Ok. So the rumor mill has it that obese workers are treated unfairly during the hiring process and those already on the job. So what is the problem? Should obese [potential] employees get treated fairly? I mean like, such employees care little about themselves but somehow employers should care more about such workers? That just isn't the real world. Obesity on the job is not only costly to the employee i.e. health risks, job performance but also costly to the bosses that be i.e. increased group health care premiums, lost job performance, moral, etc. Sure there are the few that have valid medical conditions contributing to the weight issues but most of the time obesity points to a lack of self-control. That's simply something employers don't want to deal with. Who can blame them? The bottom line is that having weight issues is a visible sign to hiring managers that you may not be able to a) perform the required duties b) cost the company a bunch of money in health care costs. So if you really want the job [or keep the job you already have] it may be a good idea to demonstrate commitment to one’s own health first. Chances are high the boss will notice which could even lead to new opportunities given the demonstration of commitment to a rather personal challenge such as losing weight. Food for thought.

Who hasn't wondered why the least intelligent (borderline retard) co-worker, seems to get the breaks, promotions and favors from the boss. But why? How in the world would a buffoon be able to achieve such clout in the workplace? You know why..."The AK factor" i.e. the as* kissing factor. Sure, "The AK factor" is joked about at work, but lets face it; where some lack intelligence they make up for it in soft skills. Those same soft skills inevitably will keep him/her on the payroll. Even more so, on the payroll with an attractive salary, perks and with the bells and whistles available only the dreams of most other employees.

Make no mistake about it, soft skills are real. Soft skills transform the average employee in the big boss. Sure, its unfair but then so is life. Let's face it, people are people, whether at work, the mall or at home. And people in general typically suffer from narcissism. The "thought to be buffoon," at work, knows this and just how to massage the egos of the narcissistic power brokers; hence job stability for him/her and good luck for everyone else or go find another job somewhere. Oh well, too bad huh...its rough working for someone else, especially when skills, intelligent and commitment ride backseat to "The "AK factor." Guess we could all start new businesses...then again we could seek consultation from the workplace buffoon. Maybe he/she has an "AK fast track" course or something. Sign me up.

Devising a short list of innovate companies as employment targets is one thing. Discovering how innovate companies recruit talent is another. There are no guarantees any one strategy will work, that is, without insider knowledge for the particular company of interest. A few things that definitely speak volumes to how much a given company is innovate is how much of their recruiting efforts are geared towards job boards versus social networking. Companies that focus more on job boards tend to be more innovative than companies that focus more recruiting efforts on internal referrals [another form of social networking]. Why? Well, think about it for a moment...job boards open up the hiring process to general public which means companies have considerably more exposure to a diverse broad mix including gender, ethnicity, work background, cultures, personality types, perspectives and overall experience.

Companies that recruit and hire more, from such a broad mix tend to be more innovating since their workforce will align closer to their customer base and even more so to new customer markets. Conversely, companies that focus more on internal recruiting are much more prone to obtaining carbon copy referrals of the employees already on staff, since internal employees rarely refer someone different then themselves. Instead, it is safer for the on staff employee to refer someone like them so the current employee doesn't have to ever worry about "answering" for the new hire that doesn't work out as expected. So while finding a job online is evolving given social networking, job boards aren't going to go away...at least not for innovate companies.

The internet has come into its own such that virtually everyone uses the internet . With that being said, would that continue to be the case if the internet transformed from open to a huge information highway with toll charges everywhere? Just the idea of toll gates [in the form of access fees for premium websites] should be troubling to everyone --- especially job seekers. If such a thing were to come to pass, which seems to worry Google's Sergey Brin, you can rest assured that online job search will change too. Job hunters have become accustomed to finding a job online without being gouged with fees; that will change. The big boards will start assessing fees to make up for the fees passed on to them for consuming massive amounts of bandwidth. On the flip side, a fee structure placed on big boards could help jobseekers since it would likely encourage those sites to clamp down on wasting bandwidth i.e. overburdening ads, excessive external content links, photos, videos, etc. Right now, no one is certain the extent of a toll based internet but one thing is sure; someone will be paying more and that cost will passed on down the chain. Believe it.