Americans do a pretty poor job when it comes to getting away from our work, according to an annual "Vacation Deprivation" survey. On average, workers say they'll probably lose three days of vacation time this year by not using it, up from two days in 2003. As a result, employers get about 415-million vacation days returned to them, according to the findings from a survey by travel site Expedia.com of 1,301 workers last month.
Their financial state is precarious, but the nation's airlines are enjoying a rare good year when it comes to consumer perception. Seventy-four percent of adults said in April they felt the airlines did a "good job of serving their consumers," according to market researcher Harris Interactive. That was a 10 percent jump from last year and 23 percent better than in 2001.
American workers are not alone when it comes to fears about losing their jobs. While slightly more confident this year than last, nearly a third of workers in Hong Kong and almost a quarter in Switzerland felt they could be left unemployed in the next year, according to a period measure of workers' career confidence, reports a survey by Right Management Consultants of Philadelphia.
The millions of illegal immigrants working in the United States don't just happen to stumble onto jobs, according to Forbes magazine. There are middlemen who make a very lucrative business putting them there. Human smugglers around the world pull in $7-billion a year in this trade, the magazine says.
Golf and technology always have made strange bedfellows, especially when it comes to the country club. But Business Week says private clubs are trying to balance tradition and technology to better serve their increasingly tech-savvy members. Ideas include remote-control golf carts that follow you up the fairway and feature video cameras for real-time swing analysis. And what about a learning center that uses muscle sensors to build a 3-D model for a perfect swing?
Bugged by someone at work? You're not alone. The Orange County (Calif.) Register asked Dilbert creator Scott Adams for his top five office peeves: 1, speakerphone calls; 2, various nasal sounds; 3, nail clippings; 4, stealing lunches; and 5, people who take the last cup of coffee without brewing more.
