Abraham Lincoln - Cooper Union Address free essay sample

Furloughs In Place of Layoffs

Furloughs In Place of Layoffs Free Online Research Papers Abstract Many organizations are turning to furloughs as an option over layoffs. In the short-term, furlough will optimize the cost of productivity while closing the budget gap. In the long-term, the organization is saving because they are able to keep their top employees and not have to hire and re-train staff. In our current time of economic crisis, furlough is an optimal choice for reducing costs and maintaining the integrity of the organization in the least invasive aspect. Executive Summary Are furloughs an optimal option over layoffs in order to reduce a deficit? I currently work at the University of California, San Diego which is part of the implementation for furloughs in an attempt to reduce the deficit without increasing the unemployment rate in California. Currently the state of California is in a 26 billion dollar deficit and climbing, and has resulted in furloughs for state employees. Furlough’s are defined as the placing of an employee in a temporary non-duty, non-pay status because of lack of work or funds, or other non-disciplinary reasons (Bellafronto Cleveland, 2009). In the current difficult economic times many employers are being forced to make difficult decisions to keep their businesses viable, including laying off employees to reduce payroll costs. More employers, however, are considering alternatives to layoffs. These alternatives allow employers to retain staff, particularly top talent and employees with institutional knowledge (Bellafronto Cleveland, 2009). Employers understand that keeping tenured and often loyal employees employed in anticipation of an inevitable upswing in the economy will also reduce the need to re-hire and re-train personnel which is a very costly and timely endeavor (Heathfield, 2009). Although reducing employee salaries may be an easy solution to an economical crisis, such reductions are often discarded as too demoralizing and often leads to employees looking for new employers. In order to avoid losing valued employees, many employers are attempting to reduce labor costs without layoffs are considering two alternatives: 1) mandatory furloughs and 2) reduced work hours. When done correctly, these can result in cost savings, but there are important legal considerations to keep in mind. This paper will discuss the economical impact of furloughs (Bellafronto Cleveland, 2009). Definition Employee furloughs is a mandatory time off work with no pay. Usually furloughs are implemented as an alternative to a layoff. Employee furloughs can occur in both public and private sector organizations (Heathfield, 2009). Furloughs are often implemented when revenue or projected revenue fails to match expenses. Currently, the state of California, is in a budget crisis and there is a mandatory employee furlough being implemented amongst all state employees. At the UC system all 10 campuses are required to take a mandatory furlough or pay cut. During mandatory employee furloughs, employees are required to take unpaid or partially paid time off of work for periods of time (Heathfield, 2009). The employees generally have either scheduled time off or a set amount of days required to be taken off per month or throughout the fiscal year (Bellafronto Cleveland, 2009).. To schedule employees with a contract, including union-represented employees, for employee furloughs, the contract must be renegotiated. The negotiations about employee furloughs generally include a call-back date (Heathfield, 2009). In the state of California the UC school system gave each university the option between mandatory furlough and reduced salary. All of the UC’s individually held town meetings to hear the voice of the employees to analyze what the employees preferred. The employees voted and pushed for a furlough instead of a cut in salary. Although the furlough does ultimately result in a reduced salary, it is demoralizing to have employees work the same amount of hours for reduced pay. As an employee of the UC system, I also voted for the furlough. I strongly believe that it is easier to accept a non-paid day off than a reduction in salary. Fortunately, during employee furloughs, benefits usually continue, which is one of the employee furloughs differentiating factors from a layoff. In addition, other companies have implemented work sharing programs. Work sharing is an Unemployment Insurance program that allows an employer to reduce the number of hours an employee works during a week while unemployment compensation makes up some of the difference in income. Since the current issue is that the state is in a budget deficit, utilizing unemployment would not be cost efficient for the state (Heathfield, 2009). Factors or Costs According to the UC President Mark G. Yudof, effective July 16th, 2009, the UC Board of Regents approved a systemwide furlough as part of a plan to offset $813 million in state funding reductions for the 2008-09 and 2009-10 fiscal years. The furlough is viewed as a short-term solution to close the deficit and manage the budgets under the new budget for the upcoming fiscal year. If the furlough is successful, the university will be able to remove the furloughs and ensure long-term success. Although the university is optimistic about the furlough, it is demoralizing and difficult for the employees to endure. In the current economical situation, and with the constant news of businesses laying off employees, UC employees are appreciative to have a furlough in lieu of a mass layoff. Most California business are amidst a human resources hire freeze, and it is difficult to obtain new jobs. The hire freeze amongst other corporations gives the UC an increase market power. Although, we are amidst a furlough, the furlough is only applicable to non-federally paid employees. The UC campus is made up of both federal and state funds. Fortunately, the furlough is only applicable to state funded employees, such being the case that the federal funded research programs are still very much thriving and now have market power with regards to hiring highly qualified applicants. According to our human resources department, for each job opening we have over 300 applicants and most of the applicants are over qualified but in the current economy are willing to take any job. The university is able to obtain a highly qualified candidate for a lower salary. The federal research funds are an important revenue source for the UC system. These funds are released to the UC along with a 54.5% indirect cost rate that is associated with every dollar spent. For example for every $500,000 that is awarded to the university, $272,500 is allocated as indirect costs. Indirect are allocated as funds are spent, therefore, for every dollar spent 54.5% is revenue for the university. It was a wise decision to exclude the federal research funds of the furlough, because in the end the university would lose revenue and if the funds are not spent by the time allotted, the funds are to be returned to the government. In addition, it is calculated that for every 1 million dollars awarded by the federal government, 17 jobs are created. Measurement According to the UC California Budget News (2009), the UC system faces an unprecedented $813 million deficit in state support. The furlough plan is part of a system wide strategy to address the deficit. In an effort to lessen the hardship on employees, the UC has devised a plan is based on a sliding scale. Employees who have higher salaries will have a larger number of furlough days and a correspondingly higher salary reduction. Salary reductions range from 4 -10 percent. The UC President estimates that the furlough implementation will produce a savings that is estimated to cover about one-quarter of the universities budget gap. On a personal note, I will incur 16 furlough days which is equivalent to a 6% salary cut (UCSD, 2009) In addition to the furloughs, the university also plans to increase student fees in order to eliminate another quarter of the budget gap. All of the departments have been given strict guidelines for immediate debt restructuring, drastic cuts in spending on campuses and within the Office of the President will make up the remainder of the budget gap (UCSD, 2009). Analysis Implementing a furlough is a way to reduce expenses in order to close the budget gap. In doing so, employers are able to keep their staff, and will save money in the long-term as well as the short-term. Hiring new staff is very expensive and not cost-efficient, there are costs associated with training, background checks and it often takes a minimum of 6 months for an employee to get caught up to speed with the other employees. The furlough is a more favorable option to layoffs for employees as well as employers. Although the employees are required to take mandatory furlough days, the workload or demand is not decreasing. The university is constantly in high demand with regards to education as well as research. We are now facing the issue of supply, where supply is the laborers needed to run the university. There are a lot more expectations given to employees who have to do the same amount of work in less demand, and this could affect the productivity of the university. Summary In summary, furloughs are an optimal option over layoffs when used to reduce a deficit. Cost analysis have shown that furloughs are both a short-term as well as a long-term solution to budgetary deficits. The UC system proved to be a great example of an organization that is using this options in order to maintain productivity as well as maintaining the integrity of the UC system. References Maurice, S. Thomas, C. (2008). Managerial Economics, 9th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill. Bellafronto, E. Cleveland B. (March 5, 2009). Furloughs may be smarter than layoffs. Legal times. Heathfield, S. (2009). Employee Furloughs. About.com http://humanresources.about.com/od/glossaryf/g/furlough.htm UCSD. (July, 2009). University of California Budget News. universityofcalifornia.edu/budget/?page_id=87 Research Papers on Furloughs In Place of LayoffsMoral and Ethical Issues in Hiring New EmployeesTwilight of the UAWAnalysis of Ebay Expanding into AsiaLifes What IfsThe Effects of Illegal ImmigrationPETSTEL analysis of IndiaThe Project Managment Office SystemNever Been Kicked Out of a Place This NiceOpen Architechture a white paperResearch Process Part One

Democracy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 2

Democracy - Essay Example Democracy has certain salient characteristics to it that makes it the most favorite and also distinguishes it from other forms of governments and rulings. Elections are held after a constant time period mostly four to five years. The prime minister is the head of state in a democratic state. A republic state is one where the President enjoys more power and authority than the Prime Minister. The rules of business are devised through a constitution which is either in written form or in oral. Parliament is the place where representatives of the people gather and discuss the local and national issues. Local parliaments are in place on state and province level. This is one of the dominant forms of government across the world. With nearly three fourth of the countries on earth being democratic. It is considered as sign of the freedom and level prosperity. The relatively progressive nations of the world are stressing for implementation of democracy in those parts of the world where dictator ship and non representative form of government is in place. India is the country with second largest population and is the largest democracy. The notable feature of Indian democracy is the fact that it has never been derailed by the forceful overthrow of the dictators and Army unlike many countries. One of the centre of attractions in Southern Asia and came into existence in 1947 along side its neighbor Pakistan with whom the ties have never been too friendly. The last elections were held in 2009. Member of the Sikh community Manmohan Singh is the prime minister of the country and represents the Congress party. Though the rising population is a serious concern yet, the stable state of institutions and direct election of people’s representatives holds the key to the progress of nation. With the economy on the rise, India is strong contender for becoming one of the might of Asia in coming years with development in the field of science and technology and education. Democracy has a considerable role in the entire state of India as it stands currently. Tunisia is situated in Africa on the coasts of Mediterranean Sea and remained a colony of France until 1950s. However it did not get to have taste of democracy for nearly three decades and was under the reign of Habib Bourguiba. He was followed by Zine al Abidine Ben Ali. His extensive rule came to an end in 2011 when an interim government was put in place. Much is expected of the interim set up with regard to hopes for a true democracy that would be representative of the wishes of the people of Tunisia. Venezuela is situated in South America. The country is rich in natural resources, mostly the oil, coal and gold. Having mentioned the natural resources, the bulk of the population still lives below the poverty line and inflation is on a constant rise. The country and its people still aspire for a true democracy with hopes of improvement in lifestyle and living, however much to the contrary the leaders most not ably the president himself is aiming at a new form of socialism. Hugo Chavez is the leader who is the lone dominant force of the entire scenario. It has been under the influence of the socialist states of the world, and most notably the former Soviet Union. The relations are quite sour on the international front, especially with the United States of America that consider the president a serious threat towards the internal stability of Venezuela and the freedom and prosperity of the people of

Training and Development Participant sheet Research Proposal

Training and Development Participant sheet - Research Proposal Example ch in the company is to bring out the most important aspects in training and development in the human resource management in Gulf Petrochemical International Company (Gibaldi, 2009). The main purpose of the research is to bring out the various aspects that go around the training of the employees in the organization (Bax, 1998). The participants have been chosen in a way that they are the ones who will be required to go through the past training programs that the company has had over time (McLaughlin, 2009). The people that have been chosen are those that are able to understand the different ideologies that the people in the company have and to bring the different development aspects. The age used in the study also are those that are able to identify the weaknesses in the training program and the abilities in improving the company. Taking part in the following research is voluntary and the people who will be appointed to do the research are expected to sign that they are able to take well the research and do it in a way that will bring out the information that is required well (Yin, 1994). The voluntariness in the research should not prevent the people doing the research from assisting in the understanding the training process of the company further. When one will not be able to attend the research, the time that will be needed to come out with the desired results will be long (Booth and Colomb, 1995). The information that may be collected when one participant is not able to attend the research also may be adequate since some of the areas in the company may not be able to be covered. The researchers also will be needed to attend the research more often than when there was more of the participants taking part in the action. The participants are guaranteed some expenses that they will need in the course of the exercise. The expenses such as those on travel will be covered (Polachek, 20011). Since the activity is voluntary, there will also be rewards to the

Microsoft Corporation Company Review

Microsoft Corporation Company Review INTRODUCTION Computers have come to be vital technologies in every single line of work at present. Bulk of the present obligations and tasks being completed at assorted firms and associations are by now computer-based, and this is a sure signal that they are keen to invest deeply in these technologies to make their procedures far extra competent and productive. Even if the computer multimedia marketplace is loaded alongside tough competitors, there is no mistrust that Microsoft is method in front of the pack in words of being the most reliable and progressive computer multimedia producing firm all above the world. Its large resources and competent people have allowed the association to produce a expansive array of produce that are able to address the disparate computing needs and hobbies of its globe customers. Microsoft’s attendance all above the globe has additionally come to be stronger above the past couple of years as the firm aims to distinct itself from the rest of the contest and h ave a stable grasp at the top spot of the computer multimedia and hardware industry. With CEO Steve Ballmer grasping the date-to-date procedures of the firm, Microsoft has honestly not ever looked back and has stayed forceful and lucrative even as the present commercial disaster has negatively altered the procedures of its competitors. Specialists forecast that Microsoft will tolerate to solidify its by now dominant locale in the computer multimedia and hardware industry above the subsequent couple of years as they retain on maximising their profitability and comprehensive globe reach. COMPANY BACKGROUND Microsoft Corporation is the leading software company with at least one of its product on virtually every computer on this planet. Bill Gates and Paul Allen founded the company on April 4, 1975. Bill Gates is among the top 3 richest person in this world as declared by Forbes Magazine. Microsoft Corporation deals in developing, licensing designing a range of software products. It also manufactures and sells hardware products. The company has products in entertainment consoles like Xbox360 and Kinect for Xbox. Role of organisational behaviour at the company Microsoft Corporation has a wide range of products under its belt. It is critical for a company of this size to manage its organisational strategies and behaviour to sustain in the market and its position. The company functions in five segments: Windows and Windows Live Division, Server and Tools, Online Services Division Microsoft Business Division. In recent times, Microsoft has given importance to the concept of sustainability. It has initiated an unusual strategy of taxing internal fee on carbon. It will charge its clients for every ton of carbon it produces that means they will charge to recycle every ton of carbon produced. However, it has pointed out a few major reasons this strategy: Behaviour Change – Microsoft aims to reduce the overall carbon emissions and energy utilisation. They have analysed previous reports and emphasised on the use of renewable energy to increase the efficiency. As per the statement by Microsoft’s Chief Environmental Strategist, if someone decides to use carbon based power resources, they’ll be charge an additional fee as a tax to discourage such pathways. Organisation Accountability – Microsoft has learnt from the past to imply new changes to the organisation, it needs to divide it into smaller divisions. The executives that run that facility will be empowered to address any sustainability concerns to drive better efficiency figures and adopt greener power resources. It initiated to tax on carbon power use internally before charging its external clients. Risk Reduction – Microsoft has encouraged all its employees to understand the energy related risks. Microsoft has begun to address its employees and customers to operate through cloud-based services. They utilize significantly their own power and reduce predictable variable cost that brings down the costs and adds to the renewable energy figures. Sales at Vendor Choice – Through its customer feedbacks and previous reports analysis, they have found that the customers are in search of reliable service providers at lower costs and lower carbon emissions. Thus, they have emphasised on alternative energy resources to land new customers and expand their operations with existing clients. (http://blogs.hbr.org/2012/05/microsoft-taxes-itself/) Human Resource Management Human Resource at Microsoft is a priority as the company drives on the path of success based on their employee’s performance. In the beginning, Microsoft used to recruit employee based on their experience over intelligence. But during the slow down of the company’s success, it realised that their employee performance was going down. Bill Gates re-invented the recruitment strategy model by recruiting intelligent staff over experienced staff. According to his experience, he found that intelligence drives aggression in performance. CEO Steve Ballmer says, â€Å"whenever you meet a kick-ass guy, get him† (Bartlett 2). They re-modeled the human resource hiring strategy policies: Attract retain employees, Increase organizational insight, Store and access employee information, Personalize Role Centers to speed productivity Provide online access with employee Portal. Soon, realizing that employee’s are the greatest assets of a company. Microsoft’s strate gies started to reflect this philosophy. The human resource management had the following steps: Recruitment selection, Employee motivation, Employee loyalty satisfaction and Employee rewards. They broke down projects and decided to coherent a strategy of center of excellence to enhance project timing and coordination. Thus, you can measure Microsoft’s success in the recent years based on their employee performance and efficiency. (http://www.microsoft.com/dynamics/en/za/products/ax-hr-management.aspx) (http://mgmt.talkingvillage.com/article.x/1866) International Business Technology Management Microsoft partners with CA Technologies to address its top IT needs. IT companies face fierce competition and challenges like sustainability, IT innovation, management and greener computing. It delivers solutions combine current technology with advanced technology. Technology helps to maximise investments along with security and redundancy to match with the current and future business goals. (http://www.ca.com/us/partners/spotlights/microsoft-corporation.aspx) Analysis of entrepreneurship and innovation at the company Future Strategies Management Adaptive Systems and Interaction: The Adaptive Systems Interaction group (ASI) pursues research on automated reasoning, adaptation, and human-computer interaction. Interests of the group include principles and applications of decision-making and learning, computation in the face of complexity, techniques for information management and search, and the development and evaluation of innovative designs for visualization and interaction. Research goals include both the pursuit of basic science and the development of computing and communications applications that demonstrate new functionalities and flexibility. ASI is at the center of user modelling at Microsoft Research, focused on inferring the goals and needs of users from multiple sources of information about activity and interests. The group is also home to research on information retrieval and management, including work in automated text classification and clustering. The ASI team continually attempts to identify new means for enriching the user experience through advances in automated reasoning and user interface design. (http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/groups/adapt/) Speech technology: Our main aim is to craft requests that make computers obtainable everywhere, and work alongside our product-side partners to make this vision a reality. We are interested not merely in crafting state-of-the-art articulated speech constituents and additionally in how these disparate constituents can come jointly alongside supplementary modes of human-computer contact to form a fused, consistent computing environment. We are pursuing countless undertakings to aid us grasp our vision of a fully speech-enabled computer. (http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/groups/srg/) Natural Language Processing: The aim of the Natural Speech Processing (NLP) group is to design and craft multimedia that will examine, comprehend, and produce tongues that humans use naturally, so that in the end you will be able to address your computer as nevertheless you were addressing one more person. This aim is not facile to reach Understanding speech way, amid supplementary things, knowing what thoughts a word or phrase stands for and knowing how to link those thoughts jointly in a meaningful way. Its ironic that usual speech, the signal arrangement that is easiest for humans to discover and use, is hardest for a computer to master. Long afterward mechanisms have proven capable of inverting colossal matrices alongside speed and grace, they yet flounder to chief the basics of our articulated and composed languages. We address these setbacks employing a blend of knowledge-engineered and statistical/machine-learning methods to disambiguate and answer to usual speech input. Our work has implications for requests like text assessing, data retrieval, question responding, summarization, gaming, and translation. The syntax checkers in Workplace for English, French, German, and Spanish are outgrowths of our research; Encarta uses our knowledge to reclaim answers to user questions; Intellishrink uses usual speech knowledge to compress cellphone messages; Microsoft Product Prop uses our contraption translation multimedia to elucidate the Microsoft Vision Center into supplementary languages. As our work evolves, we anticipate it to enable each span whereas human users can benefit by conversing alongside their computers in a usual way. (http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/groups/nlp/)

Venice Commentary

Tyler Every March 25, 2013 Written Commentary 6: Venice by Jan Morris The author’s purpose is to describe the setting by contrasting her culture to Venice and by using irony to display the people, surroundings and daily life. A mother who just started living in Venice is telling us about the setting and her life in Venice. She uses irony, humor and contrast to build the imagery of the city and people. Throughout the passage the author uses irony to convey the surroundings and the image that the city is not somewhere you would want to live in.The irony of her arguments is that her reasoning in why Venice isn’t a pleasant city to live in, because it is â€Å"inescapably urban,† (line 8) and that there are no gardens for kids to play. A worthy excerpt is â€Å"It is not altogether an easy city for children to live in. It has no dangerous traffic and few unspeakable rascals; but Venice is inescapably urban, and only lucky children with gardens, or with parents indul gent enough to take them to the distant park, have somewhere green to play† (Lines 7-9).She uses false dilemma by focusing only on the black and white of Venice. She focuses on that Venice has no garden, so that she still misses her culture and country. She focuses only on the immoral instead of the safety or great things about Venice. She sees Venice being inescapably urban as a gigantic dilemma while she says it is a rigid city to live in; it has no dangerous traffic and rascals. Here the mother uses sarcasm to present humor during the passage. The protagonist also uses irony when describing actions, people and the setting.Morris uses two words in pair like sickly intensity, unashamed delight, exquisitely ludicrously, inescapably urban, blithe pathetic, lugubriously assure, dauntingly spotless and frighteningly well informed. Using two words that are opposite, Morris creates irony. By juxtaposing these words, Morris also creates imagery. It creates an image of what the mothe r sees as an outsider. Through her eyes we see Venice as a city filled with buildings and houses and no green gardens because of the surrounding buildings.The author uses detail and diction to indicate her attitude toward the Venetian people. She does this mostly in the first and second paragraph. â€Å"Venetian mothers show signs of instant cardiac crisis if little Giorgio ventures within six feet of water† (line 2-3), she makes fun of venetian mothers by pointing out that they will have a cardiac crisis when their children are close to the water, they are to over protective of their children. The humor in this is that Venice, Italy is surrounded by water, and so Venetian mothers would be losing their cool for their little Giorgio.With these details and diction, she is making a mockery of the Venetian people. â€Å"Venetian children are exquisitely, if sometimes rather ludicrously dressed: the minutest little baby girls† (lines 3-4), minutest means extremely small, by using repetition, the author is emphasizing the point that the mother doesn’t like the Venetians because she criticizes them throughout the passage. Using exquisitely and ludicrously who are on complete other spectrums in terms of meaning. The children are beautiful, but at times foolish. Blithe but pathetic are the groups of urchins to be found entertaining themselves† (line 10) blithe and pathetic are two contrasting words. The mother also stoops so low by calling the children urchins again going to mischievous and raggedly dressed. The author also uses humor to appeal to our sense and keeping us attracted. Humor is present in â€Å"When the Doge’s palace was burnt in 1479, the only record left of Petrarch’s inscriptions upon the walls was the notebook of Marin Sanudo, who had taken the trouble to copy them down when inspecting the palace at the age of eight. He went on to write a history of the world in fifty-five volumes)† (lines 30-33). It mad e me laugh the thought of seeing little Giorgio next to the water while his mother loses her cool. The last two sentences leave us with a wisecrack about the Venetians. When the Doge’s Palace burnt they had no copies of Petrarch’s inscriptions except the one of a child’s notebook. It is hilarious to think that they had to copy someone’s notebook’s writing or put that as their historical record. Also saying that this kid went on to write the history of the world in fifty-five volumes is absurd.Who would ever do this? The mother leaves us with this remark again mocking the Venetians for their â€Å"lack of intellect and absurdity† and reliance on a kid’s notebook. When reading that this kid later writes the history in fifty-five volumes, the author creates this image that the Venetians lack the purity of Petrarch’s records and that their claimed knowledge from the child’s notebook might be terribly wrong. Thus, leaving us laughing at the Venetians and proving her point of mockery.

Planned Parenthood Federation of America

Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) delivers vital health care services, sex education, and sexual health information to millions of women, men, and young people. As stated in their website, they â€Å"deliver comprehensive and medically accurate information that empowers women, men, teens, and families to make informed choices and lead healthy lives. Planned Parenthood is proud of its vital role in providing young people with honest sexuality and relationship information in classrooms and online†.If we are to evaluate their services and advocacy based on the criteria of evaluating the merit of benefit types, we can say that their services cater to the idea of consumer sovereignty. This benefit type is basically focused on providing choices to the consumer or target market of Planned Parenthood’s services. The organization basically advocates a Pro-Choice approach when it comes to birth control methods which runs counter to many principles advocated by relig ious groups.Planned Parenthood’s approach basically counters the idea of coercion and intrusion into the privacy lives of individuals, basically in making choices about birth control methods, sex education, and women’s health. However, this kind of liberalistic thinking is unacceptable in some cultures. Thus, although the organization promotes the improvement of the sexual health and well-being of individuals and families globally, their actions run counter to conservative cultures and organizations (especially the churches).Although it has local partners in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Caribbean their advocacy for promoting women’s choice when it comes to birth control makes them a bitter opponent against the establishment. Their vocal and outspoken global partners are considered to be intruding already into the privacy of families and society in general. That somehow dilutes the benefits that are provided by the organization to the public, by shifting the focus of the public from the benefits of their advocacy to the harmful effects of their group’s activist actions.