September 9, 2003 Okay, so this time I'm really serious. I wanna start writing some of my personal thoughts here. All those rants, movie reviews, life happenings… I wanna put my mark out here. I wanna express myself…
Here's why this blog thing is a bad idea… What prompted me to start writing? (I've been meaning to for the last couple months) -What prompted me was a link that Ed sent me to http://rupertzone.net/ -It is a website (blog) of one of our friends (Matt Rupert). I read through some of his postings and found out a lot of stuff that I never knew about Matt. Most of it was stuff I don't agree with. I never knew that we were so different him and I.
The first thing that struck me was his photography. He's got an awesome pic up there. Then I scrolled down… I found out that his political views are wildly different than mine, and he's apparently fairly religious. Now, we're not great friends with Matt, we actually haven't seen him in quite awhile. But after learning about our differences, it seems an even remoter (is that a word?) possibility that we'd ever be close. Kindof a shame. With all the ranting and such that I plan to do here, I'm bound to piss off (and suprise) anyone who I've become friends with recently (I've been very quiet lately). To all my old friends -you'll recognize me right away! (RAWK!)
September 11, 2003 Nope. No sappy “Remembering the Tragedy ” entry here… There's plenty of that on the news.
My Mom emailed me today with this quote: “Remember: There's only one thing wrong with the gene pool……no lifeguard”
My Reply: “Some people need a lifeguard. I can�t believe the risks people take while driving around here! Apparently they value getting to work/home on time over their own lives �and I have no problem with that, I'm a selfish person. I only worry that I'll be the innocent person that they�ll hit one day�”
Truly people! Perhaps you don't value your life (or the life of your passengers), but I do value mine, so please stop trying to run me off the road. In the end, if you hit me… It's just going to slow you down. You'll have to stop, wait for the cops, paramedics, etc. There will be a big crime scene because of my death… It'll be a mess, you'll be really late. Just pick a lane and stick with it, you'll be better off! (Oh, and don't tail gate me either.)
September 15, 2003
It occurred to me on a Monday morning: How are we supposed to treat life as something precious when we waste over 70% of it at work? I absolutely dread going into work each week, and I don't think I'm alone…
According to Forbes.com, of 1,100 people from 1,004 companies with 500 or more employees, 55% described their work in negative terms–using phrases such as exhausted, confused and unsupported. A full third felt “intensely negative.”
From my own experience I'd have to say that companies just don't care about the morale of their employees. They've all read the studies that say that improving morale improves the quality and speed of employee's work, but they don't heed the advice. Perhaps the problem is that “improved morale” can't be quantified? Maybe they are not willing to invest time and money on something that's difficult to prove as ROI on their books…
You'd think that they'd at least see the lost productivity when employee turnover causes them to pull productive employees away from their desks to do training. The BLS (Bureau of Labor Statistics) reports that the median tenure for workers 24-34 years old is just 2.7 years. Why? There's no feeling of loyalty anymore. As we get dressed for work we hear about companies laying off more people, then we turn off the TV and head for work wondering if we're next. At work, we're treated as if we are disposable. The clock is watched diligently as we come and go, our time off is written into inflexible policies, and g*d forbid you get caught making a personal phone call on company time.
All this is leading to a disgruntled workforce. We've been burned, or know someone who has -and we've made a mental note. Employment equals money. That's it. Just do enough not to get fired. Our employers aren't there for us, and we're just returning the favor. Breaking this cycle will be hard, and I don't believe we'll ever get back to the day where employees spend their entire lives working for one company, but one way for employers to start…
Vacation time please! According to the BLS U.S. vacations are the shortest in the industrialized world–8.1 days after a year on the job. Overall, the average US worker is given 10.2 vacation days a year. 10.2 days to get rid of a year's worth of stress. 10.2 days to enjoy your favorite hobby, or persue your travel intrests. Hmm… That doesn't seem like much time. Let's compare the US with other countries: The Chinese are given an average of 15 vacation days a year. That's 50% more than we get. Japan, 17.5 days. Then you look at Australia, Finland, the Netherlands, Portugal, and the UK -workers there get 25 vacation days a year on average. Feel like you're getting ripped off yet? To complete the feeling of outrage I'll give you some more. Workers in Sweden, Austria, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Norway, Spain, France, and Switzerland have an average of 30 vacation days a year! An entire month off? Nope, more like a month and a half -remember, weekends don't count!
Okay, so I wonder how companies get anything done when their employees take that much time off. In reality, I'm not looking for 30 days worth of vacation. I'd be happy with 10 days for year 1, 15 for year 2 or 3, and 20 after 5 years of service. That would make me want to stay! (Currently I start with 10 and get 1 extra for each year of service.)
Other suggestions: Have a casual dress code if there is little to no contact with customers, I'm so much more productive when I'm comfortable. Have meetings, but keep them short and productive -I hear removing chairs from meeting rooms works wonders. Do what you can to DIScourage employees from coming into work sick and infecting other workers -that secretary who refuses to go home sick isn't displaying a great work ethic, she's guaranteeing that half of your staff will be out next week!
Gotta go, my boss is coming! Look at the “Work To Live” website: http://www.worktolive.info/poen_vaca_mini.html to read about the “Minimum Paid Leave Act” that's being proposed to Congress. I'm not one to look to another law for the answer when the American workforce could demand such a change, but it is interesting none-the-less. Besides, the law will fit in just fine since the government is already dictating minimum wage, health insurance, safety guidlines, and so on…
September 30, 2003
A man tried to set fire to the US Embassy in Tunis today in a suicide attack. He failed to do any harm to the embassy, and was only slightly injured from the impact of his car hitting the outside wall of the embassy.
You gotta feel sorry for this guy…