Spencer
Wolfe

Fired for working through a lunch break?  I think HR departments are looking for this type of person.

Sharon Smiley had worked for 10 years as a receptionist and administrative assistant at a Chicago real estate company until she was fired for skipping lunch one day. After a two-year battle, an appeals court in Illinois has found that denial of her unemployment benefits was "clearly erroneous."

Smiley, 48, punched out of work for lunch Jan. 28, 2010, but remained at her desk to finish a project assigned by a manager because she did not plan to eat that day, she said.

Smiley, who had passed her 10-year anniversary with the company more than a month before, said another manager told her it was time for her to go to lunch and step away from her desk, but she refused. That manager observed Smiley working on a spreadsheet on her computer, answering the phone and responding to questions by people who approached her desk, according to a filing from the appellate court of Illinois.

You can read the whole story here.  Sharon, send in your resume!

This is a very good read on Techcrunch regarding Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg.

Zuck replied: If I were starting now I would do things very differently. I didn’t know anything. In Silicon Valley, you get this feeling that you have to be out here. But it’s not the only place to be. If I were starting now, I would have stayed in Boston. [Silicon Valley] is a little short-term focused and that bothers me.

He explained that he had a conversation once with Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos about this, and the average time someone stays in job at Seattle is twice as long than it is in Silicon Valley. “There’s a culture out here where people don’t commit to doing things, I feel like a lot of companies built outside of Silicon Valley seem to be focused on a longer-term,” he explains. “You don’t have to move out here to do this.”

Quoted from here.  With our team in the United States, Japan, and Korea we do notice a difference in not only national cultures but also areas or district cultures.  For example the business culture in Washington's Bellevue varies from the business culture of Seattle or Tacoma.  In Japan, the culture of Osaka varies to Tokyo or Yokohama even.  Even in Seoul the business people of Seoul differ to their friends in Pusan.

Good thing to keep in mind when starting, or even moving your company.

The most advanced passenger jet is finally delivered to ANA. From Seattle to Tokyo, my two most favorite cities

http://youtu.be/CIvLf2aC4OA

That has been the thought of most of the people close to China.  Including those of us in Tokyo, Hong Kong, Singapore, and even Seattle for that matter.

It looks like invincible manufacturing power may not the case.  We all know in sports, business, and even life, it is always safe to assume that there is someone tougher than you.  The outsourced manufacturing mantle has historically passed to the places with the lowest labor costs.  It looks like we are beginning to see that happen for China as well.

The BBC reports

China is losing its edge as the world's cheapest place to manufacture goods, a new report suggests.

Indonesia and Bangladesh are benefiting most as rising costs in China force firms to switch production, it says.

The report by consultants KPMG says that minimum wage levels in China are now four times greater than other places in South and South East Asia.

You can read the full article here.