[BobNJ1960]

Originally Posted by ObedientSir

CNBC ranking of ‘America’s Best States for Business’ shows solid gains for Connecticut

Connecticut jumps from 35th to 24th in just one year!

Article: https://www.courant.com/politics/hc-...rwe-story.html

Terrific. That ranking is the most vital thing. Need to keep getting better every single year. I also hope this governor works closely with the CBIA, our most important business organization.

[BobNJ1960]

80% P &W Office Staff will work remote either part or all of the time..permanently

https://www.courant.com/business/hc-...n2q-story.html

[JayCT]

Pratt & Whitney, one of our state’s largest employers, has formally announced that they will mke Work-From-Home permanent for about 6,600 of its 8,250 salaried workers in Connecticut. It will also mean the company will consolidate offices at its East Hartford campus to four buildings but what that means is not clear.

It’s interesting, one of my closest friends is one of these employees and he’s ecstatic. When Covid hit over a year ago, he was one of the last to stop going into the office. He hated the thought of working from home. That changed as he realized how convenient and flexible it is. He’s an avid walker and mid morning he’s able to take a two hour walk every day. He couldn’t do that if he was still in the office. He also deals with a lot of foreign subcontractors around the world so he is often on the phone or on a Zoom meeting in the middle of the night. WFH allows him to take those calls and meetings around his schedule, giving him more free time. Jay

https://www.courant.com/business/hc-...n2q-story.html

[BobNJ1960]

Originally Posted by Stepfordct

Idaho has seen huge growth. Actually a friend here in town moved there around 10 yrs ago. His new home he bought sold for 2.5 times what he paid for then. Granted few from CT move there. Lot of California folks moving there. Simply look at the City - Data section in Idaho for evidence....

Thanks again. I checked it out and saw that the Wall St Journal and realtors polled showed Coeur D'Alene the nation's hottest market in a recent study. That is why I like national statistical analysis. No one keeps track of 50 states in their head well. Even stats fans like I. In terms of population shifts, the changes the last 30 years have been incredible.

Sometimes, it is easy to forget in the Northeast that we are not a microcosm of the nation overall in terms of growth. It also happens in states that do not get much press, like Idaho. We remain, thankfully, an ever changing, dynamic nation.

[mdovell]

Originally Posted by JayCT

Pratt & Whitney, one of our state’s largest employers, has formally announced that they will mke Work-From-Home permanent for about 6,600 of its 8,250 salaried workers in Connecticut. It will also mean the company will consolidate offices at its East Hartford campus to four buildings but what that means is not clear.

It’s interesting, one of my closest friends is one of these employees and he’s ecstatic. When Covid hit over a year ago, he was one of the last to stop going into the office. He hated the thought of working from home. That changed as he realized how convenient and flexible it is. He’s an avid walker and mid morning he’s able to take a two hour walk every day. He couldn’t do that if he was still in the office. He also deals with a lot of foreign subcontractors around the world so he is often on the phone or on a Zoom meeting in the middle of the night. WFH allows him to take those calls and meetings around his schedule, giving him more free time. Jay

https://www.courant.com/business/hc-...n2q-story.html

I've been telling you this was going to happen. You have to consider some of the other aspects of what they're looking for in the horizon. If the F-35 program gets cut they going to have to shift spending so this enables them to cut expenses. My neighbor works for Pratt but I think he's in production so he's still going in.


By using the definition of permanent rather than temporary this might exempt these 6600 employees from the warn Act. The warn Act was created in the late 1980s due to a number of closings in particular with the Auto industry. It means that you have to give a notification when there is a larger number of layoffs and notify the local government so that way they're more prepared. Health care, unemployment l, transit and childcare can become significant factors in this. Naturally if all 6600 Floyds lived in East Hartford then we'll let go that would qualify under the warn act. But if these are scattered around with a few doesn't here in there for Community across Connecticut and potentially Massachusetts it might not apply
https://www.littler.com/publication-...-work-warn-act

"There is virtually no legal authority addressing counting remote workers during a pandemic. We expect, however, that this may become an issue in WARN litigation filed because of pandemic-related events. It seems reasonably likely that courts will attribute individuals working temporarily from home to their former physical worksite for WARN counting purposes. There is a WARN regulation that requires workers who are “outstationed” or whose primary duties involve work outside the employer’s regular employment sites to be attributed to any of three locations: (1) their assigned “home base,” (2) the location from which their work is assigned, or (3) the location to which they report. 29 CFR §639.3(i)(6). While it is not clear that this regulation applies to work-from-home assignments because of the pandemic, the former worksite likely is the remote worker’s home base, thus making those employees countable at that former worksite under WARN.

What if Remote Work Becomes Permanent?

Different reasoning may apply if you have made work-from-home a permanent arrangement or the employee is working from a distant remote location. As most pandemic-related telework has extended for over 10 months, record numbers of employees are relocating – some even to foreign countries. The employer and potentially the courts will consider all facts in these instances to determine whether the “outstationed” WARN regulation applies, and if so, which of the three possible attribution locations under the regulation is appropriate. This raises a variety of possibilities including that the location of the employee’s supervisor or manager could be the single site of employment because that is where the employee reports or receives job assignments, or even that the employee’s new remote location could be deemed the employee’s single site of employment. In addition, state mini-WARN statutes might also require other considerations, resulting in a different conclusion for counting under those statutes."

Almost 20 years ago I worked for a large National company. They used to play games in terms of where work was going. They have no problem opening up another office and then Outsourcing works that office to prevent departments and locations from trying to organize. At one point I was calling a guy in an office that I found out a month later was laid off. Layoffs came unannounced but because it was such a big company in with operations Nationwide we just didn't see it. One or two people in an office might not sound like much but if you got a hundred or two hundred offices it is.

[JayCT]

In response to the labor shortage, Stamford based Synchrony Financial Services, is raising their minimum wage to $20 per hour next month. Is this the shape of things to come? Jay

https://www.courant.com/business/hc-...fqi-story.html

[BobNJ1960]

Originally Posted by JayCT

In response to the labor shortage, Stamford based Synchrony Financial Services, is raising their minimum wage to $20 per hour next month. Is this the shape of things to come? Jay

https://www.courant.com/business/hc-...fqi-story.html

It is an industry norm. BOA is shifting to $20 also. I wonder if that is part of why Peoples sold. The non nationals may get priced out of the market, as the headcount affected is large at banks.

Most bumping up rates , in most industries, are large and national employers. Price out small locals competing with you?

[mdovell]

If you have a lower-ranked job it's going to have somewhat of a boost. Even McDonald's is going to be paying up to 20 bucks an hour for a manager. It sounds like the company run ones have increased and that's encouraging many of the franchisees to do the same. I'm reading this article and I just can't imagine the McDonald's actually making $18,000 in one day that's crazy.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.cnb...e-future-.html

[robr2]

$18K in one day sales is an anomaly. The average McD's does about $3 million/year in sales so about $8200/day. Average net profit per location is about $150K/year.

[robr2]

Originally Posted by JayCT

In response to the labor shortage, Stamford based Synchrony Financial Services, is raising their minimum wage to $20 per hour next month. Is this the shape of things to come? Jay

https://www.courant.com/business/hc-...fqi-story.html

This change is going to benefit employees outside of CT the most. Call center employees all over the country will be getting raises and none are in CT.

But bravo to them - they understand that getting people to work call center jobs requires better pay and the ability to work from home.