By Justine Griffin for the Tampa Bay Times
A recent New York Times report about the workplace culture of online retail giant Amazon sparked intense debate about the Seattle-based company’s cultlike enterprise.
Tag Archives: business journalism
As Tampa Bay contractors seek skilled workers, program trains women in construction
By Justine Griffin for the Tampa Bay Times
Blanca Caudillo is good at math.
She’s the first to raise her hand with an answer in a carpentry class at the Helen Gordon Davis Centre for Women in Tampa. She lights up with a smile every time she’s right.
Caudillo recently separated from her husband. On a desperate quest to find a job, she found the Women Building Futures program, a free 10-week training course hosted by the center in Hillsborough County that teaches women the skills to work in construction. She is one of 40 women who make up the program’s inaugural class, which began last month.
“Right after my husband left, everything started falling apart. My a/c broke, my car started breaking down,” said Caudillo, who lives in Plant City. It’s tough to afford these costly repairs. “I need to learn to do these things for myself.”
The construction classes aren’t easy, Caudillo said, but she’s learning. On Tuesday night, she spent three hours building the wood frame of a wall. She had to calculate and measure the proper distances to include a window and a door. The week before, she learned how to hang dry wall.
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Tampa Bay tries to stand out in wave of lists and rankings
By Justine Griffin for the Tampa Bay Times
We are a nation of lists and rankings.
Top places to retire. Top party spots. Best beaches. Best cities for runners. Worst cities for runners. Top dining destinations. Best place to launch a business. Most romantic cities. Least romantic cities. Best cities to buy a home. Top cities for dogs. America’s sweatiest cities. (No joke; Tampa, by the way, is tops).
Lists and rankings are everywhere — our inboxes, our Facebook feeds, on nearly every website we visit.
They often include Tampa Bay cities. St. Petersburg is No. 1 for millennials in Florida. Tampa is the nation’s second-best beer town. Clearwater Beach has a bevy of “best beach” titles.
And on and on. Enough already, right?
“There’s a new list out every minute, it seems,” said Patrick Harrison, vice president of marketing and communication for Visit Tampa Bay, the tourism marketing arm of Hillsborough County. “Once the Internet took off, lists took over as the first true form of clickbait, but now you’re seeing them from lesser-known websites and media outlets.”
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Stores like Bass Pro Shops and Restoration Hardware add restaurants and bars
By Justine Griffin for the Tampa Bay Times
How about a glass of wine to celebrate the $11,230 purchase of a Parisian burnham leather recliner from Restoration Hardware?
Publix among companies challenged to retain millennial workers
By Justine Griffin for the Tampa Bay Times
For years, Publix Super Markets captured accolade after accolade for being one of the best places to work in the United States.
After all, the Lakeland-based grocery chain makes a contribution to each employee’s retirement account in the form of Publix stock every year. With more than 177,000 employees in six states, nearly 10,000 have worked for the company for 20 years or more, which is significant for a company of its size. Publix keeps a running, competitive list of the top 200 employees with at least 40 years logged with the company.
But like many other companies, Publix is struggling to come up with new ways to keep the millennial generation engaged — and employed for the longer term.
“Millennials lived through the economic crisis in 2007 and beyond. They saw their parents and other family members get laid off, so their perception of loyalty is very different,” said Moez Limayem, dean of the University of South Florida’s Muma College of Business. “They expect companies to keep them engaged, and if they’re not getting that, they’ll leave.”
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