Everything About Business Except The Bottom Line: FunnyBusiness

Reports of An Increase In Women Applying For Topless Jobs Greatly Exaggerated

The big news last week was that strip joints in Austin Texas held a Job Fair--"Jobless to Topless." To believe the hype, former executives at IBM who have been "stripped of their  9 to 5 jobs" are now applying for work in the adult entertainment industry.
As tantalizing as that sounds,there's just one problem with this whole concept. It doesn't appear to be true. And, it is the spokesperson for the adult entertainment industry in Texas who actually provides that insight.

This is the interview that a local television station conducted about the job fair.
In the beginning of the interview the representative from the strip club talks about applications doubling this past year but then he says that they don't have more customers and that the customers they do have are spending less money.

So why a job fair if you already have twice as many applicants than in previous years and business is technically down? Could it be that its just a publicity hoax? That you know if you host a Jobless to Topless Job Fair the news media will be falling all over themselves to do live reports because after all this is such a breaking news story.

The fact is the news media wants to believe that women desperate to pay their bills will toss away their morals and work topless because the money is so good.  It's not just in Texas, mainstream media has been telling this story all year. While you may be able to find a handful of former Fortune 500 employees now applying for pole positions, to act as if this is a trend is simply irresponsible.

You can read more at my post on BlogHer, Eight Women Working In a Topless Coffee Shop Does Not Mean Topless Jobs Are Trending Forward

Feel Like Work Has Gone To The Dogs?

 Dogs Do The Darnest Things. This is Otis - a two year old Goldendoodle
.Photo provided by Otis' co-workers Lisa Feder and Jonathan Freed  who are  the usual occupants of  this workstation..

Have a great caption for this shot? Please share.

How Google Satellite Helped Identify the Stars of the Domino Pizza Video

Have you eaten pizza this week? Thought about it. Then thought about the Domino's video and lost my appetite. So far, no statistics on how many people also opted to not eat pizza last week.

In a story analyzing what Domino's did right and wrong in responding to the PR crisis,,AdAge includes an interview with a Georgetown University Graduate student and her boyfriend on how they tracked down the "videornographers,"

...it was a viewer, not the marketer, who identified the offenders first. Amy Wilson, a Georgetown University graduate student, worked with boyfriend Jonathan Drake to identify the unseemly pair after spotting the story, which by then was on Consumerist.

Starting with a Jack in the Box sign visible from a window in the video, she and Mr. Drake, who analyzes satellite images for a nonprofit, used that and other clues to assemble a street view and began to search Google satellite images for locations that matched. Then Paris Miller, a Northern Kentucky computer consultant, traced one of Ms. Hammonds' friends to Conover, N.C. There he was able to find a Domino's near a Jack in the Box.

"I didn't even intend on doing this," Mr. Miller said. "I didn't know how big this was becoming." He credits another user with calling the location to confirm that the pair worked there. Mr. Drake contacted Tim McIntyre, Domino's VP-communications. The Consumerist trio will each get Domino's coupons roughly equivalent to a year of free food.

Are F-Bombs Dropped Frequently At Your Job?

At what point does a swear word stop being a swear word and start being an exclamation? Has WTF, F-Bombs, friggin' and saying," effing this and effing that," so sanitized the f-word that it's lost its vulgarity? If no one is offended is it still a swear word?

It happened to the word damn ---not sure when it happened or why it happened, but in the 1930's the movie censors thought damn was such an offensive word that it wasn't allowed in movies. Gone With The Wind was only allowed to include Rhett Butler's famous words, " Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn," because it was a direct quote from the original book.

While the news media still treats incidents when commentators or celebrities drop the f-word as if it were actual news, it's as newsworthy as daily updates on Paris Hilton.

At one time, saying the F-word at work could be a fireable offense. Today, it's as likely for a manager to drop the f-bomb in a team meeting as it is for them to say, " at the end of the day.moving the goal posts, transparency,value-added,or win-win-win." What is happening at your workplace. Is there a tolerance for f-bombs as long as they are not said in anger? Is it your favorite exclamatory expression? Does it offend you? To read more on the damnation of the F-bomb, check out my post on BlogHer.

Domino's Brand Tainted After Employees' Prank Video

While Kristi Hammonds, one of the employees in the video is trying desperately to remove it from YouTube--citing copyright issues -- it's a little too late. Besides the fact that Kristi and Michael, the other employee in the video, have been arrested for delivering prohibited food,  YouTube is citing the 1st amendment saying the video is for informative and news purposes and warns - don't bother making a complaint. 

Want to see more? The Consumerist has three additional clips and if you are interested, on Good As You,
there is a very disgusting clip of Michael wiping his butt with a sponge and then washing dishes with said sponge.

Needless to say Domino's Pizza is taking the video very seriously.

“We got blindsided by two idiots with a video camera and an awful idea,” said a Domino’s spokesman, Tim McIntyre, who added that the company was preparing a civil lawsuit. “Even people who’ve been with us as loyal customers for 10, 15, 20 years, people are second-guessing their relationship with Domino’s, and that’s not fair.”

In just a few days, Domino’s reputation was damaged. The perception of its quality among consumers went from positive to negative since Monday, according to the research firm YouGov, which holds online surveys of about 1,000 consumers every day regarding hundreds of brands.

“It’s graphic enough in the video, and it’s created enough of a stir, that it gives people a little bit of pause,” said Ted Marzilli, global managing director for YouGov’s Brand Index.
                                                                                                      New York Times

Domino's is so concerned that they have issued their own YouTube Video response.In the video the President of Domino's USA, Patrick Doyle shares what the company is doing to assure consumers that this is an isolated incident. Watch the video. Was Doyle's message convincing? If not, do you think this kind of behavior is limited to Domino's or is it a larger issue that has been ignored for too long?

United Airlines To Start Charging Extra If You Are Super-Sized

The HuffingtonPost is reporting that United Airlines has a new policy for super-sized individuals.

passengers who are too large to fit into a single seat, buckle the seatbelt, or unable to put down the armrests, will be forced to buy a second ticket or upgrade to a premium class, where the seats are larger. If a flight is full and an obese passenger is unable to buy another seat, they will be bumped from the flight.

READ THE FULL UNITED POLICY

Over at Twitter, some of the reaction:

Andy_Squirrel: reads that United Airlines is charging double for fat passengers.....this makes me feel slightly better about paying for checked baggage

 

Gac2_normal gregoryanne: Anyone want to comment on United Airlines new fat fee for flyer policy? http://budurl.com/eyhf

jameskick: PR situation brewing regarding discrimination? Overweight United Airlines passengers unwelcome: http://twurl.nl/0f7w5f (expand)

If Social Media Was Around During Abraham Lincoln's Administration

Today is the 104th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln's death. I may have known that fact when I was in grade school but it has long been misfiled in that hard drive I call my memory.  For me,  April 15th has simply become Tax Day and my friend  Nancy White's Birthday - Happy Birthday Nancy! Will I remember that it's the anniversary of Lincoln's assassination next year?  Wouldn't bet on that.

As it turns out, I know today is the anniversary of Lincoln's death because on Monday I  read the final page of Doris Kearn Goodwin's tome  to Lincoln, Team Of Rivals.

While there are a lot of things to take away from the book, I left with the distinct impression that these guys would have been all over Twitter, Facebook and blogs.

Guess I'm not the only person who has been thinking about this. Historicaltweets.com offers their take on what historical figures would have tweeted ,if Twitter had been around prior to 2006. Abe Lincoln seems to be a favorite.

 Lincoln Asks Twitter Followers For Speechwriting Help

And this final tweet from the Ford Theater

And of course, Abe Lincoln has a Facebook page with "24,000" supporters.

2009. The Year of the Pay Cut Unless Your Work For.....

Time was when people discussed the size of their pay raise. Usually it was to say it was too small. "4%? You got to be kidding me."
 These days people are discussing pay cuts." A 5% cut? That's not bad.It could have been so much worse!"
 Depending on who you talk to, employees across the country are being asked to give up anywhere from 5-20% of the salary for " the gipper."

Just how many people are experiencing pay cuts?The Wall Street Journal reports that a survey conducted in January by the outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas,

 

found that of 100 human-resource professionals surveyed, 27.2% reported that their companies have imposed a salary freeze or cut. A February survey of 245 large U.S. companies conducted by human-resource consultants Watson Wyatt Worldwide found that 4% of companies plan to reduce salary over the next year, with 7% already implementing pay cuts.

What that doesn't tell me is the number of people who are seeing their salary slashed. Does a salary freeze qualify as a pay cut?

And yet, with all the emphasis on pay cuts, there are some people who will actually get a pay raise. Who are these rare species of working stiffs? That was the topic of my Sunday post on BlogHer.

The Associated Press Says YouTube Bruhaha Just A Big Misunderstanding

In an effort to not become the laughing stock of the world wide webs, the Associated Press is now doing major damage control about a situation which makes it seem that the AP doesn't know its YouTube from a hole in the wall.

As told by TechCrunch, a radio station in Tennessee that happens to be an AP affiliate was embedding video from the Associated Press' YouTube Channel.

the A.P. accused the station of “stealing their licensed content.” He sounds flumoxed, as he should be. This back and forth during the interview says it all:

Strovel: And we’re an A.P. affiliate for crying out loud! I stumped him on that one. . . . What is really shocking is that they were shocked that they’ve got a YouTube channel that people are embedding on their Websites. He seemed shocked by that. ‘Oh, I am going to have to look into that” is what he told me.

Grantham: What an idiot!

Strovel: I know, I know.

Strovel had to pull down all the videos from his Website.

If you're scratching your head,you're not alone. This story is so bizarre you almost think that someone wrote it as an April Fool's story. Given the reaction that is quickly spreading across the Internet, The AP is saying it was now just one big misunderstanding. The italics is their official response. The next paragraph is editorial commentary from TechCrunch.

There was a misunderstanding of YouTube usage when the Tennessee radio station was contacted by the Associated Press regarding the AP’s more extensive online video services. No cease and desist letter was drafted or sent by AP to the station at any time. The AP was trying to offer the station a superior service for their needs. In other words, at the same time it was threatening the radio station it was trying to convince the station to use its “more extensive online video services,” OVN, when all the radio station really needs is what the A.P. already makes available on YouTube.

Microsoft Plans To Appeal $388 Million Patent Infringement Penalty

If the decision stands, this will be one of the largest damages awards in a patent law dispute. The winner of the case is Uniloc, a company that develops anti-piracy software.

The company first filed their claim in 2003. Six years later, the company shouldn't expect that check any time soon. Microsoft says it disagrees with the verdict and plans to appeal.

 

The verdict was reached by a jury in a long-running case in federal court in Rhode Island, which found that Microsoft infringed Uniloc's patent on software that generates unique identities for licensed users and prevents unauthorized use or copying of programs.
                                                                                                                                                 CNNMoney.com

A quick check of the Uniloc website and there is no news about the decision. The latest trial update is from August, 2008 which is when a U.S. Court of Appeals reversed an earlier decision and determined that the issue should stand trial.