we need to make career transitions with the same aplomb that a startup makes a pivot. Luckily Leslie Bradshaw, who's transitioned from data visualization firm JESS3 to video-startup Guide, has walked the personal-press-conference path before. (Fast Company)
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Your company already knows whether you’ve been taking your meds, getting your teeth cleaned and going for regular medical checkups. Now some employers or their insurance companies are tracking what staffers eat, where they shop and how much weight they’re putting on – and taking action to keep them in line. (MarketWatch)
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While most companies realize the importance of diversity in the workplace, there's still a shortage of African-Americans in the upper echelons of corporate America, according to a survey to be released Wednesday by the Chicago Urban League. (Chicago Tribune)
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After years of legal wrangling, the Defense of Marriage Act – the law that prevents the federal government from recognizing marriage as anything but a "legal union between one man and one woman" – comes before the Supreme Court next month. (NPR)
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DiversityInc recognized the unique diversity-management achievements of eight leading companies at our Diversity-Management Best Practices From the Best of the Best event and Special Awards Dinner in New York City, where CEOs and senior executives of these leading companies told the audience how commitment to diversity management is building their business. (DiversityInc)
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The recent political instability in Mali has cast a cloud of poor publicity over the economic and commercial rise of Africa, one of the few bright spots in the global economy. Press analysis has speculated whether political instability is endemic to Africa and likely to expand in the future. It's an important point for the many companies, from GE to Unilever, that are turning to Africa for their next wave of growth. (Harvard Business Review)
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The battle between an American capitalist and a French socialist official has prompted chuckles – and heated debate – on both sides of the Atlantic. The exchange highlights some humorous stereotypes and reveals real differences between the economic cultures of France and the United States. (NPR)
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Twenty years ago, on two different business school campuses a continent away, the seeds of social entrepreneurship were planted. At INSEAD, two students Philippe Dongier and Katie (co-author of this post) sent a school-wide email asking if anyone was interested in cultivating coursework and careers related to nonprofits. Overnight, 126 students, staff, and faculty responded – a number equal to 50% of the newly arrived class. With a student-faculty steering committee and 50,000 Euros of seed funding from the school's administration, they founded INDEVOR, INSEAD's social enterprise club. (Harvard Business Review)
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Shortly after becoming dean of IESE Graduate Business School in Barcelona in July of 2001, Jordi Canals began having weekly breakfasts with groups of MBA students. Back then, their concerns were largely focused on job placement and networking. They worried about landing a high paying MBA job and how their careers might progress. Today, his MBA students want to know how they can have an impact on the world, how they can live more meaningful lives, and how they can get the most from a global experience where they are studying with students from 56 nationalities. (Poets & Quants)
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Columbia Business School will unveil the latest overhaul of the curriculum for the full-time MBA and EMBA programs in the fall of 2013. After considering potential options for about a year, the school’s curriculum committee decided on course work that emphasizes leadership, helps students connect the dots between various disciplines, and teaches them to think like entrepreneurs, says Gita Johar, senior vice dean and business professor. (Bloomberg/Businessweek)
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Nearly five years after Apple Inc. kicked off the mobile-apps craze, the industry is booming. App stores run by Apple and Google Inc. now offer more than 700,000 apps each. With so many apps to choose from, consumers are estimated to spend on average about two hours a day with apps. Global revenue from app stores is expected to rise 62% this year to $25 billion, according to Gartner Inc. (The Wall Street Journal)
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In the kerfuffle over the pricing and licensing for Office 2013 and Office 365, a lot of people seem to have overlooked one salient fact. Over the past few years, Microsoft has steadily improved its free Office Web Apps to the point where they represent a credible threat to ... Microsoft Office. (ZDNet)
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It happens gradually, devoted fans insist. Once you get it, they say, you live and die by Evernote, the five-year-old, everything-in-one-place personal organization application that is hyped by its creators as your "external brain." (Bloomberg/Businessweek)
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One of the biggest worries for small-business owners is dealing with fluctuations in cash flow. Nathan Perry's five-year-old New York City catering business has had to operate with up to $30,000 in unpaid customer invoices at any given time, for instance. Such gaps in cash flow – or so-called "lumpy money" – can make it difficult for business owners to focus on expansion rather than, say, managing payrolls or paying other bills. (The Wall Street Journal)
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One of the biggest problems in business development, partnerships, and sales is managing your pipeline. A close second is managing, tracking, and keep up to date with your email inbox. I’ve tried many tools to help both issues but each has had its shortcomings. About a week ago a friend tipped me off to a company called Yesware. With his endorsement I immediately headed over and added it to my business and personal Gmail accounts. (Forbes)
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Gas prices rose 10% this month, making it the worst February on record, but drivers can expect relief up ahead. The national average for a gallon of regular gasoline was $3.78 on Thursday, according to AAA, down about half a cent from the day before. But it was only the fourth day this month that prices declined, and gas is nearly 50 cents more expensive than it was at the beginning of the year. (CNN/Money)
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Just when we thought we were out, the euro crisis pulls us back in. This time, it's Italy and its inconclusive elections that are rocking financial markets. More specifically, it's the strong showing of comedian-cum-blogger-cum-candidate Beppe Grillo together with the umpteenth political resurrection of the reflexively corrupt Silvio Berlusconi that have stock indices slumping around the globe. Both are anti-austerity, and, to varying degrees, anti-euro – a toxic brew that threatens to make bond markets queasy (though not because austerity or the euro are good for Italy). (The Atlantic)
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If you’re not checking your tax return before it gets sent to the IRS, you could be in for some nasty surprises. Did you find a tax pro who swears she can get you better refunds than anyone else in the world? Do all her clients get great refunds, and you can’t figure out why you and your accountant can’t get the same result? Is she smarter than everyone? There’s a reason she can do this. She’s committing tax fraud. What happens when your tax preparer commits tax fraud? You get into trouble. (MarketWatch)
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Young adults are in less debt than they were a decade ago, but that's not a good thing. It's not because legions of Americans under age 35 have suddenly become fiscally responsible. It's more likely that their shaky economic foundations either prevent them from qualifying for a loan or even thinking about applying for one, according to those studying the trend. (CNN/Money)
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What happens when the "bundle" begins to unravel? The question is taking on intense importance for the cable-TV business, which for decades has forced customers to subscribe to groups, or bundles, of channels – whether they wanted them or not.
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There are many sad stories to tell about the U.S. economy, but here's some good news for everybody, from radical capitalists to consumer advocates: The incredible falling price of flying. (The Atlantic)
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Gov. Rick Snyder of Michigan announced on Friday that the city of Detroit is so snarled in financial woes that the state must appoint an emergency manager to lead it out of disaster. (The New York Times)
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The Pentagon is about to become a crazier place to work, and not because Chuck Hagel has taken the helm. It’s because of sequestration, which, if it really does happen on March 1, could twist and twirl the world of defense contracting into contortions heretofore unseen. The mainstream news stories and editorials on the subject have not conveyed the full nuttiness of what’s about to blow. (Slate)
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You may think an organization with dangerous working conditions, mind-blowing stress, and thankless assignments would have trouble with retention. You would be wrong. Here's why top secret agents stick around. (Fast Company)
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Yahoo may want to wrangle the herd, but plenty of companies still encourage remote work. StackExchange lead developer David Fullerton explains why his company does, and how they make it work. (Fast Company)
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