@parados,
I can tell you this from my time with ATT Broadband/Comcast. 5 of 6 years was spent in the call centers with several different groups, ie: cable, phone and internet vs installer in the field for my last year.
People in the call centers have a tendency to abuse the use of FMLA. Now of course there wasn't a majority of people who were doing this but it was a noticeable amount of people per shift. After you work with people for a while you know is really using FMLA for it's intended purpose vs people who are abusing it just to get the "extra" time off without questions. I'm sorry to say but the majority of people who were using FMLA were abusing it. It made me feel sorry for the people who really were using it for it's intended purpose. I didn't see this same thing with the install and repair techs in the field. Almost no one in the entire dispatch office where I worked had FMLA.
My take between the 2 different groups? Happiness with ones work and skill ability. Techs in the field are more skilled and therefore get paid more. Most of the call center personal are friendly people who know how to type at least 20wpm. They teach them everything they need to know and this goes for the internet side of things as well. They stopped hiring skilled people such as myself who knew about computers and networks and started hiring non-experienced people. It's one of the reasons why I left the call center.
Rep.Steve Cohen wins the Internet with devastating tweet '3/5' on Giuliani’s racism. Stands by tweet
Steve Cohen (D-TN) dipped into American history to deliver a devastating takedown of Rudy Giuliani’s ongoing attempts to show President Barack Obama is insufficiently patriotic.
“Rudy Giuliani questioned how much, or even if, President Obama loves America. Maybe he thinks he loves it 3/5 as much as Giuliani & his pals,” tweeted Cohen, who represents a heavily black district in Memphis.
Cohen, of course, was referring to the infamous Three-Fifths Compromise during the 1787 U.S. Continental Convention, which determined how slaves would be counted when determining population for legislative representation and taxation.
The lawmaker earned bravos from other Twitter users, but some misunderstood it as racist or replied with racist messages or their own.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2015/02/rep-steve-cohen-wins-the-internet-with-devastating-35-tweet-on-giulianis-racism/comments/
Tennessee Congressman Stands By Tweet-Shaming Rudy Giuliani for Saying Obama Doesn't Love America
Rep. Steve Cohen sees racial undertones in Rudy Giuliani’s comments about the president’s patriotism.
(snip)
Cohen says he is fed up with people even doubting Obama's patriotism.
"He is the commander in chief, he defends our country, he loves our country. It is not even an issue," Cohen says. "It is just absurd."
But conservatives weren't the only ones calling out Cohen. The Washington Post also took him to task for his tweet, arguing it was a "very good demonstration of how not to elevate the political debate with Rudy Giuliani."
http://www.nationaljournal.com/congress/tennessee-congressman-stands-by-tweet-shaming-rudy-giuliani-for-saying-obama-doesn-t-love-america-20150220
Debbie Wasserman Schultz Calls Obama Criticism 'Ugly' And She Should Know
@coldjoint,
Meanwhile you are just a plain old dick.
9 Months On, Koch Fears Realized After Town Raised Minimum Wage To $15
Author: Nathaniel Downes September 14, 2014 5:16 pm
In January, the town of Seatac, Washington, put in to effect a new $15 per hour Minimum Wage. No ramp ups, no tiered implementation. One day it was the state standard, the next, the highest minimum wage in the nation. The Koch Brothers sank a fortune to fight this measure, which fell on deaf ears as the town rejected their trickle-down theories and instead voted for the measure. The result is that for one town, they became a test bed, to put the theories behind trickle-down economics to the test.
Now, nine months on, we are witnessing one of the most dramatic recoveries in the Pacific Northwest.
Last July, business owner Scott Ostrander claimed that the increased wage would force him to lay off staff, if not shut down his businesses.
I am shaking here tonight because I am going to be forced to lay people off. I’m going to take away their livelihood. That hurts. It really, really hurts. . . . And what I am going to have to do on Jan. 1 is to eliminate jobs, reduce hours — and as soon as hours are reduced, benefits are reduced.
Instead, his business, the Cedarbrook Lodge hotel, is expanding, adding 63 more beds to meet demand. Instead of layoffs, he needs to hire more people. And his story is not the only one.
Tom Douglas, who runs fifteen restaurants in the Seattle area, warned that a higher minimum wage law being considered by Seattle would force the shutdown of a quarter of his restaurants. Instead, after the results in Seatac, he is opening five new restaurants to meet demand. And this story is being repeated, over and over again, throughout the region.
Well paid employees pump money in to the local economies. This is basic economics, dating back to Adam Smith. Instead of slashing employees, which would impact any businesses ability to support their customers, they have turned to more direct approaches. A good example of this is MasterPark, an off-airport parking lot, which has added a $0.99 daily “Living Wage Surcharge“. Less than a dollar guarantees that MasterPark can give all of its employees a living wage, a small price to pay.
The biggest sign that the higher wage did not impact Seatac however comes with the news that the Seatac airport will be undergoing a half-billion dollar renovation and expansion. The growth of the airport, which as an extra-territorial administrative district does not require the higher minimum wage of the adjoining town, demonstrates that the fears pushed by the Koch Brothers and their multi-million dollar ad campaign are just nonsense.
They forgot the words of wisdom from President Franklin D. Roosevelt, in an address given in Cleveland, Ohio on October 16, 1936.
It is to the real advantage of every producer, every manufacturer and every merchant to cooperate in the improvement of working conditions, because the best customer of American industry is the well-paid worker.
Does anyone think there will be a shut down on Homeland Security Friday?
Senate advances 'clean' DHS bill in 98-2 vote
Quote:
The stalemate over funding for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) was broken Wednesday as the Senate voted 98-2 to proceed to legislation that would prevent a partial government shutdown.
Democrats agreed to support the DHS bill after Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) agreed to strip out provisions inserted by the House that would reverse President Obama's executive actions on immigration.
The only votes against proceeding to the bill came from Sens. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) and Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.).
"Democrats will support getting on the House Homeland Security funding bill. In exchange, the leader will provide the only amendment, [it] will be a clean Homeland Security funding substitute," Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said.
Democrats had blocked the DHS bill four times before. With a shutdown of DHS set to begin on Saturday, McConnell on Tuesday agreed to split the funding and immigration fights, as Democrats have long demanded.
Reid said earlier Wednesday that the Senate could take a final vote on the DHS funding bill Thursday.
"We look forward to working with our Republican colleagues in the next 24 hours to get this done. All eyes now shift to the House of Representatives," Reid said.
If the Senate passes the funding bill, as expected, it would head back to the House, where its fate is unclear.
Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) was silent Wednesday on the "clean" funding plan and said the House would wait for the Senate to act.
Meanwhile, several conservative Republicans have criticized the plan, with many vowing they will not vote to fund the DHS agencies that would be carrying out Obama’s immigration order.
McConnell said separating the two proposals would give Democrats who have previously criticized Obama's immigration actions a chance to "prove they're serious."
“Many Senate Democrats led their constituents to believe they’d do something. … We’ve since heard excuses for the Democrats' refusal to do so,” McConnell said. “But the time for refusal has passed.”
Senate Republicans plan to bring up a separate bill that would block Obama's 2014 executive action, which would provide deferred deportations and work visas to illegal immigrants.
— Updated at 3:27 p.m.
@revelette2,
It depends, are the Dems going to make illegal immigrants more important then our national security?
