Deborah Rothberg

“The Devil Wears Prada” is a thinly veiled tell-all about a young assistants nightmarish experience working for an abominable boss at a high-fashion magazine. The queen bee, Miranda Priestly, has become practically a household term for emotionally, psychologically and verbally abusive bosses. The story is popular because its entertaining, but also because it resonates with […]

While most industries are replacing stock options with higher salaries, Internet and e-commerce companies are increasing the use of employee stock options, according to a survey released Aug. 8 by Syzygy Consulting Group, a high-tech customized consulting services company. As part of its annual Pre-IPO and Private Company Total Compensation Survey, Syzygy, based in Lafayette, […]

A federal appeals court ruled Aug. 7 that IBM did not commit age discrimination when it changed its pension coverage in 1999. The 7th District U.S. Court of Appeals in Chicago found that IBMs pension plan did not constitute age discrimination because it gave every employee the same credits. “Treating the time value of money […]

After boasting fiscal fourth-quarter revenue gains the week prior, Sun Microsystems laid off approximately 5,000 workers in the United States, Canada, Europe and Asia Aug. 4 as part of an ongoing plan to improve profits. The job cuts, affecting 950 employees in the United States and 300 in Colorado alone, were across all levels, including […]

In a change from prior pay structures, more than half of IT professionals are now earning better pay for additional tech skills, but not via cash bonuses, according to a study released Aug. 2 by Foote Partners, a New Canaan, Conn.-based IT workforce research company. The study, which surveyed 54,000 IT pros, found that in […]

Fifty percent of IT workers surveyed said they are not likely to look for a new job in the coming months, up from 44 percent last quarter, which may suggest greater satisfaction in their current employment situations, according to a report released Aug. 1 by Spherion, a recruiting and staffing firm. Down from 48 percent […]

As part of a larger effort to combat the shortage of skills in the IT marketplace, IBM is bringing its application development technologies right through the front doors of academia. The company is hosting its first statewide university workshop to boost student application development skills Aug. 1-3 at North Carolina State University and including schools […]

The high-tech, healthcare and financial service industries are expected to create the most executive-level jobs in the third quarter, according to the latest EER (Executive Employment Report) released July 31 by ExecuNet, a executive job search and networking firm. Across all industries, the demand for executive talent is the greatest in the health care, banking […]

There are no shortages of pronouncements of a full economic recovery from the post-boom recession years. Tech job cuts are at a six-year low, IT operational budgets are at the highest levels since 1997, and tech wages are at a five-year high, and this is just a gathering from reports issued this week. Yet, IT […]

Tech companies have returned to normal hiring, though the overall turnover rate dropped slightly in this past quarter, according to a survey released July 24 by San Jose, Calif.-based Radford Surveys and Consulting. The Q2 QSIT (Quarterly Summary of Industry Trends) Survey of technology companies found that turnover at tech companies fell slightly from 12.6 […]

Poor leadership, not salaries or benefits, is the leading cause of low workplace morale, according to a survey released July 24 by Challenger, Grey and Christmas, a Chicago-based outplace consulting organization. Nearly three-quarters (73 percent) of the responding human resources executives put the blame for low morale on leadership problems. /zimages/1/28571.gifBad boss? Fix your bosss […]

Second-quarter tech wages continue to outpace those for 2005, according to the latest Index of Technology Wages, released July 24 from Yoh Services, a Philadelphia-based provider of talent and outsourcing services. In addition, the current Q2 average is the highest since the Index began tracking wages in 2001. The Index—which compares current average wages over […]