Worcester Business Journal

28 Worcester Business Journal • December 7, 2015 www.wbjournal.com Best Advertising Agency Best Web Design Firm Proud Winner of Two 2015 Best of Business Awards Join the WBJ's LinkedIn discussion group by scanning the code to the left on your smartphone. To scan the code, you need the NeoReader. Visit get.neoreader.com to download it onto your phone. Want to participate in the conversation? F L A S H P O L L T A L K B A C K IMPROVE PUBLIC TRANSIT A report calling for improved public transit said a 1-percent decrease in the growth rate of driving miles would improve overall quality of life and result in an aggregate $20.1 billion in savings by 2030. "I'm in favor of mass transit but I will not support anymore work until we bring the abuse of costs down. Why do all these construction jobs require union scale salaries? Open the work out the all competitors at lowest cost, highest technical." WBJournal.com commenter Padraig SOLAR INCREASE ON HOLD The House and Senate moved into their winter recesses without a deal to raise caps on solar power that advocates say are hindering solar development across the state. "The state's 1600 MW installed solar goal is an incredibly modest but needed milestone towards a 21st century energy system; it would provide roughly 3-4% of current total state electricity consumption….We have to a better job of putting things in serious perspective and accurate scale if we want to transform our energy system through renewables." WBJournal.com commenter mikehcarroll Should workers have to disclose their social media information to employers? Workers should have social media protection T he Massachusetts legislature recently voted to add protections that would prevent employers or educational institutions from requiring that students or prospective workers disclose their social media account information. COMMENTS: I would rather research them without disclosing that I am doing so, this way they won't delete and hide things before they are hired, or while they are employed. Most employees aren't savvy enough to lock down their social media to keep the employer out. If companies are concerned about their employees social life, they can set the company's own social parameters to be notified if the company name/ employees were negatively mentioned on a social network. Any other disclosure should be optional or it would be against Freedom of Speech. ABSOLUTELY NOT. There is a limit to big brother watching! 5% No. Privacy must be protected. 53% No. Employees can do what they want in their free time. 34% T his holiday season, Quiet Logistics will use robots to augment its 550 seasonal employees at its Devens warehouse. The company that ships for e-commerce companies has said that it will transition to full automation at the location. Companies should strive for more automation This most alarming trend continues, eliminating jobs, particularly positions that allow workers with less than a college education to make a living. Business and government "leaders" There are many functions where a robot will perform a task better and those jobs are generally low paying and tedious. The expansion of robots/automation will also create better jobs, which will be necessary to build and maintain the automation systems. Yes. If it reduces cost. 21% Yes. Companies need to know what their employees are saying publicly. 8% Yes. It is a way to evaluate employees. Yes. If it increases accuracy and efficiency. 41% No. Companies should maintain a human employee base. 38% Should companies strive to switch to full automation? We'll see more of this due to higher cost of health insurance.

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