Inbox: Worried about pink slips? Here's some advice

The weekly Inbox column collects the best and most thought-provoking of the reader comments silicon.com receives each week.

Worried about job cuts? An article on silicon.com this week highlighted some things to do if the worst happens... which prompted some comments. Virtual worlds have been getting an airing lately - is it all hype? Or a worthy business tool? Plus readers have their say on the latest tech keeping bikers safe.

Don't forget to post your own response to any of these stories or comments below.

10 things to do if you're given the chop
In the current economic climate and amid the constant stream of reports of redundancies and cutbacks, it's prudent to prepare for the worse.

Same old story
There are many talented people out there, especially technology executives that have been given the chop over and over again.

Since the 2001 dot-gone era, companies have repeatedly chopped their most valuable staff and executives first. I know of several good people (including my father) in the States and Europe that have lost everything they owned because they were always the first to be made redundant.

No sooner have they got themselves in a good job again and stable, and they are made redundant. How can the world expect people to survive like this?

Maybe this is the sharp end of capitalism. The people lose, not the companies!
Anonymous, Abu Dhabi

Tricks of the trade
What worked for me when I lost my job in the middle of the Thatcher slump of 1981 at the age of 51 was:

• Learning from an industrial psychologist that I had been in a job for 26 years, for which I was not suited. He sussed out what I should be doing.
• I went on a three-month mini MBA, which told me all the managers of my previous company were a set of idiots, and what I should do to be better than them.
• Wrote a "Diary of a retired computer executive", and flogged it to a downmarket computer paper.
• Go freelance. I still make a modest crust 27 years later.

What I wasted a lot of my time doing was putting myself in the hands of laughingly named Human Resource consultants. They are a waste of space.

Don't apply for a job in major corporates. The larger they are, the more institutionally ageist they are.
Richard Sarson, Wimbledon

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Virtual worlds set for second coming
Not hearing much about virtual worlds these days? They're not dead, just preparing for the next round.

Hype fades to reveal practicality
As the hype cycle of virtual worlds finally fades into the distance, it is being replaced by practicality. Now businesses and organisations are looking at the practical applications of these immersive words.

Instead of squeals of joy at a new penguin, avatars are being placed in training seminars, meetings, visual warehouse management and much more.

The new era of practical applications are being brought to the fore by conferences such as the Second Life Business conference in Portland.
Antony van Zyl, Chicago

What about video conferencing?
Having meetings in the virtual world to save flying employees around the world... have these people ever heard of video conferencing!

Also... using the virtual world for project collaboration... someone should show them web portals!

I always wondered why businesses would be interested in a virtual world and all the examples given seem pointless because there are already good solid solutions to these problems in the real world.

I could only imagine a business using this medium instead of another if this was the medium that your customer base used.
Richard Davies, North Yorkshire

Good in theory…
I agree with the author that there is a lot of value in the interactive nature of virtual worlds for getting people together. Our take is that there isn't an environment out there, that's conducive to business, rather than teens and hype.
Isaac Squires, Dallas

It doesn't ad up
This will be slow growth, led from innovations not planned for ad environments. Online worlds are typically for socialisation and escapism, and most folks don't want ads in those spaces.
Andrew Breese, Adelaide

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Photos: Honda kick starts motorcycle safety tech
Honda has demonstrated motorcycle safety technology for the first time at an automotive technology event in Germany earlier this month.

Cars are to blame
Excuse me! The car drivers are responsible for 50 per cent of the accidents but the bike gets all the junk added to it. Another miraculous initiative why not put it in the car?
Anonymous, UK

Key training
The trainer for learner riders is a good idea but it needs a bigger sensor that wraps around the rider rather than a small screen directly in front of them, hazards approach bikers from many directions including the rear and sides, that's why you are taught to turn your head and look before key manoeuvres.
Karen Challinor, UK

Training, training, training
Better training for car/van Drivers is the only way forward with expensive retraining for those that cause RTAs through inattention to other road user.
Anonymous, London

Social networks 'could replace' public services
Social networks could complement, and in some cases replace, services provided by government.

Digital divide
Social networks only work if you are connected to the internet, the section of the population who probably make most use of public services do not have access.

The drive seems to be that internet technology will resolve supply issues with education (where I live applications for school places have to be done online), healthcare and public services, with little thought to those who don't have, can't have, can't afford, or simply just don't want a computer or internet access.

So you have the digital divide feeding the social divide feeding the digital divide further isolating the haves from the don't haves.
Guy Reynolds, Letchworth

Letting people do what they do best
I'd agree that there are really interesting possibilities for the social web to replace services that governments aren't very good at providing - what I would call the "soft" information and support services - and to focus resources on those that the professionalised public services can best provide.
Mary Teresa Rainey, London

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