Want to read Slashdot from your mobile device? Point it at m.slashdot.org and keep reading!

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×
The Almighty Buck

Submission + - Accomplishment-based work attendance: an idea whos (washingtonpost.com)

Submitted by
hessian
hessian writes: "Beginning Jan. 1, the Web-based event planning company is allowing employees unlimited time off.

“We just want you to do your job,” Harding said. “If you can do that, why limit the amount of vacation you can take?”

“Everything will work exactly the same,” she said. “We’re just taking the attendance out of performance.”

“If you’ve met your sales goal by the middle of the month, I have no place as a manager to keep you from taking the rest of the month off,” Chris Chi, associate director of sales, said."
Businesses

Submission + - Prospects Darken for Solar Energy Companies

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens writes
Hugh Pickens writes writes: "Although global demand for solar power is still growing — about 8% more solar panels will be installed this year compared with 2010 — bankruptcies, plummeting stock prices and crushing debt loads are calling into question the viability of the solar energy industry that since the 1970s has been counted on to advance the world into a new energy age. Only a handful of manufacturers are now profitable in the face of too much capacity, which has contributed to a plunge in prices as government subsidies have been curbed. Prices for solar panels started 2011 near $1.60 per watt, but a buildup of inventory forced manufacturers into a fire sale toward the end of the second quarter that has pushed prices to near $1 per watt now. "The prices that we're seeing today are likely not covering manufacturing costs in many cases," says Ralph Romero, director in management consulting for Black & Veatch, which provides engineering and due diligence consulting services to solar manufacturers. With at least seven solar-panel manufacturers filing for bankruptcy or insolvency in the last several months and six of the 10 largest publicly traded companies making solar components reporting losses in the third quarter, public-market investors are punishing the solar sector, sending shares down nearly 57% this year and although winners are expected to emerge eventually, the question is how much more carnage there will be before that happens. "The fact of the matter is, nobody really knows which solar companies will be pushed out of business or be forced to merge," writes industry analyst Rodolfo Avalos. "Nobody also knows how long it will take for the solar industry to improve even when the forecasted solar global demand for the next 5-10 years is quite promising.""

Comment Re:No. (Score 1) 1486

by itsanx (#35746756) Attached to: Is Science Just a Matter of Faith?
There are no guarantees our laws of physics will still be applicable in the next five seconds. So if you assume science is effective in predicting certain events, there is always a "faith" part involved.

Slashdot Top Deals

Always draw your curves, then plot your reading.

Close