THE CAT’S PAWS

There’s inherint problems with off-brand calling cards. Some of them have an extra hoop to jump through; iBasis, like some, require Internet for setup and landline for charging with money. Plan on a full fifteen minutes of sheer muscle to get to the right site and the right part of the site, but it’s doable. Young people would take about a tenth of the time I took to decipher the site’s link and protocol. My guess is that a very young person set the site up to begin with.

You may recognize iBasis international cards near the checkouts of Dollar Tree stores. Having been in one for the first time in my life the other day, I couldn’t tell you if Dollar Tree’s a national chain or just local stores around here. Anyway, they apparently are the sole retailer to buy the international card product, and their advertised price-per-minute is pretty good (I guess–is 3.9 cents good? It sounds so). (more…)

The Commerce Department and politicians/pundits give out what sound to be low unemployment rates these days. ‘Employment’ means just that–people working. It does NOT mean that the jobs provide health insurance. For a more real picture on that, we can get a better picture by looking at the older boomers and where they now are in the work force… (more…)

I tell you. It’s gotten bad, hasn’t it? You have to brace yourself and loudly threaten any force of interuption of distraction before you call, because the company you need to call protects itself with a defensive ‘multi-prompt’ system (’if you’d like to speak to…’press one’; if your gizmo is messed up, press two; if your bill is messed up, press 3, and so on).

By Federal law, callers can get through immediately to a human being by hitting ‘zero’ twice in succession. This is good, because 1) it saves jobs at the other end, and probably even more importantly, 2) you can get through without the agonies and indignities of barging through all the defenses the opposite party would otherwise lay out for you. (more…)

Any business mag will herald some CEO who oversees a company with nice stock returns. The market applauds him, the 401k and investment guys adore him, and the honcho rewards himself with humongous bonuses that dwarf even his sizable (8-digit) salary. He cashes out, the next CEO comes in, and the process continues.

This is what America is supposed to be excited about, right? They say stockholder value is where it’s at: if you have 100 shares of Nortel, for instance, and the share price goes up, say, .14/share, then the small-guy will soon get a Form-1099 for 14.00 so he can pay 28% back to the U.S. Government in one of the multitudes of taxes Mr. Littleguy has to pay yearly. (more…)

It’s hard to tell worse. Outsourcing and the devastingly permanent loss of jobs, or a company’s scott-free enlivenments and incentives to do it.

Call me a liberal. Call me one who screams for action when bewildered millions aren’t able to express their outrage. Call yourselves ‘comfy’ when it doesn’t affect you…

…but go ahead and scream when it all happens to your children. Just don’t let youself be the one, see, who was apathetic and quiet. (more…)

I guess it was about 1999 or so when our employer started this online annual insurance enrollment crap. This phase in a company’s life starts when the big company CEO shakes hands with the little CEO and they go off happily to publically lurid scenes together.

Meanwhile, the employees have to enroll online. (more…)