The Book Is Done and is currently being reviewed by “outsiders”… WHEE!

No more writing for a little while, but Doc Hundley, Jacobs and I are scheduled to update our first book Workforce Engagement; Strategies to attract, motivate, and retain talent in early 2009.

Anyways…

Some readers have written in and asked about the name A Bad Mingled Wryness.  Well, I love anagrams.

• Mr. Mojo risin’ = Jim Morrison
• The Railroad Train = Hi! I Rattle and Roar
• Snooze Alarms = Alas! No More Z’s
• Statue of Liberty = Built to Stay Free
• Eleven plus two = Twelve plus one

So I noticed that my mid-week blogs were about “nothin’ special”… All I did was yammer about whatever came into my head.  So “Rambling Wednesdays” became “A Bad Mingled Wryness”.

Anyways… #2

Ford Buyout = Buy Out Ford

According the the WSJ, Ford is intensifying their buyouts that began in Ohio and Kentucky, with Michigan added to the mix.  Ford, whose stock price is down over 50% from their 52-week high has gotten about 4,200 hourly workers to accept the packages, which include a $100,000 lump-sum payment, early retirement incentives, and educational opportunities. So far, Ford has spent over half a billion dollars with hopes of surpassing the billion dollar mark by the time the buyout program has run its course.

In addition Ford will hold career fairs in Ohio and Michigan with over 100 prospective employers in attendance.

“Failure is only the opportunity to begin again more intelligently.”  Who said that?  Henry Ford did… Yes, that Ford.

Management Versus Unions = A Meneuvering Stuns Men So

A large union is demanding a 7% to 8% pay increase for its members, the largest demand in 16 years. The union, which represents about 3.5 million workers wants to compensate their members for rising prices and pay restraints they’ve experienced in previous years.  National employers are worried about a recession and have warned that excessive pay raises could negatively impact employment.

Boeing and the Machinists Union?

Nah…   Germany and its industrial union IG Metall.

Whee!

Crazy Severance = Crazy “ace” Nerves

Yea, you have to read that one twice.  Go ahead.  I’ll wait.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have been in the paper a little bit these days.  The government is bailing out the quasi-governmental agency.  No one really knows how much the bailout will cost us, the taxpayers, although initial estimates are nearly a quarter billion dollars.

Fannie Mae CEO Daniel Mudd stands to get a payout of nearly $9.3 million, and Freddie Mac CEO Richard Syron is entitled to about $14.1 million in severance and other payments as long as his employment is ended “without cause”.  Without cause?  C’mon.  What more cause could there be?

But there are tons of others:

• The $40-million-plus severance package awarded by Sprint’s board of directors to ousted CEO Gary Forsee
• Nike Chief Executive William Perez resigned after a little more than a year on the job and got a severance package worth $5.5 million, including $2.8 million that represents two years’ base salary and a $1.75 million bonus for 2006 even though he didn’t serve for most of the year. Nike accelerated the vesting of restricted stock — allowing Perez to take another $11 million.
• Gary Bloom signed an employment agreement with the security software company Symantec in December 2004 as Symantec announced the purchase of a company he headed. Bloom officially joined in July 2005 when Symantec finalized the purchase. He promptly quit in March of 2006.  His brief stay at Symantec allowed him to qualify for a $1.6 million signing bonus, and he also got $3.5 million in severance pay. His total take for 15 months on the job: $5.1 million.
• Lee Raymond of Exxon Mobil left his job in 2006 with a golden parachute that totaled more than $351 million.
• When Henry A. McKinnell decided to leave his job at Pfizer in 2006, he left with a $213 million parachute with the possibility of more, contingent upon company stock. In his time as CEO, the Pfizer’s stock went down 40 percent, costing shareholders $140 billion.
• Stanley O’Neal retired from Merill Lynch with $161.5 million in 2007. His departure was the results of the company’s loss of $2.3 billion in Q3 of that year, followed closely by a $8.4 million government charge for botching credit and mortgage investments after the U.S.’s subprime mortgage crisis.

I need to get me one of those gigs… Or I should get me to fire me…

Where is Drizin Going Next Week?

I have a speaking tour coming up this week.  On Sunday and Monday I’ll be participating in the Food Marketing Institute 2008 Human Resources/Training & Development Conference in Monterey, California.  I’m conducting a 90 minute workshop to about 125 senior h.r. executives.  Yea, Monterey in September.  Someone has to do it!

After my speech on Monday, I’m flying to Salt Lake City to participate in the Utah Human Resources State Council’s Crossroads Conference where I’ll be conducting two one-hour workshops Tuesday morning.

And then, a quick couple flights from SLC to Denver to Grand Junction, Colorado where I’ll be presenting a three-hour workshop to about 75 human resource professionals at the Western Colorado Human Resource Association conference.  As they wrote in their invitation, “Seize the opportunity to play “Employee Hold ’em™” with Marc Drizin, national speaker and author of the successful book, Workforce Engagement: Strategies to Attract, Motivate, and Retain Talent. The morning workshop will include the wildly popular card game that prepares players to better recruit, retrain, reward, and retain top talent.”

I love when they advertise exactly what I wrote! And yes, it is “wildly popular”, and has been played by nearly 10,000 folks.  So there.

Whee!