There’s an interesting battle brewing between HP and Oracle regarding Mark Hurd, who was recently hired by Oracle after he was recently ousted as CEO by HP’s board following an expense and sexual harassment scandal. Now, HP is suing Hurd regarding Hurd’s new position at Oracle.

Hewlett-Packard Co. is suing Mark Hurd, the chief executive it ousted last month, to stop him from taking a top job at rival Oracle Corp.

The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in a California state court, came a day after Oracle hired Hurd as co-president to help lead the database software maker’s efforts to lure business away from HP. HP claims that Hurd won’t be able to perform his job at Oracle without spilling HP’s trade secrets and violating a confidentiality agreement.

This type of complaint isn’t unusual in the technology world, nor is the confidentiality agreement that Hurd had signed as part of a severance package from HP that could top $40 million.

Technology companies often require such agreements because workers walk out the door with valuable technical information.

But the stakes are higher with Hurd than a rank-and-file employee, and the lawsuit may delay when Hurd could start his new job.

HP may have a valid claim, but you have to wonder why they wouldn’t have an even more explicit non-competition agreement. It sounds like they might have a case surrounding trade secrets and confidentiality, but for $40 million you would think they would have something more concrete.

This should be a lesson to any company who provides VERY lucrative severance packages – get something in return!

Whenever companies start hiring freely again, job-seekers with specialized skills and education will have plenty of good opportunities. Others will face a choice: Take a job with low pay – or none at all.

Job creation will likely remain weak for months or even years. But once employers do step up hiring, some economists expect job openings to fall mainly into two categories of roughly equal numbers:

_ Professional fields with higher pay. Think lawyers, research scientists and software engineers.

_ Lower-skill and lower-paying jobs, like home health care aides and store clerks.

And those in between? Their outlook is bleaker. Economists foresee fewer moderately paid factory supervisors, postal workers and office administrators.

This has been going on for years, and it’s only going to get worse. You can’t rely on walking into a factory and getting a well-paying job. Those days are gone.

The Seattle Times has a story about how flight attendants get most of the brunt of customer anger over things like baggage fees and other stresses of flying.

Forbes discusses how to avoid have a Steven Slater incident in your own organization.

Ohio.com has a story explaining how to resist the urge to have a Steven Slater moment.

Yes, the whole incident has been a circus, but we’re seeing some thoughtful analysis and advice coming out of what is becoming a teachable moment.

The high unemployment rate continues to have an adverse affect even on those who still have jobs.

The furloughs that popped up during the recession are being replaced by a highly unusual tactic: actual cuts in pay.

Local and state governments, as well as some companies, are squeezing their employees to work the same amount for less money in cost-saving measures that are often described as a last-ditch effort to avoid layoffs.

A new report on Tuesday showed a slight dip in overall wages and salaries in June, caused partly by employees working fewer hours.

Though average hourly pay is still higher than when the recession began, the new wage rollbacks feed worries that the economy has weakened and could even be at risk of deflation. That is when the prices of goods and assets fall and people withhold spending as they wait for prices to drop further, a familiar idea to those following the recent housing market.

When it comes to public jobs, many of these cuts may be justified, as we’ve seen many examples of inefficiencies in the public sector. In that sense some of these adjustments are good for the overall economy in the long run.

That said, many of these cuts are painful, and this won’t help get the economy moving in the short term.

Early retirement is no longer the goal of most workers. Even retirement at age 65 now seems unattainable to many people. The majority of Americans now expect to work until age 65 or later.

The number of Americans planning to retire before age 65 has dropped from 50 percent in 1996 to 29 percent today, according to a recent Gallup survey of 1,020 adults. Meanwhile the proportion of people planning to work until after age 65 has increased steadily from 15 percent in 1996 to 34 percent this year. This is the first time in the 15-year-old survey that more current workers planned to retire after age 65 than before it. Another 27 percent of current employees plan to retire exactly at age 65.

Many of the reasons are financial. The stock market correction over the past several years following the financial crisis certainly had an effect. Even without the crisis many Americans had done a poor job of saving for retirement.

At the other end of the spectrum, many people just like their careers and want to stay active in their jobs. Those are the good stories.

One issue that may change involves health care. Many continue to work until 65 in order to keep their group health insurance. With the new health care reform bill, perhaps it will easier for many to retire early.

Now, you have to take into account the agenda at Forbes. While the business magazine is excellent, the ideological bent is very clear. The publication favors free markets and loathes taxes. While you would expect that from most business writers and publications, Forbes sometimes takes that to an extreme.

That said, they often make compelling arguments when presenting cases where business development is hindered by taxes and regulation, and California has become the poster-child for many of these problems.

In one provocative article, a Forbes writer argues that California is becoming more like France.

A friend of mine who is a successful venture capitalist shared a depressing observation over dinner recently: “California is like France,” he said. “I try not to hire here, and I certainly would not launch a company here. But the wine is good.”

*******

Listen up Sacramento, your tax base is moving elsewhere.

“California has competition,” says Mehta. This is starting to show. A report recently released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows Silicon Valley lagging. Tech employment fell nearly 17% between 2001 and 2008, while nationally those types of jobs grew 4%. Silicon Valley’s 11.8% unemployment level is higher than the nation’s.

“It’s a combination of taxes and talent,” says Mehta. “Taxes and expenses here are high, and we can get the talent or move it elsewhere. This wasn’t the case 10 years ago.”

Another article details how employers like McAfee are moving employees outside the state.

The dysfunctional nature of California politics is now catching up to the state. Meanwhile, other states are seizing the opportunity with incentives and other aggressive tactics to brings in jobs. Will California wake up?

As a kid, Trump was obsessed with baseball to the exclusion of almost everything else so his parents had to send him to the New York Military Academy to sort him out. It worked and Trump pulled up his socks, graduating from one of the best business schools in the country, the Wharton School of business at the University of Pennsylvania. After an apprenticeship with his father, a successful real estate developer, Trump was ready to take off on his own. Trump has always thought big and told Millionaire Magazine “Always do something that you like, always do something that you enjoy doing, or you will never be successful. You will never be good at it,” However, it is Trump’s success in overcoming his gigantic problems that make him truly unique.

Trump made a multibillion dollar fortune only to see most of it wiped out in the real estate market crash. He was staring down the brink of the precipice with total debts of over $9.2 billion. His superlative negotiating skills and his astute business moves enabled him to recover. In his own words: “It’s always a great asset to be able to get along with people.” Over the years, despite some very tricky deals, I’ve generally been able to get along with people. You always have to let the other side think that they are also getting something out of the transaction. And, it’s often true that the best deals are the ones that everybody benefits from.”

Trump would be a winner anywhere, but he happened to choose the real estate business. He was also a master at using debt and keeping his options open. Certainly, one lesson you can learn from him on using debt is to investigate the use of elastic loans.

Hopefully, we can help some of you who are looking for work as we discuss career and job issues and tips. We’ll also provide information for people who want to plan their careers or possibly change careers, and for those of you who want to start a business or do a better job of managing your business or department.

This site will be about maximizing the enjoyment and rewards you get out of the career you choose, or the career or job you deem necessary under your current circumstances.

We always welcome feedback, so please let us know your thoughts.