#us staffing solutions

[mightywarnersus]

Your Go-To Direct Hire Staffing Agency in the USA

Introduction: The Landscape of Staffing Agencies

In a world where the right talent can be the difference between success and stagnation, the role of staffing agencies has never been more critical. As businesses navigate the complexities of hiring in an increasingly competitive market, the demand for specialized staffing solutions has skyrocketed. Among these, Mighty Warners stands out as a beacon of innovation in the direct hire staffing space in the USA. But what makes them unique? Let’s explore their approach, methodologies, and the impact they are making.

Mighty Warners: A New Paradigm in Direct Hire Staffing

The Mighty Warners Difference

Mighty Warners is not just another staffing agency; they are redefining what it means to connect talent with opportunity. Their approach is rooted in understanding the intricate needs of businesses and the aspirations of candidates. Here’s how they stand out:

Personalized Talent Matching: While many agencies rely heavily on technology and algorithms, Mighty Warners takes a more personalized approach. Their team of seasoned recruiters invests time in understanding the unique culture, values, and goals of the companies they serve. This human-centered approach ensures that candidates are not just a fit on paper but are aligned with the company’s ethos.

Industry-Specific Expertise: Mighty Warners has carved out a niche in several key industries, including technology, healthcare, finance, and engineering. Their recruiters are not just staffing experts; they are industry insiders with a deep understanding of the specific challenges and opportunities within these sectors.

Comprehensive Vetting Process: The agency’s rigorous vetting process is designed to leave no stone unturned. From background checks and skill assessments to personality evaluations and cultural fit analysis, Mighty Warners ensures that only the best candidates make it through to the final stages.

Long-Term Partnership Focus: Unlike many agencies that operate on a transactional basis, Mighty Warners emphasizes building long-term partnerships with their clients. This means they are invested in the success of the placements they make, offering ongoing support and consultation even after the hire.

Innovative Practices in Direct Hire Staffing

Mighty Warners is at the forefront of several innovative practices that are transforming the direct hire staffing landscape:

1. Data-Driven Recruitment

While personalization is key, Mighty Warners also leverages the power of data. They use advanced analytics to track hiring trends, measure the success of placements, and refine their processes. This blend of human insight and data-driven decision-making ensures that their clients receive the best of both worlds.

2. Candidate Experience Optimization

In today’s candidate-driven market, providing an exceptional experience is crucial. Mighty Warners has developed a candidate experience framework that guides candidates through every step of the process, ensuring transparency, timely communication, and a positive overall experience. This not only enhances their reputation but also attracts top talent who value being treated with respect and care.

3. Diversity and Inclusion Initiatives

Mighty Warners is deeply committed to promoting diversity and inclusion within the organizations they serve. They actively seek out diverse talent and work closely with clients to create inclusive hiring practices. Their focus on D&I is not just a trend but a core value that drives their operations.

4. Customized Onboarding Programs

Understanding that the first few months are critical for any new hire, Mighty Warners offers customized onboarding programs that help new employees integrate smoothly into their roles. This includes everything from orientation sessions to mentorship programs, all tailored to the specific needs of the client and the employee.

Mighty Warmers’ Client Success Stories

One of the best ways to understand the impact of Mighty Warners is through their client success stories. Here are a few examples:

Tech Startup Transformation: A rapidly growing tech startup was struggling to find the right talent to scale their operations. Mighty Warners stepped in and provided a tailored hiring strategy that not only filled the critical roles but also helped the company refine its employer brand. As a result, the startup saw a 50% increase in employee retention and a 30% reduction in time-to-hire.

Healthcare Facility Revamp: A major healthcare facility faced challenges in finding specialized medical staff. Mighty Warmers’ industry-specific recruiters quickly identified and placed highly qualified candidates, leading to improved patient care and a significant boost in staff morale.

Financial Firm Expansion: A financial firm undergoing a major expansion needed top-tier talent to lead new initiatives. Mighty Warners delivered by sourcing candidates with not just the right skills but also the leadership qualities needed to drive the company forward. This strategic placement led to a 20% increase in revenue within the first year.

FAQs About Mighty Warners and Direct Hire Staffing

1. What is Direct Hire Staffing?

Direct hire staffing refers to the process where a staffing agency recruits and places candidates directly into permanent positions with their clients. Unlike temporary or contract staffing, direct hire positions are full-time roles with the client company.

2. How Does Mighty Warmers’ Direct Hire Process Work?

Mighty Warmers’ process begins with a thorough understanding of the client’s needs. They then use a combination of industry expertise, data analytics, and personalized recruitment strategies to identify and vet potential candidates. Once a candidate is selected, they are hired directly by the client company.

3. What Industries Does Mighty Warners Specialize In?

Mighty Warners specializes in several key industries, including technology, healthcare, finance, engineering, and more. Their recruiters are experts in these fields, ensuring that they can effectively match candidates with the right roles.

4. How Does Mighty Warners Ensure Cultural Fit?

Cultural fit is a critical component of Mighty Warners’ recruitment process. They take the time to understand the company’s values, culture, and working environment. This information is then used to assess candidates not just for their skills but also for how well they will integrate into the company culture.

5. What Sets Mighty Warners Apart from Other Staffing Agencies?

Several factors set Mighty Warners apart, including their personalized approach, industry-specific expertise, comprehensive vetting process, and commitment to long-term partnerships. They are not just focused on filling positions but on ensuring the long-term success of both the client and the candidate.

6. Can Mighty Warners Help with Diversity Hiring?

Absolutely. Mighty Warners is committed to promoting diversity and inclusion in the workplace. They actively seek out diverse talent and work with clients to create inclusive hiring practices. Their focus on diversity is a core value that influences every aspect of their operations.

Conclusion: Why Mighty Warners is the Right Partner for Your Direct Hire Needs

In the ever-evolving landscape of talent acquisition, having the right partner can make all the difference. Mighty Warners has proven time and again that their innovative, personalized approach to direct hire staffing delivers results. Whether you’re a startup looking to scale, a healthcare facility in need of specialized talent, or a financial firm seeking top-tier leadership, Mighty Warners has the expertise, experience, and commitment to help you succeed.

Choosing Mighty Warners means choosing a partner who is invested in your success. They don’t just fill positions; they build teams, foster cultures, and drive growth. If you’re ready to take your hiring strategy to the next level, Mighty Warners is here to help you unlock the full potential of your workforce.

[cloudreachtechnology99]

Mastering Advanced Java for Web Development: Unleashing the Full Potential

The landscape of web development is always changing, and Java continues to play a significant role in fostering efficiency and creativity. The need for qualified Java developers who can maximize the language's potential increases as web application requirements become more complicated. This in-depth blog article explores an advanced Java course created especially for web development, covering a wide range of subjects that help programmers build reliable and dynamic web applications.

Adopting the Fundamentals of Java

An in-depth comprehension of Java's foundational principles is essential prior to delving into the intricate details of advanced Java concepts. Beginning at the very beginning, a well-crafted course will walk students through Java's grammar, data types, control structures, and object-oriented programming concepts. Classes, objects, inheritance, polymorphism, and encapsulation will all be used effectively by the students, providing the foundation for future programming difficulties that will be more complex.

JavaServlet Pages (JSP) and Java Servlets

Java Servlets and JavaServer Pages (JSP) are the core components of Java-based web development. The fundamental units of web applications, servlets execute client requests and produce dynamic answers on the server. On the other side, JSP makes it easier for developers to create dynamic, data-driven web pages by allowing Java code to be seamlessly integrated within HTML. An advanced Java course will give students practical instruction in combining the strength of JSP and Servlets to create reliable web applications.

Understanding Spring Framework

The Spring Framework, which provides a comprehensive set of tools and frameworks that considerably ease the development process, has emerged as the industry leader in Java-based web development. The fundamental components of Spring, such as dependency injection, aspect-oriented programming (AOP), and the Model-View-Controller (MVC) architecture, will be thoroughly covered in a thorough Java course. The skills needed to build modular, scalable, and maintainable web applications will be taught to the students.

Using Hibernate to Achieve Data Persistence

Hibernate, an object-relational mapping (ORM) framework, offers an efficient method for managing data between Java objects and relational databases. Data persistence is a crucial component of online applications. Hibernate should be thoroughly covered in an advanced Java course that teaches students how to conduct CRUD (Create, Read, Update, Delete) operations, handle complicated associations, and map Java entities to database tables. Students will also understand the value of caching and optimization methods for improving database performance.

Creating RESTful Web Services (5)

The popularity of web and mobile applications has increased the importance of RESTful web services as a way to facilitate system communication. With the use of tools like JAX-RS (Java API for RESTful Web Services) and Jersey, students will be guided through the process of creating, implementing, and utilizing RESTful APIs in a well-structured Java course. Students will also learn how to address issues with security, authentication, and authorisation when creating web services.

Thymeleaf Front-End Integration

Between the front end and the back end of modern online applications, there must be seamless integration. A potent templating engine called Thymeleaf enables Java developers to produce dynamic, data-driven HTML websites. Thymeleaf's capabilities will be introduced to students in an advanced Java course, which will show them how to create beautiful and adaptable user interfaces by embedding Java code right into HTML templates.

Ensuring the Security of Web Applications

Web application security is crucial in a time when cybersecurity threats abound. The best practices for securing Java online applications will be covered in a thorough Java course, including input validation, preventing widespread flaws like SQL injection and Cross-Site Scripting (XSS), and implementing user authentication and authorisation systems.

Investigating Complex Subjects

Java developers need to have a solid understanding of complex issues in order to succeed in the field of web development. These can include integrating cloud services and microservices architecture, using containerization technologies like Docker to speed up deployment procedures, and using Java Messaging Services (JMS) for asynchronous communication between application components.

Conclusion

The ability to create cutting-edge and scalable online apps is a powerful journey that developers may go on by mastering sophisticated Java for web development. Developers can fully utilize Java by taking a thorough course that covers its principles, Servlets, JSP, Spring Framework, Hibernate, RESTful web services, Thymeleaf, security, and advanced subjects. With this knowledge in hand, developers will be prepared to handle the demands of a dynamic and changing web development landscape, opening the door to intriguing opportunities and a rewarding career in the digital industry.

[maintec]

How do IT staffing agencies work?

IT staffing agencies play a crucial role in connecting IT professionals with companies seeking qualified talent. Here's a breakdown of how they operate:

For Companies:

Recruitment: Agencies actively source and screen IT candidates, saving companies time and resources. They leverage their talent pools, networks, and expertise to find the right fit for specific roles and skills.

Reduced Cost and Risk: Agencies can help companies avoid the costs and risks associated with traditional hiring. This includes things like advertising, screening, and onboarding.

Flexibility: Agencies offer various staffing solutions like temporary, contract, temp-to-hire, and permanent placements. This allows companies to scale their workforce up or down quickly based on project needs.

Expertise: Many agencies specialize in specific IT sectors, giving them in-depth knowledge of the market, hiring trends, and salary benchmarks.

For IT Professionals:

Job Opportunities: Agencies provide access to a wider range of IT job openings than candidates might find on their own. They often have exclusive listings and relationships with companies in high demand.

Career Guidance: Agencies offer career coaching and resume writing services to help candidates stand out in the competitive IT market.

Negotiation Support: Agencies can negotiate salary and benefits packages on behalf of candidates, ensuring they receive fair compensation.

Networking: Agencies connect candidates with industry professionals and potential employers, expanding their professional network.

Here's a typical workflow:

The company contacts the agency

Agency searches for candidates

Screening and interviews

Candidate submission

Placement

Overall, IT staffing solutions providers in the US can be a valuable resource for both companies and IT professionals, streamlining the hiring process and providing access to a wider range of opportunities and talent.

[ansrposolutions]

Top RPO service provider top agency

ANS RPO Solutions, a leading RPO company in USA and UK, offers top-notch RPO solutions across the USA and UK. As one of the fastest-growing top rpo companies, we are renowned for delivering result-oriented rpo services to a global clientele.

[robertreich]

Think Tipping Is Out of Control? Watch This.

TWO DOLLARS AND THIRTEEN CENTS AN HOUR.

That’s how much millions of American workers are paid under the federal subminimum wage — which was set all the way back in 1991.

While many think tipping for services has gotten out of control, arguing over who deserves a tip and how much they should get distracts from what we should really be angry about: business models that depend on not paying workers a living wage.

It’s bad enough that the federal minimum wage is a measly $7.25 an hour. But employers are allowed to pay tipped workers just $2.13 an hour because supposedly the workers will be able to make up for it in tips.

Saru Jayaraman of One Fair Wage has been advocating to change this absurd and exploitative law. I asked her to share with us FOUR big reasons why we need to get rid of the subminimum wage and pay service workers a full living wage with tips on top.

Number 1: Workers who earn a subminimum wage often end up making less than the minimum wage

43 states currently allow certain workers to be paid a subminimum wage. Employers in these states are legally required to make up the difference if a worker’s combined wage and tips don’t reach the full minimum wage. But over a third of tipped workers report that their bosses regularly fail to do this.

That’s because enforcement of wage laws is lax, and it makes it easier for employers to get away with shortchanging staff.

Number 2: The subminimum wage perpetuates gender discrimination and harassment on the job

More than two-thirds of tipped workers — 70% — in the U.S. are women. And one in six women that work a tipped job are living in poverty — that’s nearly 2.5 times the rate for workers overall.

Since workers earning the subminimum wage are so dependent on tips to make a living, they are put in situations where they have to tolerate inappropriate customer behavior. A staggering 76 percent — that’s more than three-quarters of tipped workers — have reported experiencing sexual harassment on the job. And that only got worse during the pandemic.

Number 3: Tipping is actually a relic of slavery

Tipped workers are disproportionately people of color. And Black service workers in particular consistently earn less, including tips, than their white counterparts for doing the same job.

Look, this inequity of the subminimum wage is tied to America’s history of structural racism.

Following the Civil War, tipping was used as a racist solution by employers who didn’t want to pay formerly enslaved Black workers. So by allowing them to pay their workers just in tips rather than a wage, employers were able to avoid directly paying these workers.

Number 4: Paying workers a living wage plus tips is actually better for business — and our economy.

Corporate lobbyists, particularly for the restaurant industry, warn that paying workers a full minimum wage with tips on top will be devastating to businesses. But research shows these fears are completely overblown.

So far, seven states have replaced their subminimum wage for tipped workers with a higher minimum wage that still allows for tips on top. These seven states are actually faring better than the 43 states with subminimum wages for tipped workers — both in the number of restaurants and number of people employed by restaurants. And take home pay for restaurant servers and bartenders in these states was 24% higher than in states with a wage of just $2.13 an hour.

Workers at restaurants that have scrapped their subminimum wages in favor of higher minimum wages with tips on top are more productive, happier, and less likely to quit their jobs. This alone helps business owners cut employee turnover nearly in half. This is especially important following the pandemic, when restaurants are facing historic staffing shortages because over 1 million workers have left the industry due to low pay.

So not only have higher wage states been able to maintain their industries, but workers are more productive, getting paid more, and less likely to live in poverty.  

And when workers have more money, they spend more money — stimulating their local economies in the process.

And for the first time in 30 years, workers are winning on this issue, like in DC and Chicago and a dozen other states.

The bottom line is that ending the subminimum wage for tipped workers is better for workers, it’s better for business, it’s better for our economy — and it’s the right thing to do.

[dandelionsresilience]

Good News - August 1-7

Like these weekly compilations? Tip me at $kaybarr1735 or check out my new(ly repurposed) Patreon!

1. Zoo hails birth of 'one of world's rarest animals'

“[Jasper] the Persian onager was born to mum Azita after a year-long pregnancy. […] Conservationists at the zoo said there are less than 600 surviving wild onagers[, … which] only survive in two small, protected areas in Iran, a Chester Zoo spokesman said. […] Mike Jordan, animal and plant director at Chester Zoo, […] said Jasper is "doing very well" and added that "mum Azita is doing a fantastic job of nurturing and bonding with her new charge". "He’s full of energy and enjoys playfully kicking up sand as he races around his habitat", Mr Jordan added.”

2. Charity creates 50 community orchards in city

“Community orchards are returning to Birmingham, with the aim of teaching people how to grow their own food and be part of the solution to climate change. […] Once established, the long-term aim is to distribute the produce to those most in need, but local people are also invited to pick the odd bit of fruit. […] By planting trees and plants and encouraging biodiversity back to these areas the charity is also doing its bit to help climate change. They even use locally sourced wood chip which helps to put carbon back into the soil. […T]he hope is that these edible landscapes can also be enjoyed by local people for years to come.”

3. Farmer-led badger vaccination could revolutionize mission to tackle bovine TB

“[… T]he results of a four-year pilot badger vaccination program co-managed between farmers, scientists, and conservationists […] show the percentage of badgers testing positive for bovine tuberculosis (bTB) in the study area dropped from 16% to 0%[….] While most bTB incidents in cattle are caused by transmission between herds, transmission from wild badgers plays a role in the persistence of the disease. […] Blood sampling showed that the proportion of badgers with bTB fell even though overall badger numbers remained high[….]”

4. Every Colorado Anti-Trans Ballot Initiative Fails To Collect Enough Signatures

“Anti-transgender politics are becoming increasingly unpopular in polls. […] A recent LA Times/NORC poll found that 77% of voters believe elected officials use transgender debates to divert attention from more pressing issues. The poll also showed significant opposition to forced outing policies. […] A Gallup poll published in June revealed that while Americans have mixed views on the morality of transitioning, the majority oppose bans on gender-affirming care for trans youth. […] “The fact that they could not get enough signatures, barely half, to be placed on the ballot shows they lack support from everyday voters.”

5. In a fight to save a rare bird, Indigenous communities in Guyana are winning

“The partnership [between Indigenous communities and Smithsonian researchers] sparked a decades-long community-led conservation movement that has protected the red siskin and helped locals reconnect with nature. [… T]he South Rupununi Conservation Society […] established one of the country’s first conservation zones to protect the species, covering 75,000 hectares (185,000 acres) of Indigenous land. […] To plant the seeds of conservation, they’ve implemented an after-school program in more than 16 communities, [introducing children] to ecological research and surveying, and also [teaching] about Indigenous culture and tradition, including fire management skills.”

6. North Adams hospital gets federal designation which pays for health care in rural areas

“[The hospital] received a federal designation on Wednesday that is key to its long-term financial stability. […] The designation pays for staffing regardless of the number of patients[… and] “works to resolve stark inequities in rural and underserved communities as it relates to our nation’s health system."”

7. Andrea Vidaurre: Leading the clean transportation revolution

“Thanks to Vidaurre’s relentless advocacy and strong community support, these regulations introduced the first national standards for train emissions and set a groundbreaking goal for all freight trucks to be zero-emission by 2036. This initiative promises cleaner air for Californians and paves the way for a zero-emission vehicle future across the country. Studies predict these measures will prevent thousands of respiratory illnesses and save countless lives in the coming decades.”

8. Boston announces a new climate resilience office

“Through its Climate Ready Boston initiative, the city has worked to […] design creative adaptation plans with community input[, …] includ[ing] everything from redesigning waterfront parks and planting more trees, to modernizing the city’s underground sewer system[….] The Office of Climate Resilience will be in charge of coordinating work across city departments and with community groups[….]”

9. Combining Green Thumbs and Sustainable Fashion in a Swap Event

“This unique plant and clothing swap event in NSW is championing both environmental and fashion sustainability through native plants and preloved clothing. […] To participate in the plant swap, attendees brought their environmental weeds in a bag to the Council stall and exchanged them for free native plants. […] The event sparked valuable community conversations about the benefits of plant and clothes swaps, the impact of textile waste[, …] support a circular economy and combine a love for nature with practical, eco-friendly practices.”

10. Growing Green Spaces to Protect the Endangered Regent Parrot

“On Schools Tree Day, celebrated on 26 July, students from a local NSW school planted trees and shrubs to create crucial forage habitat for the endangered Regent Parrot, enhancing local biodiversity. […] Approximately 50 [… plants of] native species were chosen for their ecological benefits, helping to attract native birds, bees and butterflies while providing essential habitat and food. […] They [also] raise awareness about the regent parrot, encourage conservation efforts and emphasise the importance of protecting local wildlife. Additionally, conserving [the regent parrot] supports the health of their ecosystem by helping with in [sic] seed dispersal and maintaining plant diversity.”

July 22-28 news here | (all credit for images and written material can be found at the source linked; I don’t claim credit for anything but curating.)

[mostlysignssomeportents]

A "secure" system can be the most dangerous of all

Two decades ago, my life changed forever: hearing Bruce Schneier explain that ���security” doesn’t exist in the abstract. You can only be secure from some threat. A fire alarm won’t protect you from burglaries. A condom won’t protect you from mass shootings. It seems obvious, but how often do we hear about “security” without any mention of who is being made secure, and from which threat?

Take the US welfare system. It is very “secure” in that it is hedged in by a thicket of red-tape, audits, inspections and onerous procedures. To get food stamps, housing vouchers, or cash aid, you must navigate a Soviet-grade bureaucratic system of Kafkaesque proportions. Indeed, one of the great ironies of the post-Cold War world is that the USA has become a “Utopia Of Rules” (as David Graeber put it), subjecting everyday people to the state-run bureacracies that the USAUSAUSA set endlessly ridiculed the USSR for:

https://memex.craphound.com/2015/02/02/david-graebers-the-utopia-of-rules-on-technology-stupidity-and-the-secret-joys-of-bureaucracy/

(The right says it wants to “shrink the US government until fits in a bathtub — and then drown it” — but not the whole government. They want unlimited government bloat for that part of the state that is dedicated to tormenting benefits claimants, especially if its functions are managed by a Beltway Bandit profiteer who bills Uncle Sucker up the wazoo for rubber-stamping “DENIED” on every claim.)

The US benefits system has a sophisticated, expensive, fully staffed anti-fraud system — but it’s a highly selective form of anti-fraud. The system is oriented solely to prevent fraud against itself, with no thought to protecting benefits recipients themselves from fraud.

And those recipients — by definition the poorest and most vulnerable among us — are easy pickings for continuous, ghastly, eye-watering acts of fraud. These benefits are distributed via prepaid debit cards — EBT Cards — that lack the basic security measures that every other kind of card has had for years. These are simple magstripe cards, lacking basic chip-and-pin defenses, to say nothing of contactless countermeasures.

That means that fraudsters can — and do — install skimmers in the point-of-sale terminals used by benefits recipients to withdraw their cash benefits, pay for food using SNAP (AKA Food Stamps), and receive other benefits.

It’s impossible to overstate how widespread these skimmers are, and how much money criminals make by stealing from poor people. Writing for Businessweek, Jessica Fu describes the mad scramble benefits recipients go through every month, standing by ATMs at midnight on the night of the first of every month in hopes of withdrawing the cash they use to pay for their rent and utility bills before it is stolen by a crook who captured their card number with a skimmer:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2023-06-28/ebt-theft-takes-millions-of-dollars-from-the-neediest-americans

One of Fu’s sources, Lexisnexis Risk Solutions’s Haywood Talcove, describes these EBT cards as having the security of a “glorified hotel room key.” He recounts how US police departments saw a massive explosion in EBT skimming: from 300 complaints in January 2022 to 18,000 in January 2023.

The skimmer rings are extremely well organized. The people who install the skimmers — working in pairs, with one person to distract the cashier while the other quickly installs the skimmer — don’t know who they work for. Neither do the people who use cards cloned from skimmer data to cash out benefits recipients’ accounts. When they are arrested, they refuse to turn on their immediate recruiters, fearing reprisals against their families.

These low-level crooks stroll up to ATMs and feed a succession of cloned cards into them, emptying account after account. Or they swipe cards at grocery checkouts, buying cases of Red Bull and other easily sold grocery products with some victim’s entire SNAP balance.

Some police agencies are pursuing these criminal gangs and trying figure out who’s running them, but the authorities who issue SNAP cards are doing little to nothing to stop the pipeline at their end. Simply upgrading SNAP terminals to chip-and-pin would exponentially raise the cost and complexity that thieves incur.

Indeed, that’s why every other kind of payment card uses these systems. How is it that these systems were upgraded, while SNAP cards remain in mired in 20th century “glorified hotel room key” territory? Well, as our friends on the right never cease to remind us: “incentives matter.”

When your credit card gets cloned, it’s your banks and credit card company that pays for the losses, not you. So the banks demanded (and funded) the upgrade to new anti-fraud measures. By contrast, most states have no system for refunding stolen benefits to skimmers’ victims.

In other words, all of the anti-fraud in the benefits system is devoted to catching benefits cheating — a phenomenon that is so rare as to be almost nonexistent (1.54%), notwithstanding right wingers’ fevered, Reagan-era folktales about “welfare queens”:

https://blog.gitnux.com/food-stamp-fraud-statistics/

Meanwhile, the most widespread and costly form of fraud in the benefits system — fraud perpetrated against benefits recipients — is blithely ignored.

Really, it’s worse than that. In deciding to protect the welfare system rather than welfare recipients, we’ve made it vastly harder for benefits claimants who’ve been victimized by fraudsters to remain fed and sheltered. After all, if we made it simple and straightforward for benefits recipients to re-claim money that was stolen from them, we’d make it that much easier to defraud the system.

“Security” is always and forever a matter of securing some specific thing, against some specific risk. In other words, security reflects values — it reveals whose risk matters, and whose doesn’t. For the American benefits system, risks to the system matter. Risks to people don’t.

It’s not just the welfare system that prioritizes its own risks against the people it exists to serve. Think of the systems used to fight drug abuse in clinical settings.

Medical facilities that use or dispense powerful pain-killers have exquisitely tuned, sophisticated, frequently audited security systems to prevent patients from tricking their doctors or pharmacists into administering extra drugs (especially opioids). “Extra” in this case means “more drugs than are strictly necessary to manage pain.”

The rationale for this is only incidentally medical. Someone who gets a little too much painkiller during a medical procedure or an acute pain episode is not at any particular risk of enduring harm — the risks are minor and easily managed (say, by keeping a patient in bed a little longer while they recover from sedation).

The real agenda here is preventing addiction and abuse by addicted people. There’s a genuine problem with opioid abuse, and that problem does have its origins in overprescription. But — crucially — that overprescription wasn’t the result of wimpy patients insisting on endless painkillers until they enslaved themselves to their pills.

Rather, the opioid epidemic has its origins in the billionaire Sackler crime family, whose Purdue Pharma used scientific fraud, cash incentives, and other deceptive practices to trick, coerce, or bribe doctors into systematically overprescribing their Oxycontin cash cow, even as they laundered their reputation with showy charitable donations:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/07/12/monopolist-solidarity/#sacklers-billions

The Sacklers got to keep their billions — and people undergoing painful medical procedures or living with chronic pain are left holding the bag, subject to tight pain-med controls that forces them to prove — through increasingly stringent systems — that they truly deserve their medicine.

In other words, the beneficiary of the opioid control system is the system itself — not the patients who need opioids.

There’s an extremely disturbing — even nightmarish — example of this in the news: the Yale Fertility Clinic, where hundreds of women endured unimaginably painful egg harvesting procedures with no anaesthesia at all.

These women had complained for years about the pain they suffered, and many had ended up needing emergency care after the fact because of traumatic injuries caused by undergoing the procedure without pain control. But the doctors and nurses at the Yale clinic ignored their screams of pain and their post-operative complaints.

It turned out that an opioid-addicted nurse had been swapping the fentanyl in the drug cabinet for saline, and taking the fentanyl home for her own use.

This made national headlines at the time, and it is the subject of “The Retrievals,” a new New York Times documentary series podcast:

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/22/podcasts/serial-the-retrievals-yale-fertility-clinic.html

If the pain medication management system was designed to manage pain, then these thefts would have been discovered early on. If the system was designed so that anyone who experienced pain was treated until the pain was under control, the deception would have been uncovered almost immediately.

As Stafford Beer said, “the purpose of any system is what it does.” The pain medication management system was designed to manage pain medication, not pain itself.

The system was designed to be secure from opioid-seeking addicted patients. It was not designed to make patients secure from pain. Its values — our values, as a society — were revealed through its workings.

If you’d like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here’s a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/07/13/whose-security/#for-me-not-thee

[Image ID: A down-the-barrel view of a massive, battleship-gray artillery piece protruding from the brick battlement of a fortress. From the black depths of the barrel shines a red neon 'EBT' sign.]

Image: Bjarne Henning Kvaale (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Oscarsborg_28cm_Krupp_cannon_4_-_panoramio.jpg

CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en

[sillylovingpupper]

So you guys did it again.

So, as of my writing this, Trump is the presumptive winner of the US Election. He hasn't actually won, but barring a major upset he's going to. This time, he's won the popular vote (by a lot, actually, 6 million as of my writing) so there's really not a lot to fall back on. Wow. I have to say, I'm a little less optimistic this time than the last time I wrote a post like this. The Republicans are setting up to have a (narrow) majority in Congress, too. There's a pretty good chance of a full Red government.

So, what do we do now? First and foremost: don't panic. Take a few days, breathe, maybe see how the final votes shake out (we may still get a narrow House victory), but take a few days. Trump isn't going to be president until January. Nothing terrible will happen in the next week or two if you take this chance to rest. Well, not politically. I can't speak for your personal life.

I said something similar in 2016, and I'll say it now. Trump and his people can not change the course of the country quickly. The way this country was designed explicitly prevents that. There's fewer protections now than there were, but the really big, drastic changes he wants to do require an Amendment, which relies on a 2/3rd majority in Congress. The Republicans do not have that. The Trump Republicans don't even have a majority in Congress. So as much as he wants to, he can't gut the country day one. Some of the stuff he wants to do, he can do under Emergency Powers, but not a lot of it. It's not likely that the United States has been dealt a fatal blow today.

However. He can and very likely will make things very difficult for us for the next four years. A lot of Federal Offices are setting up to be staffed by complete loons more interested in breaking things than fixing them. We'll almost certainly see abortion and transgender rights being carved away in the early days of his Presidency, and he has a lot of support for his economic plan. Also he plans to add Musk to his administration, and we know what he tends to do to companies. We'll also probably see a good amount of healthcare in general get cut, and further reduction on corporate restrictions. Trump and his allies are coming into this with a plan this time, as opposed to 2016 when I think even Trump was surprised he won. It's not going to be a big, loud, destructive thing, but there will be damage. This isn't the end, though.

Many of you reading this may feel helpless right now, that's there's not much you can do. You're disabled, you're exhausted from work, you're deep in a red state and in the closet. It's okay to not do something immediately about this.

Living is a rebellious act right now. It's important that you survive. If you have to keep your head down to do it, then do it. Many more of you may be feeling like you can't do enough. Like the only solution is an armed revolt. That may be the case. That's not something I'm really invested in being a part of, for many reasons, but it may be the case, in the worst case scenario. What's even more important, though, is that we come together. Look after each other. Trans people, immigrants, they're in the crosshairs right now, and if you can do something to make them safer, by all means, please do it. If Trump gets his way, a lot of access to education, health, and safety will be curtailed for all of us. This is the time when we pick up where the government steps off. This is the time when we look to our communities, both literally next door as well as online. A strong community trumps the government every time. That's ancient knowledge. It's why the ability for people to organize is one of the first things on the chopping block. So build a community, and be smart about it, especially if you're in a red area. Remember, too, that one of the biggest tools in the fascist toolkit is to divide us along whatever lines they can find. Don't let them. Hold tight. If the person next to you has believes in things that disgust you? As long as they're not harming other people with them, don't push them away. The more united we are, the harder it will be for fascism to grow.

71 million people voting for Trump isn't nothing. But it's less than a quarter of the population. There's still more of us. Protect yourself, protect your loved ones, and don't let anyone tell you it's over for this country. America only falls when we let it.

[soleminisanction]

Honestly, you know where I suspect Good Omens 3 is heading, based on the themes and vibes they've established so far? I suspect that, much like the first two seasons, it'll be an escalating series of shenanigans which gradually pull back to reveal:

a) someone, likely Crowley, realizing that the Tempest quote from the first book/season -- "Hell is empty, all the demons are here" -- is now literally true, with all the demons having legged it to Earth following his example because this is obviously a better deal than being stuck in Hell for eternity (hence the lines about a staffing shortage from season 2)

b) in desperation to continue their war with Heaven, the high honchos in Hell begin recruiting humans (the dead who want out of their punishments, the living who desire power, possibly both) to fill their ranks.

c) Up top, Heaven -- possibly due to Aziraphale's new high position -- starts appointing more and more angels to earthbound posts, possibly in a "counter-offensive" against the demons' "vile incursion." These angels, likely using Muriel as a focal character, quickly learn to love Earth as much as Aziraphale did, diminishing their desire for war and to see it destroyed, and

d) for similarly desperate-to-keep-the-lights-on/war-machine-moving reasons, Heaven starts recruiting humans to fill posts in the higher offices previously filled by angels.

Both sides eventually come to the slow but inevitable realization that humans are better at being good and evil (respectively) than they are. On Earth, the armies of Heaven and Hell have fallen in love with the planet (and possibly each other) and no longer have the heart to see it tested to destruction, and the humans who are now in charge of good and evil respectively aren't interested in ending the game because there's still so much more both sides can still do.

The second Apocalypse is therefore canceled at the last minute as the leaders of both sides throw up their hands, give up, and decide to retire to Earth. The reins of Good and Evil are officially turned over to human control, and it's implied that this was, in fact, Her Ineffable Plan all along -- they are, after all, the only ones with the Knowledge to actually know the difference.

As for our boys, they'll either be reunited somewhere around Act 2 and be instrumental in bringing about the solution, OR they will be hilariously uninvolved in it all and we'll instead get something like Crowley in the aftermath of the climax, doing that gobsmacked staring-at-the-sky in disbelief thing David Tennet is so good at, and just as he gets out a, "What--?!" he'll be tackled to the ground by a rapturously happy Aziraphale.

[macgyvermedical]

So, in PA there is a bill in the senate called the Patient Safety Act that mandates nurse:patient ratios. Obviously, I am a big fan of this bill as it would ease pressure on nurses and improve patient safety outcomes. It is also very bipartisan, with both republicans and democrats being for and against it in similar ratios. The big criticism of the act as it stands is that there are little to no considerations for small, rural hospitals who would find it difficult to meet those ratios without going under (don't have enough nurses, will have to close beds/hospitals). I thought the solution to this was to obviously increase protections for rural hospitals (like making the ratios for them say 1:6 instead of 1:5 for example.) But this has the unintended consequence of making it more difficult for rural hospitals to entice nurses to work for them (who wants to work in a rural hospital with worse ratios when you can make more money with better conditions somewhere else?) It's already difficult for rural hospitals to find staff. Do you have any ideas on solutions to the problem? I was surprised to find out how nuanced this situation really is, and how it isn't just "put in ratios plz" and everything would be fixed.

You're right in that this situation is extremely nuanced, especially when it comes to the fact that we are (as usual*) in a nursing shortage nation wide.

Staffing ratios only work when there are enough nurses to meet demand. A lot of times the goal of staffing ratios is to incentivize hospitals to hire more nurses, but if there are no nurses to hire that doesn't work. So you have to then consider alternatives, like you mentioned- either closing hospitals, or closing beds.

Consider, though, that if hospitals go the route of closing beds to maintain ratios, the acuity (care difficulty/complexity) of those patients the nurses are caring for goes up because lower acuity patients get triaged out.

The "sweet spot" of acuity to number of patients then relies on the number of nurses available to serve a population. That means that populations with a smaller number of nurses have either a higher number of patients per nurse, or a higher acuity patient load than a population with a relatively large number of nurses.

And pretty much everywhere right now, rural areas specifically, there are just too few nurses to make staffing ratios possible at scale.

So. How do you go about providing a high standard of care for patients when there are fundamentally too many patients and too few nurses? The system needs to change. I present a few possibilities below:

Bring LPNs back to the bedside in hospitals: While I don't mind Magnet as an entity and think they do some good things, IMO they royally screwed the pooch by mandating RNs (particularly BSN prepared RNs) only on hospital floors. You can make LPNs a lot faster and cheaper (10-18months, $20,000) than you can make RNs (3 years, $40,000), or BSN-RNs (4-5 years, $80,000). And while you still need an RN license to do things like push IV meds and interpret assessment findings, just about everything else can be done by an LPN. So we need to be using that resource to make more nurses fast.

Institute Team Nursing: You know how you use LPNs efficiently? It's not by giving them a group of patients and having them run around to find an RN every time they need to push an IV med. It's either by having them as a dedicated tasker (doing the time-consuming skilled tasks like wound care, catheter placement, IV placement, etc... for many RNs) or incorporating them into a team. With team nursing, you have an RN, an LPN, and an STNA/Tech all caring for 12-15 patients instead of an RN and an LPN caring for 5 each with a tech helping. The RN does the tasks only an RN can do (assessments, IV meds, plans of care) and communicates with the doctors, the LPN does most of the med pass and skilled tasks, and the STNA does the basic patient care. Since there's 3 people working together instead of separately, it's easier to find someone to help with 2-person tasks like boosting a patient in bed. You would not believe how much time this saves and how much more patient care can actually get done.

Institute Advance Practice Providers (or at least universal contact methods): I'm not saying we have a ton of these either, but you only need about one per floor. See, I can't tell you how much time I used to spend just trying to figure out who to contact about a problem, and how they wanted to be contacted. Because God forbid you text Doctor A instead of paging or page Doctor C instead of calling. Now I work on a floor with an APP and you can just go straight to them and they can either write the order you need themselves or contact the doc who can. Probably a good 15% of my time is back and I'm not even exaggerating.

Change culture around nursing duties: this is a controversial one, but as nurses are spread more thinly than ever and medical acuity has gotten so much higher, the basic care is genuinely getting worse. I have seen this happen over the last 8 years I've been in my job. So. Re-teach families how to care for loved ones in the hospital. Make it culture that if you have a family member in the hospital someone is with them. And when I say with them, I don't mean just visiting. I mean actively caring for the family member. Helping them to the bathroom, helping them dress and eat and clean themselves. Helping them do basics. Entertaining them, distracting them, comforting them. Things we used to be able to do when our patients weren't actively trying to die at all times.

*technically, we have been in a nursing shortage since WWII. But a lot of factors, COVID-19 specifically and a shortage of student slots in RN-level nursing schools, have made things particularly bad in recent years.

[tabootabletalk]

100 work from home job opportunities

1. Live Ops- www.liveops.com

2. TeleTech-TeleTech.localjobster.com

3. Amazon-Amazon.JobsOnline.com

4. Sutherland Global Services- http://www.sutherlandglobal.com/careers.aspx

5. UnitedHealth Group-https://careers.unitedhealthgroup.com/career-areas/customer-service-and-claims/customer-service-and-call-center

6. Dell-http://jobs.dell.com/north-America-jobs

7. IBM-www.ibm.com/employment

8. U.S Department of Agriculture www.usda.gov

9. Working Solutions- http://workingsolutions.com

10. Humana- www.humana.com

11. Aetna- https://www.aetna.com/about-us/aetna-careers.html

12. Intuit- www.Intuit.com

13. Kaplan- kaplan.com/work-with-us/our-culture

14. Kelly Services- www.kellyservices.us/US/Careers/KellyConnect/Kelly-At-Home

15. Cactus Communications- https://www.flexjobs.com/jobs/telecommuting-jobs-at-cactus

16. Westat- https://www.westat.com

17. Salesforce- www.salesforce.com/company/careers

18. PAREXEL- https://jobs.parexel.com

19. CyberCoders- https://www.cybercoders.com/jobs/work-from-home-php-developer

20. American Express- https://jobs.americanexpress.com

21. Vmware- telecommuting-jobs-at-vmware

22. SAP- www.sap.com/career

23. Xerox- https://www.xerox.com/en-us/jobs/work-from-home

24. First Data- https://www.firstdata.com/en_us/about-first-data/careers

25. US-Report- www.us-reports.com/jobs

26. Oracle- Oracle-Work.Jobsgalore.com/Jobs

27. CACI International- careers.caci.com/key/work-from-home-jobs.html

28. A Place for Mom- www.aplaceformom.com/jobs

29. Anthem,Inc- careers.antheminc.com

30. DellSecureWroks- telecommuting-jobs-at-dell_secureworks

31. World Travel Holdings- www.worldtravelholdings.com/careers,work-home

32. ADP- www.adp.com/careers.aspx

33. Aon- telecommuting-jobs-at-aon

34. University of Maryland University College- www.umuc.edu/visitors/careers

35. Allergan Inc.- www.allergan.com/careers

36. K12- www.k12.com/careers

37. U.S. Department of Transportation- https://www.transportation.gov/careers

38. CSI companies- thecsicompanies.com/candidates

39. Robert Half- www.roberthalf.com

40. Nielsen- sites.nielsen.com/careers

41. Red Hat- www.redhat.com/en/jobs

42. Adobe Systems- www.adobe.com/careers

43. Overland Solutions, Inc.- overlandsolutionsinc.com

44. BCD travel- www.bcdtravel.com/get-to-know-us/careers

45. Connections Education- www.connectionsacademy.com/careers

46. Deloitte- www.deloitte.com/careers

47. Apple- https://jobs.apple.com

48. Mckesson Corporation- https://careers.mckesson.com

49. Thermo Fisher Scientific- corporate.thermofisher.com/en/home.html

50. Precyse- careers.precyse.com

51. Haynes & Company- www.haynesandcompany.com

52. Pharmaceutical Product Development Inc- www.ppdi.com/careers

53. IT Pro Philadelphia- www.phillymag.com/property/2013/10/22/live-work-homes

54. Cingna- www.cigna.com/career

55. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt- careers.hmhco.com

56. Sungard Availability Services- sungardas.com

57. Infor- www.infor.com/company/careers

58. Sodexo- www.sodexousa.com/home/careers-usa.html

59. About.com- About.com/Can I Work From Home

60. Altegra Health- altegrahealth.com/careers

61. GE- jobs.gecareers.com/

62. Western Governors University- www.wgu.edu/about_WGU/employment/work_remote

63. Grand Canyon University- jobs.gcu.edu/admissions-enrollment-jobs

64. Walden University- https://www.waldenu.edu

65. Vivint- www.vivint.com/company/careers

66. BroadSpire- https://www.choosebroadspire.com

67. Covance- careers.covance.com

68. Ellucian- www.ellucian.com

69. HD Supply- hdsupply.jobs

70. Perficient Inc.- www.perficient.com

71. Teradata- https://www.teradata.com

72. Wells Fargo- https://www.wellsfargo.com/about/careers

73. Symantec Corporation- www.Symantec.com

74. Real Staffing-www.realstaffing.com/en

75. Science Applications International- www.saic.com

76. AmerisourceBergen Company- www.amerisourcebergen.com

77. Appen- www.jobs.net/jobs/appen/en-us

78. Hartford Financial Services Group- https://www.thehartfordatwork.com

79. RetailDatat- retaildatallc.com

80. SYKES- www.sykes.com/Careers

81. CARA- www.jobbankusa.com

82. Citizens Financial Group- citizensbank.jobs/work-at-home

83. CVS Health- cvshealth.com

84. Healthfirst- https://healthfirst.taleo.net/careersection/hf_ext_cs/jobsearch

85. American Heart Association- careers.heart.org

86. BMC software- www.bmc.com/careers

87. Hibu- https://hibu.com

88. inVentive Health- www.inventivhealth.com/careers

89. Rosetta Stone- jobs.jobvite.com/rosettastone

90. Erie Insurance Group- https://www.erieinsurance.com/careers

91. Deluxe- https://ww.deluxe.com

92. Clevertech- https://weworkremotely.com/jobs

93. Achieve Test Prep- www.achievetestprep.com

94. Worldpay- www.worldpay.com

95. DataStax- https://www.datastax.com/

96. CDK Global- www.cdkglobal.com

97. Teleflex- www.teleflex.com/en/careers/workingAtTeleflex

98. Aquent- aquent.com/find-work

99. Parallon- www.parallon.com/careers

100. U.S Department of the Interior- https://www.doi.gov/careers

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Ruth Ben-Ghiat at The New Republic:

“Does fascism intend to restore state authority or subvert it? Is it order or disorder? Can you be conservatives and subversives at the same time?” Six months before the March on Rome in October 1922, when Benito Mussolini was the head of the Fascist Party and its decentralized militia movement, he isolated the contradictions at the heart of fascism that remain fundamental to authoritarianism today. During his 21 years in power, 18 of them as dictator, Il Duce framed fascism as a revolution of reaction against the left, against liberal democracy, and against any group that threatened the survival of white Christian civilization. Carrying out a violent destabilization of society in the name of a return to social order and national tradition, fascism pioneered the autocratic formula in use today of disenfranchising and repressing the many to allow the few to exploit the workforce, women’s bodies, the environment, and the economy.

Trumpism is in this tradition. It started in 2015 as a movement fueled by conservative alarm and white rural rage at a multiracial and progressive America. It continued as an authoritarian presidency envisioned as “a shock to the system” that unleashed waves of hate crimes against nonwhites and non-Christians. It culminated in the January 6 assault on the Capitol, which was a counterrevolutionary operation in the spirit of fascism. Its goal in deploying violence was not just to keep Donald Trump in office, but to prevent the representatives of social and racial progress from taking power.

PROJECT 2025 AS COUNTERREVOLUTION

The fascists believed that you have to destroy to create, and this is what a second Trump administration would do. Project 2025 is a plan for an authoritarian takeover of the United States that goes by a deceptively neutral name. It preserves Trumpism’s original radical intent in its goals to “[d]ismantle the administrative state” and “decentralize and privatize as much as possible,” allowing the American people to “live freely.” “[T]he Trump administration, with the best of intentions, simply got a slow start,” Heritage Foundation head Kevin Roberts told The New York Times in January. “And Heritage and our allies in Project 2025 believe that must never be repeated.” The solution to this “slow start”—code for the restraints imposed by operating in a democracy—is counterrevolution.

The plan promises the abolition of the Department of Education and other federal agencies. The intent here is to destroy the legal and governance cultures of liberal democracy and create new bureaucratic structures, staffed by new politically vetted cadres, to support autocratic rule. So new agencies could appear to manage parents’ and family rights, Christian affairs, and other pillars of the new order. The Department of Health and Human Services is poised to have a central role in governance, given the priorities Trumpism places on policing sexuality, weaponizing motherhood, persecuting transgender people and LGBTQ communities, and criminalizing abortion.

During Trump’s presidency, far-right Roman Catholic attorney Roger Severino headed the Office of Civil Rights in the Department of Health and Human Services, transforming it into an office that prioritized the protection of the rights of white Christians and the “natural family.” During his tenure, the department banned the use of the words “fetus” and “transgender” in government communications and made other moves long embraced by evangelical Christians and their far-right allies in politics. In the future, this office could be elevated into an autonomous entity. Appropriating civil rights for white Christians furthers the Trumpist goal of delegitimizing the cause of racial equality while also making Christian nationalism a core value of domestic policy. Doing away with the separation of church and state is the goal of many architects of Trumpism, from Project 2025 contributor Russ Vought to far-right proselytizer Michael Flynn, who uses the idea of “spiritual war” as counterrevolutionary fuel.

Even if the Department of Education is abolished, some other entity would appear to take its place, since it is unlikely that the task of undoing liberal democratic models of pedagogy would be left entirely to individual states. Not everyone will be able to homeschool their children—the preferred extremist option, since it removes children from exposure to the multifaith and multiracial environments of public schools. It is not so far-fetched to imagine the special Bible Trump has been hawking, which includes the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, and the Pledge of Allegiance, as a required text in a Christian nationalist curriculum.

Mussolini kicked off his counterrevolutionary police state in the 1920s with new “public security” laws that justified the arrest of anyone deemed a security threat—meaning anyone who opposed fascism from a liberal democratic or leftist point of view. Trump’s assertion a century later that “people within our country” pose “the greatest threat” to the United States, and his desire to “root [them] out,” could translate into counterterror and counterinsurgency operations. These would require a recasting or expansion of existing federal and state security agencies—for example, if the National Guard is federalized or the promised mass deportations of undocumented immigrants come into being.

[...]

Personalist leaders organize government institutions around their self-preservation. Their private interests and needs shape party politics, legislative action, and national policy, just as their relationships with foreign autocrats influence foreign affairs. Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who served as the translator of Vladimir Putin’s views and desires in Europe for a decade, was able to personalize Italy’s foreign policy. He excluded Italian diplomats from meetings with Putin, allowing only his private translator-envoy, Valentino Valentini, to be present. An Italian parliamentary investigation later revealed that Berlusconi would have received a kickback from the profits of a planned Italy-and-Russia-built South Stream pipeline. Trump holds a similarly proprietary vision of governance, which is why classified national security documents ended up in the bathroom of his private residence in Florida. Like most autocrats, Trump sees holding public office as a means of personal enrichment. 

Ruth Ben-Ghiat wrote in The New Republic as part of their American Fascism series about the right-wing fascist counterrevolution that is brewing in America, and if Trump wins again, America will be headed down the same path as Hungary, Russia, El Salvador, and Turkey.

See Also:

The New Republic: What American Fascism Would Look Like

[cloudreachtechnology99]

What You Need to Know to Become a Quality Analyst- Cloudreach Technology

Training for quality assurance (QA) analysts is essential for providing reliable goods and services. One of their jobs is to ensure that the company's procedures are constantly being evaluated and enhanced, while also keeping an eye out for any flaws or inefficiencies. Complete training is necessary for anyone who wants to enter the profession of quality analysis or develop their current abilities. In this article, we'll discuss the most important aspects of quality analyst training.

Quality management system (QMS) fundamentals:

Every quality analyst needs to have a firm grasp of quality management systems (QMS). Principles, methods, and frameworks that direct QMS implementation, such as ISO 9001, should be included in training. Learn the ins and outs of quality management processes like planning, controlling, assuring, and improving. Learn the ropes of proper recordkeeping, risk mitigation, and performance evaluation. Learn the ins and outs of internal auditing and nonconformity management.

Statistical analysis and data interpretation for quality assurance trainees:

Strong analytical abilities are essential for QA training (Quality analysts) to examine data and spot trends, patterns, and potential problems. Six Sigma and Lean Six Sigma are two examples of statistical analysis tools and methodologies that can give you a framework for making sense of your data. Statistical methods such as process capacity analysis, control charts, and root cause analysis can help you make better decisions and drive process changes. Become an expert user of data analysis programs like Minitab and Excel.

Third, Documenting and Mapping Processes:

In order for QAs (quality analysts) to fully grasp and optimize processes, it is essential that they have access to detailed maps and documentation of such processes. Visualization methods like as flowcharting, swimlane diagrams, and value stream mapping should be covered in training. Figure out how to spot slowdowns, duplications, and optimization openings. Standard operating procedures (SOPs), work instructions, and documentation of process control are all examples of required documentation types that you should be aware of. Learn the ins and outs of process documentation, from creation to upkeep, and how to make sure it gets to the people that need it.

Testing and Quality Control Fourth:

Making sure that goods and services are up to par is a big part of what a quality analyst does. Functional, performance, and usability testing are only a few examples of quality assurance techniques that should be included in training. Learn how to plan a test, create test cases, and run the tests. Master the many testing methods, tools, and reporting platforms available. Find out how test automation may improve testing throughput and precision.

Fifth, Cooperation and Dialogue:

Quality analysts need excellent interpersonal and communication skills to work with other departments and at all levels of management. Verbal and written communication abilities, attentive listening, and persuasive presentation abilities should all be emphasized in training. Master the art of meeting facilitation, conversation leadership, and quality improvement negotiation. During the quality improvement process, you may need to work in a team and handle conflicts, therefore it's important to build on your interpersonal skills. Learn to efficiently manage stakeholders and provide information on quality with a wide range of audiences.

Sixth,Ongoing alterations and issue resolution:

Quality analysts (those who receive QA training) need to be good at finding solutions to problems and committed to constant development. Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA), Kaizen, and Root Cause Analysis (RCA) are just a few examples of approaches that should be included in training. Find out how to use these tools to pinpoint issues, take corrective measures, and track progress. Training your mind to think critically will help you solve problems in novel ways. Examine the Lean concept and how its principles can be used to cut down on waste and improve efficiency.

Conclusion:

An extensive skill set and formal education are necessary for a career as a quality analyst. You may acquire the skills you need to succeed in this position by studying things like quality management systems, statistical analysis, process mapping, quality assurance, communication, and continuous improvement. Keep in mind that the greatest way to become an asset in the field of quality analysis is to constantly learn and keep up with industry trends and best practices. You may make a major impact on an organization's quality and performance with the correct education and commitment.

Social media has become ingrained in our daily lives because it facilitates communication, information sharing, and recreation. Following us on social media will provide you access to a plethora of information that will improve your life in various ways and keep you informed at all times.

Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.

#qatraining #qaanalystcertification #qualityanalystcertification #softwarequalityanalysttraining #softwarequalityanalystcertification #qualityassuranceanalystcourse

[sgiandubh]

The ripple effect

So finally, it would seem the news from Hollywood are not good at all. A press release from SAG-AFTRA informs us that AMPTP/TPTB chose to drop the towel after a very long negotiation process (not a good sign, in my book), that continued even after their latest unacceptable offer, as you can read down below (https://x.com/sagaftra/status/1712368110253285730?s=20):

The mainstream media (always NYT, in this house) reported also on the studios' offer, which may or may not be helpful for understanding what exactly is at stake (https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/12/business/media/actors-strike-talks-suspended.html?searchResultPosition=2):

Now that is a very hardball, completely insolent position. I am peeling my eyes in disbelief at the idea of offering 'further protections around the use of A.I.', when it was hoped that the use of A.I. would be treated as an exception, not as future reality the industry should work 'around'. This is what really is at stake, not the almost abusive allegation of 'unbearable economic burden' (that is a mafioso pretext) an 800 million USD yearly viewership bonus would supposedly entail. The real financial impact of such a compromise solution, as disclosed by SAG-AFTRA, is negligible: 'less than 57 cents/subscriber'.

And, to make things worse, it would seem the studios deliberately lied to the press, too (it would not be the first time - we shippers know it so well, eh?):

All this circus, despite a cataclysmic impact on California's economy:

(Sourced at: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/21/realestate/writers-strike-rent-ny-la.html).

And that was the situation three weeks ago, when I found this article and promptly set it aside, waiting for the right moment to share it with you. And you know the situation is serious, when news like these are to be found not in the business, but in the real estate section of the newspaper. Along with this kind of comments, likely to suggest the possibility of unrest, if things go on like this:

People living in their flats without electricity or sleeping in their cars: it would seem this strike added unwanted insult to the drastic COVID injury in this particular sector of the labor market.

But what interested me the most about this whole affair was the ripple effect on the British film industry, in an attempt to see what is next for OL's Season 8. Thankfully, I didn't have to go very far and speculate more than the NYT did itself. Oh, and before Mordor starts shouting insanities, their LHR's correspondent paper, back in September, is called 'Hollywood Strikes Send a Chill Through Britain’s Film Industry' (https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/19/business/hollywood-strikes-uk-filmmaking-industry.html):

Despite my unflappable optimism, I have to say that doesn't sound good at all, especially when you know this is precisely the case for OL, a production 'with stars who are SAG-AFTRA members' (or at least compelled to stand in solidarity with the strike, by SAG-AFTRA's own statement of conduct). I predict a very late start for the shooting of Season 8. And further unrest in the UK sector 'in the middle of next year' means that UK based and staffed productions may be fewer and less important, since that calendar announced by Equity could seriously compromise their promotion, a risk not many studios are willing to take. So less alternatives for both S&C, at least for the UK alone.

The writers' strike was a very long one - five months. I suppose the studios are willing to play for time and prefer a long stalemate of the negotiations with SAG-AFTRA, in the attempt of breaking the union consensus from the inside. With people's economies gone and the prospect of a dire, uncertain way ahead, there is no way SAG-AFTRA's compensations, mainly aimed at keeping people afloat with their rent costs, could cover the real impact on its members' everyday lives, on the long run. They would also prefer to foolishly cry over a fictitious 800 million USD 'burden' and not see the (at least) six times bigger negative impact on the local economy, which translates both in net losses of profit for thousands of businesses (mainly SMEs) and thousands of lost jobs.

And in the middle of all this, it would seem that Herself is on her way to the NYCC. Whatever for, sweet summer child, I would brazenly ask this strange, diminutive woman who started it all.

[bambamramfan]

The exact twitter quote people are roasting:

“If I were president I wouldn’t care about party lines, I’d just always truly make the American people my #1 priority,” explained MrBeast. “For problems I’m ignorant in I’d have experts from the left and right advise me on them and try to find the middle ground that’s best for America. Wouldn’t be buyable, don’t care about doing things just because my party says I should, and I would focus on uniting the country instead of dividing it.”

To anyone forged in the fires of online ideological discourse, this sounds very dumb. There's good bills (from our side) and bad bills (from their side) and any middle ground is self-defeating at best, and fake bait to appear to a centrist voting block that doesn't exist and doesn't pay attention.

But there is something important this reaction is missing, and why Mrbeast's position isn't that wrong-headed.

Because Congress (and other law-making bodies) aren't just two football teams pushing the ball forward, on nothing but a left-right axis. If you've ever worked with Congress (or any other partisan body) you've run into this firsthand.

There are a lot of practical problems that everyone in Congress agrees are bad, and have a practical solution that would make things better for the public. No, really. Staffing up the border to deal with the asylum crisis. Making our (previous) 35% corporate tax rate something more economically efficient. Fixing the healthcare marketplace. Renewing various authorizations that expire. And a lot of banal "actually fund the things everyone wants."

The problem is, there are more left-wing and more right-wing solutions to all these problems, even if you agree that solving the problem is good whatever solution you use. SO, you get the majority side proposing a solution aligned with their ideology but is still good for everyone, and the minority thinks "this bill is ok, but let's wait until we're in power, then we can pass a BETTER bill." And bonus, until then you can attack the majority for failing to fix the problem. As they say "never let a crisis go to waste."

So there are, in fact, a number of measures Congress could tackle at any time that would make the country better off regardless of which side you're on, but it won't because everyone is holding their breath until some mythical day when they can pass the perfect bill on their own.

... not to mention how many times politicians hold up good and important things they don't even object to *just* to spite the other party. Or completely non-partisan territoriality where you oppose bills you ideologically agree with because it's coming from the wrong committee. (This last one is perhaps THE major workload of congressional staff - the constant sorting and jockeying of which bill has the most support even within your party conference.)

And so it's very tempting for an outsider to say "screw all this positioning. I'm going to approve and fight for any bill that solves a problem," instead of waiting until that promised day when we can pass whatever bill we want with no compromises.

Unfortunately, when an outsider gets in it doesn't work like that (for obvious, cynical reasons), but I can very much understand the *desire* for such a stance.

[coldgoldlazarus]

💫12 Kal'tsit for the character asks?

What is a headcanon I have about this character?

Kind of a minor one, but I imagine at one point shortly before the story's start, Amiya had to organize and stage an intervention for her on account of her workaholic habits and Rhodes Island's smaller staffing at the time. One of the rules that was agreed upon was a reduction in her intake of coffee to stay awake for unhealthily long stretches of time, in the hopes that would encourage her to get more sleep. Instead, she got around that by using other stimulants, until those were also banned in a followup meeting.

Finally, she resorted to summoning and retaking Mon3tr; even if she's used to the extreme pain of her spine wrenching itself out of her body to transform into an eldritch beast, it's still intense enough to give her a shot of adrenaline to keep going for a while, even if far from an ideal solution. Between her performance noticeably slipping during this stretch, and the debatable case of intentional self-harm that can't be justified like the kind of circumstances that normally require Mon3tr's presence, Amiya finally relented and let her get back to unrestricted coffee usage.

Amiya didn't give up, though, and still instituted a curfew that took effect after 24 hours of being awake, only being pushed back if Kal'tsit is in the midst of a time-sensitive surgery or other emergency when that time expires. Kal'tsit of course does her best to exploit this loophole as well, sometimes getting to a full three or four days if she times it right, but is able to do this less frequently on the whole. She still doesn't get nearly enough sleep for how much time she spends awake, but it's a modest but respectable step up from the state she was in before, and a marked improvement from how she was during the Mon3tr-summoning adrenaline-boost era.