Donald Sears

For those of you in IT that are watching fringe benefits and workplace perks go out the window like GM’s stock price, some advice is here to help keep up your daily motivation. Motivation for a job should probably not come from free pizza, chai lattes in the work kitchen or expensive gourmet team dinners […]

Are major technology companies such as Google, Apple and others violating antitrust laws by negotiating not to hire away top talent from each other? That’s what the federal government is said to be investigating, according to an article in the Washington Post. From the article: “The review, which is said to be in its preliminary […]

Robert Half Technology has released its latest report, the IT Hiring Index and Skills Report, and the news is that there will be a little hiring in the third quarter of 2009. However, the most telling statistic to me is this: 85 percent of CIOs are set to maintain staffing levels. That’s good news for […]

On the day when General Motors files for bankruptcy, a new report from Challenger, Gray & Christmas asserts that, in lieu of layoffs, more companies are either freezing salaries or cutting pay, but not totally ridding themselves of full-time employees. Some companies sense an economic recovery in the next year to eighteen months, and some […]

The U.S. government, at least the part that is fighting H-1B visa fraud, is looking to prove a point about the program: that fraud in H-1B visa program and the number of visa holders in U.S. tech jobs are putting current struggling American technology workers out of work. Unemployment for the technology industry is up, […]

The Department of Labor has put out its latest news on weekly unemployment numbers and the news has a little good, and enough bad to keep things pretty much the same. The sort-of good news is that the current rate of weekly layoff numbers is down; the bad news is that the number of individuals […]

There’s an old saying: “Fish stinks from the head.” Nowhere does this mean more than in business where companies rely on leadership to captain the ship. But how often do our business and technology leaders look at themselves in the mirror, or better yet, let their teams evaluate them from the perspective of how their […]

It seems no one is safe from layoffs, but fear of age discrimination lawsuits by older workers may be forcing out younger workers, says a recent article at the WSJ. From the article, which cites recent Labor Depratment figures and labor attorneys: “The unemployment rate for those between the ages of 25 and 34 was […]

Human capital management is nothing new, but when you hear Google is doing some form of it internally, your ears perk up a little. Is Google too big to keep the best and brightest feeling satisfied in their Google work? For some, the answer is yes. Google, concerned with employee retention after a year of […]

As part of the Hewlett-Packard earnings call, the hardware, software and services company announced it will be reducing its work force by 2 percent, which translates to roughly 6,400 jobs lost over the next 12 months. From an AP article: “HP’s chief financial officer, Cathie Lesjak, told analysts the new cuts will be ”targeted actions […]