My two-cents worth and then some. An online journal by LP Brown.
The Following is a “Guest Contributor” Post.
Over the last decade or so it has become apparent that corporations do not want or value employees as much as they did 40 or 50 years ago, when a lot of Baby Boomers were starting their careers. Today’s workplace environment is very different.
Previously, an employee went to work for a company, stayed as long as they wanted, and retired from that company; in some cases after 30 years of service. That employee worked hard and contributed to the company’s growth and when that employee retired, he or she may have received continued health coverage of some type, a pension, and maybe even a retirement party celebrating his or her time at the company.
Now, take a look at today’s corporate environment. A show of appreciation for employees who were loyal to the company is nearly non-existent. Today’s employees who may have already vested 10 -15 years or more with the company, could learn that the pension, retiree health coverage, and other amenities that were promised when you joined the company have been outright stripped away from you or will no longer be funded. If you are just getting out of college or entering the corporate workplace, here is a sad wake-up call for you — a lot of the retirement benefits offered to your Boomer parents, may not be offered by many corporations, so you have been forewarned.
I didn’t address the retirement party, dinner or other farewell event much, because generally your coworkers, providing you had good relationships with them, will make sure you get some kind of appropriate send-off before you leave. Even if it is an after hours get-together in a nice restaurant.
That said, after a long term relationship, you would think there would be some acknowledgement from the company you helped build. There is often none.
Today’s working person needs to think more about making him or her self as marketable as possible and less about giving blind loyalty to any company. Take advantage of any training made available to you. Think beyond the walls of your current employer by monitoring your industry as a whole versus only paying attention to the company that currently employees you, because in the current climate of employer non-gratitude it is likely that — regardless of how productive you are — you may not be with the organization as long as you would like to. It is a sad reality that in today’s world, a growing number of companies in Corporate America are showing that they have no interest in long term relationships with the employees.
The following is a “Guest Contributor” post.
“I hate technology.” If I had a dime . . . oh wait, we are in a recession. If I had a dollar for every time I heard that declaration, I would be a millionaire. In my profession, I work 
with a lot of people who despise technology. Some, but not all, are Baby Boomers. They come to me for assistance and I do my best to help them. In so doing, Ive noticed some trends when working with “tech-haters.”
One thing I have noticed is that some people dislike technology because they had a bad experience or simply don’t understand it. I believe that there are two things wrong with that attitude. The first is, technology is likely reducing operating costs at some corporations on some levels, so you can best believe you will see more and not less of it in the future. Secondly, you should not hate something until you have taken the time to learn about it. Generally, once a person learns how to use a technical product or service that they once professed to hate, you can’t stop them from using it.
The Internet is loaded with resources to teach you just about anything you want to know about technology or anything else. Providing you have an Internet connection and some time, the sky is the limit. A simple search query at Google.com may reveal very specific instructions to help you with the problem you are having.
Other good resources that you may or may not be aware of are:
In light of the tragedy and ongoing crisis in Japan, I doubt if I am the only Baby Boomer having flashbacks of Duck and Cover drills held in grade school. Duck and Cover was a regularly practiced exercise of civil defense taught to school children during the 1950s and 60s. It was based on the probability that a nuclear attack was a clear and present danger that could occur in the United States at any time. There was even a film produced about Duck and Cover that used an animated turtle to show kids how the exercise would protect us in the event of a nuclear attack. Our instructions were that if we saw a bright flash of light we should immediately get beneath a table or huddle against a solid wall and cover our head with our hands.
Perhaps the whiz kids had it all figured out, but I doubt if I was the only average student in class who disbelieved that such an apparently insignificant action would save our lives during a nuclear attack. Theoretically, ducking and covering would provide protection from flying glass and falling debris, but we were also told that the radiation resulting from the nuclear bomb could incinerate us. What the hey? If a bomb was powerful enough to blow to smithereens our school or any other building, how would merely cowering on the floor in a fetal position save us?
The government purported that Duck and Cover was an essential procedure for saving our lives. Certainly some preparation is always better than none at all. But to this day, as much as I remember the drills, what I remember more was that whenever our class practiced or even discussed Duck and Cover, for days afterward I had terrifying nightmares and disturbing daydreams.
As I watch the continuous broadcasts about the explosions at Japan’s Fukushima nuclear power plant, not only do I imagine, but I also feel the desperation and fear engulfing the people in Japan. When it gets to be too much for me, I turn off the television. I’m sure that the people who live in those areas devastated by last Friday’s earthquake and tsunami probably wish that they could turn off their present reality just as easily. They have already lost so much; family members and friends, their homes, and now they are facing the threat of a nuclear meltdown. It is a calamitous situation that is too disturbing to consider feasible, yet too plausible to deny. And it is not only the people in Japan, but people in other countries who are now looking for – and hoping not to see – a daunting radioactive cloud. Duck and Cover and Pray.