Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with corporations

Your business is very important to us, just not important for us to do it right.

Anonymous — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 19:01:51 -0800

Is the company I work for unusual or is most corporate data this messed up? Every month I see hundred and sometimes thousands of the same errors. Anonymous because I have mentioned the company I worked for in previous answers. I work in customer service for a Fortune 500 company and I mainly clean up codes and things on accounts that are wrong. I've been there for several years but I am planning to leave. If I do, I want to know if I can expect the same thing in most other big companies. So, is this typical of your experience in larger companies, that clear-cut errors go on for years with no real attempt to prevent them?

FWIW These errors do not violate the law, but they do call into question most of the numbers my department reports, sometimes in our favor and sometimes to our detriment. Anyone speaking up about the errors is told, "Yeah we wish that other department would fix them, but they don't."

Have you used an Ask Metafilter-style site to train your workforce?

puffl — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 23:29:07 -0800

Has anyone created an Ask Metafilter-esque site for internal training purposes within their workplace? How did it work out? I've often thought that having a discussion board very similar to Ask Metafilter could be an excellent training and knowledge sharing tool within large organisations. I'm sure I can't have been the only one to have this idea, so I'm wondering whether anyone has implemented something similar, and whether it proved effective?

Seeking ethical corporations list

youcancallmeal — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 20:35:51 -0800

Where can I find a reliable, up to date list of major corporations, their subsidies and any ethical / legal / political actions (both domestic and otherwise) that they have been involved in? I've googled this, but I'd like feedback on sites that are known for being reliable and regularly updated. I like being able to make ethical choices in my purchasing, so having this knowledge would be really helpful!

What info is made public when filing an LLC for Foreign Qualification in NY?

Anonymous — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 13:36:33 -0800

What information is made public when filing an LLC for Foreign Qualification in New York? I'm forming an LLC and would like to make it as difficult as possible to find my personal information in relation to it. I live in New York, but for privacy reasons I'd like to incorporate in Delaware (AFAIK members/stockholders are not required to be made public). Is my name going to be plastered all over public documents as soon as I file for Foreign Qualification in NY? Should I just start my LLC in New York instead and save a few hundred dollars? I'm looking to put as many hurdles as possible between myself and the public - 100% privacy would be nice but isn't completely necessary.

My "business" is just going to be a web site that will probably generate some revenue via ads.

IKYANML, but since this is a privacy question and not a business/legal question I feel strangers on the internet are a better ROI than lawyering up at this point. Secret mail can go to supersecretllctime@gmail.com

I see a lot of posts about work. A lot of them are not positive.

brandnew — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 14:42:56 -0800

Why is work not fun? So, I've been a professional software developer for a little over 10 years. Over that time I've worked for 5 corporations, of varying sizes, regions, and industries. None of them have been fun. In fact, they've all been slightly awful to very awful. For years, I just thought it was me. But I hear the same story from a lot of others.

Corporate culture, to generalize my experiences, has been painful, inefficient, political, stifling, surreal, and somewhat often absurd. But, how can corporations like this survive and be competitive? Isn't there a competitive advantage for workplaces that are very fun? That are well-run? Doesn't the de facto state of corporate America violate some economic law?

I'm a (relatively) smart guy, with a good degree from a good school. I come up with interesting ideas. I put in the 50+ hours a week. I take initiative; I'm a team player. I don't have problems with meeting deadlines, and my quality is high. I stay up-to-date with industry trends.

Why can I not find enjoyable employment? I would take a 25% (or more) pay cut to work somewhere that 1. didn't make me wear a uniform, 2. let me work flexible hours, 3. let me work under 50 hours a week (if I met deadlines), 4. encouraged my ideas and innovations, 5. accepted my individuality, 6. let me joke around at work, 7. employed co-workers who were fun and weren't gaming the system, 8. let me work from home sometimes.

I could go on.

But the point of the question is the same: why do corporations never seem (or very slowly) evolve (at least regarding employee satisfaction)?

Corporate strategies?

Student of Man — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 13:54:43 -0800

Why do so many large conglomerates have a financial services branch? Like GE Financial, Siemens etc.

Do corporate officers need to be employees?

Merdryn — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 10:15:01 -0800

If I have a small corporation and intend to have officers (VP, Directors, etc.) who are currently corp-to-corp contractors, do I need to convert those officers to employees? In other words, do officers of a corporation need to be employees? I know, I know -- YANAL and/or YANML. :) As a side question, if I have a contractor who performs work for MOSTLY my company, but I am contracted with their corporate entity, should I worry about converting them to an employee for payroll tax purposes? Their corporations, ostensibly, can sub out the work I assign to them (they sometimes do that, in fact). In other words, can they just remain "vendors" for life?

How much power does Bill Gates have?

mpls2 — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 15:40:36 -0800

Are CEOs more like presidents or dictators? This is something I've been curious about for a long time...

How is the power of CEOs exactly defined? If a company owns a building that has operating hours of, say, 8am-9pm, can the CEO get into the building at 10pm? Obviously, the answer is probably yes, but where is this power granted, and how far does it extend? Can the CEO make a unilateral decision that only macaroni and cheese be served in the cafeteria? Can she fire a janitor because the bathroom isn't clean enough? Why or why not?

Basically, are CEOs more like presidents, who (theoretically) have to live within laws (rules), or are they more like dictators with respect to their companies?

How is this all spelled out?

Is it legal to employ skilled workers as temps for many years?

Charlie Lesoine — Sun, 08 Jul 2007 14:18:21 -0800

Is my employer breaking the law by keeping people as temps for several years? The work is skilled and many people work for 3 or more years as temps before being made permanent employees. The company does it's own hiring on site, but once hired, employees have to fill out paper work with a chosen "temp employment agency". This seems like a scam. Any lawyers out there know if this is illegal? This is in California.

Set Your Own Salary

Korou — Fri, 15 Dec 2006 05:20:28 -0800

Within the past year, I read an article about a corporation where employees set their own pay. Other functions are similarly innovative. I vaguely remember a connection to Brazil/Latin America. What is this company? Where can I find more?

Time to Cancel my Credit Cards?

Deathalicious — Sun, 29 Oct 2006 22:03:33 -0800

With the recent MBNA and Bank of America merge, is it okay to/should I cancel my MBNA credit cards? According to this earlier askme, canceling accounts can have a negative effect on your credit report. But if the accounts are being switched over (every single card is getting a new number), do I keep the old credit or am I starting over anyway? I'm not happy with the way things look after the merger.

Additionally, has anyone had both MBNA *and* BoA cards, and can they comment on the relative customer service experiences? I'm well aware that both companies are scum of the earth corporations (which is part of why I'm considering cancelling).

Restaurant Nazis

Mach3avelli — Fri, 10 Mar 2006 19:15:09 -0800

Fed up with corporate bullsh*t. This one's going to need a bit of groundwork to lay down....

I work as a server for a nation-wide restaurant chain in California. We earn $6.75 an hour (min wage), and therefore earn nearly everything from tips. Labor laws in California restrict workers from working six hours straight without a break. Naturally, most shifts during a busy night will exceed six hours, and we can't just walk away and abandon our tables, so we have something called a "server breaker," or someone who leap-frogs from one server to the next every 30 minutes to assist their tables so everyone has a chance to take a break (there is no designated full-time server breaker at our restaurant, every server on staff has to do it every once in awhile). Instead of doling out a portion of our tips to the server breaker, they're instead placed on a $15/hr. wage (hardly comparable to the amount you'd make doing the same task as a regular server, but that's not where I'm going with this).

So now we come to certain afternoon shifts, where business is slower and only 1 or 2 servers are in danger of exceeding six hours. Consequently, they need to be broken. However, with no assigned server breaker (silly to have someone come in to work for 30 mins), the management takes it upon itself to use servers at the tail-end of their afternoon shifts to step up and break those 1 or 2 servers. The only difference, however, is that, since they're still managing their own tables in the meantime, they're still technically "servers" and therefore still earn min wage. The argument I brought forth to management is that it's ridiculous to pay someone min wage for doing a $15/hr job--on top of taking care of their own tables.

I've tried to negoatiate getting clocked in as a server breaker for that 30 mins or finding compromise by giving the temporary server breaker a free meal ticket. All of my points have been taken but given no accreditation. I'm often met with lines such as, "When you signed up to work at XXX you signed up to play by the rules and policies we have set here."

To further push the point that compromise wasn't in their best interest, there was an employee meeting where the issue was discussed...."You have two options: either we continue with our current policy or we start scheduling you guys to come in and break people for 30 mins." You can guess the overwhelming vote on that one. My response to this was why not just use servers already there and geared up at the end of their shifts? No dice.

The corporation has a 3rd-party help line that I've been directed to, and they take all the information down and pass it back to corporate. It's more often used for personnelle issues, and my policy issue reports have gone unanswered.

So my question to you all is the legaility of all this. I've tried going through the arbitration route with no luck, so I'm wondering if there exists any legal options. What are the (California) standards and labor laws regarding unequivocal wage distribution? Or maybe some resources I can be directed to to learn more about my rights and/or whether they're being infringed.

Thank you.

ghost writing corporate blogs

nancoix — Thu, 09 Feb 2006 14:29:50 -0800

Ghost-writing multiple corporate blogs for a living. Is it feasible? Do companies all want exclusive rights to the content -- thereby removing the option of leveraging the same content on multiple blogs? (I'm aware there are clearinghouses that will market your blogging, but I'm not talking about that type of piecemeal work.) Any bloggers out there who are employed by multiple corporations?

online source bankruptcy filings

nancoix — Tue, 01 Nov 2005 11:15:20 -0800

Is there a free source to check online whether or not an American business has filed for bankruptcy protection?

Corporate extortion

Justinian — Mon, 25 Jul 2005 18:07:43 -0800

Advice needed on resolving what I consider essentially an attempt at extortion by Vesta Corporation (processors for prepaid Cingular cellphones). I have a very nice Cingular cellphone (costs about $250) which I use relatively infrequently but for important calls when I do use it. So I am a prepaid subscriber rather than on a monthly plan. A week ago my cellphone was essentially shut down; I can not longer refill my phone with a credit/debit card or on the website.

The reason? A few months ago a friend used my cellphone to make some calls while she was moving across town. In return, she added some minutes to the phone with her credit card. No problem. Apparently something like two years ago when she was in New York she borrowed her daughter's cell phone for a week and added some minutes to that phone in return. Again, no problem.

The problem? Recently someone else in New York added some minutes to that phone with a credit card and then refused the charges. So they shut my phone down and will not turn it on until I pay those charges, despite my never having been within 2000 miles of the phone or having met the person or people involved. Again, to be clear, the refused charges were on neither my phone nor my credit card, nor on my friend's credit card.

Can they really hold me responsible for refused charges on a phone I have never seen by a person I have never met? I spent two full hours on the phone today and have gotten no satisfaction. I've called both Cingular (who were relatively helpful but don't handle the prepaid themselves) and Vesta (who very much were not helpful). For example, I was refused a managed at Vesta until I said I was recording the call and asked point blank "So you are denying me the opportunity to speak to your manager?"... at which point I was offered a transfer to some voice mail.

How do I deal with this?

Africa: the next outsourcing destination?

me3dia — Tue, 05 Jul 2005 08:49:21 -0800

Why doesn't Africa get more outsourcing work? It seems like many African countries would be ideal for companies looking for cheaper locations for factories, call centers, etc. Cheap labor, plenty of land, often even English speaking natives. One downside I could see is the tendency toward corrupt local officials, but I imagine that's often the case in Southeast Asian countries as well. Other than that, is there a particular reason more corporations aren't turning to Africa for their outsourcing needs?

Which companies own which companies

banished — Wed, 02 Feb 2005 22:20:26 -0800

Is there a chart that shows what major companies own other companies (preferably constantly updated)? A lot of buyouts / mergers have been taking place lately and I'd like to see how the corporate power is centralized / organized. I also seem to recall a site that mapped power relations between powerful corporate individuals, and that would be of interest as well.

Corporate Structuring

evening — Tue, 04 Jan 2005 17:29:10 -0800

Part of my job involves tracking M&As and hierarchy (parent-child relationships) for global companies. Ultimately, I need to be able to make decisions on how we report our revenue on certain companies. I don't have a business degree and I'm confused over some of what I read. How can I best read up on corporate structure, and anything else related? I'm coming up empty on google.

Is outsourcing a problem in your country?

airguitar — Thu, 30 Dec 2004 22:11:12 -0800

Is outsourcing a problem in your country? ...if you live somewhere other than the United States. Is it on the news? Do candidates for elected office pledge to fight it? Do your friends wonder where all the good factory jobs went? Do you come home with ten things from the shopping mart and find nine of them were made in China? Do you have a rust belt? Is your formerly industrial economy becoming a service economy? Is a race to the bottom and out of the country a natural progression for manufacturers as they work to keep the costs of production always lower, or is business done differently elsewhere?

Subjects and Verbs

rkent — Thu, 16 Dec 2004 15:38:10 -0800

From this thread:

... you're probably aware that Clear Channel own ...

What is the DEAL with verb/subject disagreement when it comes to corporate entities?? Clear Channel is an IT! Likewise band names. I can't remember how many articles I've read with phrases like "Metallica are..." or "Led Zeppelin are..." Why is this OK in the music business? I know this is mostly rant-y, but I'm genuinely curious if anyone has, like, the Rolling Stone Style Guide or something.