Archive for November, 2005

Memo

November 28, 2005

This is my favorite old post from my previous blogging days. How do you think this would go over at your job?

“As IT Director I have decided to implement a new business quality measurement tool that will help us keep on track and manage our daily activities.

The new analysis mechanism will be called the HoMDYS (How Much Do You Suck) Index. And will be displayed in bar-chart format and be referred to as the Suck-o-Meter.

For those of you who believe this index doesn’t apply to you, you are probably wrong. It measures the amount and severity of suckage that you produce on a daily basis.

Negative Factor Examples:

* Stroll in around 10am and leave at 3pm = 20 points
* Taking 2 hours for lunch but arriving and leaving at normal times = 15 points
* Gossiping with coworkers during a time other than your 2-hour lunch = 20-30 points
* Half-assing your job until you get a raise = 35 points

Positive Factor Examples:

* Stay overtime to meet a deadline = minus 10-20 points
* Support a company function = minus 7 points
* Not spend 45 minutes roaming the cubicles looking for someone to complain with = minus 25 points
* Work at least 40 hours per week = minus 20 points

These scores are per incident, and like golf, the lower your score the better.

(Company name ommitted) has long been committed to positive reenforcement and what some have called a new-age hippy mentality, and it appears that this method has gone the way of the dodo. So from now on it’s negative nancy top-down.

Get ready for your kick in the metaphorical nuts this week. I’ve seen the org chart and it doesn’t look good for you. “

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Are you talking to me?

November 28, 2005

An interesting dynamic has come to my attention lately. I have been very involved in self-improvement exercises lately, and as a result I have become acutely aware of the little things that we all do as defenses. We all have behaviors that we engage in regularly that protect us, and I am not specifically interested in most if them. There are a very specific few that are focused on protecting our psyche, our ego even, that are fascinating to observe once you become aware of them.

These are the three “D’s” of defense that I recognized:

* Denial
* Deflection
* Deceit

**Denial**
Consider this scenario: Your company is experiencing communications breakdowns, and negative attitudes and behaviors throughout the organization. The CEO stands up before the company and talks of triangulation, under-performance, lack of effort and other destructive behavior.

The chances are pretty good that most if not every employee will recognize where they are falling short according to the CEO. The difference is in how people will react. The most common reaction in this setting is denial. Before they will let their conscious mind feel guilty or badly for engaging in destructive behavior, they will construct denial defenses. They will either think that the CEO is misstating the facts or in many cases they will agree with the CEO and say “Yeah you tell ‘em;” ignoring the likelihood that the CEO is talking to them and seeing this as calling out the rest of the team.

**Deflection**
Deflection is most common in face-to-face confrontations. Denial is much harder to achieve in public situations. Inside our minds there is nobody to challenge our denial, but when there is an opportunity for rebuttle, denial is too dangerous. If we are proven wrong we risk being exposed, so we deflect.

We turn the tables on the other party by pointing out their contributions to the problem as being more detrimental than our own. Or that our behavior was a direct result of theirs, and therefore even our part is their fault.

It is a dangerous game, but the most skilled at this can make the other party feel guilty before they even have the chance to respond. This, by the way, is my defense mechanism of choice.

**Deceit**
Deceit is the trickiest one of all. We see this often in scenarios that involve managers and subordinates. When there is a difference in power or authority between two parties in disagreement, it is sometimes too hard to deny or deflect. It is easier to smooth things over. Make it seem as though things are not as bad as they seem.

The interesting component of this defense is what makes it work. The willingness of the receiving party to deny their own participation in events leading up to the confrontation is the main reason deceit can even exist.

If my research and assumptions are correct your head was nodding just a few seconds earlier. I don’t expect that this article is going to change your life, but if it gives you a moments insight into why some people are the way they are it’s all been worth it.

Posted in Self-Knowledge, Uncategorized | No Comments »

When the cost of doing business is not exactly the cost of doing business

November 28, 2005

There’s an old saying that I never really understood until recently. I’ve always heard of people being “penny wise and pound foolish.” And while I understood the basic message there, the impact of it was never clearer than when I started looking at in in the context another widely accepted and mostly misinterpreted concept of the cost of doing business.

Most often, when we talk about the cost of doing business, we speak of rent, insurance, computers, paper, and pens. Tangible easily calculated costs. However, we mostly overlook the most important cost . . . wasted time.

Have you ever heard a coworker complaining about how difficult it is to acquire a new pen or get a notebook for instance. Maybe it’s the cost of a soda in the breakroom, or difficulty getting a day off. If you think hard enough, I guarantee you can think of at least five such examples. Each one more ridiculous than the next.

Now think about how many other people that person tells that same story to. Think about how many times those people retell the story or participate in the telling of the story to someone else. I think you get the picture now.

Each of those people and the time they spent bitching and moaning about how corporate things are or how stingy the company may be has now become the true cost of doing business. You could easily have purchased 50 boxes of the best pens at Staples for the amount of productivity lost as a result.

I can hear the counter arguments already. Yes, I know spending must be constrained. Yes, I know people must have limits. Yes, I know. But what most people fail to realize, is you can’t easily stop the train once it has started. It’s much easier to prevent the train from ever getting started.

Now don’t get me wrong. This is not a license to make a run on pens and notebooks, but merely a friendly reminder to think of the consequences of your actions before you react. People (at least the people who would spend time agonizing over a pen) need validation in some form or another. So either you give it to them in the form of “yes I understand your need for a pen” or they’ll suck the life out of your company trying to find it from everyone else.

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Money: The Last Great Motivator?

November 28, 2005

I used to have the same argument over and over again with an old boss about money as a motivator. His opinion, much like most business books and articles from the past 10+ years, is that money is not a primary motivator for people in business. His favorite saying was “people don’t work for money.” I find that to be one of the most ridiculous and naive statements I’ve ever heard. Yet time and time again, I have to read that kind of rubbish being perpetuated around the business world.

Maybe my perspective is tainted since I am an IT professional. IT is typically a very flat career path, and thus our success and value is primarily measured by the amount of money we make. We don’t have a lot else to go on. Also, most executive management who are in charge of motivating IT people generally don’t do a great job of giving good feedback since there is a great deal of the IT pros job that they don’t even understand.

So we’re going to do our own not-so-scientific survey to get a perspective on ***what is your primary motivation?***

**Rate the following as to their level of importance to you, 1 = Not at all important, 10 = Most important thing in my life.**

>A. Culture
>B. Salary
>C. Interesting work
>D. Respect
>E. Career Advancement
>F. Slacking off

Just post your answers to the comments of this post, and you can do it anonymously if you’re afraid someone will find your answers and use them against you in some sort of sinister corporate sabotage campaign.

Posted in Debate, Happiness, Uncategorized | 3 Comments »

What’s a Piker?

November 15, 2005

“Piker” is an often used word in my vocabulary, but it has come to my attention that many people have never heard of this word. So today we are going to get a Cliff’s Notes version of a Piker. In Australia, “piker” is a common slang word for “someone who holds back.” They use it more in context of drinking beer, where I use it in context of business.

But the origins of my use come from one of my favorite movies, [Boiler Room](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0181984/ “The movie”). In the movie, Ben Affleck plays the recruiter and general new recruit motivator at an off-Wall Street brokerage firm. In his “pitch” to the prospective brokers, he says:

>”… let me tell you what’s required. You are required to work your ass off at this firm. We want winners here, not pikers. A piker walks at the bell. A Piker asks how much vacation time you get in the first year. Vacation time? People come to work at this firm for one reason, to become filthy rich, that’s it. We’re not here to make friends, we’re not saving the f’ing manatees here guys. You want vacation time, go teach third grade public school.

One of my favorite monologues of all time, despite Ben Affleck’s so-so delivery. But the point is, a winner does whatever it takes to be successful. In most cases work hours are usually just a jumping off point. In fact when you can live the work it takes you where you want to go. There is a major trend toward achieving life/work balance. But believe me, the great ones laugh at you when they are passing you on the ladder of success as you try to yin when you should be yanging.

I know that not everyone wants to be Donald Trump, I know that I don’t. But the likelihood of success is greater with greater devotion. Commitment is the only accurate predictor of success. FYI, a piker is also commonly known as a “Fred Flintstone” for sliding down the dinosaur at the bell. So the next time someone says “Yabba Dabba Doo” at 5pm say “see you tomorrow … Piker!”

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He’s at it again…

November 9, 2005

I’ve never met him, but I’m pretty sure that [Steve Pavlina](http://www.stevepavlina.com “The Mouth himself”) is the kind of guy that talks just to hear himself talk. I just suffered through his most recent blog post, and I must admit I agreed with two words in his entire mind-numbing post. I’m not sure why I continue to read it, but [this installment](http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2005/11/how-to-earn-10000-in-one-hour/ “Unbelievably long ramblings of ‘The Mouth’”) of the incoherent ramblings takes the cake.

He talks about the paradigm of thinking of your time in terms of a $/hr. Basically, if you want to make more money think of your time as worth more. So for instance if you currently make $50/hr and you want to make $75/hr then only take work worth $75 or something nutty like that. Oh yeah, the 2 words I agreed with in Steve’s post … “It’s stupid.” However, as I agree with him that the per hour thing is stupid, I think that the remainder of his post is equally as stupid.

Instructing people to expect or plan on $10,000 hours is just plain silly. Even as an entreprenuer. Are they possible? Sure. Likely? No. If you think of your time as worth a set amount to determine what is a waste of time … great, but not to be used as motivation or some sort of subliminal coaxing to make yourself magically make more money. Success is made up of the $50/per hour days.

Actually the majority of the people of the world make much less than $50 per hour, but that is besides the point. Progress is always thinking in terms of growth — not big wins. If you get consumed with the big score you’ll fail before you have the chance to succeed. It is easy to sit up in you’re blogosphere and talk in such unrealistic terms. The real world is out there, but not on his site.

His reasoning is ridiculous in terms of normal everyday human beings. I dare you to read it ([here](http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2005/11/how-to-earn-10000-in-one-hour/ “Unbelievably long ramblings of ‘The Mouth’”)), if you can make it through the whole thing you’ll likely be dumber for it, but you’ll see why today is the day I take stevepavlina.com off my [del.icio.us](http://del.icio.us/sswedler “My Delicious links”) list.

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On the Indecision Sinkhole

November 9, 2005

Jefferey Phillips over at [Thinking Faster](http://workingsmarter.typepad.com/ “Thinking Faster”) wrote a great article [here](http://workingsmarter.typepad.com/my_weblog/2005/11/everyone_suffer.html “Indescision Article”) about how detrimental indecision is in business. Give it a read if you have a chance.

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My new favorite quote(s)

November 8, 2005

I have a new favorite quote these days. My old favorite, by the way, was “A reasonable man adapts himself to his environment. An unreasonable man persists in attempting to adapt his environment to suit himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man.”

Actually, I’m torn between two quotes these days, one personal and one business related. Here’s my personal choice: “There are really only three types of people: those who make things happen, those who watch things happen, and those who say, What happened?” – Ann Landers. I know that Ann Landers is not the coolest person in the world to quote in your motivational repertoire, but it’s is dead-on for me and this site. We struggle everyday with what we’re going to do in life. Even the simplest choices like should you go work out, or eat that Krispy Kreme doughnut (which by the way I’m pretty sure was borne in the deepest darkest depths of hell by the Devil himself - if you believe in that sort of thing).

But it all boils down to what do we strive for? What do you want to have in your life? What do you want be? And are you going to make it happen or make excuses why it never happened. I think it was Tony Robbins who said, and I am paraphrasing here, “we all have what we must have, not what we should have. So if you want something in life you’ve got to make it a must have.” Sorry for the liberal use of the quote marks there Tony, but the point is still the same. You’ve got to want something so badly that it becomes a must.

I used to be an excuse maker. Everything was someone else’s fault. I couldn’t be a rock star because my parents didn’t support me enough. I couldn’t go to ASU because my parents couldn’t afford out of state tuition. I couldn’t play professional baseball because the high-school coach was out to get me. (Actually that one may have been true. :-)) Bottom line: If I ever truly wanted any of those things, I could have made it happen, but I didn’t. Just as then, it is now — failure to see what I want and take action to that end is the only thing that can really stop me from having it.

BTW, just for good measure, here’s the business one: “No matter how far you have gone on a wrong road, turn back.” — A Turkish Proverb. I guess this one is applicable in similar ways to the first. Funny how you can see the same message in anything when it becomes part of your psyche.

Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments »

Productivy tools? Or procrastination traps?

November 2, 2005

So in today’s technology driven world of time-saving productivity tools, why are we all still searching for ways to be more organized and productive? It’s because all of the standard high-tech tools are actually sinister procrastination traps. I currently have a mobile phone and a laptop, and over time I’ve had 3 or more digital PDAs as well. And trust me when I tell you I am not at all the poster-boy for productivity.

I’ve been hailing the benefits of the [HipsterPDA](http://www.unhappyemployee.com/archives-08/11/2005-hipsterpda-v20/ “My Hipster”) for some time on this site, but I only recently realized why I really love it. It’s because I can’t play games or search the internet on it. I can’t browse the the availability of NEXT cubes on Ebay. I can’t look at every picture on [Flickr](http://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/weird/ “Flickr”) with the tag “weird.” And most importantly, I can’t read blogs (which are updated twice a month but I feel the need to “read” it every 2-3 hours anyway).

Every day we get to work, and we feel the urge to be doing something. So we sit in front of the computer and let our brains go numb. We sure look busy though. So we get a few things done here and there but we really don’t make any meaningful progress, so we go home and sit in front of the computer at home and repeat the process. When we finally lay down to sleep our minds have a free moment to think and we have all of our good ideas just as we doze off or even worse we lay there sleepless from our racing thoughts.

So do away with the gadgets and spend some quiet time alone with your thoughts and some paper. Don’t get carried away though you may lose your geek status.

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