Workplace

Report: outsourcing worries Indian union leaders too

U.S. techies aren't the only ones anxious about outsourcing. Union leaders in India also worry about the trend of farming out tasks to other companies, according to a report Friday on the Web site of the Union Network International Graphical organization.

At a union-organized seminar in Pune, India earlier this month, outsourcing was identified as one of the five major problems facing printing and newspaper employees in the country, according to the report. "[T]his was resulting in loss of employment of the existing workers in a company (and the) employer was paying a fraction for the … Read more

Young Indians inventing

An article Thursday on an Indian news site offers further evidence that the country is getting into the game of creating new technology products --rather than just providing routine software coding or call center services.

The story at Webindia123.com describes the inventions of four Indian teenagers who represented their nation at a recent international exhibition for young inventors. Among the Indian teens' innovations: a system for controlling home appliances through a mobile phone, a wheelchair that can climb stairs and a machine for transforming banana tree waste into a substance that can be used in products including biodegradable construction … Read more

MBAs say tech still adds up

Business school grads apparently still think tech companies are still pretty good places to work. Technology companies were well represented in a survey of where MBAs would most like to work, a list compiled by research firm Universum.

Apple Computer was near the top of the list at No. 15, one spot below IBM but ahead of Microsoft (No. 18). Other high-tech firms included Amazon.com (19), Dell (24), eBay (27) and Intel (32), Hewlett-Packard (36) and Yahoo (37).

Why so few women at the top? New study sheds light...

An opinion piece in today's New York Times puts an interesting spin on a Univerity of Pittsburgh study examining competitive streaks in men and women.

The women in the study opted out of a math tournament more often than the men did, despite the fact that many of the women performed the problems better or equally well. By declining the chance to compete, the women also turned down a shot at higher pay.

Most men, even those who performed poorly, chose to compete.

The NYT columnist doesn't chalk it up to a lack of confidence among the women … Read more

Game employees speaking with one voice?

The video game industry is in the midst of another labor-related battle. And the workers in question may be particularly adept at making their voices heard.

According to The Associated Press, actors who lend their voices to video games are pushing to get a piece of the profits in the growing game industry. And those actors aren't acting alone. The Screen Actors Guild and American Federation of Television and Radio Artists represent actors in the game industry, and claim the concept of profit-sharing, or "residuals," is widely accepted throughout the entertainment industry.

What's more, the unions … Read more

Can Microsoft coding contest revive U.S. pride?

A team of Virginia Commonwealth University students will represent the United States this summer in an international software design contest -- giving American computer science students a chance to polish their tarnished image.

Microsoft, the contest's organizer, selected the group from among 30 U.S. teams competing for a spot at the finals in Yokohama, Japan. The Imagine Cup 2005 contest, in its third year, rewards innovative software development that uses Microsoft technology. The winning team will take home $25,000.

Money's not all that's at stake though. National pride is on the line too after the … Read more

Myth of class mobility?

The New York Times is running a series of stories about the way economic and social class shape the lives of Americans, with some provocative findings.

Among those that may be most startling: research indicates economic mobility decreased in the United States between the 1970s and 1990s, and that France, Canada and Denmark have more mobility than the United States.

According to the Times, Americans have a hard time accepting the notion that their society isn't terribly fluid. "Americans have never been comfortable with the notion of a pecking order based on anything other than talent and hard … Read more

Help desk blues

Forrester released a study this week indicating most workers find their companies' help desk services far from helpful. The survey of 2,000 business people puts the help desk dead-last in terms of information technology satisfaction.

Many respondents also complained about a lack of clear communication from their IT staff and poorly designed corporate intranets.

More about the survey here.

Unhappy and indebted workers

The American worker today: more disgruntled, deeper in debt.

At least that's the portrait that emerges from a couple of recent reports. The first, an essay by consultant Tony DiRomualdo, discusses a conference titled the World Congress on the Future of Work. The prevailing view of attendees at this April forum was that the workplace is not a better and more fulfilling place than it was 10 years ago, he writes.

"Today, the majority of workers still go to offices every day even though information and communications technology increasingly allows them to work from anywhere," DiRomualdo says. &… Read more