By Patrick Hruby

When future talking-monkey archaeologists sift through the detritus of postapocalyptic America, they would do well to ignore the usual cultural Rosetta Stones – the Statue of Liberty, Mount Rushmore, seven seasons and counting of “The Real Housewives of Orange County.”

They should focus instead on a single artifact: the AeroShot caffeine inhaler.

Sleek and plastic, the size of a lip balm tube, the AeroShot is the brainchild of David Edwards, a Harvard professor of biomedical engineering who also invented breathable chocolate. (Don’t ask.) The AeroShot contains a puff of lime-flavored caffeine powder; one squeeze, and it dispenses about 40 mg of the drug in your mouth, like an asthma inhaler.

A startup product recently released in the Boston area, the AeroShot already has drawn the ire of Sen. Charles E. Schumer. In December, the New York Democrat expressed concern that the inhaler would be used as a “party enhancer” and asked the Food and Drug Administration to review the safety and legality of selling it to children.

In doing so, Mr. Schumer overlooked the obvious: When it comes to the nation’s predilection for energy-boosting enhancement – at parties, at the office or anywhere in between, for young and old alike – the horse has long since left the barn, if only to lap up a double espresso at the neighboring Starbucks. (Speaking of which, the coffee bar chain briefly pilot-tested its own caffeine inhaler in 2006, one with mint flavor instead of lime.)

“At the time we came up with the AeroShot, we were looking at breathable coffee, breathable vitamins, the most high-value ingredient the product could have,” Mr. Edwards said. “We came up with energy. There is a big demand for energy in the United States.”

One nation under a buzz

America, the land of the free. America, home of the amped. From the 24-ounce Cafe Americano to the 64-ounce Mountain Dew Double Gulp, from ubiquitous coffee shops to the widespread use of the prescription drug Ritalin (read: legal speed) as a campus study aid, we are one nation under a buzz, indivisible from our next fix, with 5-Hour Energy shots and caffeine-spiked chewing gum for all.

To understand the depths of our perked-up desire, consider:

• The average American ingests as much as 300 mg of caffeine a day, equal to three No-Doz pills;

• From June 2010 to June 2011, amid ongoing economic malaise, energy drink sales rose a whopping 31.6 percent.

• At an Army lab in Natick, Mass., military scientists reportedly have taken time out from developing Global Positioning System-guided helicopters to test and develop … caffeinated meat.

Or, just visit a Starbucks.

Once upon a time – say, the 1950s – there was the standard, 5-ounce cup o’ Joe, containing about 70 mg to 100 mg of caffeine. Quaint. In the here and now, the standard16-ounce cup of regular Starbucks coffee contains 330 mg of the same substance.

“There are two dark, black liquids that run this country,” said Robert Thompson, director of the Bleier Center for Television and Popular Culture at Syracuse University. “Oil and coffee. Walk down the street in any major city at lunch hour. You just see coffee and cell phones.”

It has always been thus. The American Revolution began with the symbolic – and physical – dumping of English tea, which ultimately was usurped in the national diet by coffee, which means our Founding Fathers essentially traded one caffeinated drink for another, more strongly caffeinated drink.

According to historian David T. Courtwright, American per capita coffee consumption rose from three pounds per year in 1830 to eight pounds per year by 1859. Today, the National Coffee Association reports that the number of 18- to 39-year-olds who drink coffee daily jumped almost 10 percent year-over-year in 2011.

Remember, that’s in a country where about 90 percent of the adult population already ingests caffeine on a daily basis. A country where all of the coffee sold at our 10,000-plus Starbucks locations amounts to less than 4 percent of the domestic market for brewed coffee.

Is it any wonder that coffee is the world’s second-most valuable commodity, behind only oil?

Beyond java, we have caffeinated lip balm. Caffeinated sunflower seeds. Caffeinated soap. We have caffeine mixed with gobs of sugar – that tasty Frappuccino isn’t sweet on its own – and with all sorts of other chemicals, energy drink mystery ingredients like taurine, guarana and L-carnitine. We even have something called the “5150 Juice Syringe,” available online, which basically allows you to squirt an extra helping of liquid caffeine into whatever you’re already drinking.

The surest cultural signs our fair republic has become akin to a coffee-and-greenie-fueled Major League Baseball clubhouse, circa 1975?

(a) Vice-free, clean-living Denver Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow endorses an energy drink.

(b) Elite Northwest Washington private school Sidwell Friends – where the Obama daughters go to school – has its own coffee bar.

(c) We don’t just drink vodka. We drink vodka mixed with the up-all-night energy drink Red Bull – because even our downers need uppers.

“In the 1960s, a lot of families, and mine was one of them, wouldn’t let their kids drink soft drinks before noon,” Mr. Thompson said. “I remember as a child being at a friend’s house for a sleepover. The next morning, he gets a Coke out of the fridge at 8:30 a.m. It seemed almost criminal. And now we have caffeine inhalers.”

The Big C

In the books “World of Caffeine” and “The Caffeine Advantage,” co-author Bennett Weinberg dubs the titular compound the “hallmark drug of our time.” Lauding caffeine’s ability to help us work harder, think more clearly and even feel a greater sense of well-being, he sounds a bit like pumped-up former baseball slugger Jose Canseco discussing anabolic steroids.

This is no coincidence.

Caffeine works in the body by blocking a chemical called adenosine, which signals tiredness to the brain. Less adenosine, less fatigue. Blocking adenosine also causes the body to release more adrenaline, producing the famed caffeine buzz.

In other words, the Big C is a performance-enhancing drug – albeit one that’s just as useful for office workers as professional athletes.

“Suppose you’re working in computer technology,” Mr. Weinberg said. “Caffeine ramps up spatial reasoning. It relieves boredom at repetitive tasks. It’s a mental booster, helping us accomplish the things that more and more are demanded of us in life.”

The history of caffeine consumption is more or less the history of the modern world, according to Mr. Weinberg and co-author Bonnie Bealer. Prior to the 1700s, Europeans drank copious amounts of beer – even for breakfast – because water was largely unsafe.

With the widespread adoption of coffee and tea, however, Western civilization swapped its daylong, semi-drunk alcoholic stupor for energy, alertness, attentiveness and sociability. One result? Intellectuals gathered in coffee shops, spawning (among other things) the Enlightenment and the French Revolution.

“Visit churches in Europe, and the tour guides will constantly point out that so-and-so fell off the rafters,” Mr. Weinberg said. “The reason they fell off is that they were drunk all the time.

“When caffeine swept over Europe, it changed the nature of society. It gave people a way to control and harness their energies, helped to initiate the industrial economy. That requires a different kind of discipline and mental focus than agrarian work.”

As for today? We’re stressed and squeezed by economic turmoil in a hypercompetitive global economy that places a premium on knowledge and mental-task completion. We’re surrounded by round-the-clock entertainment, stimulated at every turn. We’re a nation of working fathers and mothers, strapped for family time. We’re an older generation of baby boomers who refuse to dodder into our golden years and a younger cohort of millennials who keep our smart phones bedside.

In short, we need caffeine – and other energy boosters – more than ever. The rise of Starbucks corresponds with the rise of the Internet.

“What’s really boosted this up in the past 20 years is that now everybody is connected to a portable transmission and reception device, expected and available to be working all the time,” Mr. Thompson said. “It used to be you went home at 5:30, then got into the office the next morning and had messages. Now, you’re constantly checking email. Our lifestyles need stimulants to keep up with things.”

Without caffeine, Mr. Weinberg argues, modern life would be slower. Sluggish. Altogether drearier. Collectively, we would drag a lot more and accomplish a lot less. And that, in turn, raises a question.

Are we hopelessly hooked?

Consider an executive X who gets up at 5:30 a.m. every day, proposes Mr. Thompson. “Could she or he not do their job without a certain dosage of caffeine a day? If the answer to that is no, that’s an interesting thing to consider.”

Upper madness?

In 2009, a man who claimed to have found a mouse in his Mountain Dew can filed a lawsuit against PepsiCo, which owns the brand. As part of its defense, attorneys for the company recently argued that the soft drink – a favorite energy-booster among exam-cramming students and up-all-night video game players everywhere, a neon-green liquid countless Americans willingly and happily pour into their stomachs – would have dissolved the dead rodent’s carcass into a “jellylike substance.”

Yuck. Such is the downside of perking ourselves up.

A recent report from the White House Office of Drug Control expressed concern about college students illegally taking prescription stimulants such as Adderall and Ritalin to remain awake and ultra-focused while studying. News reports anecdotally suggest that similar drug abuse is taking place among young professionals.

Moreover, too much caffeine can be bad for you. While every individual has a different tolerance for the drug, experts agree that ingesting more than 500 mg a day can result in anxiety, irritability, headaches, sleeplessness, diarrhea and other health problems. In some cases, it can cause abnormal heart rhythms, which can be dangerous for people with cardiac conditions.

According to Dr. Mary Claire O’Brien, an associate professor at Wake Forest’s Baptist Medical Center, the medical community is concerned about increasing caffeine consumption among children and adolescents, particularly via energy drinks. A report from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration found that emergency room visits related to adverse reactions to energy drinks increased tenfold from 2005 to 2009. (A caveat: 44 percent of the visits involved patients combining energy drinks with drugs or alcohol.)

A 2011 report from the American Academy of Pediatrics said that energy drinks have “no place in the diet” of children.

“If you suggested putting an espresso machine in a middle school, people would think you are out of your mind,” said Dr. O’Brien, who is on the editorial board of the Journal of Caffeine Research. “But people don’t think twice about them consuming energy drinks and soft drinks.

“There is concern about caffeine being a stimulant, and that it’s not clear what the long-term effects of high levels of caffeine on the pediatric and adolescent brain will be. The human brain is not effectively hard-wired until the age of 25.”

Echoing Mr. Schumer’s concern about the AeroShot’s potential use as a party drug, the University of New Hampshire considered banning on-campus energy drink sales this year, fearing students were mixing the drinks with alcohol. In the face of student displeasure, however, school administrators backed down.

Mr. Weinberg said some things never change.

“There’s been a constant back and forth over this since the beginning, a moral panic,” he said. “It goes back to the beginning. When the first coffee shops opened in Yemen [in the early 1500s], they were banned. Right away. And then the Sultan of Cairo overturned that ban.”

Of course he did. Almost 500 years before the introduction of the caffeine inhaler, the sultan had something in common with contemporary Americans. He was a coffee drinker. He needed his fix.

By RUTH MANTELL
In 2012, creativity and adaptability will be key to landing and keeping a job for many workers, as staff levels remain lean and employees are expected to respond to a wide variety of demands, experts say.

Economists don’t expect loads of job growth, but there could be opportunities in areas such as health care, professional services, retail and some manufacturing, says Harry Holzer, a public-policy professor at Georgetown University. Also, continuing churn in the labor market means that even in areas with few new jobs, there will still be openings when workers move around.

Technical knowledge and experience will be required for certain spots. “For professional services you usually need a professional degree. In health you usually need some training,” Mr. Holzer says. “Manufacturing needs some occupational training. Retail is different. It doesn’t require specific occupational training, but it does often require some interpersonal skills.”

In addition to the standard prerequisites, employers will be looking for workers who are able to quickly adapt to new responsibilities as companies respond to changing economic and industry trends. So workers should highlight their creative skills to differentiate themselves, says Lawrence Katz, an economist at Harvard University.

“Firms have so many job seekers per opening. They are going to want candidates with clear credentials, but also a little extra shine in interactive skills and creativity,” Mr. Katz says. “They are less willing in a weak labor market to take chances.”

Here are other skills experts recommend workers should pick up and enhance.

Technical literacy. It’s important for workers at a variety of levels to be familiar with some of the technical, if mundane, processes that keep organizations running smoothly.

Take the health-care industry. Providers are bringing on more technology when it comes to record keeping and billing.

“A knowledge of electronic data handling is just a really big plus. That goes for receptionists to the doctors who are becoming employees of larger hospital systems,” says Warren Bobrow, president of All About Performance, a Los Angeles-based skills-assessment consultancy.

Workers also need to be good users of social media. There’s a fine line between letting interested parties know about the latest news and bombarding them with too much information. Still, individuals shouldn’t be afraid to use networking sites such as LinkedIn to make employment connections.

Business acumen. As companies remain concerned about demand for their products and services, a wide variety of employees need to think about sales, experts say. Even those outside of marketing should care about revenue, and making sure customers are happy.

Mr. Bobrow has clients in Colorado, an orthopedic practice with more than a dozen doctors, and those doctors don’t become partners until client-satisfaction surveys are reviewed and good results are found.

“They are in a competitive marketplace because so much of their work is based on referrals,” Mr. Bobrow says. “The doctors realize that their revenue depends on all of them bringing in more patients and having patients come back.”

Being savvy about pleasing customers isn’t about spin, says Ben Dattner, a New York-based organizational psychologist and author. Rather, workers need to illustrate the advantages of their products and services to please employers dealing with an ultra-competitive environment.

“Try to get to know your customer, the market and figure out how you can put things together in a package that adds value,” Mr. Dattner says. “Law firms are increasingly recruiting professionals who [bring clients with them]. The actual practice of law is becoming commoditized to some extent, but the ability to bring in customer relationships and be flexible is what companies are increasingly looking for.”

General proficiency. Companies are looking for workers who are flexible and can take on functions in various jobs as market demands change, says Greg Barnett, director of product development at Hogan Assessment Systems, a Tulsa, Okla.-based personality-assessment and consulting firm. That is, companies want workers who are “solid organizational citizens”—quick learners who are compliant, Mr. Barnett says.

“People are being asked to do more,” he says. “There are concerns when applicants are good workers, but not people who are able to learn and change direction and change their performance.”

Dan Ryan, principal at a Nashville, Tenn.-based executive search firm, stresses the importance of project management and communication skills, which also happen to be transferrable. “The ability of people at all levels to clearly communicate is not what it used to be,” he says. People “who can do that very well can differentiate themselves.”

By Bonnie Lee
If you find yourself among the 9% who are unemployed, you probably have more important things on your mind than the tax consequences or tax breaks that may help or hinder your financial welfare. But there are some key things unemployed taxpayers need to know when looking ahead to filing your 2011 tax return next April 15.

Severance packages, accumulated sick leave, vacation and holiday pay are all taxable income. When you are terminated from your job, you may receive this additional pay and be surprised, like a friend of mine recently was, to find that it’s taxable. These amounts will have taxes deducted and will be declared on your W2.

Unemployment benefits are taxable income. I call this the “kick-you-while-you’re-down” legislation. Be ready to pay taxes on your unemployment checks.

You can ask the government to withhold 10% of the payments in order to prepay the resulting tax liability. Simply complete IRS Form W-4V and submit it to your state unemployment department, it will provide form 1099-G by Jan. 31 to show how much you received in benefits. The IRS will be looking for this number on your tax return.

Withdrawals from retirement plans and IRAs are generally taxable, and if you’re under age 59 ½ you may be subject to a 10% early-withdrawal penalty (your state may assess a penalty as well). There are some exceptions to this penalty, check out Publication 575 available at www.irs.gov.

If you roll over your retirement fund or pull money out for 60 days then redeposit the entire amount into a qualified retirement plan, you can escape the penalty.

Loans and gifts from family and friends are not taxable income. Bank loans or credit card cash advances are also not subject to tax. Money received from credit card company insurance carriers to cover your monthly payments while unemployed is not taxable income. Public assistance, welfare and food stamps, are not taxable income either.

Debt forgiveness may be subject to income tax. Because you are unemployed, you may not have the ability to repay existing debt. If a creditor writes off the balance owing or reduces your balance by forgiving some of the debt, you are liable for income taxes on the amounts forgiven. You will receive a Form 1099 by Jan. 31 indicating the amount that is taxable.

However, if you file bankruptcy none of the forgiven debt is taxable income. If you are insolvent, you may escape a tax liability to the extent of insolvency. To determine this, add up the value of all of your assets on the eve of the debt forgiveness. Then add up the value of all of your debt. Subtract the debt from the assets. If the result is a negative number, then you are insolvent to that extent.

For example, your assets total $100,000 and your debt is $120,000 resulting in insolvency of $20,000. The credit card company forgives a balance of $30,000. You would have to pay taxes on $10,000: the difference between your insolvency and the balance owing.

Tax Benefits. You may find additional tax benefits because you are unemployed. First of all, your decrease in income will likely throw you into a lower tax bracket. Because of this, you may enjoy a refund. If your earned income is low enough, you may qualify for the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), and the additional Child Tax Credit, which will result in an even bigger refund.

Also, do not forget to track job search expenses as they are deductible. If you go back to school, you may qualify for the American Opportunity Credit or an education deduction for college tuition, books, fees, and computer equipment.

And, if you are lucky enough to snag a new job and the job requires a move, you may be able to deduct moving expenses. Check out IRS Publication 521 to determine if you meet the time and distance requirements and to find out which expenses are deductible.

But don’t get excited thinking you can file your 2011 income tax return before the year is over to enjoy the refund. Not possible. First of all the forms aren’t even out yet, and secondly, the IRS wants you to wait. Who knows? You might land the job of your dreams and be getting another W2 or you may win the lotto.

If you have a tax liability from prior years and are on an installment plan, you will likely be able to put off repayment because you are unemployed. Call the IRS and let them know your situation. They can deem you “uncollectible,” giving you a year to pull it together before they begin collection efforts again. If another year passes and you are still unemployed, it will renew the “uncollectible” status. Penalties and interest will continue to accrue, but you will be relieved of the debt.

Top Managers Get Advice on Social Media, Workplace Issues From Young Workers
By LESLIE KWOH

Workplace mentors used to be older and higher up the ranks than their mentees. Not anymore.

In an effort to school senior executives in technology, social media and the latest workplace trends, many businesses are pairing upper management with younger employees in a practice known as reverse mentoring. The trend is taking off at a range of companies, from tech to advertising.

Mentors are teaching their mentees about Facebook and Twitter.
The idea is that managers can learn a thing or two about life outside the corner office. But companies say another outcome is reduced turnover among younger employees, who not only gain a sense of purpose but also a rare glimpse into the world of management and access to top-level brass.

Reverse mentoring was championed by Jack Welch when he was chief executive of General Electric Co. He ordered 500 top-level executives to reach out to people below them to learn how to use the Internet. Mr. Welch himself was matched with an employee in her 20s who taught him how to surf the Web. The younger mentors “got visibility,” he says.

Fast forward a decade and mentors are teaching their mentees about Facebook and Twitter.

At Ogilvy & Mather, world-wide managing director Spencer Osborn, 42 years old, says his younger mentors have taught him how to jazz up his Twitter posts, which had a reputation for being “very boring,” and tell him what’s hip on playlists these days. He finds the knowledge valuable in the fast-moving business of advertising and says he believes the program has also helped boost morale and retention at the firm, with many young mentors saying they feel their voices are now being heard.

The younger mentors have learned how to ask candid questions of their mentees. One young mother asked Mr. Osborn for his input on balancing her career with motherhood and child care.

Ultimately, Mr. Osborn says he envisions making Ogilvy’s reverse mentoring program global, using Skype and videoconferencing to connect mentors and mentees at the firm’s more than 450 offices.

Technology and global thinking are changing so quickly that older executives want to catch up, says Lois Zachary, president of Leadership Development Services LLC, a Phoenix-based consulting firm that helps companies implement mentoring programs. “But it also helps younger people get comfortable in a company. It promotes loyalty, it generates trust.”

That’s got younger employees at Hewlett-Packard Co. clamoring for reverse mentoring. While some workers there have already arranged their own informal reverse-mentoring relationships, the company’s Young Employee Network says it wants to formalize the process in the next few months, starting with the several thousand members who belong to the world-wide group. Logistics haven’t been ironed out yet, but they will likely involve virtual communication over the Web.

“This is a great avenue to speak with decision makers,” says Odile Kane, who sits on the network’s leadership board.

Andrew Graff, CEO of Allen & Gerritsen, a Watertown, Mass., ad agency, says he was one of the first to volunteer when his company launched a reverse mentoring program last year. Under the program, mentors and mentees meet every three weeks for 90 minutes over lunch or coffee.

The 47-year-old has since come to lean on his mentor, 23-year-old Eric Leist, for guidance on everything from the latest smartphone apps to the layout for a new office. Mr. Graff says the most important lesson he has learned is how to be flexible, including allowing employees to work unconventional hours and to check in from home or a coffee shop.

“There’s an assumption that if you’re senior, you have a lot to teach, and if you’re junior, you have a lot to learn, and I’m saying let’s challenge the status quo,” he says.

Mr. Leist says he was surprised when Mr. Graff began sharing management tips during their lunch sessions. “This allows me to take a step back and see what he sees,” says Mr. Leist.

When Cisco Systems Inc. started its Gen Y Reverse Mentoring Program nearly two years ago, “it became a badge of honor,” says Jeanette Gibson, director of social and digital marketing. “When the word got out that a few execs had a [junior] mentor, others wanted one, too,” she says.

Still, it’s not all smooth sailing. Many older workers bristle at the idea of being mentored by someone younger, especially since they usually have many more years of career experience, says Sanghamitra Chaudhuri, a senior lecturer at Ohio State University who recently co-wrote a research report on the topic.

“It’s a mind-set,” Ms. Chaudhuri says.

By RUTH MANTELL

Watching the boss let a favored colleague head home early from the office, yet again, can be galling for those left behind. Also pretty annoying: the buddy-buddy chats by the water cooler.

If you’ve noticed that a co-worker is your boss’s pet, you’re not alone. Preferential treatment leads a list of types of misconduct observed by employees, according to new data from the Corporate Executive Board, an Arlington, Va.-based business research and advisory firm.

Among almost 69,000 U.S. employees surveyed in the first half of the year, 10.2% said they had observed preferential treatment within the past 12 months. That rate compares with 9% for inappropriate behavior and 7.6% for harassment, followed by other types of misconduct.

Of note, the data capture employee perceptions of this behavior, rather than substantiated reports. “That doesn’t mean these observations are unimportant,” according to the Corporate Executive Board. “Whether employees really saw preferential treatment or not, they believe that they saw it and that belief affects their behavior.”

Preferential treatment is a broad category, describing behavior that is unequally applied to workers and can inequitably benefit recipients. At times, preferential treatment is obvious. For instance, your superior has given yet another plum assignment to a junior associate from his alma mater. But some preferential treatment is difficult to detect.

While legal remedies exist when a law has been broken, experts say there are other strategies to deal with legal preferential treatment.

Focus on Your Work
When someone else receives preferential treatment, don’t get mad, get introspective, says Joel Garfinkle, an Oakland, Calif.-based executive coach.

“When preferential treatment occurs, it’s easy for people to get jealous or resentful,” he says. “But it’s important to evaluate yourself and how you are being perceived in the company.”

Mr. Garfinkle suggests examining your weaknesses and trying to figure out how to improve and positively influence co-workers’ perceptions of your work.

Workers should avoid “hiding themselves” at work, he says. “The more details you tell your boss about your accomplishments, the less chance someone else can take credit for your efforts. When you hide yourself, you make others stand out.”

Workers should document their performance, says Tim Reed, human-resources director for U.S. sales and organization development at Ricoh Production Print Solutions. “If somebody came to me and said that so-and-so is getting preferential treatment, I’d also ask them whether they are meeting or beating expectations as a way to focus on one’s own performance,” Mr. Reed says.

Get Political
Employees who are feeling neglected can work on their relationship with the boss.

“Someone who is willing to stay late, over time…will develop a loyalty and a sense of trust with a superior that other people simply don’t have. This is performance-based 99% of the time,” says Charles Wardell, chief executive of Oak Brook, Ill.-based Witt/Kieffer, which specializes in executive searches for health-care, education and nonprofit organizations.

Mr. Garfinkle recommends recruiting advocates to tout your accomplishments and value to the company. “You can ask people within the company who have some influence and are respected to share their thoughts about your accomplishments,” he says. “If someone really appreciates the work you have done, they won’t have an issue if you ask them to share that with your boss.”

It May Be Fair
Sometimes a lack of information can lead workers to misperceive that there’s preferential treatment, says Mr. Reed. “We don’t have the context to understand 100% how someone else is being treated. We’re not in the same room with the person all day. We just don’t always know what’s going on.”

Furthermore, not all preferential treatment is necessarily unfair, experts say. “Even if you find out somebody is paid less or more, there may be legitimate nondiscriminatory reasons for the pay difference,” says Joseph Sellers, head of the civil rights and employment practice group at law firm Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll in Washington, D.C.

Sometimes, workers deserve extra perks like more flexible hours, says Thomas Anderson, an employee-relations panelist at the Society for Human Resource Management and human-resources director for Houston Community College System.

“If you have somebody who is working very diligently, very hard, maybe doing extra work on the weekend, then you would tend to give more flexibility to that person,” he says.

By DAVID REILLY

It’s a case of when, not if. At least, that is the market’s thinking on the Federal Reserve again buying more bonds to boost the economy.

But the unanswered question remains: Having failed so far to significantly reduce unemployment through previous extraordinary actions, can or should the Fed continue trying?

Certainly, revised economic projections released by the Fed following its two-day meeting, as well as comments from Chairman Ben Bernanke, seemed to lay the groundwork for further easing. The Fed now expects unemployment to be between 7.8% and 8.2% in 2013, compared with a forecast in June of 7% to 7.5%. It also released 2014 projections, which showed joblessness at 6.8% to 7.7%. Meanwhile, economic growth in 2012 is likely to come in between 2.5% to 2.9%, a far cry from the 3.3% to 3.7% expected in June.

So while inflation looks to be under control, things are “very unsatisfactory in terms of the rate of growth and unemployment,” Mr. Bernanke said. He also said that given that the moribund housing sector is “a big reason the economy is not recovering more quickly,” purchases of mortgage securities are a viable option for the Fed.

This prompted many to ask why the Fed didn’t just pull the trigger now. Indeed, Wednesday’s Fed statement saw one dove, Chicago Fed President Charles Evans, dissent over a lack of such action.

But there were good reasons for the Fed to hold its fire. The economy is growing, albeit not at a rate the Fed would like, and deflation isn’t an imminent risk. As recently as August, the Fed took the unprecedented move of saying it would keep short-term interest rates zero-bound until mid-2013; in September it moved to bring down long-term rates by shifting its holdings of Treasurys to longer-dated securities. So it was time for a pause, to see what impact those unconventional moves have.

The Fed may have also wanted to keep its powder dry as it waits to see how Europe’s sovereign-debt crisis plays out. And as it watches the possibility that deficit battles in the U.S. could lead to spending cuts that act as economic drags.

A bigger reason for hesitancy may be that the Fed is uncertain as to how much extreme monetary policy can directly influence unemployment. True, the Fed’s prior actions appear to have staved off the threat of deflation and helped arrest the collapse of the housing market.

But even as the Fed has expanded its balance sheet to about $2.8 trillion through purchases of mortgage bonds and Treasurys, unemployment has remained stuck above 9%. And while the Fed has helped through its latest actions to bring mortgage rates down to about 4%, this isn’t yet proving a tonic for housing.

So for now, wait-and-see is warranted. Though the Fed’s trigger finger will remain itchy, especially if stock markets again swoon.

By Lee Salz
There is a common belief that the primary cause of a sales team missing its revenue goal is a dry sales pipeline. If a sales team doesn’t have a healthy prospect pipeline, trouble lies ahead. Yet, there is a pipeline that is more impactful to the financial health of the business than even the sales one. That pipeline is the sales candidate pipeline.
Executives plot out the pathway for revenue goals to be achieved and correlate those with headcount on the sales team. If there are open seats, the math doesn’t work. Each member of the sales team may meet their annual revenue goal, but if you are 20% short on headcount, the department number is in jeopardy.

When salespeople get busy, the first thing thrown off their plate is prospecting. However, when salespeople stop prospecting, the pipeline eventually runs dry. The same principle holds true for sales leaders. When they stop prospecting for sales talent, they run with empty seats on their teams which means they have little chance of hitting the revenue goals.

Panicked, they rush to hire salespeople to fill seats instead of making smart choices. Further compounding the issue, once they hire the salespeople, they don’t have a plan in place to quickly get these new hires up to speed so they generate revenue fast. Some of the sales people make it, and others fail, leaving the cycle to repeat itself once again.

Not having a healthy sales candidate pipeline has a major impact on both the top and bottom-line of your business. Hold yourself accountable for maintaining a healthy sales talent pipeline just as you hold your salespeople accountable for keeping a strong prospect pipeline.

By SUE SHELLENBARGER

Most people assume being good-looking gives you a career boost. But just how much does it help?

A lot. Good-looking people charm interviewers, get hired faster, are more likely to make more sales and get more raises.

Daniel Hamermesh, an economics professor at the University of Texas in Austin, measures out the benefits in his book, “Beauty Pays: Why Attractive People Are More Successful.”

According to his research, attractive people are likely to earn an average of 3% to 4% more than a person with below-average looks. That adds up to $230,000 more over a lifetime for the typical good-looking person, Dr. Hamermesh estimates. Even an average-looking worker is likely to make $140,000 more over a lifetime than an ugly worker.

We asked Dr. Hamermesh to discuss his findings. Edited excerpts follow:

WSJ: You show that good looks are even more influential for men’s earnings than for women’s. Why do men’s good looks pay off more?

Mr. Hamermesh: There are two reasons. First, not as many women work for pay as men. (The Bureau of Labor Statistics says just 59% of adult women hold paying jobs in the workforce, compared with 73% of men.) If you are unattractive and you know you are going to be penalized for that, and if you have an option to stay out of the job market, you as a woman may choose not to bear that pain. Also, women in general are paid less than men; part of it is that they channel themselves into different occupations, and part of it is pure discrimination.

WSJ: What about the argument that better-looking people tend to sell more products or attract more new customers?

Mr. Hamermesh: Yes, [research] shows that happens. Better-looking workers bring in more for the employers, just as a more intelligent worker will. Paying them more is still a form of discrimination, but their attractiveness also tends to raise their productivity. That’s what makes it so difficult. I would argue that this is discrimination. But others would argue that it’s simply an indulgence of people’s tastes and preferences.

WSJ: If you are unattractive, what can you do to improve your odds of getting paid well?

Mr. Hamermesh: Looks are only one of many things that affect how much we earn, including education, age, health, company size and so on. But to your question: First, don’t go into an occupation where looks matter a lot. Don’t be a TV broadcaster; be a radio broadcaster. Don’t be a movie actor. Most important, go into fields that you enjoy, and that you have an advantage in doing. Accentuate your strengths, and try to avoid those things where you are relatively disadvantaged.

WSJ: Are there examples of occupations where you don’t have to be beautiful?

Mr. Hamermesh: You would think you could find examples of occupations where being unattractive wouldn’t hurt you at all. But in every one I have looked at, being better looking helps you. For example, you wouldn’t think it would matter much if you are teaching in college. But based on my studies, better-looking [professors] are more appreciated by their students. The only counter-example I’ve seen is a study showing that if you [commit] armed robbery or theft, it pays to be uglier. The white-collar criminals are more successful if they are better-looking, but for crimes involving force, I’d rather be an ugly robber because I’d scare the guys and they’d give me their money faster.

WSJ: Isn’t this unfair?

Mr. Hamermesh: Yes.

WSJ: Should something be done about it?

Mr. Hamermesh: It’s a complicated issue. On one hand, I don’t view this as very different from other forms of discrimination, whether it is based on race, gender or certainly disability; discrimination based on disability is analogous. Given that similarity, I find it very hard to oppose offering protections and trying to remove this kind of discrimination. On the other hand, we may not want the government to get involved, because if officials intervene on behalf of unattractive people, they will end up doing less for other groups which are regarded as more deserving.

WSJ: So what constitutes beauty?

Mr. Hamermesh: There is no unique view about beauty – no unique standard. But most beholders view beauty similarly. Some people are consistently regarded as above-average or even beautiful, while others are generally regarded as plain or even downright homely.

WSJ: For those of us who are beauty-challenged, what about plastic surgery?

Mr. Hamermesh: I know of only one serious study on that, and that research suggests it isn’t a good investment. While looks can be altered by clothing, cosmetics and other short-term investments, the effects of these improvements are minor. We are generally stuck with what nature has given us in the way of looks. Surgery pays back less than $1 for every $1 spent. But it might make you feel better

The U.S. Department of Labor issued one of its better jobs reports this morning, showing job growth in September was better than what economists expected, and revising upward its zero growth August numbers. The monthly employment report also showed improvement in hourly earnings large enough to offset the loss in August.

American non-farm payrolls grew by 103,000 jobs last month and by 57,000 jobs in August. The Labor Department also revised up its July jobs numbers from 85,000 to 127,000. Economists predicted September’s number would come in closer to 60,000.

Certainly a positive, the numbers weren’t enough to make a dent in the ranks of the unemployed, leaving the unemployment rate at 9.1 percent. It has hovered there since April.

A big part of the September increase in the jobs count was due to the return to work of some 45,000 Verizon employees who were on strike in August. Even so, the jobs report showed the private sector added 92,000 after accounting for the returning strikers.

Job growth was strongest in healthcare, which added 44,000 positions; construction grew by 26,000; and, retailers added 13,600. The professional and technical category increased by 48,000 jobs, fueled largely by increases in IT, management, accounting, and technical services. Staffing and related services added almost 24,000 jobs.

Government was the biggest loser as it has been for months, shedding 34,000 jobs in September, while manufacturing cut 13,000 positions.

The report showed little appetite in the private sector for aggressive hiring. Since April, the Labor Department pointed out, monthly job growth has averaged 72,000 positions. In the seven months prior, the average was 161,000.

“Given the complete lack of clarity as to what the economic outlook will be and the uncertainty about what’s going on in Europe and the political paralysis in Washington,” said Bernard Baumohl, chief economist at the Economic Outlook Group, “there is not much of an economic justification for employers to suddenly ramp up hiring.”

The indices included in the chart accompanying this post all point to tepid improvement. The Monster Employment Index is up over last year, but only by 7 percent. And it has barely budged since April.

According to the Labor Department, there are 14 million Americans out of work. A year ago, 14.7 million were out of work. Another 9.3 million are underemployed, working part-time jobs because they can’t find other work. That was a jump of 450,000 since August. A year ago in September, there were 9.5 million underemployed workers.

In addition, 2.5 million are out of work and want a job, but didn’t fit the criteria to be counted as officially unemployed. That number is virtually unchanged since September 2010.

Said John Challenger, CEO of the global outplacement firm, Challenger, Gray & Christmas, “The alternative measure of unemployment, which takes into account people who have stopped looking for work, but still want a job, as well as those working part-time because full-time work is unavailable, increased to 16.5 percent. That figure has been on the rise from a recent low of 15.8 percent in May. ”

Even the 4-cent-an-hour increase in average hourly payrolls, better than a decrease to be sure, just covers the 4-cent hourly decrease reported for August. Over the past 12 months, average hourly earnings have increased by 1.9 percent, the Labor Department reported.

By IAN SHERR And MATT JARZEMSKY

Apple Inc. invited reporters to an iPhone-related event Oct. 4, setting the stage for the widely anticipated launch of its latest smartphone.

On Tuesday, Apple sent reporters an email with the message, “Let’s talk iPhone,” inviting them to an event at its Cupertino, Calif., headquarters. Apple has traditionally held an event in the early fall to update iPod products, as well as its iTunes digital music jukebox software.

Apple shares recently were up $2.14 at $405.31.

“The company will likely announce a redesigned iPhone 5 with a larger screen and thinner form-factor for $199/$299, and may drop the iPhone 4 to $99, possibly with slightly upgraded components and a new name, iPhone 4S,” Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster said in a note Tuesday.

He added that the invitation’s phrase of “Let’s talk iPhone” may “refer to new speech-based features for the iPhone.”

Mr. Munster, who rates Apple at outperform with a $607 price target, estimates sales of 25 million iPhones in the December quarter. He noted that demand from Verizon Wireless subscribers could be strong because iPhone 4 had been available on other carriers for more than six months when the carrier got it in February.

The event next week follows what analysts say has been a blowout quarter for Apple’s iPhone 4. The device, which was released in June 2010, has been a hit with consumers despite initial customer complaints that the device’s antenna was prone to malfunctioning when held a certain way.

Overall, the iPhone has helped to drive Apple’s revenue and profit growth to record levels and has become the best-selling smartphone in the world.

Despite its high ranking, however, the iPhone’s sales pale in comparison to the mountain of devices sold around the world that are powered by Google Inc.’s Android operating system. The software, which powers phones made by Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., HTC Corp. and Dell Inc., is used by 43% of U.S. smartphone subscribers, according to the latest surveys by Nielsen. The iPhone, by comparison, represents 28%.

Still, analysts expect the new iPhone will likely follow a similar path of success as its predecessor, drawing enthusiastic customers to its stores on its release day.

“We believe a refreshed iPhone 5 will boast enough physical improvements to drive another strong adoption cycle,” UBS analyst Maynard Um wrote in a note shortly after the invitation was sent. He added that demand for the phone had likely built up because Apple took 16 months to refresh the line rather than the typical 12 months.

Mr. Um has a buy rating on Apple shares and a $510 price target. While Apple’s next-generation iPhone is expected to be a success with customers, the device’s arrival comes at an unusual time for the company. Steve Jobs, Apple’s co-founder and leader, stepped down on Aug. 24 after a prolonged medical leave for an undisclosed illness.

Mr. Jobs, a pancreatic cancer survivor, was succeeded by Tim Cook, then the company’s chief operating officer. Mr. Cook is widely respected among his peers in the industry and employees who report to him. Several Apple employees say the company has not changed since Mr. Cook took the helm, and that the enthusiasm among employees remains strong.

The event also comes as interest in the company’s iPod continues to wane.

Released in 2001, the digital music player became a centerpiece of Apple’s renaissance, powering the company’s surge last decade. Recently, however, its sales have been falling. Apple said iPod unit sales fell by a fifth in its third quarter when compared with the same time a year ago.

Apple’s invitation suggests that the iPod will take a back seat to the iPhone at the event, underscoring a shift in customer’s interest of Apple’s products.