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February 08, 2012

Amazon to open real-world store this year: report

Amazon doesn’t need any PR bumps, but let’s give it one anyway, shall we?

A_com_logo_RGBMy favourite Amazon story goes like this: one weeknight in 2010, I caught a late-night showing of The Social Network. Certainly, it was the year’s best movie, and so inspired was I that I came home and said, Hey, I oughtta read the book that was made from.

So sometime after midnight, well into the a.m., I placed an order for Ben Mezrich’s “The Accidental Billionaires.” Before the end of the next work day, it was at my door.

I’m not a paid Amazon advocate, just a fan of its convenience. So why, then, would a service as punctual as the web retailer actually open its own bricks-and-mortar store?

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November 09, 2011

Are you working more now than you ever have?

Feel like you're always at work? Well, you're not alone.

AdA recent survey released by Towers Watson found that two thirds of Canadian and U.S. companies admit to  asking their employees to work longer hours. And it's slowly killing them.

"In the short run, having employees work extra hours can increase productivity, but in the long run, extended hours can negatively affect employee well-being and retention," Towers Watson’s Laurie Bienstock told Benefits Canada.  

Overall, 60% of Canadian respondents report that employees have been working more hours over the past three years, and just under half (47%) expect this trend to continue over the next three years.

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October 27, 2011

Occupy Wall Street: Are you one of the 99%?

The Occupy Wall Street protest movement is making headlines all over the world and has spread to numerous cities across the continent.

AdOne of the more interesting things to come out of the recent demonstrations is the We Are 99% Tumblr.

At the site, people hold up signs that explain their current circumstances. Their testimony tells the stories of a whole range of folks struggling to make it in what they clearly know is a recession.

Just who are these people? Although the numbers are a couple of weeks old, blogger Mike Konczal found the median age of the protestors to be 26, with the average age to be 29, which means there are quite a few older people involved, all of whom feel disenfranchised.

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October 19, 2011

Recessions are bad news when it comes to workplace safety: report

Canadians are worried about the impact of the economic downturn on workplace health and safety. But what do they do about it when everyone is so concerned about jobs?

A worker is more likely to be laid off if he or she has reported an accident within the past 12 months, according to a recent Dutch study

AdThe researchers’ hypothesis was that the apparent decreases in the number of safety incidents during economic downturns aren’t a result of safer workplaces or work practices but instead reflect workers’ reluctance to report problems to their employers for fear of getting fired.

Increasing a company's layoff rate even slightly leads to a significant decrease in the probability that workers will report accidents, the researchers say.

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August 01, 2011

Wealthy homeowners are renting out rooms to save cash

Wow, I guess times really are tough south of the border.

Man With the housing slump increasingly infecting the homes of the well-heeled, owners of sprawling U.S. properties are quietly taking in boarders, using the rent cheques to offset expenses that, in the past, would have come from other income.

Homeowners like the arrangement because they can keep up outward appearances while keeping any financial woes to themselves. And tenants get to use some pretty fancy digs for as little as $600 a month in some instances, SmartMoney reports. 

Would you sign up for a few months? Well, somebody certainly is.

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May 18, 2011

Uncovering how managers really feel about their employees

Attention HR:  Before you start spending money on leadership training for managers, find out how they really feel about their employees.

Employ According to a recent University of California study, much of the company's success depends on how managers view their subordinates.

In what he describes as the first study to examine leaders' conceptions of followers, psychologist Thomas Sy found that "if managers view followers positively — that they are good citizens, industrious, enthusiastic — they will treat their employees positively".

"If they think of their employees negatively — that they are conforming, insubordinate and incompetent — they will treat them that way. Manager beliefs about employees impact organizational outcomes," he maintains.  

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May 09, 2011

Sometimes the customer is actually wrong

Successful businesses understand that the word ‘right’ in “The customer is always right” doesn’t mean that the person with the beef would win in court, or even come out on top of a debate. It means: “If you want that guy to come back, you need to let him believe he’s right.”

Cus Unhappy customers are bad news for any company, and it only takes one of them to shatter a perfectly good day at work for everyone, says consumer advocate Christopher Elliott whose “Travel Troubleshooter” column appears in several U.S. newspapers.

In recent years, Elliott has expanded beyond mediating grievances of airline passengers, hotel guests and car renters to helping settle a host of general customer-service disputes. As a result, he's heard it all.

His major gripe: The customers themselves.

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February 02, 2011

Time for wine to flow freely across provincial borders?

Like many of us, Shirley-Ann George likes a glass of Canadian wine now and then. No problem there – unless, as George found out, you try to bring your favourite vintage across a provincial border. That's because it's actually illegal to transport even a single bottle from one province to another.

WineRealizing she couldn't bring back a bottle from her favourite B.C. winery or even  join a local wine club that would have sent her a few mix-and-match samples every month, George wanted to fight back.

"If I read about some wine in a wine column, or visit a winery, I want to be able to go online and order their wine – right now," George told the Ottawa Citizen recently.

But thanks to the prohibition-era Importation of Intoxicating Liquors Act bringing a few bottles back from out of province has actually been against the law for more than 80 years.

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January 25, 2011

Thinner women earn bigger paycheques: Study

A new study suggests that employers seem to treat women exactly the way the fashion industry does – by rewarding very thin women with higher pay, while penalizing their average-size counterparts with a much smaller payday.  

Scale Skinnier-than-average men, on the other hand, cash smaller paycheques than their average-weight peers, according to the study, published in the Journal of Applied Psychology.

Thin women earned about $16,000 U.S. more a year on average. In contrast, thin men earned about $8,000 less than their more brawny male coworkers, a trend that tapers off only when the big guys’ weight hits the obese level, it seems. 

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January 11, 2011

New app targets drivers who skirt rules on disabled parking

A jump in the number of able-bodied drivers parking in disabled-only spots has some people wondering if it's time to make the punishment more than a simple fine.

Disabld Perfectly healthy people often use permits belonging to disabled family members, hang on to them after the holder has died or no longer needs it or simply park in the disabled spots with no permit at all.

In addition to shelling out $250, perhaps rule-breakers should be forced to sit down and watch videos that explain the impact they have on someone who doesn't have a choice of what kind of parking stall to use, the Canadian Paraplegic Association’s Barry Lindemann told the Calgary Herald.

"You wish that guys would get the message that it's not a perk. If someone could walk, he'd walk football fields to get where he's going."

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January 10, 2011

How to make your own luck

Over the past eight years, Ric Wallace has won thousands of dollars in various lotteries, as well as a dream home. You, too, can do the same, he believes.

Shoe And, for a price, he’ll tell you how through his Lotterysquirrel site, where you’ll find a host of betting schemes and talismans to help you score a big payday.

Bunk? I certainly think so.

What about the idea of creating your own luck though? Do some of us think and behave in ways that create good fortune in our lives?

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Gordon PowersGordon Powers

A long-time fund company executive, Gordon Powers now heads up the Affinity Group, a financial services consulting firm. Gordon was a personal finance columnist for the Globe & Mail for many years, has taught retirement planning...

Jason BucklandJason Buckland

The modern-day MC Hammer of money, Jason can often be seen spending cash that isn’t his with the efficiency of a Wilt Chamberlain first date. After cutting his teeth as a reporter for the Toronto Sun, he joined the MSN Money team with...