Just in Case it Matters to You
Weekly Report 19-09
- A NATIONWIDE SURVEY OF MILLENNIALS MARRIED OR LIVING TOGETHER found nine-out-of-ten saying that “financial decisions are a source of tension in their relationship (occurring daily for 20% and weekly for 30%)… unsurprising, since nearly half reported their objective to share expenses equally, but without ever having discussed personal spending habits, establishing a household budget, or any long-term financial goals as a couple.” When couples were also business partners, many further neglected establishing agreeable business expectations or personal boundaries from the start. This dimension of DCG Consulting and informal Mediation services can facilitate critically relevant factors in minimizing that tension and risk to relationship. Let us help before your reality check bounces. [AICPA INSIGHTS – 2/13/19]
- NEARLY A MILLION AMERICAN HOUSEHOLDS HAVE A PET SNAKE, including pythons which can grow to 23 feet and become incredibly dangerous long before that. After hurricane Andrew trashed the Florida Everglades in 1992 and Burmese Pythons were released to the wild, their population has soared to over 100,000 and they’ve decimated up to 97% of the wildlife (deer, raccoons, alligators, birds, wildcats, squirrels & rodents). Florida’s Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission, worried that once these food sources are gone the snakes will head for human populated areas, have now engaged some 1,500 courageous ‘snake catchers’ and deputized them as bounty hunters – paid ‘by the foot’ for dead snakes. [ECONOMIST 1843 – Feb/Mar 19]
- FINANCIAL SCAMS AGAINST SENIORS CONTINUE TO RISE. According to the Senate Special Committee on Aging, senior citizens lose nearly $3 billion yearly from financial exploitation, with most victims too embarrassed or ashamed to file complaints. ‘IRS impersonation’ is the number one scam, followed by cross-border financial crimes involving telemarketers identifying themselves as lawyers, customs officials, or lottery company representatives by well-organized criminal gangs. For one sad story: https://duitchconsulting.com/help-keep-your-parents-from-getting-scammed/
- WHILE PRODUCTIVITY AND EFFICIENCY ARE CRITICAL FACTORS IN MAINTAINING BUSINESS MOMENTUM & STABILITY, even more so is Effectiveness – which involves not only doing things right, but doing the right things. A key element is balance of task-focus with people-focus in order to optimize organizational success – building relationships, inspiring teamwork, developing staff, showing empathy (all of which are correlated to the priorities of particularly millennial workers), and recognizing that “burnout is highlighted by 95% of Human Resource leaders as a key driver of employee turnover… Some research identifies ‘strong people skills’ as the number one differentiator of effective leaders, with 60% of their strengths correlated to listening, developing others and empowering team members.” Decades of DCG experience support the Performance Evaluation Process as a critical factor in measuring & monitoring overall effectiveness of leaders and managers, as well as best motivating & retaining employees. Call us to help ensure optimal business results. [HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW – 2/12/19]
- NOTE TO EMPLOYERS RE: THE H-1B VISA PROCESS, which allows work permits for corporations to hire foreign workers for ‘specialty occupation’ positions which normally require a minimum of Bachelor’s Degree or equivalent work experience. Congress has allotted 85,000 new visas for 2019. The filing window is only during first five days of April and, since applications typically exceed the allotment, work permit allocations then are determined by lottery.
- “FAST TRAIN WITH A MADMAN AT THE THROTTLE” is a metaphor that described Germany’s precarious condition prior to WWII. “To jump off seemed suicide, to stay on even worse. We, too, are caught on a train, a supercharged one, rolling madly downhill, faster and faster. Though we chart our increases of tempo with fascinated awe, neither our giddy success nor our new ‘freedoms’ can cover our underlying alarm. For there is no engineer to our train, not even a madman. And there is no steering mechanism, no brakeman, or no brakes. And the terrible rumor from the front of the train is true: there are no tracks out there ahead. The mad machine throws its own down as it thunders murderously along. Perhaps the hill will last forever, with no sudden curves or precipices along the way. Perhaps it could happen that way. It just never has before.” [CRACK IN THE COSMIC EGG – 2002]
- THOUGHTS FOR THE WEEK: A website created by an Uber software engineer, and hosted at com allows visitors to generate realistic looking human faces of people that do NOT actually exist each time they hit the Refresh button. https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/technology/ai-powered-website-generates-realistic-human-faces-on-the-spot/
Another incredible use of technology; Just click on each 1944 photo anywhere and it fast-forwards seven decades to 2014. Click again and return to 1944. Fascinating! http://interactive.guim.co.uk/embed/2014/apr/image-opacity-slider-master/index.html?ww2-dday