Jobs and Labor

The Truth About Tom Brady's New Contract (With Special Guest Star Matt Schaub!)

Of the three major professional sports leagues, football has the methodology of compensation that is the least broken and the fiscal system that is least susceptible to ruin at the hands of compulsively spending owners, and it's all because of the NFL's policy of utilizing non-guaranteed contracts. ... More >>

Survival Skills

Calling your boss a dick on Facebook might no longer be a fireable offense (but I wouldn't test it).

Calling Your Boss a Dick on Facebook Might No Longer Be a Fireable Offense (But I Wouldn't Test It)

The National Labor Relations Board, through a series of new rules governing small business and social media, has provided greater protections for employees who speak out against employers online. Expanding existing rules, the NLRB said, "workers have a right to discuss work conditions freely and wit ... More >>

Better Than Ezra

Readers' Poll: Does Music In The Workplace Make You More Productive?

A recent blog on the Bloomberg Businessweek site detailed a UK study that was done dealing with music in the workplace and its effect on worker productivity. 77 percent of surveyed businesses said that it boosted morale and made output soar. The rest of the 33 percent probably own sweatshops. Now I ... More >>

Adventures in DUI: Jacksonville Jags WR Justin Blackmon (w/ Mugshot!)

While the new NFL collective bargaining agreement has brought rookie salaries, particularly first round rookie salaries, more in line with their true value, there is no denying that NFL teams are still investing significant chunks of change in a bunch of unproven commodities. Along those lines, it's ... More >>

Local Taqueria Chain in Trouble with Department of Labor, Agrees to Pay Over $275,000 to Employees

Pinche burger? How about paying the pinche minimum wage to your employees, Taconmadre?​Longtime Houstonians may know Taqueria Taconmadre as a solid local chain, as a good place to grab tacos into the wee hours of the night. But the U.S. Department of Labor knows Taconmadre as the subject of it ... More >>

Taconmadre Is Hit For Not Paying Employees OT Or Minimum Wage

Taconmadre pays up for 90-hour work weeks without OT​Taconmadre Mariachi Bar & Grill has agreed to pay $275,706 to employees who did not get overtime or minimum-wage earnings they deserved, the Department of Labor announced today. Workers at three Taconmadre locations "received salaries that ... More >>

Carrie Feibel & Eric Kane: Chronicle Romance Makes The New York Times

According to the Times: "Collins Metu Engagement photos of Carrie Feibel and Eric Kayne at the Menil in Houston, Texas" ​The lusty, throbbing crucible of lust that is the Houston Chronicle was exposed in The New York Times Sunday, as a bodice-ripping tale of love at first sight, layoffs and ... More >>

Joe Frank Garza: Pleads Guilty to Misusing Millions in Seized Drug Cash

Joe Frank Garza, no relation to these guys​Joe Frank Garza, the Valley district attorney who for years has been loudly proclaiming his innocence on charges that he misused millions in seized drug money, changed his tune today. The Texas Attorney General's office, which has been prosecuting th ... More >>

The Human Resources Manager

Feds Sue Kinder Morgan for $1 Million in Unpaid Overtime

The Department of Labor has filed a lawsuit against Houston's Kinder Morgan that seeks more than $1 million in what it says is unpaid overtime owed to "4,500 current and former operators, technicians, maintenance workers, laborers and administrative nonexempt employees." Kinder Morgan provides serv ... More >>

Jane Draycott: EEOC Sides With Female Firefighter on Harassment Charges

Jane Draycott: EEOC sides with her against HFD​As first reported by Fox 26, the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has found that one of the female firefighters involved in a headline-grabbing case was the victim of harassment. We've got a copy of the document (you can see it bel ... More >>

So You Want To Be The University of Texas Offensive Coordinator...APPLY HERE

What are the hours?​As a resident of the great state of Texas, it pains me to see our tax dollars being wasted. Case in point, somewhere in Austin there is a person who had to spend a couple hours of his or her day posting the offensive and defensive coordinator positions for the University ... More >>

The 10 Most Annoying Cubicle Habits, As Reported By Your Co-Workers

Work is hell​The sniffling-and-coughing season is upon us, so that means it's time to get highly, highly annoyed by the idiots in the nearby cubicles at your office.Not our office, you understand. We have terrific, totally un-annoying co-workers. You guys out there, though, you gotta lot a problem ... More >>

BP Will Pay $50 Million Fine For Texas City Refinery, But You're Not Getting $80 Million Out Of Them, By God

BP: This time they really mean it​BP will pay a whopping $50 million fine to the feds for chronic safety violations at its notorious Texas City refinery, OSHA announced today.The fine is whopping in terms of previous fines; it's more than double the previous record fine of $21 million, says OSHA ( ... More >>

Cecil Harris Young & Recessioned: At A Job Fair, Trying To Find A People Job

​Today's installment of Young & Recessioned features Cecil Harris, who spent Monday afternoon at a Houston career fair trying to find some work. I've been looking for a job since December, and it's like, there are no jobs. I was working as a dispatcher with an incorporated company for Con ... More >>

Shannon Franklin, Young & Recessioned: Spell The Hiring Manager's Name Correctly, Please

​Today's installment of Young and Recessioned features Shannon Franklin, assistant director of the Jones Graduate School of Business at Rice University, who says that even Rice students might have to do anything at any point to try to make some income. We help them with networking, resume building ... More >>

Viet Tran, Young & Recessioned: You Can't Be Afraid To Be Goofy

​Today's installment of Young & Recessioned features Viet Tran, a 27-year-old University of Houston grad who has used reality TV, YouTube episodes and street corner stunts to find his dream job. I went into commercial real estate right after I graduated. I did that for about three years. I had ... More >>

Long, Loud And Raw Houston School Board Meeting Leaves Few Happy

It wasn't quite like this at last night's HISD board meeting, but it was close​In a lengthy and tumultuous school board meeting Thursday night, trustees voted 8-1 to fire Principal Mable Caleb and five other administrators and teachers from the Key/Kashmere mess, approved another 170 employe ... More >>

Alleged Aggie Doctor Brags Of Firing Obama-Voting Employee

​The TexAgs political message board is probably not the best place to go for nuanced, sophisticated discussion of the day's issues, unless you think Fox News is fair and balanced.But things can get lively. Like recently, when a poster named dermdoc put up an item headed "Laid off my first Obama vo ... More >>

HISD Looks to Hire Teachers From California

​The Houston ISD is heading out to California (and later to Louisiana, Michigan and Florida!) to recruit teachers, its press office announced today.Specifically, it is looking for bilingual, secondary math and science teachers and cash-strapped California -- where reportedly more than 20,000 teach ... More >>

HISD's Breakfast Was Pop Tarts and Animal Crackers

Photo courtesy Orell Fitzsimmons​The upcoming cost-savings cutback in hours for cafeteria workers in the Houston ISD brought union leader Orell Fitzsimmons over to two HISD elementaries this week and when he looked in on the actual breakfast being served, he was not amused."Milk, juice, Pop Tarts ... More >>

Hard Times on Milam For A Man Who Wants No Publicity For His Publicity Stunt

Just minutes ago we got a text from a friend on lunch break, informing us of neatly dressed man briskly walking down Milam armed with a posterboard that read "I Need a Job." He gave us no other clues to go on but when one hears about someone meandering around downtown carrying a sign, we will always ... More >>

36 Years At DPS, Eight Months As Chief -- And He's Outta Here!

The Department of Public Safety has put out a terse statement announcing that Colonel Stanley Clark, the director of the agency, has resigned that position as of 5 pm today.Why? No answers are forthcoming from DPS or other officials. "This is an elite law enforcement agency. We expect all our employ ... More >>

Layoff Tales From The Chron

The layoff tales are spreading from 801 Texas, home of the Houston Chronicle. Here's one. A former copy editor relates her day: my favorite part of the whole experience was being greeted with an offhand joke about copy editors by the bigwig who told me my copy editing job was being eliminated. ... More >>

At The Chron: Where You Going With Those Boxes, Boy?

Photo by laffy4kIt's been an excruciating five-week wait for employees of Houston's only daily newspaper who are scheduled to learn today and tomorrow if they still have jobs. As one nervous reporter described it on Twitter a few days ago, "Out working on plans B-through-F. Anything to take mind ... More >>

Sherlock's Pub Gets Spanked Back With Harassment Ruling

The ass-spanking and breast-squeezing has come to a stop at Sherlock's Pub (we assume), but it was an expensive lesson.The owners of the bar on Westheimer agreed to pay $115,000 to settle a class sexual-harassment case brought against them by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the EEOC ann ... More >>

You Local School Districts Are Paying Your Teachers Too Much!

There's beeen plenty of drug talk when it comes to Houston schools lately, but what about some good news?Well, how about the fact that school districts are bitching that teachers down here are just getting paid too damn well?It's true. (We'll pause to give the teachers reading this a chance to stop ... More >>

Houston Chronicle Staffers Facing Buyouts, Layoffs

Uh-Oh, O'Reilly: Racial Discrimination?

Metro Gets Picketed

High Gas Prices: Protests, Segways and Prostitutes

Black Math Experiment to Go On Hiatus

Bayousphere

The Annotated Alberto Gonzales

A look at Gonzo's job hunt

Swift Meatpacking Plant and Illegal Immigrants

Swift & Company pitted employee against employee when it replaced injured workers with illegal immigrants

Children of Enron

One of Ken Lay's many legacies: the families whose lives were disrupted by the fall

Pens and Needles

Federal turf fights and deals mark the legacy of a union bribery case

War on bin Laden -- or Unions?

Bush's battle against terrorism now bars some federal labor activities

What's Wrong with This Picture?

MFA director Peter C. Marzio gets a bonus of $1.7 million while front-line museum employees say they have trouble paying their rent

Riding Short

Houston firefighters say the city has been playing Russian roulette by carrying crews of three members instead of four on its trucks. Last October, Jay Paul Jahnke anted up with his life.

Down at the Boardwalk

A couple's claim against Landry's -- was it bawdy behavior or veiled blackmail?

The Insider

Where Have All the Women Gone? Discrimination charges spotlight UH's lack of female leadership

Grand Prix Profits

City overtime demotion scheme gains a checkered flag

Perfect Mess

What's wrong with this Picture? Everything.

The Insider

Station Break

Beset by budget problems, bereft of substantive local programming, Channel 8 finds itself at a crossroads. Perhaps it's time to put the "public" back into Houston Public Television.

A Slight Omission

The Case Against Kay

Last year, a grand jury was told tales about Texas' junior senator. Here's what they heard.