Happy birthday dad!

This post is only relevant to one person: The very special person who is my father.

Go dad!

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Awesome Nike Video

You may know I'm an avid athlete (with more than my fair share of injuries). I absolutely love this stuff by Nike:



However, in terms of messaging, I'm definitely Pearl Azumi's demographic.

A sorry social saga

Why hello dear reader.

It's been a while since I treated you to another one of my sturdy yet fascinating lectures, but I have been busy turning 30. The whole act took merely a day, but I needed a few weeks for the recovery and necessary botox appointments. I took a trip out to North Avoca with about 15 pals and had a great time. Facebook, god-luv-em, is there to prove what a great time I had.

In the meantime, a lot has happened in the news that I've wanted to blog about. Domino-gate was one such thing (I can't post a direct link to the YouTube video because they are being deleted just as fast as they are being posted).

If you haven't seen the video, you're not missing much - just a couple of disengaged employees doing disgusting things with pizza ingredients.

It's another interesting case study on the power of social networking. The rate of downloads that this awful video got is the kind of coverage a corporate response could only dream of.

You can't fool everyone though - the general consensus among the online community is that this is a couple of idiots that could work anywhere. I'd be surprised if this significantly affects Dominos' bottom-line - personally I don't they deserve it. And, as Dominos are mainly franchises, spare a thought for the poor blighter who actually owns the store in question.

Here in Australia, this global YouTube saga comes on the back of a PR blitz by Dominos offering hope for workers in a downturn. Amazing, when you think that the videos they post on their website are, in my opinion, a more accurate portrayal of the employment experience, spoken by engaged employees - not by ones who clearly don't give a toss.

It just goes to show that really poor, base, childish content is able to spread like wildfire. It's an untamed and uncensored world out there. Ultimately, however, people will make their own minds up - and in the time there will be more perspective: it's just a couple of idiots.

The whole sorry story, does, however gets worse.

The latest twist is the allegation by some users on YouTube that Kristy Hammonds, the lady who features in the video, is a sex offender. Bizarre twist - and I'm not going to add weight to this argument - it's puerile and irrelevant to just about anything I'm interested in commenting on.

It just goes to show the dangers and dark depths these kind of incidents can lead to. Be careful what you do out there readers.

Hiring intentions dip - but stablise?

Hudson released their recent 'Employment Expectations' report, which showed employer confidence has hit a record low - but there are some signs of stabilisation of the industry.

Its survey found that 18.6% of employers planned to increase their permanent headcount during the June quarter. This means nearly 1/5 of organisations are planing to grow.

On the flipside, 63.6% of employers plan to maintain existing staffing levels, and the number expecting headcount to fall has jumped three-fold to 17.8%. So nearly 1/5 of organisations are planning to shrink.

This isn't nearly as gloomy as it sounds.

On last night's Q&A, Tanya Plibersek, Minister for Housing and Status of Women spoke of the halt in decline of retail jobs. And Hudson Australia and New Zealand CEO Mark Steyn also feels the rate of deterioration in hiring intentions was slowing. He told Shortlist:

The drop-off in the rate of decline is a good thing, and we've also seen the stock market go up over the last month too. The real question is whether this is a pause in the fall, and I think it is.

Finally, if anyone has some sparkling new business ideas, where better to turn than the grand maharajah of entrepreneurship, Ricky Branson. Pitch your ideas, he says on his blog, and he'll promote them on Virgin Atlantic screens, and you might just get the investment you need.

I think I just might...