There Must Be A Pony In Here Somewhere

With the crush of layoffs during the recession, it was easy to play the old "you're lucky to have a job" card with your employees. Now, as the economy starts to sputter back, you're are going to have to come up with some new material — or you’re going to have a mutiny on your hands.

Ian McKinnell | Photographer's Choice | Getty Images No boss wants to see this flying in front of company headquarters when they drive into work in the morning, amiright?

The employees left standing have been overworked for several years now, carrying the weight of both their job and the employees that were laid off, leaving the current workforce with a serious case of fatigue.

When times are tough or companies are going through big changes, they rely the most on their top employees. These “recession work-horses” are some of the employees that are most fatigued right now, said Mark Vaughn, a senior partner at Navint Partners, a management-consulting firm that works with a lot of financial firms.

“Every company relies on their top 20 percent,” Vaughn said. “And the best [employees] are always at the most risk of leaving — certainly in good times, but even in bad times like this,” he said. “Some people I’ve talked to have just checked out — they don’t feel like they can be rewarded in the way they should be for the work they do,” he added.

"We have frequently seen high-level employees who are overworked and underpaid becoming disengaged," said Piera Palazzolo, senior vice president of marketing at Dale Carnegie Institute, a corporate-training organization. "Employees who ARE engaged can look beyond their wages, salary and hours and feel a close attachment to the values, ethics and actions embodied by the organization," he said.

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Fuse | Getty Images

Just sent dirty pictures of yourself to someone who's not your wife? Need to get rid of them quickly? There's an app for that.

Snapchat lets you control how long your sexts last before disappearing.

Think of it as a new age, pervy version of the self-destructing tapes Jim Phelps played on "Mission Impossible" (kids, IMDB that, it was a great show).  » Read More

Peter Dazeley | Photographer's Choice | Getty Images Dude, did your mother write that sign?

Remember when we were young, a million years ago, and we couldn't wait to leave home and strike out on our own?

Two things have changed.

Our children can't find jobs.

Our children can find jobs, but they don’t like them.

My daughter is about to graduate college and is in the midst of applying for full-time work. I'm not worried. She's worked since high school, and she actually juggled two jobs plus internships and a full class load this final year. The idea of living at home repulses her because of my cooking and her father's rules, both great incentives to finding her own way in the world.

The good news is that more than half of recent college graduates say they have full-time jobs, according to Adecco's 2012 Graduation Survey.

Still, about that same number claims parents are covering some of their living expenses, things like cell phone bills, internet access, food, and health coverage. Two percent of these college grads say their parents are footing their entire living expenses. That's one in 50 kids (I think the real number is higher based on personal observation).

Some parents are not content to help pay the bills. They’re going to great lengths to help Junior get a job.  » Read More

With all this “fiscal cliff” talk about the US economy plunging when tax cuts expire and government spending cuts hit early next year, it’s easy to second-guess the presidential candidates about their plans.

Adam Taylor | Riser | Getty Images Put the beer down, armchair politicians. It's your move!

That will never work! We’re headed for a cliff! you shout from your living room, spilling a little beer on your armchair amid the hoopla of your enthusiastic critique.

Well, arm-chair politicians, it’s time to put the beer down and see if you can do better than President Obama, Mitt Romney and the other candidates.

The nonpartisan group Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget has come up with a “Stabilize the U.S. Debt” game to give anyone the chance to Step Right Up! – like a game at a carnival — and try their hand at stabilizing the debt.

Don’t like Obamacare? Not a fan of the Buffett tax? Afraid of the politicians we put in charge of “the button” for nuclear warfare? Well now, step aside President Obama. And Mitt Romney. It’s your turn to decide what funding stays and what gets cut.

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Some videos to lighten up your Tuesday, videos that'll make you laugh, make you cry, leave you puzzled.

FIRST...LAUGH

Is that a weather forecast or are you just happy to see me? Be careful how you draw those weather maps. In the funny business of local news, there's been a flurry of anatomically correct weather forecasts hitting the country in the last few years. In this video, the weatherman finally understands what's wrong with his picture.

That does not happen in this second weather report from KLST in San Angelo, Texas. As the caption on Youtube says, "I guess Mexico had it coming."

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CNBC Hoodies are this IPO season's "must-haves."

We're all about the Facebook these days.

As the company kicks off its roadshow for investors, the big news is that founder Mark Zuckerberg has come to the Big Apple himself to pitch the company's market prospects.

CNBC's Kate Kelly reported on what was going on inside the meeting— revealing news about the long lines to get in, the food served ("chicken breast on salad, cookies"), and that Mark Zuckerberg was in the men's room when the question and answer session began.

(An earlier version mistakenly said Kate was in the meeting. She was not, as all press were barred from attending.)

However, the most interesting thing about Zuckerberg's appearance is that he wore his traditional hoodie, while Facebook CFO David Ebersman and COO Sheryl Sandberg wore suits.

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CNBC Jane Wells and Stephan

Don't get me wrong. I enjoy beer. I especially enjoy craft beer, as long as it's not too hoppy or bitter.

But beer is not my go-to adult beverage. I'm more of a red-wine gal. So it was with curiosity, rather than rabid desire, that I covered the Craft Brewers Conference in San Diego.

Craft brewing has a pretty nice head these days, growing double digits in terms of volumes and sales while overall beer consumption has fallen. This year's conference is packed, with a record 4,500 attendees. The convention hall at the Town & Country Resort was so crowded, I feared someone might need to call the fire marshal.

Who's here?

Men. Lots and lots of men.

I saw zero men wearing ties and three sporting mohawks.

Other observations:

This is the one event I've covered where the line to the men's room is longer than the line to the women's room.

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When was the last time you heard of brand love so strong, it inspired customers to break into song?

Source: Wegmans I don't know about you but a produce aisle like that definitely makes me want to bust out the jazz hands!

More specifically, when was the last time you heard of brand love for a GROCERY STORE so strong, it inspired customers to break into song?

Well that’s exactly what happened when Wegmans, a northeast grocery chain with a cult-like devoted following, decided to open a store in Northborough, Mass.

There was so much buzz when the store, the first in Massachusetts, opened last fall — 2,000 people were in line at 7 a.m. for opening day including a few who camped out and one man who proposed to his girlfriend in the café aisle — that Maura Morrison, the drama teacher at Algonquin Regional High School, decided to create “Wegmans: The Musical.”

“I was just feeling all around me the excitement and buzz about Wegmans,” Morrison told the Worcester Telegram & Gazette. “It seemed like an event. It seemed like a good idea to create a musical about it."

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