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The report captures the insights of the Nineteenth Annual Aspen Institute Roundtable on Information Technology, where business leaders, technologists, international politicians, academics and innovators explored how global structures and institutions are being confronted by the 21st century realities of distributed knowledge, crowdsourcing, open platforms and networked environments.

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Thanks for your letter of recognition you so kindly sent me today.

The body is below.

My response is below that.

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I am afraid that the bad news today emanates from me, yours truly. But please, don’t shoot the messenger.

Like a lottery winner who chooses anonymity to avoid the onslaught of distant cousins, meth-addicted ex-common-law-wives, and long-aggrieved landlords I asked that the announcement today of my own top-ranking not be turned into a media circus. Besides, I for one know they don’t have the Oscars on the same night as the Emmy’s for good reason.

However, for the record and so as to not disappoint Mother who, I might add, would turn in her grave if she thought that I could ever be ranked among a computer-generated list of “influential people” — “Bah, new money,” she would say — a modest announcement of my own: Recruitomatic has been ranked top on the Marquee of SADE List of Online Recruiters.

Of course, many of you will know that the Marquee organization is a “big tent” of sorts, and the SADE acronym stands for: “Self-Appointed Digital Experts.” Suffice it to say, my being nominated and subsequent elevation to alpha-blogger came as no surprise to industry insiders such as…myself.

For those who imagine that my recognition for this prestigious award was a forgone conclusion, think again. Recruitomatic faced a field of strong competition including some worthy contenders hot on my heels:

• First Runner-up: BROWN BAG RECRUITER
• Second Runner-up: Blogversity Blog
• Third Runner-up:  The G-Recruiters Blogspot

Yes, indeed…Mother would be pleased. Congratulations to all.

Ray’s patterned release of status updates gave me the feeling of being clued in. The dribs and drabs of online small talk were a convenient substitute for real connectedness. The mere threat of losing that connection created a palpable fear in my heart.

Right there, after my parental instinct to fix something, was a series of surprising insights.

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While one is inclined to sympathize with Ms. Uvino as she fights the good fight, sticking it to the man as it were, I can’t help feeling that the plaintiff is more concerned with bread-and-butter needs than seeking her just deserts.

Consider…

Ms. Uvino initially resists the offer from Lehman to oversee the bank’s winding down as the promised compensation is somewhat less than the $600,000 she earned in 2007. But she takes the pay-cut anyway. Her complaint now is that she was not only screwed out of half-a-mil, but she was ignored by higher-ups who, apparently, repeatedly snubbed her.  I’m sure punitive damages would dissuade the bank from repeating this unconscionable act of constructive dismissal — shame, shame, shame!

Who knows what happened in the interim, or what her current compensation is, but Ms. Uvino works today as the top HR-wallah for Natixis North America. According to Jobs-Salaries.com the average salary at her new employ is a tad over $100,000. One imagines that whatever she has by way of “commitments” with Natixis, Ms. Uvino has taken another pay-cut, one so deep perhaps that she sees suing the bank, and a failed one to boot, as the only way to keep the lights on.

There are a number of additional points worth considering I think:

• In the corridors of power, and particularly among bankers, when the shit hits the fan — like compensation — it is never evenly distributed.
• When it comes to “emotional distress, humiliation, embarrassment and anguish,” who feels it knows it, Lord. Lehman Brothers were responsible for the ruination of thousands, possibly millions of people who could, no doubt, tell Ms. Uvino a thing or two about emotional distress, humiliation, embarrassment and anguish. Ms. Uvino may not have had a direct hand in the financial melt-down that followed Lehman’s Brothers complicit avarice but, for a salary of $600,000 and a seat at the table I’m sure, is collective responsibility too much to expect from our HR leadership? From where I sit, that would certainly more dignified than a lawsuit.
• The last three years have been difficult times for many people, forced out of jobs and into new work that demands more and more for less and less. Based on the reports at least, it appears that Ms. Uvino is no different from a lot of big-money earners whose are finding it hard to transition from earnings-potential to economic reality.
• It’s sad but true, the legitimacy of one’s claim has no bearing on a future employer’s evaluation of a litigious employee who, on the face of it, has an axe to grind. It doesn’t help to have a resume and salary history that reflects failure, however “unjust” or inaccurate a reading that might be.

Wendy, you sue the bastards, that’s what I say. Based on the reports though, I doubt you’ll win.

You can read John at his finest on the subject on the GlassDoor.com blog: Why Workers Get Left Behind.

Oh, John…Gareth Morgan, your friend and mine, sends his regards, as does Paddy Mac!

To quote anchorman Neil Cavuto on justifiable outrage:

“No screaming, no ranting, no raving, no yelling, no pontificating…”

File this one under “Weird.”

I don’t know Kris Dunn personally, nor his circumstances or motivation. There is no reason why his post should have evoked such a strong reaction in me except that he is marking in time that point in my own journey that I can only describe as…well, I threw up, need I say more?

Long conversations with my closest friends about the pros and cons of radical transparency have led me to conclude it serves no purpose to bear one’s soul online. Followers, friends, RSS feeds, search engine results and mindless re-tweeting can never communicate the persistent reality that the bits and bytes of blogging attempt to convey, failing most of the time I think.

Consider, how does one blog about the folly of ambition, agonizing decisions, sleepless nights, betrayals of friendships, isolation and panic in a post-“It’s Not You, It’s Me… Why I’m Leaving a Great Job…” reality and truly convey all of the heightened emotions that come with the sometimes-absolutely-gut-wrenchin’-OMG-what-have-I-done? baptism of solo flight?

Kudos, Mr. Dunn! Not only did your post do just that but the flashback of my own blissful ignorance made me regurgitate an entire mug of coffee back into the cup.

Not one to overlook the value in a cathartic purge, I offer you these suggestions in return:

• If you don’t have complete faith in God [or an equivalent], don’t worry, it won’t be long before you believe. There’s no place like Hell to forge the  iron-mettle you’ll need to get beyond the point of no return.
• Familiarize yourself with the concept of the “action threshold” and get ready to find out who your friends really are. Next, make new friends based on how well they can support you, financially that is. There’s nothing worse than finding out that, a) your network still makes demands of you; and b) your network is broke.
• Get a copy of  The Shawshank Redemption and watch it when you’re feeling glum. Remember, a) when you’re swimming in shit nothing matters but the light at the end of the tunnel — keep swimming; and b) keep your mouth shut, don’t make waves.
• Connect with people who have walked the path you are about to travel.  When push comes to shove, we all need someone who has “been there, done that” to help navigate through those sometimes-absolutely-gut-wrenchin’-OMG-what-have-I-done? moments that make this journey the thrill-ride of a lifetime.
• Don’t let the bastards grind you down. If this should ever require further explanation, feel free to call me.

Well, what do you know? This coffee looks almost good enough to drink.

Back in the early 1980′s I worked for a London-based subsidiary of  NYNEX. The banking system sales were large and complex. There were many people in the prospects’ organization who could scupper a sale and for any number of reasons. We called them Heretics. It was not an uncommon practice when a heretic became a problem that a City-headhunter was called in to hire that person out of the organization, greasing the skids for an easier, highly profitable outcome. As I recall that practice was called, ironically, bait and switch.

TalentHole.com’s idea of removal really means outplacement. Its founder, an independent recruiter who wants me to call him Carlos, sees this project of his as something of a holy mission.

“There are so many bad employers now and they are asking employees to work their — I’ll use “behinds.” Carlos had a different noun — off, that I wanted to do something to help,” he says.

Ah, bait and switch. As you describe it, Mr. Zappe, more to do with a couple of  recruiters’ reconciling themselves to their own futile pursuit of the American Dream than with recruiting itself me thinks.