It is quitting time, and you know the drill. You grab your coat and slip on your Bluetooth for a quick call with a client on the commute home. You stop at the grocery store and, while you are in line, pluck out your BlackBerry to respond to emails. You arrive home, sit down to dinner and try hard to resist the flashing red light on your smartphone. (Time)

Visit http://business.time.com/2012/02/16/should-companies-force-employees-to-unplug/ to view the full article online.

 

Even after European leaders appeared to have averted a chaotic default by Greece with an eleventh-hour deal for aid, worries persist that a debt disaster on the Continent has merely been delayed. (New York Times)

Visit http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2012/02/21/in-latest-greek-bailout-warning-signs-for-europe/?hp to view the full article online.

 

During a relatively placid economic period like the mid-2000s, about 65% of all hiring is associated with what economists have dubbed "churn" – the job-to-job movement of workers through the labor force, which neither adds to nor subtracts from total employment. Of the 12m or so hires that occurred in a typical pre-recession quarter, some 8m came from firms luring workers away from other firms. (The Economist)

Visit http://www.economist.com/node/21547224 to view the full article online.

 

There was a time, not so long ago, when I was busy, busy, busy. At least I thought I was. I told people I worked 60 hours a week. I claimed to sleep six hours a night. As I lamented to anyone stuck next to me at parties, I was basically too busy to breathe. Me time? Ha! (Wall Street Journal)

Visit http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203358704577237603853394654.html?mod=WSJ_hps_sections_careerjournal to view the full article online.

 

1. Piggyback on your current job: Chuck Sacco had five kids at home, which isn't a good thing when you'd like to quit your job and start a business. So Sacco negotiated a severance package with his employer – and a monthly consulting contract – and co-founded PhindMe Mobile in 2007. (Fortune)

Visit http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2012/smallbusiness/1202/gallery.escape-middle-management-hell.fortune/ to view the full article online.

 

Companies have long provided job rotations for higher level executives to give them a sense of how different departments operate, but now they are discovering that short- to medium-term moves for rank-and-file employees help workers sharpen their skills, stay motivated and identify new roles they might aim for in the future. (Wall Street Journal)

Visit http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204059804577229123891255472.html to view the full article online.

 

Greeks will suffer austerity measures for another five years as the price of their government securing a €130bn (£109bn) bailout to prevent national bankruptcy and chaos within the eurozone, it has emerged. (The Guardian, UK)

Visit http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/feb/21/greeks-five-years-eurozone-crisis to view the full article online.

 

Underlying all this is a change in thinking about how best to improve nutrition, with less stress on providing extra calories and food and more on improving nutrition by supplying micro-nutrients such as iron and vitamins.(The Economist)

Visit http://www.economist.com/node/21547771 to view the full article online.

 

Kim Lowry, principal of South Elementary, a 500-student school in rural Kennett, Mo., was wary when her superintendent enrolled her in a part-time, two-year business school program. Her school had failed to meet benchmarks under the federal No Child Left Behind law and faced a state takeover. Business classes were the last thing she wanted to do with the money earmarked for improving her school. Says Lowry: "I was very resistant." (Bloomberg/Businessweek)

Visit http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/getting-principals-to-think-like-managers-02162012.html to view the full article online.

 

The Supreme Court's members generally are too decorous to exclaim "I told you so." But Justice Anthony M. Kennedy stands perched on the edge of an I-told-you-so moment, thanks to the court's decision to take up a challenge to a race-conscious college-admission policy that poses some of the same questions he had accused fellow justices of ducking before. (The Chronicle of Higher Education)

Visit http://chronicle.com/article/College-Affirmative-Action/130903/ to view the full article online.

 

The National Black MBA Association – St. Louis Chapter recently received a $12,500 contribution to assist with its Entrepreneur Think Tank. The grant – which was given to the non-profit organization through the Walmart Foundation’s State Giving Program – will help minorities start their own business. "This donation from the Walmart Foundation will allow interested and budding entrepreneurs to attend our Entrepreneur Think Tank at no cost," said Jacquie Vick, president of the association’s St. Louis chapter. "Our think tank not only includes a one-day workshop, but also continuing support and programs to entrepreneurs focused on business growth and development.

Visit http://www.walmartcommunity.com/black-mba-entrepreneur-think-tank-gets-grant/ to view the full article online.

 

The U.S. mobile phone industry is running out of the airwaves necessary to provide voice, text and Internet services to its customers. The problem, known as the "spectrum crunch," threatens to increase the number of dropped calls, slow down data speeds and raise customers' prices. (CNN/Money)

Visit http://money.cnn.com/2012/02/21/technology/spectrum_crunch/index.htm to view the full article online.

 

Facebook is the dominant player in social media, but its direct integration is nowhere to be found in Apple’s desktop and mobile operating systems. It’s a glaring omission considering Facebook updates are a simple drop-down menu choice in Android and Windows Phone. (Wired)

Visit http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2012/02/apple-osx-facebook-twitter/ to view the full article online.

 

We are willing to bet anything that you are smarter than some of the traditionalists setting strategy in the financial services industry. And therein lies a tale about figuring out a way to fish where the biggest number of profitable fish are, even if you don’t know how to do it today. (Bloomberg/Businessweek)

Visit http://www.businessweek.com/management/fishing-where-the-rich-fish-are-02212012.html to view the full article online.

 

It's easy to lose yourself – and your business momentum – to daily minutiae. Get ready to break the cycle by working this simple set of goals into your planning. (Entrepreneur)

Visit http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/222801 to view the full article online.

 

Having a strong domestic manufacturing base is vital to the United States maintaining its world leadership in innovation. That is because advanced manufacturing provides an important institutional foundation for learning and developing process skills and capabilities that are increasingly intertwined with core R&D in some of the industries most important to the country’s economic future. (Bloomberg/Businessweek)

Visit http://www.businessweek.com/management/just-how-important-is-manufacturing-02212012.html to view the full article online.

 

Here's something you already know: The surging price of crude oil is once again causing us real pain at the pump. Gasoline prices were higher last month than any January on record. and everyone in the prediction business says the outlook is grim for spring and summer prices. (Portfolio)

Visit http://www.portfolio.com/business-travel/2012/02/22/surging-oil-prices-to-cause-price-pain-at-airports to view the full article online.

 

Casaundra Bronner is one of six people from the St. Louis area whom NPR has been following for a little more than a year. Like the others, she started 2011 unemployed and searching for work. Like so many Americans who have struggled in this tough labor market, the people we followed have had difficulty getting health coverage. And for some, including Bronner, it didn't stop when they got jobs. Yes, she has fun doing Zumba, but as she explains into the recorder, that's not the only reason she goes to this class.

Visit http://www.npr.org/2012/02/21/147191623/even-when-employed-health-care-a-challenge to view the full article online.

 

Has your budget sprung a leak? Nearly everyone has spending holes. And as with other kinds of leaks, you may have hardly noticed them. But those small drips can quickly add up to big bucks. The trick is to find the holes and plug them so you can keep more money in your pocket. That extra cash could be the ticket to finally being able to save, invest, or break your cycle of living from paycheck to paycheck. (Kiplinger's)

Visit http://www.kiplinger.com/features/archives/25-ways-to-waste-your-money.html to view the full article online.

 

It still came as a bit of a shock when the Wilsons made what they thought was a routine move to register the trademark of their hot product – a flat pretzel snack called Pretzel Crisps – and it was contested by none other than Frito-Lay, the 800-pound gorilla of the snack food market owned by PepsiCo. (New York Times)

Visit http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/21/business/battle-over-pretzel-crisps-shows-value-of-a-brand.html to view the full article online.

 

Prime's real purpose is now clear: it has become the retail giant's Trojan horse into a broad range of businesses, from tablets to streaming media. As CEO Jeff Bezos doubles down on an ambitious growth strategy, Prime may very well be Amazon's riskiest gamble in the company's 17 year history. Not to mention its most promising. (Fortune)

Visit http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2012/02/21/prime-and-punishment/ to view the full article online.

 

In hiring for a top leadership position, you can make costly errors by either incorrectly diagnosing the situation, letting red herrings or other so-called rules get in the way of choosing the right person, or failing to set and follow a rigorous disciplined process. Here's a look at the six top pitfalls to recognize and avoid. (Inc.)

Visit http://www.inc.com/james-m-citrin-and-julie-hembrock-daum/top-six-hiring-mistakes-to-avoid.html to view the full article online.

 

Email is broken. There’s too much of it, no one can agree on how to use it, it’s too easy to send, which encourages a glut of CYA CCing, and there are spammers. Online IT Degree has ventured into this fray with a lighthearted flowchart, designed to help you decide whether it’s really worth sending an email. (Fast Company)

Visit http://www.fastcodesign.com/1669094/should-you-send-that-email-heres-a-flowchart-for-deciding to view the full article online.

 

The cable channel, Aspire, will focus on what Magic Johnson called positive, uplifting images of African Americans and will offer opportunities for black people in the entertainment industry. (Los Angeles Times)

Visit http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-ct-magic-johnson-20120221,0,5232547.story to view the full article online.

 

Everybody misplaces something sometime. But it is not easy for the University of California, Berkeley, to explain how it lost a 22-foot-long carved panel by a celebrated African-American sculptor, or how, three years ago, it mistakenly sold this work, valued at more than a million dollars, for $150 plus tax. (New York Times)

Visit http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/21/arts/design/art-by-sargent-johnson-berkeleys-loss-is-museums-gain.html to view the full article online.