Tuesday, March 17, 2009

More Cuts- This time its Salary

I'm addicted to the internet and all its subcategories, email, facebook,google! But i also love to read the newspaper, even though by the time i get to the newspaper at night, i've seen much of the news already from browsing online during the day.

This past week there was an article that I dound very disturbing. The Miami Herald is letting 205 employees go by July 1, 2009. They are allowing the people to retire and take severance and if they don't do that then the company will decide who goes. The BIGGER and UGLIER news is that all remaining employees will take paycuts. If you make under $50,000 you will get a 3% pay cut and if you make over $50,000 you will get a 5% paycut. Oh yes and the newspaper will shrink the margins by an inch so we get less news! I have a friend at a major medical institution and she also told me that the institution is facing huge deficits and one of the options is for employees to have their pay reduced! The School Board in Miami is still trying to negotiate teachers taking 3 furlough days without pay!

Now I try to put this into context, things cost more, people need to pay for daycare, after care, gas, and one of the current OBAMA cabinet members has said that pay has not risen at an appropriate rate for workers and now Companies have decided that the way to fix their financial problems is to give less money to the people who work hard every day!

Something is very wrong with this picture!

Sunday, March 15, 2009

Its Sunday March 15th and depending on the city here is what they are celebrating!

I grew up in a very small town 10 miles west of Boston, MA. It was very norman rockwell! We graduated high school on the town green wearing white dresses and a bag piper lead us in! I grew up with many kids who were second generation to our town and in fact are now raising their own children there.

I moved to South Florida for law school, and its a cultural divide from New England to say the least. Miami is a cultural melting pot, as an example when I walk into a grocery store blocks from the business District of Brickell, the cashiers speak to me entirely in spanish. I find that many of my sentences are mixed with spanglish phrases and while my conversation isn't great, i understand a great deal!

So today is Sunday March 15th! In Miami they are celebrating Calle Ocho on SW 8th Street, a huge parade and festival that celebrates the hispanic culture. In Boston they are also having a parade but with green beer and green carnations celebrating the luck of the irish!

And so many years later, i find that while I live in the South, I will always be a northerner in my heart!

Friday, March 13, 2009

Sunday Styles No Longer a Guilty Pleasure

I have a ritual! I love sunday mornings, i get out of bed, open the door and bring in the NY TIMES and climb back into my fabulous bed to indulge! I read the Sunday Style Section First. It used to be filled with stories of fashion, new restaurants, grand parties and EXCESS! It was my guilty pleasure, what connected me to the goings on of the Fashion, Fabulous and Famous in NYC!

Lately when I open the Sunday Times I want to crawl under my bed instead of just under my amazing duvet! Take for instance last week, there was an article on how families could no longer afford to send their children to private school and instead were choosing parochial schools or public schools and how embarassing it was for the children! I don't know, i went to public school and it wasn't embarassing in the least bit! Another article was about how there was a huge job fair at the Sheraton, fewer companies participated and the room held 1000, at the last fair 2000 people showed up and at this fair there were 5000! They were lined up around the block of the hotel and it took hours for them to get inside!

I'm afraid to see what this Sunday will bring!

Sunday, March 1, 2009

Violated and the customer service industry

i went to the bank yesterday to discover that i had been the victim of identity theft! A pretty sophisticated identity theft in my opinion! Bad things happen in three's! This is the third bad thing that has happened in 3 weeks and i'm hoping that it's the last for me! Otherwise the bad things in three's theory is out the door!

In any event, aside from the complete violation of my personal information and the ridiculous hassle of cleaning up this problem, it reminded me about our great nation and customer service.

Ever tried to actually get a human on the phone at a bank? first its almost impossible, they make those dial and press deals so complicated, but when you finally get one, they have a very thick accent and are often in INDIA or PAKISTAN!

Several months ago I called an airline to follow-up on a delayed flight I was scheduled to take. The customer service agent was in INDIA and told me that my flight was scheduled to leave at 3:20 pm, the problem was that at the moment he told me that it was already 5:00 pm.

Its time to bring call centers back to the good ole' USA! Provide not only jobs to Americans who are suffering, but provide information to consumers that is relevant and understandable!