Avoid firing

not guns, but your employees.

In previous posts, I have mentioned that laying off employees should be the last option for companies. I came across two articles on www.bnet.com today that state what you should try first and why laying off employees might cost more than you think. Enjoy

1. How to cut costs to avoid cutting  jobs

2. The hidden costs of layoffs

A.

Where is the justice?

Turkey has been violating the Universal Declaration of Human Rights for the last 35 years and yet it has remained unpunished by the International Community.

The last incident to be added to the list of crimes committed by Turkey is the cold-blooded murder of 5 Greek-Cypriot soldiers who were taken as hostages in 1974 by Turkish troops. A picture verifies that the 5 Greek-Cypriot soldiers were taken hostages, but their relatives never knew what happened to them and were therefore declared as missing persons. Their remains however were found in an abandoned well in occupied Cyprus and were identified through the DNA method. The fact that the remains of the soldiers were all found together proves that they were executed by the Turkish army. Confessions of Turkish journalists who were in charge of covering the war add to the proof of the murders. More information on this is provided on this link.

 A.

2+ Lane in Cyprus

In Cyprus we are way ahead of our time. The Ministry of Transportation decided to pick the busiest street in Nicosia and decided to make a 2+ lane, which means that you can only be in that lane if there are 2 or more people in the car, or if you are driving a taxi or a bus. Great idea huh? Well, not exactly.

First of all, they did not add a third lane in the street. They just decided to make one of the two lanes as the 2+lane. They did not take into consideration the thousands of cars that will flood the other lane and they did not take into consideration the fact that in about 3km of road there are about 20 left turns. This means that if a regular car wants to turn left they have to get in the 2+ lane (which apparently will be the fast lane) and get on its way. And if they want to do that, they will have to either get in the 2+lane earlier..which will make them illegal..or stop the traffic in the regular lane to cross.

Worst of all is that the government seemed to have not put any research before painting the streets and announcing the operation of the 2+ lane. Well to be fair, they say that they did but I really find it hard to believe. Why? Read the reason below:

A week earlier the government has announced that the 2+ lane will not operate. They said that they counted the number of cars on a Monday from 7-8 and they counted 1400 cars passing the traffic lights in the entrance of Nicosia. And they said that they counted again the next Monday same time and they counted 1907 cars at the same place. Their conclusion was that there was more traffic..For GOD’S SAKE people, this is simple math! If more cars pass from a certain point at a certain time period this does NOT necessarily mean that there is more traffic! HAVE YOU CONSIDERED THE FACT THAT MAYBE, I SAY MAYBE THE CARS ARE MOVING FASTER AND THAT IS WHY MORE CARS PASSED THROUGH THE TRAFFIC LIGHTS? Apparently not!

Here is what I believe: The government realized that they made a mistake and they tried to cover it up somehow. They thought that giving out those stats with the number of cars would fool everyone….well, not exactly my friends.