Job Security

A key challenge for employees is to find meaning and satisfaction in the workplace, even when the dollars and the promotions are not available. Our own research suggests that true satisfaction results when a worker's skills, interests and values fit the demands of the job. We'd like to provide an opportunity for you to begin looking at what you truly value, and to begin considering how to put as much of it as possible into your working life.

SAN DIEGO -- Bud Black was a member of Mike Scioscia's original coaching staff with the Angels. Three of those coaches ascended to managerial jobs - Black with the San Diego Padres, Joe Maddon with the Tampa Bay Rays and Ron Roenicke with the Milwaukee Brewers. Never in Scioscia's 13 years had one of his coaches left involuntarily - until this week, that is. Hitting instructor Mickey Hatcher , another of Scioscia's original coaches, was fired by General Manager Jerry Dipoto . "Your initial reaction is surprise," Black said.

SAN DIEGO -- Bud Black was a member of Mike Scioscia's original coaching staff with the Angels. Three of those coaches ascended to managerial jobs - Black with the San Diego Padres, Joe Maddon with the Tampa Bay Rays and Ron Roenicke with the Milwaukee Brewers. Never in Scioscia's 13 years had one of his coaches left involuntarily - until this week, that is. Hitting instructor Mickey Hatcher , another of Scioscia's original coaches, was fired by General Manager Jerry Dipoto . "Your initial reaction is surprise," Black said.

As part of their normal routine, the Angels held a hitters' meeting Monday before opening a three-game series against the Minnesota Twins. Hitting coach Mickey Hatcher said he didn't do much talking. Instead, Albert Pujols spoke of enduring team losing streaks and cold hitting spells and still winning a World Series. Someone else spoke about how the team should continue an approach that a day earlier produced more sharply hit balls, but not any runs. "The positive things that are being said … this clubhouse is not separating, it's bonding more than ever," Hatcher said.

Re job security: Here's a suggestion for college entrants looking for a rapidly expanding, recession-proof career field with a bright future--correctional facility management. KEN BASH Malibu

Three managers have already been replaced this season and you can bet a few more will be looking for jobs this winter. But while some managers are on a hot seat, others are sitting on a throne with job security for the foreseeable future. Staff writer Kevin Baxter takes a look at the 15 safest and five most vulnerable managers in baseball: Safe at home Mike Scioscia, Angels; Has more control than any manager in baseball — and seven seasons left on his contract. Terry Francona, Boston; His Red Sox clubs average more than 93 wins, so the team will pick up contract options the next two years.

The United Auto Workers will demand that General Motors Corp. provide a job to every active and laid-off union member during the next three-year contract, according to a bargaining blueprint. The 91-page document, a copy of which was obtained Monday by Associated Press, lays out details of union demands for its negotiations covering about 272,000 hourly employees at the world's largest auto maker. Talks open June 23. The current contract, as well as pacts at Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler Corp.

Ford Motor Co. on Thursday gave the United Auto Workers union its first contract proposal since bargaining began in late July, but negotiators on both sides remained close-mouthed about its contents. Stanley J. Surma, Ford's chief negotiator, said the six-page proposal recognized that a new contract must address the union's chief concern of job security but didn't include concrete mechanisms for protecting workers.

Morton Bahr, the leader of the Communications Workers of America, which represents 150,000 of American Telephone & Telegraph's employees, says he would like to go back to the way things were before the AT&T breakup, when a job with Ma Bell was a job for life. Bahr's nostalgia is understandable. AT&T, of course, has just declared that it will cut its work force by 27,400--16,500 of them members of Bahr's union.

So you want to be a studio head? Well, guess what: It's not all it's cracked up to be. Sure there are the Gulfstream jets. Sure there are huge bucks, stock options, mega-bonuses and, of course, those irresistible golden parachutes. And yes, you'll have power and status--or at least the perception of power and status. People will call you and grovel all day long, and you'll have the power to say yes or no. And you'll probably get an even better seat at Morton's than you used to.

Following days of speculation and tumult, the Clippers' pregame routine didn't waiver Saturday. They discussed defensive assignments, walked through a handful of the opponent's plays, and then went over the game plan, what they needed to do to win. "The difference was," forward Blake Griffin said, "we just went out and did it. " With Coach Vinny Del Negro's seat hot enough to fry an egg and amid speculation about a fractured locker...

Has a mastery of social networking become a prerequisite for a successful working life? If "friending" and tweeting are now essential skills for the professional classes, where does that leave the chronically network-challenged? And how do you get into the networks where the power players hang out? Questions such as these spring inevitably — and uncomfortably — to mind as you read "The Start-up of You: Adapt to the Future, Invest in Yourself and Transform Your Career," a new book cowritten by Reid Hoffman, founder and chairman of Mountain View, Calif.-based LinkedIn Corp.

Nearly 20 years after President Clinton signed the North American Free Trade Agreement, a key provision that grants Mexican trucks access to U.S. highways remains stalled. Staunch opposition from unions and consumer groups in this country, which argue that unsafe foreign trucks and inexperienced drivers put U.S. jobs and lives at risk, have successfully shut down even the most modest attempts to comply with NAFTA. In October, the Obama administration tried again, with a pilot program granting three Mexican trucking firms limited access to U.S. roads.

Three managers have already been replaced this season and you can bet a few more will be looking for jobs this winter. But while some managers are on a hot seat, others are sitting on a throne with job security for the foreseeable future. Staff writer Kevin Baxter takes a look at the 15 safest and five most vulnerable managers in baseball: Safe at home Mike Scioscia, Angels; Has more control than any manager in baseball — and seven seasons left on his contract. Terry Francona, Boston; His Red Sox clubs average more than 93 wins, so the team will pick up contract options the next two years.

Reporting from Santa Clara, Calif. — David Akers, a five-time Pro Bowl kicker who recently joined the San Francisco 49ers, has been a waiter throughout his adult life. First, he waited tables to make ends meet when football wasn't paying the bills. Then, he waited for his chance, hitting the waiver wires three times before hooking on with Philadelphia in 1999, where he played until this season. Finally came the interminable wait every NFL kicker encounters — the expectant wait for someone to step in and take your job. "Let's be realistic," Akers, 36, said after a recent practice.

Mayor Ron Dellums spent his childhood in West Oakland watching the Oakland Acorns play ball. So when the planned move to Fremont, Calif., by the now- Oakland A's fell through in early 2009, Dellums kicked into high gear. He recruited City Council President Jane Brunner, and they jointly appealed to Major League Baseball's commissioner, launching talks with league officials on a new stadium as part of an aggressive campaign to keep the team in Oakland. "Ron was phenomenal," Brunner said of the former congressman's role in nearly two years of ongoing discussions.

Working life was rosy for the Rev. Frank Kuriger back in 1985, his 10th year as pastor of a Baptist church in Grafton, Ohio. Membership was growing. Kuriger loved his parishioners. They loved him. Or so he thought. When the bombshell dropped--church leaders fired the 61-year-old pastor, saying they wanted someone new--Kuriger was stunned. He had joined the growing ranks of pastors who, in the language of religion researchers, are "involuntarily terminated," often with little warning.

Reporting from St. Louis ? Ducks Coach Randy Carlyle heard the rumors that his job was in jeopardy while the team endured a shaky start. "There are peaks and valleys in every season and there are always comments about the job a coach does," he said. "If you're going to remove one person it's easiest to remove the coach. It's happened to me as a coach before. " Instead of being fired, Carlyle on Tuesday signed a one-year contract extension through the 2011-12 season, matching the duration of General Manager Bob Murray's contract.

If this were a different sort of football season, Rick Neuheisel might not resort to threats. The UCLA coach might not stand before hundreds of students at a pep rally and nag them about showing up for the crosstown rivalry game against USC. "This is one of your classes," he said over loudspeakers earlier this week. "You've got to be at this ballgame. You fail if you don't come. " Neither the Bruins nor the Trojans is ranked and neither is headed to a bowl game. Their annual confrontation Saturday has not exactly captivated a nation.