Can Bloomberg outgrow its adolescence and achieve steady, if less spectacular, growth, while managing its expanding work force in a more measured way?

Verizon executives said the company needed greater flexibility to manage its work force because its traditional land-line telephone business was shrinking and it faced competition in its wireless and high-speed Internet access businesses.

Ostensibly, Darius worked in the restaurant, managing its advertising and its work force.

The district controls the assessment and all spending, and it hires, trains and manages its work force privately.

This, the consultant's report stated, will require a profound change in the way Yale manages its nonacademic work force and the way the two unions represent their 3,900 members.

It's a system that many mayors and state government managers complain does not give them the flexibility they need to manage their work force and deliver government services effectively.

Concerned about contractual provisions that limit its ability to lay off or transfer workers, Verizon is arguing that it desperately needs more flexibility to manage its work force to cope with the fierce competition in telecommunications.

Verizon began putting far more emphasis on gaining increased flexibility to manage its work force two weeks ago after an arbitrator ordered it to reinstate 2,300 laid-off workers.

"Existing authority permits T.S.A. the flexibility to manage and deploy their work force," Scott Stanzel, the White House deputy press secretary, said.

The way the company manages its work force has also helped its bottom line.