How College Loan Relief Firms Prey On Desperate Borrowers | Forbes

July 29, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

In February 2014 Kim Kotary was living in Queens, N.Y., working 25 hours a week in three part-time jobs at nonprofits and as a freelance crafts teacher and designer, and worrying how she’d ever pay off the $20,000 she borrowed to earn a master’s from New York’s Fashion Institute of Technology back in 2002. So when she heard a radio ad offering information about how those working for nonprofits could get student debt forgiven, she called the 800 number. A phone rep told her Broadsword Student Advantage could get her monthly payments suspended, based on her poverty-level income, and help her apply to get her debt forgiven after ten years.

Kotary agreed to pay Broadsword $500 and signed its forms online, without, she admits, reading them closely. On top of the $500, Affordable Life Plans, a Securities & Exchange Commission-registered investment adviser, started taking $29.95 a month from her bank account. Then, last August, Kotary lost her main part-time nonprofit gig. Finally, this past March, after 13 months of paying, she discovered she wouldn’t be eligible for the debt forgiveness unless she worked 30 hours a week in the not-for-profit sector, and that she could have applied for forgiveness herself, for free, at http://www.studentloans.gov. “When I found out it was free, it really pissed me off,” says Kotary, 43, who has stopped the monthly payments. “I was told that they could help me save more than they charged me for the services.”

Proceed with Caution When Employment Involves Immigration | Payroll Link

July 28, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Discrimination in employment practices can land your business in legal hot water, even if it’s not intentional. What matters is the result of certain actions. In broad terms, discrimination is defined as changes in an employment practice — such as recruitment, hiring, job assignment or promotions — that have the “purpose or effect of denying employment or promotional opportunities to a class of individuals,” stated the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ). It’s important to note that by this definition, the employer’s intention may be irrelevant if the “effect” is discrimination.

Under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, the U.S. Attorney General has authority to bring suit against an employer “where there is reason to believe that a pattern or practice of discrimination exists.” Authority to prosecute employers also resides in anti-discrimination provisions of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA).

Here’s a recent example to illustrate this concept. In June, the DOJ settled an “immigration-related discrimination claim” against a major national retailer. According to a DOJ announcement, the retailer had “required a non-U.S. citizen, but not similarly-situated U.S. citizens, to produce specific documentary proof of her immigration status for the purpose of verifying her employment eligibility.” In other words, additional documentation was required of this applicant compared to others.

3 Dumb Rules That Make Employees Less Productive | Inc.com

July 28, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Like a strict parent, a strict boss is probably motivated by love. You cherish the business you worked so hard for and you won’t let a little bit of grumbling among employees keep you from running a tight ship. Your team might not like the rules your lay down to keep them productive and on-task, but these guide rails mean your business runs smoothly and efficiently.

That might be the thinking of the control freak boss, but according to a recent LinkedIn Influencer post from author and President of TalentSmart Dr. Travis Bradberry, despite your good intentions, your strict rules are probably making your team less productive, not more.

“As my company has grown, so has our difficulty maintaining standards. There have been many instances where someone crossed a line, and we were tempted to respond with a new rule that applied to everyone. But that’s where most companies blow it,” he writes. “In just about every instance, upon closer inspection, we realized that establishing a new rule would be a passive and morale-killing way to address the problem. The vast majority of the time, the problem needs to be handled one-on-one by the employee’s manager.”

So what are the most common counter-productive rules from management that employees hate and which end up only reducing the amount they get done? Bradberry offers a long list, including:

Top 5 Most Common Errors in Small Business Employee Handbooks | SOOFI

July 28, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Employee Handbooks are an integral part of every small business’s “CYA” arsenal. They are intended to provide objective standards for employee conduct, expectations, and disciplinary procedures.

However, the overwhelming majority of small businesses tend to rely on publicly available online forms or policies borrowed from fellow business owners to prepare their employee handbooks, whether out of necessity, preference, or convenience.

In states like California where employment and labor laws are constantly being added or amended, it is worthwhile to review your company’s employee handbook from time to time to assess whether they are adequate or create unnecessary risk that, with a few tweaks and modifications, could be mitigated. Complying with labor laws is a lot like keeping good dental hygiene: an unpleasant and frequent annoyance but one for which an once of prevention is worth a thousand pounds of cure. Here is some guidance on the most common errors or mistakes in small business employee handbooks:

Here’s when the next recession might start | Business Insider

July 27, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

I have previously shown that based on the past five business cycles, the next recession might not start until March 2019. I examined the Index of Coincident Economic Indicators (CEI) for some historical guidance on the longevity of economic expansions. Let’s update our analysis.

It has taken 68 months–from January 2008 through October 2013–for the CEI to fully recover from its severe decline during 2008 and early 2009. The previous five recovery periods averaged 26 months within a range of 19-33 months. The good news is that the average increase in the CEI following each of those recovery periods through the next peak was 18.6%, over an average period of 65 months within a range of 30-104 months. If we apply this average to the current cycle, then the CEI would peak in 45 more months, during March 2019, with a substantial gain from here.

Autonomous trucks: Daimler seeks licence for road tests | BBC News

July 27, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Car manufacturer Daimler is hoping to test self-driving trucks on German motorways this year, according to a company executive.

Speaking to the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung, Wolfgang Bernhard said he was “positive” the firm would get certification within weeks.

Daimler has been road-testing its autonomous trucks in Nevada since May.

Although a computer controls the vehicles, a human driver is present at all times.

Daimler is currently seeking certification for a self-driving truck so it can be tested on public roads in Germany.

5 Gorgeous Hospitals That Show How Good Design Can Improve Patients’ Lives | Co.Exist

July 27, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

If you’ve ever been wheeled into an ER room on a stretcher and spent hours staring at a windowless gray wall, you’re already aware that traditional hospitals haven’t exactly been designed to be comforting. But that’s changing. Forward-thinking hospitals are realizing that good design that improve patients’ mood can actually help people get well faster.

“In the past, the design of health care facilities was focused more on supporting the patient care team than the actual patient,” says Scott Habjan, associate director at Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, who served as jury chair for the recent AIA National Healthcare Design Awards. The winning designs all give patients more attention, based on research that shows the physical environment can help patients feel less stressed, take less pain medicine, and improve more quickly.

“Qualities like natural light, views to nature, and quiet and clean patient rooms all contribute to a positive patient experience,” Habjan says. “Planning that keeps caregivers closer to the patient and environments that give them a sense of control serve to support the healing process. Conversely, facilities designed without the patient in mind can be particularly stressful and depressing to someone already in a vulnerable state.”

Read about a few of the award winners to see examples of facilities thinking differently:

Google’s YouTube Signs Up Everyone But TV for New Paid Service | Bloomberg Business

July 21, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Google Inc.’s YouTube, which has signed up partners for a new paid video service, may find out by early next year whether its own Internet stars really are as valuable as those in Hollywood.

Partners accounting for more than 90 percent of YouTube viewing have signed on to the paid service, the company said in a statement. While the lineup incudes home-grown celebrities and music videos, YouTube so far doesn’t have TV networks such as Fox, NBC and CBS, according to people with knowledge of the matter who asked not to be identified discussing the project.

TV staples like Fox’s “Futurama,” NBC’s “Parks & Recreation” and CBS’s “Under the Dome” are a featured part of competing products from Netflix Inc. and Amazon.com Inc. Without shows like those, YouTube’s commercial-free service will have to attract paying viewers with original series, music videos and thousands of its channels already available for free.

Holacracy, Explained: An Illustrated Guide to Management-Free Organizations | Page19

July 21, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Have you heard about Holacracy? If you’re watching the startup and tech scene, then there’s a pretty good chance you have.

Holacracy is a management-free way to run a company. It’s been around for a few years, but it may have come to your attention just recently when its inventor, Brian Robertson, released a book on the concept. Another place you might have recently heard about Holacracy is in the media when Tony Hsieh, Zappos CEO, asked his employees to either fully buy in to the company’s holacracy initiative or take their leave (along with a nice little bonus to sweeten the exit).

Even before all the media buzz, we at Blinkist were fascinated with Holacracy. In fact, it led us to develop our own, lighter approach called Blinkracy and roll it out through our team.

One thing that we noticed along the way is that there’s a huge breach between how simple and efficient Holacracy can make work and how not simple it is to understand. Holacracy is a beautiful concept that makes organizations more effective and much better places to work. However, the mass of holacracy-only lingo makes the adoption curve high.

Economic storms hit U.S. – 6 biggest threats to the stock market | CNNMoney

July 20, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ 1 Comment

The American stock market is heating up again.

The Greek bailout and strong earnings from tech companies like Google (GOOG) and Netflix (NFLX, Tech30) have carried the Dow and S&P 500 near record highs. The Nasdaq is on track for a third-straight record close.

But that doesn’t mean the bull market in U.S. stocks is bulletproof. The biggest threat: a slowdown in the American economy.

Just look at how retail sales unexpectedly declined in June.

If people continue to hold back on spending, it will throw cold water on investors who are betting that economic growth will accelerate during the second half of 2015 following a weather-fueled contraction in the first quarter.