What is interesting about recent data released from the unemployment perspective is that, unlike in most recessions, productivity has not gone down. This is generally likely to mean one of two things: a) that people are working longer hours and their longer hours aren’t being documented or b) there have been a lot of layoffs in the general and administrative type of functions through our economy. If the latter has happened, it tells me that when the economy recovers, it’s going to come back solidly from a job perspective, because productivity generally suffers during recessions. And if it hasn’t in this one, then that’s because companies are really lean as far as thei...

If you’re working harder today than you were, say, two years ago, why is that happening? Is it because of the state of the economy, or heightened expectations of efficiency on the part of your employer, or greater engagement on your part in the work you are doing which makes you want to be at work longer? In an anecdotal survey I recently did I found that of about 60 people, all but 7 are working harder than they were two years ago. I’m curious about how many of you feel you are indeed working harder now than two years ago, and what your reasons are.

One of the joys of my job (and in a sense, one of the stresses as well) is that I spend a lot of time traveling around the world. I recently spent almost three weeks on the road traveling in 6-8 countries in 2-3 continents. And I invariably think about how this would have been a far greater stress had it not been for all the many people that make travel easier for us all, how dependent we are on these people to do our work effectively, and how important the travel infrastructure is to the world’s modern economy. To all the people that work in areas serving travelers, commuters, businesspeople and make our travel simpler—those that drive the taxis, work at the airports and hotels ...

One of the areas I was somewhat concerned about as recently as 6-9 months ago was that if China were to go into recession of some sort, there would really be very little hope for the world to get out of its existing recession before the end of 2009. Having been to China in the recent past, I can say that I do believe that China will not go into recession. There is a special amount of stimulus and interest in the eyes of the various parties from which I do believe that our country and the world will benefit tremendously as we get out of the “recession.”

I am thrilled and proud that Kenexa has been featured in the new book on cloud computing titled “Cloud: Seven Clear Business Models” by Timothy Chou. It is available now on Amazon and Kenexa is profiled as one of the Elite Eleven, defined by the author as "the largest business software companies, who all deliver their software as a service, and who all have gone public since 2000. Based on a series of lectures at Stanford University, this book discusses cloud computing from a business perspective. It serves as an excellent, easy-to-read, introduction to cloud computing for anyone who builds, sells, purchases or invests in applications or infrastructure deliver...