Daily stuff that just bothers me

I am switching from Pepsi to Coke

Well, if this does not smack of reverse discrimination... or even plan out discrimination, then I do not what does.

I work in the outsourcing fiels. I receive a magazine called Global Services which is actually pretty good. Must more content and much fewer annoying ads than other industry magazines.

I was reading an article and found it interesting. It's a story about Pepsi, their new Indian woman CEO, and diversity in general at Pepsi.

The link to the story:

http://globalservicesmedia.com/article/showArticle.jhtml?articleId=193402723&pgno=1

I took an excerpt from the story and pasted it below. Particularly troubling (to me at least) info is in bold. If you are a white male at Pepsi, you do not stand a chance of being promoted, even if you were actually hired. It almost sounds like reverse discrimination where manages are rewarded for hiring and promoting women and minorities. The manage would think "Hmm, Fred, Barney, and Wilma all are good workers and Fred is a little better but, I get more money in my bonus if I promote Wilma."

A RAINBOW OF EXPECTATIONS
In a fiercely competitive marketplace, no achievement is ever by chance. When Pepsi outpaced Coke in market capitalization in December 2005 for the very first time in its 108-year rivalry, it reflected the company’s long term strategic planning. A large element of that strategy involved a steadfast focus on developing its human resources.
The three pillars of Pepsi’s HR strategy were to focus on recruiting more women, develop a diverse workforce at every level and put in place a succession plan to smoothly handle transition.

When Indra Nooyi took over as the first woman CEO of PepsiCo, it was the culmination of a long process at Pepsi to groom women for the top position. The impact of the Pepsi culture was not limited to the company, as several other powerful women spent much of their careers at PepsiCo, including Brenda Barnes, CEO of Sara Lee, and Irene Rosenfeld, CEO at Kraft Foods.

Reinemund’s hand-over to Nooyi was as smooth as the transition to Reinemund from his predecessor, Roger Enrico. This is against the current market trend where boards are under pressure to dismiss chief executives abruptly and forced hire from outside.

Nooyi has been groomed for the top job, along with her main rival, Michael White, Head of PepsiCo’s international operations, after joining from ABB, an engineering firm, in 1994.

That PepsiCo has appointed a woman to its top job is an even bigger anomaly. According to Catalyst, which conducts employment research, only 16% of the corporate officers of Fortune 500 firms are women, although women comprise half of the managers and other professionals in the American workforce.

Since 2001, then CEO Reinemund established an aggressive hiring and promotion plan that required half of Pepsi’s workforce to be women or minorities. The company’s bonus structure also rewarded managers on their ability to hire and retain such talent. Today 25% of Pepsi’s managers are women, up from 22% four years ago and six out of Pepsi’s top 12 executives are women or minorities. One reason given for this aggressive push to diversify Pepsi’s leadership is to better understand the tastes of new consumers as the business continues to expand globally. Also women control much of the household expenditure.

PepsiCo’s executives demonstrate their commitment to diversity by holding themselves accountable. Each of the CEO’s direct reports is responsible for the growth and development of a different group of employees. For instance, one executive partners with black employees and another one with women and so on. These executives hold themselves accountable for understanding the workplace issues the diverse employee populations face. They work to identify the key talented individuals in the groups and often serve as their “voice” to the rest of the executive committee.

No smoking = no $$

I live in the Chicago area, and like most cities, Chicago is working on putting in place more and more restrictions on smoking. No smoking in restrautns, no smoking in bars, no smoking outside. Yes, outside.... I am not making this shit up. Yet, at the same time, everytime these city politicans/crooks needs more money, they add tax onto cigarette sales.

So, in one hand, you have a bunch of assholes trying to restrict smoking and thus, limiting smoking and the consumption of cigarettes. On the other hand, you have the same bunch of assholes counting on tax revenues from the sale of cigarettes to fund their next pay raise.

These two actions seem somewhat multually exclusive. I mean, not only has the cost of a pack of cigarettes gotten so high in Chicago, ($7 in some places), that many people go to the surrounding surburbs to buy cigarettes. They usually pick up a few packs of smokes while they are at the suburban gas station buying gas and escaping the higher city gas tax. (a whole nother story).

The city expects to make money off of selling cigarettes yet, is passing laws to prevent people from smoking and thus, needing to buy cigarettes, which reduces the amount of money they can get from the sale of cigarettes.

I am not a smoker, and definitly not one of these anti-smoking nazi's. If someone wants to smoke, let 'em. A restraunt does not have to be NO SMOKING. A smoking section (with better air flow and filtration maybe) is more than enough. And, as far as bars go, I expect to see smoking at a bar. No smoking in a bar is retarted. Soon, you will not allow drinking in a bar.

All this from the same city that already has a ban on driving and talking on a cell phone, the same city that is trying to make illegal the sale of Foie Gras, or fattened duck liver because itis cruel to the ducks, and who also kicked around the idea of making french fries illegal because they are bad for you.

The only thing bad for US is Greedy-Ass, Knee-Jerk reaction, corrupt, ignorant, scumbag politicians who are taking away from us every last freedom, a little bit at a time. Pretty soon, it will be only legal to die and pay taxes, and I am not sure about the dying part.