Is Michele Bachmann Correct That Obamacare Will Cause Millions of Lost Jobs?

Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann (R) predictably was more than a little disappointed at yesterday’s ruling  by the U.S. Supreme Court that the Affordable Care Act of 2010 (a/k/a Obamacare) was constitutional. Bachmann has consistently been one of the leading advocates against the law in general and its individual mandate in particular.

Although the law and its individual mandate were both initially formulated by her Republican Party and the right wing Heritage Foundation, Bachmann was quoted yesterday as saying, “Obamacare represents the largest expansion of entitlement spending and a playground of left-wing social engineering in our country’s history and must be stopped. Now, the only way to save the country from Obamacare’s budget-busting government takeover of health care is to completely repeal it. I disagree with the court’s ruling and expansion of government power under the commerce clause. Government should never have the right to tell Americans what they must purchase.” She continued, “Under President Obama’s signature legislation, health care costs continue to skyrocket, and up to 20 million Americans could lose their employer-based coverage.”

Although I could never see myself voting for Bachmann, I am willing to take her at her word when she says that she’s been told by many employers that they plan to stop providing health insurance coverage to their employees because they expect those costs to skyrocket under Obamacare. But let’s be realistic about which employers she’s talking with and their motivations for making those statements. Realistically, the bulk of the employers who are going to have access to Bachmann are going to be Republicans and philosophically opposed to Obamacare. Fair enough. But let’s also be realistic about the motivations which drive their business decisions. Most, I suspect, operate their businesses to maximize their profitability and that means keeping their best employees.

I’m not surprised that these Republican business owners believe that they will need to drop health insurance coverage given that the Court just announced that Obamacare is constitutional. But saying they’re going to drop health insurance coverage is a lot easier than actually dropping it when actually dropping it will mean that they will lose many of their best employees and will also be unable to recruit new ones. I have no doubt that some business owners will need to drop their coverage, some won’t need to but will choose to, some will need to layoff employees, and some will choose to layoff employees. But I also have no doubt that many business owners will now be able to afford to provide health insurance to their employees and that tens of millions of Americans will now be able to afford health insurance or obtain insurance which doesn’t exempt their pre-existing conditions. Many who are toiling away in jobs they hate simply to get health insurance will be liberated and many of those will start their own businesses, work as contractors, and otherwise find meaningful, rewarding work.

Business owners rarely make business decisions based upon their ideological beliefs. They may believe that Obamacare is a bad thing for the country and they may be proven correct. I doubt they will, but it could happen. But you can be sure that the vast majority of business owners will be rational when it comes to deciding weeks or months from now whether to drop their health insurance coverage or layoff employees. The vast majority won’t as eliminating coverage or employees will harm their profitability far more than any increased costs they may suffer under Obamacare. And for those business owners who drop coverage or employees because of their political beliefs and despite what they should know is best for their business, well, then they’ll be helping in another way. They’ll be helping by proving that Darwin was right.

How Employers Should Handle the Candidate Rejection Process: Part 2

I had an opportunity to speak with Maren Hogan of Red Branch Media regarding the candidate experience. In particular, we spoke about the candidate rejection process.   Maren offers three great suggestions.  Click PLAY to hear Maren’s recommendations, then scroll down to read more. Continue Reading

Shit Recruiters Say

One of my required daily activities is to read through the recruiting-related news and other stories published by our friends at ERE Daily. Today’s issue included a great video with two minutes worth of headhunter a/k/a third party recruiter a/k/a executive search a/k/a retained search a/k/a contingent recruiting firm Betts Recruiting.

Continue Reading

Your Job Interview – How to Make the Right Impression From the Start

The big buzzword in interview techniques is “rapport”. Which basically means developing a connection between yourself and the interviewer. Essentially, rapport is what good sales people get with their customers. And of course your interview is really you selling yourself.

Given that most people are in fact terrible at sales, I’m going to qualify this statement immediately, by saying – yes, your interview is you selling yourself but that doesn’t mean you have to be some kind of pinstriped idiot spouting business platitudes like an extra from The Apprentice. Far from it. Really good sales people are friendly, engaging and authentic, because they believe in the product they are selling.

If you are selling yourself, surely you can believe in that product more than anything else. You wouldn’t, or you shouldn’t anyway, be applying for a job you have no interest in nor yet cannot do. So the interview situation, which comes after applying for the right jobs, is simply your way of proving what you already know: that you’re a great candidate for the position. Continue Reading

“So Tell Me about Yourself”

Ron Fry

There it is. The granddaddy of all interview questions. And one that still,unbelievably, makes some of you stumble.

It’s really more of a request than a question, but it can put you on the spot like no question can. And if you’re unprepared for such an open-ended prelude to the series of standard questions about your skills, background, and aspirations you’ve been expecting, it can stop you dead and earn you an immediate one-way ticket out of the interview.

What Do They Want to Hear? Continue Reading

2012 Best Internship on Earth Outdoor Youth Ambassador: Episode 1

The following video is from Joaquin Sosa, the 2012 Best Internship on Earth Outdoor Youth Ambassador, featuring his experience at Yosemite National Park. While at the park, see which animal turned up (not the one everyone expected).

Joaquin recently completed his third year at Eastern Mennonite University in Harrisonburg, Virginia, where he’s studying digital media and photography.  A self-described wilderness enthusiast, Joaquin is eager to explore all the wild places our country has to offer and share his journey through video blogging. Continue Reading

8 Tips for Acing Virtual Job Interviews

How to Deal with Death in the Workplace

How Employers Should Handle the Candidate Rejection Process

The candidate experience includes rejection for most. Steffan Martell of CareerBuilder recently offered some clear guidelines on how the candidate rejection process should be handled. Click PLAY to hear what he has to say, and then scroll down to read more. Continue Reading

How to Increase Your Productivity at Work

There never seems to be enough time in the day to accomplish everything we want to do. Our to-do list gets longer, but our days don’t.

The key to meeting our goals is to become more productive to make more efficient use of our time. Becoming more productive means becoming better at managing our time, finding ways to increase our focus, and finding ways to work harder, not smarter.

Here are a few ways that you can become more productive at work to accomplish more in less time: Continue Reading