These days you have to be hyped-up and blissed out simultaneously ... but slow down and think.

The fire which has been raging for days at the Pike River Coal mine is definitely out, say Australians brought in to operate the GAG jet unit which has been pumping carbon dioxide into the mine.

Pike River Coal will have to reduce its workforce when it is ready to re-establish operations, but CEO Peter Whittall says reports of possible receivership were "extremely premature".

Gloomy building and manufacturing stats out this morning have prompted economists to raise the risk of negative GDP.

Waikato-Tainui could be headed for the courts after a woman King Tuheitia fired claimed the move was unconstitutional.

Add Christmas and the associated financial pressures into the mix, and I suspect this unfortunate trend of employee theft and fraud may continue into 2011.

An operation has begun to extinguish the fire coming from the vent shaft of the Pike River mine and cool the surrounding concrete pad, using water pumped up from a nearby creek.

It could take weeks for a GAG unit to put out a coal fire in the Pike River mine, police say.

West Coast poet Helen Wilson has offered an emotional tribute to the men who lost their lives in the Pike River mine.

Recruitment is the barometer of what is going on; if we are good then businesses are generally good.

December is looming, which means the office Christmas party season, if it isn't already well underway, is about to land upon us with its full, traditional, liver-crushing force.

Name suppression has been lifted for an accountant who fiddled a payroll system to give himself a $10,000 payrise.

For a young person in a competitive job market, getting your foot in the door in your chosen industry is key.

Lateral thinking goes against the grain for many businesses, but the benefits are too powerful to ignore.