Sick Days:

We will no longer accept a doctor statement as proof of sickness. If you are able to go to the doctor, you are able to come to work.

Personal Days:

Each employee will receive 104 personal days a year. They are called Saturday and Sunday.

Restroom Use:

Entirely too much time is being spent in the restroom. There is now a strict 3-minute time limit in the stalls. At the end of 3 minutes, an alarm will sound, the toilet pater roll will retract, the stall door will open and a picture will be taken. After your second offence, your picture will be posted on the company bulletin board under the “Chronic Offender” category.

On Wednesday, the five-year borrowing costs of Italy are expected to rise further above 6 percent to mark a new euro lifetime high. This would be at an auction that will provide a first test of bond market sentiment towards the euro zone after EU summit that took place last week.

The yield on the five-year BTP bond Italy will sell on Wednesday topped 7 percent on Monday. Italy paid 6.3 percent in November to sell five-year bonds, which was its highest cost of borrowing since the single currency’s adoption in 1999.

“ECB buying in the secondary market will help, but, if the crisis worsens, it is difficult to see how Italy will retain independent market access in 2012 and help from the International Monetary Fund may at some stage be needed,” Citi analysts said.

Political and economic crisis in Italy spurred fears of a split in the euro zone with borrowing costs for the country at unsustainable levels and the bloc unable to afford a bailout.

Officials from France and Germany had held discussions on a two-speed Europe with a smaller, more tightly integrated euro zone and a looser outer circle.

From news.yahoo.com:

The discussions among senior policymakers, still in the realms of the theoretical, have focused on how to protect the euro zone from breaking up via tighter common policies which some members may by unable or unwilling to live with.

A German government spokesman said on Thursday that Berlin was not pursuing the idea of a smaller euro zone.

Asian shares fell more than 3 percent after similar falls on Wall Street and in Europe as investors took fright at the accelerating sovereign debt crisis and at buck-passing among European leaders and institutions.

“There cannot be peace and prosperity in the North or in the West of Europe, if there is no peace and prosperity in the South or in the East,” Barroso said in a speech in Berlin.

According to a source, Sony Corp is in talks to buy out the stake of Ericsson in their mobile phone joint venture.

The move may help Sony recoup ground in the battle against Apple Inc and Samsung Electronics.

From in.finance.yahoo.com:

Sony and Telefon AB LM Ericsson have been talking for weeks about the future of the 50:50 joint venture because the companies must decide this month whether to renew their 10-year-old pact, two industry sources told Reuters.

A source with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters on Friday Sony was discussing a buyout. The source did not want to identified because the talks were not public.

Yoshiharu Izumi, an analyst at J.P. Morgan in Tokyo, said the deal could be worth upwards of $1.3 billion, depending on what agreement the two reach about the continuing use of Ericsson’s telecoms patents.

“Up to now Sony’s products and network services have all been separate. Unifying them would be positive,” Izumi said.

“The talks are not something that have been announced by Sony. We are declining to comment,” said Mami Imada, a Sony spokeswoman in Tokyo.

A top US official has acknowledged that Indian companies employ tens of thousands of Americans.

The official also noted that direct investment of India in the United States has grown by an average of 33 percent each year since 2005.

From in.finance.yahoo.com:

In the decade between 2000 and 2010, Indian investment has increased from a negligible $96 million to over $3.3 billion, deputy secretary of state Bill Burns said at the 3rd FICCI-Brookings Dialogue on ‘Is there a future of India-US strategic dialogue’ here Tuesday.

India-US bilateral economic relationship is anchored in the realisation that their long-term interests are essentially congruent and mutually reinforcing, he said at the event organised by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry with the Washington think tank.

‘Together, we are drawing the best from both of our societies to make better products that compete and win in the global economy,’ Burns said noting Tata Steel has a plant in Ohio, while Boeing uses engineers in Bangalore to design 787s whose parts are manufactured across America.

‘There is no more important partner for India in this endeavour than the United States,’ Burns said.

A federal grand jury investigation is examining the role of eight offshore banks. The investigation is about whether these banks helped Americans evade taxes.

The U.S. Department of Justice, in a highly unusual action late on Monday, disclosed the probes on a website page discussing its tax division’s Offshore Compliance Initiative.

From news.yahoo.com:

The disclosure that eight offshore banks are under criminal investigation comes amid efforts by certain Swiss banks to reach a settlement with U.S. authorities over their offshore private banking services. Those talks have bogged down over questions of immunity for foreign bankers, among other issues.

Much of the campaign has focused on Switzerland, and the Justice Department said in the website disclosure that it had “dealt fabled Swiss bank secrecy a devastating blow and provided tools that should yield information on thousands of additional U.S. offshore account holders who have undisclosed accounts at UBS and other banks.”

The U.S. Department of Justice, however, did not identify the eight banks by name, a move that would have been a felony under criminal procedure rules, and removed the reference on Tuesday.

Looking for smart business promotion quotes? If yes, you have arrived at the right place and this compilation of business quotations will not disappoint you.

If you cannot work with love but only with distaste, it is better that you should leave your work. – Khalil Gibran

If you don’t drive your business, you will be driven out of business. – B. C. Forbes

If you have to forecast, forecast often. – Edgar R. Fiedler

If you listen to your fears, you will die never knowing what a great person you might have been. – Robert H. Schuller

If you owe the bank $100 that’s your problem. If you owe the bank $100 million, that’s the bank’s problem. – J. Paul Getty

In modern business it is not the crook who is to be feared most, it is the honest man who doesn’t know what he is doing. – William Wordsworth

In the business world, everyone is paid in two coins: cash and experience. Take the experience first; the cash will come later. – Harold S. Geneen

In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes. – Benjamin Franklin

Informed decision-making comes from a long tradition of guessing and then blaming others for inadequate results. – Scott Adams

Inside every working anarchy, there’s an Old Boy Network. – Mitchell Kapor

It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest. – Adam Smith

It takes more than capital to swing business. You’ve got to have the A. I. D. degree to get by – Advertising, Initiative, and Dynamics. – Isaac Asimov

Facebook, the popular social networking site, has launched its own mobile messaging service to challenge the marketing space occupied by the BlackBerry Messenger (BBM).

Launched in the US only, Facebook Messenger lets users send instant messages on their mobile for free to anyone in their ‘friends’ list.

From in.news.yahoo.com:

In a direct bid to rival BBM, the new Facebook app, also allows people to send messages to friends on their mobile contacts list and push out group messages too, the Telegraph reports.

The free Facebook Messenger app is available on both Android and iOS devices, but there are no dates revealed for when it would be made available outside the US.

Facebook engineer Lucy Zhang wrote a blog post explaining the new service.

“More and more of us rely on our phones to send and receive messages. But it isn’t always easy to know the best way to reach someone on their phone. Should you send an email or text? Which will they check first? Did they even get your last message?” Zhang wrote.

“We think messaging should be easier than that. You should be able to write a message, click ‘Send’ and know that you will reach the person right away,” he added.

BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) is believed to have over 45 million users around the world.

This compilation of positive attitude quotations will help you see the brighter side of life so that you can always carry a smile while working out things with a positive approach.

A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort. – Herm Albright (1876 – 1944)

A strong positive mental attitude will create more miracles than any wonder drug. – Patricia Neal

Human beings, by changing the inner attitudes of their minds, can change the outer aspects of their lives. – William James (1842 – 1910)

Being assertive does not mean attacking or ignoring others feelings. It means that you are willing to hold up for yourself fairly-without attacking others. – Albert Ellis, Michael Abrams, Lidia Dengelegi, The Art & Science of Rational Eating, 1992

Eccentricity is not, as dull people would have us believe, a form of madness. It is often a kind of innocent pride, and the man of genius and the aristocrat are frequently regarded as eccentrics because genius and aristocrat are entirely unafraid of and uninfluenced by the opinions and vagaries of the crowd. – Edith Sitwell (1887 – 1964), Taken Care Of ,1965

The greatest discovery of my generation is that a human being can alter his life by altering his attitudes of mind. – William James (1842 – 1910)

I happen to feel that the degree of a person’s intelligence is directly reflected by the number of conflicting attitudes she can bring to bear on the same topic. - Lisa Alther, Kinflicks, 1975

Complaining is good for you as long as you’re not complaining to the person you’re complaining about. - Lynn Johnston (1947 – ), For Better or For Worse, 11-06-03

I am still determined to be cheerful and happy, in whatever situation I may be; for I have also learned from experience that the greater part of our happiness or misery depends upon our dispositions, and not upon our circumstances. – Martha Washington (1732 – 1802)

The National Payments Corporation has at last finalized the proposed unique India Card after almost two years of planning.

The card, once launched, could easily become a domestic alternative to the global real-time payment processing firms like Visa and MasterCard.

From in.finance.yahoo.com:

“We have finalised name of the proposed card as Rupay at our board meeting here today. We have also finalised the logo for the same,” a senior official of the RBI-set up National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), told PTI this evening. The official sought not to be named.

The official further said the leading financial consultancy firm Ernst & Young(E&Y) will develop and roll out the entire architecture, including the design and software for the Rupay card rollout.

A senior E&Y official confirmed the development to this agency. He further said, the NPCI will initially launch a domestic ATM/debit cards to begin with and then would hit the credit card market later on.

In 2009, the RBI had asked the Indian Banks Association to launch a not-for-profit company and design a rival card, then tentatively called India Card, that meets the requirements of the domestic banks.

RBI plan is finally materializing and Rupay will be like the Union Pay of China.