corporate culture

18 Stories

These 10 Companies Rank Best in Career Growth

A new list gives insights into how major companies rank in important career objectives

(Newser) - Looking to make a career switch? A new ranking system by the American Opportunity Index provides valuable data for job-seekers on how major companies add up on metrics that affect career trajectory and pay. The list provides details on their practices around salaries, hiring, promotion and parity, along with how...

Suit: Panda Express Workers Had to Strip at Seminar

Employee says she signed up in hopes of a promotion

(Newser) - The Panda Express restaurant chain is accused in a lawsuit of requiring candidates for promotion to participate in a seminar in which they were screamed at, humiliated, and ordered to strip to their underwear. A 23-year-old former employee filed the suit—citing sexual battery, a hostile work environment, and intentional...

Working at Microsoft Is Hell
 Working at Microsoft Is Hell 
OPINION
Apr 23, 2012 1:58 PM CDT

Working at Microsoft Is Hell

Former employee Max Zografos recounts his 5-year stint

(Newser) - Max Zografos was once called the "Microsoft man" by lecturers at his university as he hawked evaluation copies of Windows 2000 and bragged about his Microsoft summer internship. He drank "as much of the Microsoft Kool-Aid" as he could, he writes on TechCrunch , but once he became a...

When Expanding Abroad, Mind the Gaffe

 When Expanding Abroad, 
 Mind the Gaffe 
BUSINESS 101
Jan 19, 2010 4:45 AM CST

When Expanding Abroad, Mind the Gaffe

Businesses warned cultural blunders can be costly

(Newser) - If you're a business owner who thinks smiling will win over Russian clients, you may be in need of one of the growing number of firms offering crash courses in international business etiquette. American firms have been stepping up overseas expansion despite the recession, but misunderstandings—like not realizing the...

Good CEOs Are Boring: Brooks
 Good CEOs Are Boring: Brooks 
OPINION
May 19, 2009 10:07 AM CDT

Good CEOs Are Boring: Brooks

(Newser) - Recent studies have yielded a good picture of the ideal CEO, and the life of the party he ain’t, writes David Brooks in the New York Times. Traits like empathy, good communication skills, and team-building aren’t very important. Flamboyant visionaries rarely work out. No, those who often thrive...

All Those Years We Were Racing to Nowhere

Investors Wasted 12 Years

(Newser) - For years, denizens of Wall Street have been living a frantic existence, sleeping, eating and otherwise living at the office, “because whatever it is that had to happen had to happen immediately, or yesterday,” writes Elizabeth Wurtzel in the Wall Street Journal. And what did this feverish “...

Inauguration Becomes De Facto Holiday

Experts say celebrations will boost worker morale

(Newser) - Employers nationwide are bracing for a new slowdown, but they're excited about this one, reports USA Today. Thousands of workers nationwide are expected to take the day off tomorrow to watch the inauguration—or watch with co-workers in office parties. Companies are wise to grant the time off, since the...

FDIC's Bair Tops Women to Watch List

Corporate world remains male dominated, but that, too, is changing

(Newser) - While two of Wall Street's top women—Morgan Stanley’s Zoe Cruz and Citigroup’s Sallie Krawcheck—fell from grace this year, the global economic storm has pushed several others, like the FDIC’s Sheila Bair and Bank of America’s Barbara Desoer to the top of the Wall Street ...

Japan Struggles with Slacker Salarymen

Anti-ambitious young Japanese opt out of the career fast track

(Newser) - A new generation of Japanese salarymen is dropping out of the competition for raises, promotions, and managerial opportunities, the Wall Street Journal reports. Older Japanese are shocked at the attitudes of these ambition-shunning young workers who openly decline to climb the corporate ladder and switch jobs in pursuit of less-demanding...

Bored at Work? Site Disguises Classic Lit

Readatwork.com lets you fool the boss

(Newser) - Business world got you down? Want to escape into a classic poem or short story? The New Zealand Book Council has made a website to help you: ReadatWork.com. The site brings up a fake Windows desktop with folders and PowerPoint files, the Wall Street Journal reports. Click on them,...

Takeover Could Leave Anheuser A Bit Skunked
Takeover Could Leave Anheuser A Bit Skunked
ANALYSIS
May 28, 2008 4:10 PM CDT

Takeover Could Leave Anheuser A Bit Skunked

Bottom-line culture of Brazil's InBev not always a smooth pour

(Newser) - Anheuser-Busch executives are surely examining the fate of Interbrew, the Belgian company swallowed in 2004 by InBev, the Brazilian juggernaut reportedly preparing to grab the iconic US brewer, the Wall Street Journal reports. InBev's locker-room, bottom-line-oriented corporate culture has quickly replaced beer-loving Belgians with Brazilian execs, a situation that would...

Corporate Bonding 2.0
 Corporate Bonding 2.0 
May 21, 2008 6:05 PM CDT

Corporate Bonding 2.0

Seagate's $2M, week-long New Zealand odyssey goes above and beyond

(Newser) - Company retreats are nothing new. And then, Fortune reports, there's Eco Seagate, a $2 million, week-long, life-changing challenge in New Zealand that some employees of the Northern California tech company trained months for. The trip, developed by CEO Bill Watkins, costs the company $2 million a year, and though the...

Why Gen Xers Hate Corporate Jobs

10 reasons you won't find Xers in an executive suite

(Newser) - Generation Xers don't seem to be clambering to the top of the corporate ladder in the numbers they should be—and many are turned off by corporate life altogether. BusinessWeek has 10 reasons why this might be so:
  1. Xers started their careers just as the economy went into its early
...

For Sale: Video Vault of Wal-Mart Inner Workings

Spurned by retailer, production company sells years of footage

(Newser) - A tiny production company has decades of behind-the-scenes moments from Wal-Mart on film—and up for grabs. The chain hired Flagler Productions to film its inner workings for corporate events, but fired it two years ago, the Wall Street Journal reports. After Wal-Mart low-balled Flagler on the archive, it’s...

Wal-Mart Blog Lets Buyers Post Real Reviews

Some suppliers vexed, but site 'puts real personality out there'

(Newser) - Wal-Mart is letting its buyers blast or hail store products on a new blog, and do so freely—a shift for the once-strict corporate culture. Posts have so far panned Microsoft's Vista and a "Star Wars" movie, all while revealing favorite books, Bible quotes, and pets. "It puts...

Why the CEO Talent Pool Is So Small

As Citi, Merrill searches show, Wall Street is now a tough place to grow managers

(Newser) - With Citigroup and Merrill Lynch both suddenly searching for new CEOs, the Wall Street Journal looks at why the list of contenders for the top jobs at Wall Street's biggest firms is so short. Start with an earn-or-die corporate culture, which taints talented chief executives who fail to deliver in...

Porn Seeps Into Workplace Via Laptops and Phones

Employers block sites but problem persists

(Newser) - It's been a decade since the advent of online pornography started driving down productivity in offices, but new portable technologies have made it easier than ever to beat firewalls and check out naughty pictures on the job. USA Today writes that while 65% of American companies use porn-blocking software, it's...

Happy Hour Irks Korean Women
Happy Hour Irks Korean Women
Jun 10, 2007 11:07 AM CDT

Happy Hour Irks Korean Women

South Korean female professionals say no to a corporate culture of binge drinking

(Newser) - South Korean women are trying to put a lid on company-enforced binge drinking. As more women climb the corporate ladder, they're fighting back against the male-centric business culture that demands binging to get ahead, the New York Times reports. In a country where an estimated 90% of company events are...

18 Stories