Job Promotions

Struggling to retain enough officers to lead its forces, the Army has begun to dramatically increase the number of soldiers it promotes, raising fears within the service that wartime strains are diluting the quality of the officer corps. Last year, the Army promoted 97% of all eligible captains to the rank of major, Pentagon data show. That was up from a historical average of 70% to 80%.

The company behind the Improv comedy club chain has sued its Internet marketing promoter, accusing him of using the Improv brand's "good will" to promote his own company and a planned chain of competing clubs. Improv West Associates alleges in the lawsuit that Robert Hartmann used his job as Improv's marketing officer to promote "independent businesses he was building on the back of the Improv brand. " Those businesses include a planned chain of comedy clubs called Levity Live, the lawsuit alleged.

Three people from the same small office were all up for a single promotion. Peers and co-workers, the three inhabited that nebulous land far past acquaintance but somewhere short of soul mate. The new job would turn one of these three equals into the others' boss. And the only thing certain beyond that one fact was what the decision would do to the office dynamic: change it completely, and not necessarily for the best. Jeff was considered the biggest flight risk; no promotion, and he'd be gone.

WASHINGTON — With the U.S. unemployment rate stubbornly above 9%, Commerce Secretary Gary Locke unveiled an initiative Wednesday to encourage U.S. and foreign companies to create more jobs in the United States. Building on previous U.S. government efforts to attract foreign investment, the SelectUSA initiative will help U.S. states deal with federal regulations that may discourage an overseas company from investing in the United States or prompt a U.S. firm to look abroad, senior Commerce Department officials said.

Your boss criticizes you, assigns you scut work and never shares the inside tips that might help you get ahead faster. It's obvious that your boss probably doesn't like you, but what she may not be admitting--even to herself--is the real reason she is making your life so difficult.

Before affirmative action, there was merit. Or so the argument goes. You were admitted to college, hired for a job and promoted through the ranks not because you belonged to a disadvantaged racial or ethnic group but because you deserved it, by dint of hard work, superior effort and proven good results. Affirmative action, its opponents lament, subverted that most American of principles: that merit--not favor--is the fuel that propels you upward through the system.

When Anheuser-Busch executives go to the firm's headquarters in St. Louis, an airport limo isn't always enough. The preferred mode of transportation: the company helicopter. At the McKinsey & Co. consulting firm, associate partners just want to be consulted on the furniture that goes in their offices. Across the nation, middle managers--often feeling overworked and under-appreciated--are looking for tangible evidence beyond a paycheck that their companies love them, career authorities say.

In the world of work, flattery will get you everywhere, according to a recent study. Employees who flatter their bosses tend to receive better evaluations and move more easily up the corporate ladder, whether they deserve to or not, said Gerald Ferris, management professor at Texas A&M University. "Based on what we have found, it looks to be the case that political skills are highly reinforced out there in the workplace. It is the politically astute that are more often promoted," Ferris said.

Following a similar finding last month for Latino officers, California fair employment officials accused the Los Angeles Police Department on Wednesday of discriminating against black police officers in the way that they are promoted, granted raises and moved up to coveted job assignments.

Robert Nakasone grew up as one of a handful of Asian Americans in the San Fernando Valley community of of Tujunga. That, he says, forced him to assimilate early and prepared him for the corporate world. But as he moved up the ladder at Toys R Us, the third-generation Japanese American also kept a reminder of his family's history--a brown government blanket issued to his mother at an Idaho internment camp during World War II.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger named his next, and potentially last, finance director Monday, filling a post that is crucial to shaping California's deficit-plagued budget during the governor's final year in office. Ana Matosantos, currently in the finance department's No. 2 position, will take the reins as Schwarzenegger's chief budget writer Dec. 31, with California facing an estimated $20.7-billion deficit through June 2011. That yawning gap, combined with Schwarzenegger's lame-duck status, makes the job less appealing than in more flush times.

Less than a week after taking over the Los Angeles Police Department, Chief Charlie Beck announced a shake-up in the department's command staff, including the demotion of two of the LAPD's highest-ranking officials and promotion of several others. Beck, who was confirmed as chief by the City Council last Tuesday, promoted Deputy Chief Michel Moore to become one of the LAPD's three assistant chiefs and assigned him to a newly created post in charge of Special Services, according to an announcement released Monday.

Pope Benedict XVI was forced to cancel the promotion of a conservative Austrian priest whose appointment had polarized the Roman Catholic Church. The Vatican said the pope had waived Father Gerhard Maria Wagner from his obligation under church law to accept the promotion to auxiliary bishop of Linz, effectively revoking the appointment. Critics have attacked Wagner for numerous comments, including one that Hurricane Katrina in 2005 was God's way of punishing the city of New Orleans for its sins.

As Helen Jo worked her way to the front of the room to receive her new badge last week, a stream of colleagues, family and friends crowded and cheered around the freshly promoted deputy chief -- the first woman and the first Asian American to achieve such a rank in the Los Angeles County Fire Department. Jo, who assumed her new position in April, joined the Fire Department in 1998 as a budget officer and became chief of the financial management division in 2002.

Irvine officials have tapped Michael Ellzey, a recently hired deputy executive, to be promoted to top administrator of the Orange County Great Park. Ellzey was promoted Thursday during a closed-door meeting of an executive search committee. The decision has yet to be approved by the park's governing board.

Seeking to spread the workload after the abrupt departure of two top assistants, acting Orange County Sheriff Jack Anderson on Tuesday temporarily elevated a captain and a civilian to his command staff. Capt. John B. Davis, who was overseeing the department's Central Jail Complex, will be in charge of investigations, filling the vacancy left when Assistant Sheriff Steve Bishop retired last week.

Women advanced further in America's corporate hierarchy this last year, chipping away at the "glass ceiling" that has limited their executive aspirations, Working Mother said in a survey released Monday. The magazine's seventh annual survey of the best companies for working mothers also shows that more employers have expanded efforts to enhance the workplace for parents despite the recessionary belt-tightening that has affected many businesses.

The Los Angeles Civil Service Commission Friday threwt the results of an oral examination for the police commander position after one applicant acnowledged that he knew one of the questions in advance. The commission will issue a new test for the 36 Los Angeles Police Department captains who are applying for advancement. Apparently the captain who knew of the question in advance discussed the test with others who had taken the oral examination, according to a commission analyst.

Rich Gonzalez has everything he needs to fulfill his dream of becoming a major league umpire. He has the skills, the character, the intelligence, the passion. "It's what I want to do with my life," he says. What he may never get, however, is the opportunity. That's because the big league umpire roster has only slightly more turnover than the U.S. Supreme Court. In fact, between 2004 and last season the Supreme Court actually got more new justices (two) than baseball did new umpires (one).

Vice President Dick Cheney blocked the promotion of a Justice Department official who had raised questions about the legality of a secret administration surveillance plan during an unusual standoff with the White House in 2004, Senate investigators were told Wednesday.