Swine flu declared pandemic

Fraud-hit Satyam Computers has sent 10,000 surplus employees on a six month holiday, in an attempt to cut costs and get back the company on the recovery path. The period begins from this month.

The surplus employees, who have been put on sabbatical programme or as the company puts it as “Virtual Pool Programme,” would get their basic pay (40 per cent of the gross salary), in addition to provident fund and medical insurance.

The company has selected employees who have not been given any billable roles for three months or more, and includes support staff. They will be on the rolls and could be recalled and reinstated on full pay and benefits when the company scales up its operations or gets new orders.

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Dubai-based company fires Indian staff

The global financial crisis has claimed more victims in India. Dozens of employees of a Dubai-based company have lost their jobs as the company has put its expansion plans on hold.

The Indicaa Group, which trades in scrap metal and is run by an Indian, had recently hired management graduates, mostly from small towns across India, to work at its overseas offices.

According to estimates available with the candidates, about 120 persons were offered jobs. At least 40 of those hired were from north India.

“The hiring was done from three centres: Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai. People from all over the country had applied,” said Anurodh Gupta, a candidate from Ghaziabad, who had undergone training in Ludhiana on October 6 and 7.

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Shareholders try to kill Yahoo severance plan: report

A Yahoo employee severance plan meant to protect workers after a merger with Microsoft should be scrapped, according to a shareholder lawsuit against Yahoo and its directors, The New York Times reported on Tuesday.

Both the plaintiffs and billionaire investor Carl Icahn, who is waging a battle for control of the Yahoo board, have criticized the severance plan as costly and said it was an obstacle to any merger, the Times said.

The plaintiffs, two Detroit pensions, said if Icahn wins control of the board, Yahoo could be faced with up to $2.4 billion in potential severance payouts under the plan, according to the Times, the same amount that the plan could cost Microsoft.

A spokesman for Yahoo said that figure was an estimate based on many assumptions, including that all Yahoo employees would be fired or otherwise be able to claim severance benefits, the Times reported.

The plan offers enhanced benefits, cash and accelerated vesting of stock options, to any Yahoo employees who are fired or leave because their roles are diminished after a merger or change in control of the company, it said.

Lawyers representing the pension plans are reported to have asked a judge in Delaware to hold a trial to determine the fate of the plan ahead of the company's August 1 shareholder meeting.

Legal experts told the paper a trial could shine a light on Yahoo's talks with Microsoft and affect the outcome of the proxy fight.

Yahoo has said the suit is without merit, the Times said, which said Icahn did not return a call seeking comment.

A freelance lifestyle in a corporate workplace

Picture an office where no meeting is mandatory and employees can come and go as they please as long as they get the job done.

"Too good to be true," most cubicle occupants would probably say, but an upcoming book about this results-only work environment is not fiction. In fact, authors Cali Ressler and Jody Thompson pioneered the concept while working at consumer electronics chain Best Buy Co Inc, which now makes the option available to about 3,000 of its 4,000 corporate staffers.

In "Why Work Sucks and How To Fix It" (Portfolio, $23.95), Ressler and Thompson maintain that timeor control over it heals many corporate wounds.

Too often, they say, a company will treat employees like children incapable of working without supervision, while promoting mediocre performers simply because they put in a lot of time at their desks. Meanwhile, the traditional work week of 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday no longer serves the needs of many customers.

In a results-oriented work environment (ROWE), however, a company focuses exclusively on job performance, rather than work schedules or office politics. At Best Buy, productivity has increased, and fewer of the employees that the company wanted to retain have left, although "involuntary" turnover rates have increased as unsatisfactory workers were exposed.

Employees can do their jobs at home or in Starbucks, first thing in the morning or in the middle of the night. One of the hallmarks of a ROWE is that a person who goes home at 2 p.m. is not leaving early, while someone who arrives at that time is not late.

The book, which is set for publication on Monday, includes the story of an e-learning specialist who typically wakes up without an alarm and does at least some of his work at home in front of the television set. Meanwhile, a dot-com employee has been able to spend more time with her son.

The authors have gone on to apply the ROWE concept at a small financial services company in Wisconsin through CultureRx, the consulting firm they have founded.

"We've perfected ROWE for the office environment today," Ressler said, "but we know that there are elements of it that can be spread to any company in the country and across the world."

But with ROWE still in its infancy, unhappy employees may have to resort to other measures. Luckily, a couple of new books offer some suggestions.

For those who want to make the best of the corporate life, "How To Be Useful" (Houghton Mifflin, $19.95) combines what author Megan Hustad calls the best of the past century or so of "success literature" and tailors the advice to the young and cynical.

"I'd like everyone to be more aware of what was being written back when working for a living was actually a source of inspiration to people," writes Hustad, a former book editor and bookstore manager.

But there are always people who fantasize about leaving the rat race. "Escape from Corporate America" (Ballantine, $15) by marketing executive turned career coach Pamela Skillings provides a step-by-step guide to finding more fulfilling work, whether with another employer or as an entrepreneur, freelancer or artist.

"You don't have to stay stuck in a job you hate, and you don't have to starve to find work you love," Skillings writes. "All you need is a plan and a little bit of nerve."