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During her four years at Missouri State University, Rachel Kuenzler gravitated steadily toward the transition from college student to the full-time job that would signal her official entry into adulthood.

Her diligence paid off when, a week following graduation, Kuenzler found work.

And in a corporate environment - where colleagues the age of her parents outnumber twenty-somethings - Kuenzler was confronted with a dilemma that was left unaddressed by her college professors.

“I thought they wouldn’t take me seriously,” said Kuenzler, 25, an associate software engineer at MasterCard International operations center in O’Fallon, Mo.

The gap between neophytes and experienced employees has been around as long as people have been reporting to places of work.

Last year, MasterCard addressed with a “reverse mentoring” program that asks younger employees to, in effect, take older workers under their wings.

Peer-to-peer coaching is not unusual in corporate or even small business settings. But in most cases the programs call on seasoned employees to impart the wisdom of experience to younger colleagues.

MasterCard, in a concerted effort to retain and promote its younger workers, provided them with an opportunity to share their thoughts and observations on the workplace environment.

The coaching program at MasterCard may be reversed, but the strategy remains the same, said Rik Nemanick, an adjunct instructor at Washington University and a principal with The Leadership Effect, a St. Louis business consultancy. He has developed and facilitated coaching programs at Anheuser-Busch, Monsanto and other area corporations.

Mentoring programs help firms identify and develop existing talent, accelerate professional growth, nurture company loyalty and retain valuable employees, Nemanick said in a recent presentation to the St. Louis chapter of the Human Resource Management Association.

“When talented individuals reach the juncture when they might leave, it’s good that they have someone they can go to - someone they trust to discuss the situation,” he said.

At Monsanto, experienced technology division employees have tutored younger workers since 2003. The program began with 30 matches. This year, there are 70 selected from a pool of 150 applications.

“It has become part of the developmental culture within the organization,” Monsanto executive Maggie Morris told the human resources organization.

The reverse mentoring at MasterCard matched Kuenzler with Keith Martin, a 46-year-old team leader who joined MasterCard 20 years ago. The program placed 18 younger mentors with 11 supervisors.

Kuenzler saw the two-way conversation as an avenue to help Martin, and by extension other MasterCard supervisors, understand the conditions young employees seek in order to advance themselves along with the interests of the company.

“Younger employees like more openness, they are tech savvy and they don’t necessarily want to always be in meetings,” said senior human resources business partner Wanda Davega.

For example, Kuenzler and Generation Y prefer open work spaces that encourage collaboration.

Whereas Martin is admittedly more inclined to hole up in a cubicle.

Martin wasn’t exactly venturing into foreign territory when his monthly lunch meetings with Kuenzler began about a year ago - he has a daughter slightly older than his mentor.

But their meetings highlighted to him the difference between being a parent and being a colleague or supervisor.

He learned that the young people now moving into the workforce have little interest in easing into the corporate whirlwind.

“They like to move at a quick pace and effect change,” Martin said. “They basically want to jump right into the fire. They don’t want to hold back or want to hear, ‘Why don’t you wait three months to find your way around.’”

Nemanick traces the roots of the mentoring movement to a commitment to furthering the careers of minority employees at large and small businesses alike.

As the success of the programs became evident, many companies made the initiatives available to all workers.

In light of a Millennial Branding survey that this month revealed that young, recent hires comprise only 7 percent of the workforce at Fortune 500 companies, the opportunity to learn from a mentor is especially attractive to young people.

“It shrinks the big organizations,” Nemanick pointed out. “It crosses boundaries that (employees) wouldn’t normally cross.”

Its success in O’Fallon prompted MasterCard to offer reverse mentoring to employees at its global headquarters in Purchase, N.Y.

Eighteen months into her first job, Kuenzler already has a sense that her monthly meetings with Martin are making a difference.

She recently learned of plans to open her workspace by removing the wall of the over-sized cubicle she shares with several other young employees.

More important, to Kuenzler, are the chats with Martin that have brought about the removal of a more symbolic wall.

“Being able to share our thoughts with supervisors, getting their take and seeing that they are taking notes and listening, I’m already seeing a difference,” she said.

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FRANKLIN COUNTY • The wound left when Chrysler shuttered its plants in 2008 and 2009 hasn’t healed in nearby Franklin County, where residents for years relied on those paychecks.

The county has seen the sharpest rise in poverty in the metro region since the recession, according to recently released census figures. In 2006, a year before the recession officially began, 10.3 percent of residents lived below the poverty level. That figure hit 17 percent in 2010, the most recent statistics available.

When asked why the county was hit so hard, those who work with the poor unanimously cite the Chrysler closure in Fenton and its lingering effects on jobs.

“I think disproportionately we were hit harder than other areas, and that showed in our unemployment rate,” said Presiding County Commissioner John Griesheimer.

Many in the county haven’t found a way to replace good-paying jobs, and the county is about to be dealt another blow with ties to the auto industry.

Harman-Becker Automotive Systems plans to start shutting its plant in Washington, Mo., as soon as this month, leaving nearly 300 people without jobs, said Sandy Lucy, the city’s mayor.

Most of those jobs are in manufacturing. Many workers earn $40,000 to $60,000 a year assembling auto accessories such as car radios and navigation systems. The company supplied parts to the Chrysler plant.

Harman-Becker’s closure was announced more than a year ago but wasn’t supposed to begin until summer. The plant is now expected to be shuttered by spring.

The plant is an example of efforts to create county jobs. The state and city bent over backward to lure Harman-Becker to Washington in 2005, with incentives worth nearly $3 million.

The company has repaid the state almost $540,000 under a “clawback provision,” which allows the state to recover tax money from businesses that fail to meet economic commitments, according to the Missouri Department of Economic Development.

The company did not have to repay nearly $40,000 it received through the Missouri Quality Jobs program because it created and maintained jobs for three years. Harman-Becker did not respond to an email request for comment.

The pending closure worries Sandy Crider, executive director of Loving Hearts Outreach food pantry in Washington. She sees people coming to the pantry who lost jobs in the auto industry that paid $25 or $30 an hour with health benefits and retirement plans, and who have continued to struggle after those jobs disappeared.

“Now they’re working two part-time jobs for minimum wage and no health insurance,” Crider said. “They’re embarrassed because they can’t find jobs to bring them back to the point where they were in the past.”

A 58-year-old freelance Web developer standing in line recently at the Agape House food pantry in St. Clair said the loss of the plants has crippled the county and sent ripples beyond the auto industry. His own workload is down 40 percent from before the recession, said the man, who asked to be identified only by his first name, Bill, so his customers wouldn’t know his financial situation.

“I could see if you’re a bad person, you’re not going to hold a job,” he said. “But I see a lot of good, hardworking people who want a job and there’s nothing for them.”

Crider said more families are becoming homeless and must move in with other family members, also on fixed incomes.

“That’s what the homelessness looks like in Franklin County,” she said.

Ellen Dietrich, director of community relations of the Jefferson Franklin Community Action Corp., has seen the uptick in poverty, too.

Not long ago, a woman who used to donate came into the social service agency’s office. Instead of writing a check, she asked for help.

“People come in and give us résumés and say if we know of anyone hiring, please pass it along,” said Tammy Stowe, executive director of the Union Chamber of Commerce.

Franklin County government relies heavily on sales tax, but collections hit a low of $4.9 million in 2009. Since then, sales tax revenue has been on a slight upswing, said county Auditor Tammy Vemmer.

To help balance the budget the last couple of years, county employees have been required to clean their own offices to save on janitorial services. This year, unelected, full-time county employees will get a $700 boost in pay. They have not seen raises since 2008, Vemmer said.

Griesheimer, the presiding county commissioner, said the county had been able to avoid layoffs, unlike the private sector.

From January 2009 through March 2011, unemployment in Franklin County topped 10 percent for all but two months, and peaked at 13.4 percent in February 2010. The rate dipped to 8.8 percent in November, the most recent data available.

Christie Bean, of Gerald, has searched for a full-time job for more than five years. “I call the temp service every day,” she said.

Bean lost her assembly-line position when the Daisy BB bullet factory shut down in Salem, Mo. She’d like a permanent factory job but knows she can’t be picky.

“People who are getting jobs are holding onto them,” said Bean, 42.

Her husband sells scrap metal and fixes cars, but work has dried up. He has resorted to selling firewood door to door.

“He’s working hard and he’s not getting anywhere,” said Bean. He once had a good factory job, too, she said, but he lost it because of back problems.

Last month, Bean and her sister stopped at the Loving Hearts Outreach food pantry in Washington. Bean packed a basket of pasta, tuna, tomato soup, applesauce and red beans and rice into the back seat of her car and was grateful for it.

Other county residents are slowly digging their way out. Cody Sansom, 27, once made $20 an hour working construction jobs. When the demand for new houses dried up, so did work. He became homeless three years ago and moved to the Agape House shelter three months ago.

He recently landed a job as a cashier and pizza cook at a convenience store, where he earns minimum wage.

“It’s the lowest I’ve ever made,” said Sansom, who will start classes at East Central College in Union next month. “But it’s a job.”

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Ralcorp Holdings is two months away from completing the spin-off of its branded cereal business, Post Holdings, yet company officials say they remain in buy mode.

In a conference call with analysts today, St. Louis-based Ralcorp’s executives said the spin-off of Post as a separate, publicly traded company will occur by the end of January 2012. Ralcorp, which has grown through acquisitions over the past decade, plans to focus on private label cereal, pasta, frozen bakery goods and other foods.  

“As the leader in private brand foods, we continue to be excited about the opportunities that exist in the private brand, or store-brand market,” Kevin Hunt, Ralcorp’s co-chief executive and president said in the call. 

Ralcorp completed its acquisition of Kansas City-based American Italian Pasta Co. for $1.2 billion in July 2010, which helped boost Ralcorp’s net sales to $4.7 billion in fiscal 2011, up from $4 billion in 2010.

In October, Ralcorp closed on its $545 million purchase of the North American refrigerated dough business from Sara Lee, which included Sara Lee’s private label biscuits, crescent rolls, pizza and pie crusts and toaster pastries cash advance now.

More acquisitions may be on the horizon. “When we look at the current acquisition pipeline, we’ve identified approximately $10 billion in additional annual sales representing 50 individual companies that meet our initial criteria for strategic acquisition, ranked by margins and synergies with our existing business,” Hunt said in the call.

Morningstar analyst Erin Lash wrote in a research note today that Ralcorp faces competitive pressures in the private label cereal business, however. “Branded firms like General Mills and Kellogg are prioritizing investments behind product innovation and marketing that resonate with consumers, which could further pressure Ralcorp’s cereal sales, in our view,” Lash wrote.

 

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A military spokesman in Ivory Coast said the death toll from recent attacks by armed men from Liberia has risen to 23 dead.

A government official said the killings started Thursday night in an area of southwestern Ivory Coast which borders Liberia. The armed men crossed into Ivory Coast, attacking villagers just across the border, before retreating.

Capt. Leon Kouakou Alla confirmed that the death toll rose Monday from 15 to 23 dead.

The attackers are believed to be militiamen allied with ex-President Laurent Gbagbo who lost last year’s election and was eventually forced out in April following French and United Nations airstrikes.

His supporters fled to neighboring countries, and a large percentage of them are now housed in refugee camps in Liberia, from where the attackers came.

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Car sales up

Federal officials say flights are resuming with minimal delays at Washington-area airports, which took a glancing blow from Hurricane Irene.

New York-area airports remain closed as Irene passed over the nation’s busiest air-traffic region.

The longer that Kennedy, LaGuardia and Newark, N.J., airports remain shuttered, the worse it will be as travel delays ripple across the country. Federal officials said Sunday they didn’t know when the airports would reopen payday loans.

Airlines have already canceled thousands of flights for Sunday, but it was unclear how much havoc the storm would cause for travelers on Monday.

Weather officials downgraded Irene from a hurricane to a tropical storm Sunday as the storm’s winds lost speed.

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Stung by revelations that his plan would cut spending less than advertised, House Speaker John Boehner on Tuesday postponed a vote on a debt-ceiling measure that was already running into opposition from tea party conservatives. The move came just a week before an Aug. 2 deadline for staving off the potential financial chaos of the nation’s first-ever default.

With time running short, the speaker promised to quickly rewrite his debt-ceiling legislation after budget officials said it would cut spending by less than $1 trillion over the coming decade instead of the promised $1.2 trillion. The vote originally scheduled for Wednesday is now set for Thursday. That may give Boehner more time to hunt for votes, but it gives Congress and the White House even less time for maneuvering.

Meanwhile, public head-butting between Democratic President Barack Obama and the Republicans showed no sign of easing. The White House declared Obama would veto the Boehner bill, even if it somehow got through the House and the Democratic-controlled Senate.

For all that, it was the tea party-backed members of Boehner’s own party who continued to vex him and heavily influence the debt and deficit negotiating terms _ not to mention his chances of holding on to the speakership.

Their adamant opposition to any tax increases forced Boehner to back away from a “grand bargain” with Obama that might have made dramatic cuts in government spending. Yet when Boehner turned this week to a more modest cost-cutting plan, with no tax increases, many conservatives balked again. They said the proposal lacked the more potent tools they seek, such as a constitutional mandate for balanced budgets.

Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, chairman of a large group of conservative Republicans, sent a tremor through the Capitol Tuesday when he said he doubted Boehner had enough support to pass his plan. The Boehner bill would provide an immediate debt ceiling increase but would require further action before the 2012 elections.

Obama strongly opposes that last requirement, arguing that it would reopen the delicate and crucial debt discussions to unending political pressure during next year’s campaigns.

The president supports a separate bill, pushed by Majority Leader Harry Reid in the Democratic-controlled Senate, that would raise the debt ceiling enough to tide the government over through next year _ and the elections.

Boehner wasn’t helped when presidential candidate Tim Pawlenty and the groups Tea Party Patriots and Tea Party Express criticized his plan. A worse blow came when a congressional analysis said his plan would produce smaller savings than originally promised. Of particular embarrassment was a Congressional Budget office finding that Boehner’s measure would cut the deficit by just $1 billion next year.

Boehner’s office said it would rewrite the legislation to make sure the spending cuts exceed the amount the debt limit would be raised. Adding a political touch, it accused the Democrats of declining to put forward specifics subject to the same sort of review.

Earlier, responding to the conservative Republican opposition, Boehner quickly went on Rush Limbaugh’s radio show, then he began one-on-one chats with wavering Republicans on the House floor during midday roll call votes.

“He has to convince a few people,” Rep. Tom Petri, R-Wis., observed dryly from a doorway.

A serious, almost dire urgency ran through Boehner’s efforts. The clock was ticking down to next Tuesday’s deadline to continue the government’s borrowing powers and avert possible defaults on U.S. loans.

Congressional veterans say a final-hour bargain can’t be reached until both parties irrefutably prove to themselves and the public that neither the Democrats’ top goals nor the Republicans’ can be reached in the divided Congress.

Moreover, Boehner’s grasp on the speakership could be weakened if he fails to pass the debt-ceiling plan that bears his name. Assuming no more than five Democrats support the measure _ the same number that backed a GOP balanced-budget bill last week _ Boehner can afford to lose no more than 28 of the House’s 240 Republicans.

His allies predicted he’ll make it, and Boehner got a vocal endorsement from his sometimes rival, Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va. But holdouts were not limited to the much-discussed freshman class, elected in the tea party-fueled 2010 elections.

“He can’t get my vote because I felt like that, for long-term solutions to this problem, all these promises we make in cutting spending never seem to occur,” said Rep. Phil Gingrey, R-Ga. ” I’ve been here nine years and I’ve never seen it happen yet.”

Six-term Rep. Jeff Flake of Arizona, a long-time critic of deficit spending, said he also was leaning against Boehner’s bill even though he knows a tougher measure cannot be enacted. “Obviously you have to weigh that against passing something that just doesn’t solve the problem,” Flake said.

Major business groups weighed in. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce urged support of Boehner’s bill, while the conservative Club for Growth denounced it as too weak.

While Boehner searched for votes, some Americans seemed to edge closer to notion that the Aug. 2 deadline might pass without a solution. The stock market fell again, although not dramatically. California planned to borrow about $5 billion from private investors as a hedge against a possible federal government default.

The White House spoke with veterans groups about what might happen to vets’ benefits if a deal isn’t reached. Obama has said he can’t guarantee Social Security checks and payments to veterans and the disabled would go out on schedule.

The Senate worked on other issues, waiting to see if Boehner’s bill would pass the House and come its way. Reid, D-Nev., said the Boehner bill could not pass his chamber.

Reid has his own plan. Like Boehner’s, it would identify about $1.2 trillion in spending cuts to the day-to-day operating budgets of government agencies. Reid’s proposal, however, would require only one congressional vote to raise the debt ceiling before the 2012 elections. And it counts an extra $1 trillion in savings from winding down the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Both proposals would create a bipartisan congressional commission to identify further deficit reductions, especially in major health care programs such as Medicare and Medicaid.

For seven months, tea party-backed House members _ freshmen and veterans alike _have rewritten congressional traditions. Speakers typically can twist arms, offer favors and issue veiled threats to round up the needed support on tough votes. It’s possible Boehner will be able to do so on the debt-ceiling matter.

But many tea party activists abhor political compromise. They insist that their elected officials stand on principle, regardless of the consequences.

“A lot of the tea party guys owe certain support groups,” said Rep. Walter Jones Jr., R-N.C. He said he had not decided how to vote on Boehner’s bill.

Freshman Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., bristles at the notion that tea party-influenced newcomers are sheep-like ideologues willing to risk default. “We’re not a bunch of knuckle-dragging, mouth-breathing Neanderthals,” Gowdy said. “We’re interested in answering what we perceive to be the mandate, which is to stop the spending and change the way Washington handles money.”

Gowdy said he was leaning against Boehner’s proposal.

But freshman Rep. Allen West, R-Fla., a tea party favorite, felt otherwise.

“This Boehner plan, does it have everything that I want in it?” West said. “Absolutely not. It is the 70-75 percent plan that we can go forward with.”

Petri, a 33-year House veteran, said Boehner may need the votes of 35 to 40 Democrats, which Democratic leaders say is impossible.

Asked how Boehner will get out of his predicament, Petri paused and said: “When I think of it, I’ll give him a call.”

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BlackBerry maker Research In Motion Ltd. is cutting 2,000 jobs as part of a cost savings plan announced last month and is shuffling some senior executives.

The job cuts amount to about 10 percent of the company’s work force. The company said Monday it will notify affected employees this week. It expects to give more information on the layoffs when it reports fiscal second-quarter results on Sept. 15.

Its U.S. shares fell 41 cents, or 1.5 percent, to $27.50 in premarket trading.

Waterloo, Ontario-based RIM has been hurt by product delays and competition from Apple Inc.’s iPhone and smartphones that run Google Inc.’s Android operating system.

Although its Blackberrys have dominated the corporate smartphone market, RIM has not been able to translate this success to the broader consumer market, where the iPhone and Android phones reign cash advances pay day loan. The launch of its PlayBook tablet computer, meanwhile, wasn’t as successful as the company had hoped.

RIM reported a 10 percent drop in its fiscal first-quarter earnings in June and gave an outlook for the year that was well below what analysts had expected.

Also Monday, RIM said it is naming two executives to take on different parts of the chief operating officer role. COO Don Morrison went on medical leave in June.

Thorsten Heins is being named chief operating officer, product and sales. Jim Rowan will become COO, operations. Morrison is retiring after more than 10 years with the company.

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In a little more than two weeks, the federal government will max out its credit card.

The U.S. Treasury is fast approaching the $14.3 trillion dollar limit on how much it can borrow. That limit is set by Congress. But this year the Republican-led House of Representatives refuses to raise it, at least not without spending cuts more massive than the White House wants to make.

If nothing changes, come Aug. 2, something unprecedented will happen: The government of the United States will run out of money. It will have to either cut spending nearly in half

China has ordered ConocoPhillips to immediately halt output at two offshore platforms in the Bohai Bay off its northeast coast, saying recent oil spills were not fully under control.

The State Oceanic Administration said Wednesday it wanted the company to completely eliminate any risks of leaks after spills were found from platforms B and C of the Penglai 19-3 oilfield, which is operated by Houston-based ConocoPhillips’ China subsidiary.

It said satellite monitoring and inspections detected oil near the platforms and said there were signs further leaks may occur.

Last week, ConocoPhillips China, which partnered with state-run China National Offshore Oil Corp. in developing the Penglai field, said it had cleaned up oil from two spills there last month which had covered some 840 square kilometers (324 square miles).China reported a fresh but smaller oil spill Tuesday in the Bohai Bay in another field operated by CNOOC.

Conoco said Wednesday that amounts of oil, “no more than liters per day,” continue to seep out from a naturally occurring fault near platform B. It said final cleanup operations are ongoing near platform C, where “trace amounts” of oil and gas bubbles continue to be observed from the sea floor.

Conoco, based in Houston, estimated that a combined 1,500 to 2,000 barrels of oil and oil-based drilling fluids were spilled. No oil has reached the shore, and no one was injured in the spills, Conoco said.

China reported a fresh but smaller oil spill Tuesday in the Bohai Bay in another field, operated by CNOOC.

The 1 square kilometer (0.4 square mile) spill was caused by a malfunction in the centralized control system for the Suizhong 36-1 oilfield’s central platform, ocean authorities said.

CNOOC said in a statement Tuesday the malfunction had been fixed and that it expected that the oil spill would be cleaned up by the end of the day.

The Oceanic Administration has ordered all offshore oil operators to conduct risk assessments and beef up their emergency plans to prevent or minimize any damage to the marine environment, which is also suffering from algae blooms and red tides.

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