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Talk of the Bay: Your boss knows you're shopping on the clock

You would never use your company computer for anything but company business, so let's just pretend here.

By Times Staff
Published November 25, 2007

Your boss knows you're shopping on the clock

You would never use your company computer for anything but company business, so let's just pretend here. Monday is so-called Cyber Monday, the kickoff to the online holiday shopping season, and Chicago's Challenger, Gray & Christmas is pretty sure more than a few workers will sneak some online shopping into their 9-to-5 gigs. The workplace consulting firm estimates that employers could lose $488-million in productivity on Monday as workers shop for good deals on Guitar Hero 3 when they should be analyzing spreadsheets. That dwarfs the productivity losses Challenger estimates for fantasy football: about $435-million per week.

FPL hopes energy answer is in wind

To Florida Power & Light, the provider of electricity in southern Florida, one answer to alternative energy has long been blowin' in the wind. FPL wants to produce electricity from wind within a year at one of its generation plants in St. Lucie County on Florida's east coast. As reported by the Daytona Beach News-Journal, FPL wants to build six turbines at Hutchinson Island, where it operates a pair of nuclear generators on waterfront property. Some of the turbines would be on a county-owned park, if the county approves. As a viable resource, wind historically has been little more than hot air to Progress Energy Florida. But now the St. Petersburg utility says it is looking at wind as a piece of its renewable-energy program. Progress Energy recently submitted an application for a grant study to look at small-scale wind-generation. That's nothing to sneeze at. It's one more indicator of changing times and attitudes in Florida's energy industry.

And the CEO of the Year is ...

It's sure to be the hottest party full of CEOs that you can find on a Tuesday night in Tampa - not that there will likely be much competition. On Dec. 11, the fledgling Tampa Bay CEO magazine is hosting a dinner and awards banquet to announce the winners of its CEO of the Year contest. The spate of hopefuls includes Geoffrey Dyer of Lifestyle Family Fitness, Larry Thompson of Ringling College, and developer Grady Pridgen of ... well, you know. And, okay, we know the CEOs here don't exactly have the name power of, say, Warren Buffett, but that's no reason to pass up an evening at the swanky A La Carte Event Pavilion. Individual tickets are $85. More information is available at the magazine's Web site, www.tampabayceo.com. The magazine started this year and has a circulation of 11,000, says publisher (and CEO) David Glass.

[Last modified November 23, 2007, 19:41:54]