Then you and your kids should make your case.

Who needs merit?

It's really sad that's not far from truth at my girls school but she's taking mainly STEM, that's only of the last remaining holdouts of merit and actual facts based testing.
The second year honors humanities (she has more time for important classes by taking that) she's taking are IMO a total joke. Thank goodness she skipped a years requirements.
https://www.pdx.edu/honors/second-year-urban-discourses

 

https://www.cnn.com/2024/02/22/medi...-publishing-content-on-its-website/index.html
Vice to lay off hundreds of staffers, stop publishing content on its website

Vice Media, once a high-flying digital media startup valued at billions of dollars, has struggled immensely in recent years. The company was acquired out of bankruptcy by Fortress Investment Group and two other creditors last year for a mere $350 million.

The radical strategic shift announced by Dixon effectively marked the end of Vice Media as the industry has known it. Once held up as the future of the business, Vice Media has rapidly contracted over the last 12 months, ending several news programs and laying off staffers.

 

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/com...ube-laid-off-43-unionized-workers/ar-BB1jco0Z
See the moment 43 unionized YouTube contractors got laid off

The workers have participated in two strikes: A month-long stoppage in February 2023 over Cognizant’s return-to-office policy, which led to the departure of about 20 percent of the team, and a one-day pause in September over Google and Cognizant’s refusal to bargain. Following the strikes, workers were asked to train agents in India on how to do their jobs so that they could fill in during holidays or if workers ever went on strike, Benedict said.

Benedict thought Thursday was going to be a victorious moment, as the council was expected to vote in favor of a resolution supporting the workers. Instead, 10 minutes before the meeting, the workers were told by the council that the vote would be postponed, but that they would still be allowed to speak. During the speech, the team working at the office was called into a meeting and told that they no longer had jobs. They texted the workers at the council meeting to inform them.

They are contractors that went on strike twice. They need to talk to the actual employer if the contract was not renewed.

“We have no objection to these Cognizant employees electing to form a union,” said Courtenay Mencini, a Google spokeswoman. “We simply believe it’s only appropriate for Cognizant, as their employer, to engage in collective bargaining.”

Cognizant did not comment on the workers’ claim that it refused to bargain with the union, but offered the following statement: “While we respect the right of our associates to unionize, our philosophy is that we work best together with direct open dialogue and collaboration,” said Bill Abelson, spokesman for Cognizant.

Are all of the union members also forced to get the same hairdo?

 

https://www.nbcnews.com/business/ec...y-layoffs-and-resignations-decline-rcna142220
'The Great Stay': Layoffs, unemployment remain low as job market shows other signs of weakness

"It's still a very good labor market," Challenger said. "There are certainly companies that want to keep people; people are staying. But there's also increased layoff activity. They don’t have to be correlated — sometimes it's just volatility."

Yet, in February, employers announced plans to hire just 10,317 workers, for a total of 15,693 so far in 2024, the lowest year-to-date total for announced hiring plans since Challenger began its tracking in 2009, the company found.

The broader picture remains an unusual one, Berger said.

"There are relatively few new people coming in, but relatively few people are leaving," he said. "It's a weird environment."

 

https://www.nbcnews.com/business/ec...y-layoffs-and-resignations-decline-rcna142220
'The Great Stay': Layoffs, unemployment remain low as job market shows other signs of weakness

Wasn't it Yogui Berra that said something like "it's hard to predict things, especially about the future" ?

 

https://www.cnbc.com/2024/03/15/lai...ind-jobs-with-cuts-at-highest-since-2001.html
Laid-off techies face ‘sense of impending doom’ with job cuts at highest since dot-com crash

Allison Croisant, a data scientist with about a decade of experience in technology, was laid off by PayPal earlier this year, joining the masses of unemployed across her industry. Croisant has one word to describe the process of looking for a job right now: “Insane.”
...
It’s a particularly confounding situation for software developers and data scientists, who just a couple of years ago had some of the most marketable and highly valued skills on the planet, and are now considering whether they need to exit the industry to find employment.

“The market isn’t what it once was,” Roger Lee, creator of Layoffs.fyi, said in an email. “To secure a new position, many salespeople and recruiters are leaving tech entirely. Even engineers are compromising — accepting roles with less stability, a tougher work environment, or lower pay and benefits.”

 

Sad to see you go, MIKE.

https://www.reuters.com/business/au...s-laying-off-about-400-us-workers-2024-03-22/

March 22 (Reuters) - Chrysler parent Stellantis (STLAM.MI), opens new tab said on Friday it will lay off about 400 U.S. salaried workers as it seeks to cut costs, boost efficiency and ramp up electric-vehicle production plans.
The Italian-American automaker said it is reducing its engineering/technology and software organizations by about 400 U.S. jobs effective March 31, which represents 2% of those jobs worldwide. Last year, Stellantis twice offered buyouts to groups of U.S. workers, including giving 6,400 U.S. salaried employees a financial incentive to depart in November.

The company said, "As the auto industry continues to face unprecedented uncertainties and heightened competitive pressures around the world, Stellantis continues to make the appropriate structural decisions across the enterprise to improve efficiency and optimize our cost structure."

 

https://electrek.co/2024/04/15/tesla-lays-off-more-than-10-of-its-global-workforce/
Tesla lays off ‘more than 10%’ of its global workforce

Over the years, we have grown rapidly with multiple factories scaling around the globe. With this rapid growth there has been duplication of roles and job functions in certain areas. As we prepare the company for our next phase of growth, it is extremely important to look at every aspect of the company for cost reductions and increasing productivity.

As part of this effort, we have done a thorough review of the organization and made the difficult decision to reduce our headcount by more than 10% globally. There is nothing I hate more, but it must be done. This will enable us to be lean, innovative and hungry for the next growth phase cycle.

I would like to thank everyone who is departing Tesla for their hard work over the years. I’m deeply grateful for your many contributions to our mission and we wish you well in your future opportunities. It is very difficult to say goodbye.

For those remaining, I would like to thank you in advance for the difficult job that remains ahead. We are developing some of the most revolutionary technologies in auto, energy and artificial intelligence. As we prepare the company for the next phase of growth, your resolve will make a huge difference in getting us there.

Thanks,
Elon

 

Dicky Betts Died.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dickey_Betts

kv

 

https://www.axios.com/2024/04/19/google-fires-employees-protest-israel
Google's idyllic campus image shattered by protester firings

Google's firing of 28 protesting employees Wednesday sends the clearest signal yet that the tech giant — whose founders pledged it was "not a conventional company" — has become just that.
The big picture: Silicon Valley's leading firms have long told talented employees to think of the office like a campus, "bring their whole selves" to work and change the world for the better — but workers who bought those promises are facing a moment of truth.

Driving the news: The 28 firings followed sit-in protests Tuesday at Google offices in Silicon Valley and New York City.

• The demonstrators opposed a $1.2 billion 2021 Google Cloud contract with the Israeli government, arguing that Google's support for the effort — known as Project Nimbus — was harming Palestinians in Gaza.
• Nine employees were arrested at the sit-ins.

What they're saying: In a note to employees, CEO Sundar Pichai said, "We have a culture of vibrant, open discussion... But ultimately we are a workplace and our policies and expectations are clear: this is a business, and not a place to act in a way that disrupts coworkers or makes them feel unsafe, to attempt to use the company as a personal platform, or to fight over disruptive issues or debate politics."

This is a business that's in the business of making money. Now get back to work.

• "Unfortunately, a number of employees brought the event into our buildings in New York and Sunnyvale. They took over office spaces, defaced our property, and physically impeded the work of other Googlers. Their behavior was unacceptable, extremely disruptive, and made co-workers feel threatened...Behavior like this has no place in our workplace and we will not tolerate it... If you're one of the few who are tempted to think we're going to overlook conduct that violates our policies, think again."

Sorry kids, this was stupid. Protest on public property, on your own time.

 

https://u.osu.edu/mclc/2023/06/28/chinas-workers-and-the-curse-of-35/

When Sean Liang turned 30, he started thinking of the Curse of 35 — the widespread belief in China that white-collar workers like him confront unavoidable job insecurity after they hit that age. In the eyes of employers, the Curse goes, they’re more expensive than new graduates and not as willing to work overtime.

Mr. Liang, now 38, is a technology support professional turned personal trainer. He has been unemployed for much of the past three years, partly because of the pandemic and China’s sagging economy. But he believes the main reason is his age. He’s too old for many employers, including the Chinese government, which caps the hiring age for most civil servant positions at 35. If the Curse of 35 is a legend, it’s one supported by some facts.

 

https://www.axios.com/2024/04/23/google-fires-employees-protest-israel-contract-nimbus
Google fires more employees over protest of cloud contract with Israel

A Google spokesperson confirmed Tuesday that additional employees were fired after an internal investigation revealed they were "directly involved in disruptive activity."

• "To reiterate, every single one of those whose employment was terminated was personally and definitively involved in disruptive activity inside our buildings. We carefully confirmed and reconfirmed this," the spokesperson said, adding that the company's investigation into the demonstrations has concluded.

 

https://www.cnbc.com/2024/05/01/google-cuts-hundreds-of-core-workers-moves-jobs-to-india-mexico.html
Google lays off hundreds of ‘Core’ employees, moves some positions to India and Mexico

“Announcements of this sort may leave many of you feeling uncertain or frustrated,” Husain wrote in the email to developers. He added that his message to developers is that the changes “are in service of our broader goals” as a company.

Capt. O speaks again.

 

https://www.cnbc.com/2024/05/01/google-cuts-hundreds-of-core-workers-moves-jobs-to-india-mexico.html
Google lays off hundreds of ‘Core’ employees, moves some positions to India and Mexico


Capt. O speaks again.

The entire world economy is constantly being reshuffled ... it's all part of a free market economy. Down here we hate it when businesses are lost to China, but then again, they're the primary suppliers for many things in the whole country.

 

https://www.cnn.com/2024/05/01/tech...plaint-israeli-palestinian-protest/index.html
Former Google workers fired for protesting Israel deal file complaint claiming protected speech

“Employees, including Google employees, have the right to protest working conditions through concerted activity, and a protest concerning the kind of work that employees are asked to do can be protected,” said Benjamin Sachs, Kestnbaum Professor of Labor and Industry at Harvard Law School. “Even a sit-in in certain circumstances can be protected activity… Now, that’s not always true, it depends on the facts, and it depends on things like how disruptive the protest is, whether employer property is seized [and] the duration of the work stoppage.”

The facts here are IMO that people now realize how stupid they were to lose a good job for nothing.

 

https://au.news.yahoo.com/finance/news/tesla-staff-firms-entire-supercharger-111101208.html
Tesla staff say firm's entire Supercharger team fired

 

https://au.news.yahoo.com/finance/news/tesla-staff-firms-entire-supercharger-111101208.html
Tesla staff say firm's entire Supercharger team fired

He speculated that Mr Musk could "reconstitute the EV charger team in bigger, badder, more Muskian way" in order to continue to benefit from US government funding to develop the network.

"US government funding": money taken from poor people who can't afford to drive EVs so that rich people can.

 

https://www.ign.com/articles/micros...orks-and-more-in-devastating-cuts-at-bethesda
Microsoft Closes Redfall Developer Arkane Austin, Hi-Fi Rush Developer Tango Gameworks, and More in Devastating Cuts at Bethesda


"This reprioritization of titles and resources means a few teams will be realigned to others and that some of our colleagues will be leaving us.

 

https://www.cnbc.com/2024/05/08/nea...e-considering-leaving-their-jobs-in-2024.html
Nearly 50% of people are considering leaving their jobs in 2024—more than during the ‘great resignation’

It’s not just better labor market conditions driving more U.S. workers to consider a career change in 2024.

Inflation is still squeezing Americans’ budgets; nearly half (45%) of workers planning to switch jobs this year say they need a higher income, according to Monster’s 2024 Work Watch Report.

Job switchers tend to increase their salaries more quickly than those who stay put, per data from the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta.

Changing jobs is coming with greater pay gains: New data from ADP shows the median year-over-year pay increase for job switchers was 10% in March, up from 2.9% six months prior.

 

"US government funding": money taken from poor people who can't afford to drive EVs so that rich people can.

Spoken like a true socialist (which is odd, since you disapprove of socialism).