Human Resources News

Now hordes of American IT workers find the news hard to reconcile with their own day-to-day experiences. Highly qualified American IT workers now say that they cannot find jobs in the United States.  Add to that the massive layoffs that are occurring in the financial sector (Citicorp – 52,000 jobs eliminated) and you have a very glum picture.

CIOs are under pressure to cut costs, improve productivity, and maintain a high service level. Some CIOs are paring down overhead and finding cheaper labor elsewhere. But it doesnÂ’t provide heartening news to unemployed IT workers.

And the truth is that the woes of American IT workers may well be just beginning. The global business landscape is morphing by the day. Globalization is no longer about American businesses colonizing the third world.

So what is an out-of-work IT professional to do? Many of the more fortunate (employed) IT professionals urge the unemployed to sharpen their skills and evolve in their professions.

  According to the lawsuit, the Texas-based multinational technology company, whose top 14 executives are all male, unfairly laid off four former senior female employees in the job cuts earlier this year.  The plantiffs in the case are seeking class action status and have filed in a federal court in California.

The lawsuit demands $500 million in damages on behalf of female and older former Dell employees, who they say were singled out during recent layoffs and systematically discriminated against.

The lawsuit states nearly 80 percent of the top executives in Dell are male. Dell has declined to comment on that figure, although its website says women and people of color represent 32 percent of its U.S.-based vice presidents.

In the lawsuit the plaintiffs said they were repeatedly passed up for promotions and increased pay despite receiving good performance reviews.

Despite laws prohibiting unequal pay for equal work, women in the United States are paid about 22 percent less than men on an average, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Economic conditions are not getting any better as shown by the recent announcement by Motorola confirmed that they plan to lay off 3,000 workers as part of a $800 million cost reduction program.  Approximately 2,000 of those jobs would be from the handset division. According to its annual report Motorola had 66,000 at the beginning of 2008.

The chairman requested total and average compensation paid to all employees, a breakdown of the number of employees receiving more than $500,000 in annual compensation and compensation paid to the ten highest-paid employees. He said that he questioned the appropriateness of depleting the capital that taxpayers just injected into the banks through the payment of billions of dollars in bonuses, especially after one of the financial industry's worst years on record.

The nine banks received the money when the government purchased ownership stakes in them by authority granted in a $700 billion Wall Street rescue plan.  The nine banks have awarded $108 billion in total compensation and bonuses in the first nine months of 2008.

Other recipients of the letter include Bank of New York Mellon Corp., J.P Morgan Chase Co.,  Merrill Lynch Co. Inc., Morgan Stanley, State Street Corp., and Wells Fargo Co.

• Assessing the environment to understand the current state of affairs - enterprise want new employees or managers to bring something to the table. If the department is running smoothly, they want the new employee to help move the organization forward. If something is not working, they want the new employee to help fix it.
• Defining what is expected of you and what success is 3, 6, and 12 months out - How management define success for the position. To do this the new employee needs to know what managementÂ’s expectations are.  Ask the right questions and listen to the answers.
• Learning the politics of the situation - the new employee needs to get to know their peers, supervisors and who the power centers they will be interacting with are. The new employee will need to identify the individuals who will directly and indirectly affect your ability to get the job done - it may be an individual completely out of the new employee's organizational structure.
• Learning how people interact and how things get done - one of the trickiest tasks of any new job is figuring out the culture and office politics so you don't step on toes or run afoul of your colleagues.
• Getting something good done quickly - the enterprise will judge the new employee from the start, so the new employee needs to establish credibility quickly. One way to do that is to look for an early success.

Yahoo stumbled in its third-quarter earnings report. Revenues were $1.79 billion for the quarter, a one percent increase compared to the year-ago period. But operating income was $70 million, a 53 percent decrease from $150 million in the same period of 2007.

Jerry Yang, cofounder and chief executive officer, said as economic conditions and online advertising softened in the third quarter, the company remained highly focused on its strategy to invest in initiatives that strengthen its long-term competitiveness.

"During the third quarter, Yahoo! began implementing a series of cost reduction initiatives that contributed to the Company's adjusted operating cash flow exceeding the midpoint of its outlook for the quarter. The Company's goal is to reduce its current annualized cost run rate of approximately $3.9 billion by more than $400 million before the end of 2008. The Company anticipates that both headcount and non-headcountrelated costs will be reduced by these actions. Because the majority of expenses are headcount-related, Yahoo! expects to reduce its global workforce by at least 10 percent during the fourth quarter of 2008. Yahoo! also plans to implement additional cost-cutting measures aimed at achieving additional structural efficiencies over the next year. The Company anticipates these will result in substantial additional cost savings. The goal of these measures is to position Yahoo! for long-term, sustainable growth."

Whatever job cuts occur in the technology sector in the coming months, they are  not likely to be as deep or as lasting as the cuts that occurred during the dot-com bust, according to statistics from the U.S. Department of Labor and industry employment experts.

Call it learning from past mistakes: tech companies have not experienced the hiring binge that occurred in the late 1990s, when a combination of Internet investment, repair work on older computer systems to deal with Y2K transition issues, and massive investment in telecommunications infrastructure teamed to create double-digit tech employment growth through much of the second half of that decade.

Information Technology Sector includes: software publishers, telecommunications, data processing, hosting and related services, internet publishing, broadcasting, web search, and portals.  Manufacturing Sector includes: peripheral equipment, storage devices, broadcast and wireless communication, audio and video equipment, and semiconductors.

• Ebay cuts 10% - 1,000 jobs
• Pandora cuts14% of its staff to 120 from 140
• Biotech firm Cell Genesys Inc. is laying off 290 people, or 75% of staff, and possibly seeking a buyer
• Zillow.com laid off 25% from 155
• Fast Company TV online site, Mansueto Ventures is laying off 20

Other cuts the companies make include:

• Shelving new business expansion
• Closing remote location
• Cutting IT help desk coverage
• Curtailing perks like tuition reimbursement and free snacks