Do you know cooking?  What is the best thing you have cooked so far ? What have you prepared for the thanksgiving dinner ?

Former Chelsea manager Avram Grant is confirmed as Portsmouth’s new manager…. From BBC News. Full story

This site may contain information about: english football teams. The blog is also related to: english soccer.

“My boss…he sucks.”

That’s what my friend spits back at me when I ask about his new job. To be honest, all of my friends tell me this. No, they don’t work at the same place, not even for the same parent company. Yet, the responses are all the same. It is never that they enjoy the atmosphere, the shortness of their commute, or even that they get to take a free pizza home. No, their answer is about the nefarious nature of their overlord.

My friends, in their complaints of their boss, I must admit are wrong. They are simply uninformed about what a “sucky boss” is. Not that I can blame them, it’s not common knowledge among the laypeople. Even some bosses are unaware.

The best way to know what makes a bad boss is to know what a good boss is. As I said, this sort of information is not widely known, but through my travels I came across a compilation–Highly Confidential stamped in red across the cover. Titled How To Be A Good Boss – For Dummies, I later learned that this is the required reading material for every boss. For success, it must be read, memorized, and lived.

Though I read the private manifesto in its entirety, the most important part was its beginning. Being a good boss has been simplified, the document’s preface informs, to three simple rules, by way of long, arduous research. Organized thusly, in a neatly numbered list, they read:

1. Never take ‘no’ for an answer, unless asking “Are you happy with your job?”, in which case a ‘yes’ is simply unacceptable.
2. Undue respect is the best kind of respect, and so you must demand it from your minions [my copy was a rough draft] employees at all times.
3. Make hiring decisions based on whichever candidate is most willing to accept the least pay. Remember, the less you pay your underlings, the higher you can inflate your pay and benefit package.

The more stringent they are in following this manifesto’s dictations, the better a boss they are. A good boss, this document at his side, will in no time be able to take his new Maserati to the wash, tipping just under the socially-acceptable minimum.

So, the next time one of my friends complain to me that their boss is horrendous and therefore their job sucks, I’ll shake my head at them. Slipping them a copy of this outline for success, I’ll pat them on my back, so long as it’s not still sore from the back-breaking labor, and congratulate them: “No, Elliot, you have it all wrong. You have a good boss, maybe even a great one.”

After the Mustang Forest… we got the Mustang Ranch, and it can be yours for $700.000 (well if it ain’t sold already that is).

It’s a shame to see such a collection of fine cars rot away, anyway here’s the story on how it was discovered by a reader of Jalopnik:

“I have just returned from a vacation somewhere tropical. On the way back form a day excursion I chose an alternate way back to the highway. Ok, I made wrong turn somewhere and rolled with it. This "scenic route" brought us upon what was recorded by these images. It was my wife who first saw them. "Oh look, Mustangs!" I turned my head in time to see a metric shitload of vintage ponies. I immediately turned around and pulled into the driveway. There was a gentleman in the yard who turned out to be the caretaker for the owner of the house/treasure trove. It turns out that the guy who collected all these cars recently succumbed to cancer and his wife wants all these pretty ponies sold en masse for what is by local standards the princely sum of $700 large (I think there plenty of room for negotiation here).”

More images on Jalopnik.

No one likes to cut salaries or lay off good people. More and more employers are having to make cut-backs, though, in order to keep their companies afloat while our economy tries to recover. Giving someone the bad news is never easy, but a lot of employers make it harder than it has to be.

Here are four tips for breaking bad news, from a CFO Daily News post:

1. Just say it. The awkward situation leaves many people stammering, but ”… the more you hint around, the more anxious folks will get, and the worse your news will be received.”
2. Don’t over-empathize. Sympathy and empathy are two different things, and the later is not helpful. “Telling someone you’re laying off “I know just how you feel” isn’t soothing — or probably even true. Statements like those tend to rile people up.”
3. Don’t try to make it better. “Offering small consolations may just end up aggravating the recipient of your bleak news.”
4. Stop talking. “… the best thing you can do may just be to let the other person vent.”

You can read the entire post here.

Employers – What else have you found eases such an awkward situation?
Been laid off? – What did an employer do to make it less awkward? (Or what did he not do that made it really awkward?)

During my ten or so years in the corporate world I had the distinctive pleasure of observing and occasionally meeting some fantastic creatures. Being part of IT companies it would be very easy to single out the “geek” persona. These and other corporate characters (suck-ups, rebels, smellers) you already know pretty well. I’m going to direct your attention to other types you might already know, but didn’t quite figure out how to name, let alone understand their behavior. Hopefully my musings here will help you deal with these creatures when you next encounter them.

Corporate Copycats

Suck-ups are a dime a dozen in any company. It’s safe to say wherever there’s a boss, someone’s face is attached to his ass. The copycat is a different creature. You might say copycats are enhanced versions of suck-ups. Their utmost desire is to become a person other than themselves, so they pick their target (usually his / her boss or a member of upper management) and basically copy their behavior to the extent of their possibilities.

I’ve come across these creatures in more than one occasion. They not only back-up whatever their bosses say, no matter how stupid or unreasonable it might be, they usually adopt it with a passion and blind eagerness to obey more suited to the military than to a business environment.

It is a very dangerous thing to follow rules without thinking, that’s why copycats are potentially dangerous individuals. In case you encounter one and you happen to disagree on a particular subject, be mindful that since copycats have no mind of their own their mind cannot be changed. You will never succeed unless you manage to convince their object of desire (i.e. the person they emulate) of changing his mind instead. This strategy could mean jumping the chain of command, so it must be used wisely.

The Un-feedback-able

I’ve spent half of my professional life as a manager, and as such delivering periodical feedback has always been one of my duties. In all of my teams without exception there has always been a person that no matter how much I tried to explain things to, would always wind up not listening or not caring and ultimately doing whatever they wanted to. Also, they would rebut every single piece of negative feedback, finding a very reasonable justification for every single thing you dare consider a flaw in their performance. These are the un-feedback-able.

Coincidentally or not, in my teams, these were always brilliant people with authority issues and stubborn to the bone. I remember dreading the moment in which I had to deliver them feedback and in more than one occasion I would purposely schedule the appointment at the end of the day because I knew my mind would not be good for much after it.

Finally (after a few years) I came up with the formula to deal with the un-feedback-able: pulling rank. If you know me or have read my previous post on management you’ll know that I discourage this type of method unless necessary. This is one such occasion.

I found that time and brain cells could be saved by using phrases such as: “I can see you are not in agreement with my position, but I’m your manager and I will be evaluating you according to what I just told you.”

Sadly, most times they carried on doing exactly what they wanted to, but at least, if on their next evaluation I had to shave points off their final score I could do so without so much as an “I told you to do things in a different way”.

Showoffs

In a recent comment to one of my posts, one of you inspired the species I’m about to describe. The comment described those developers that just can’t do something in a straightforward fashion and wind up unnecessarily complicating things in order to prove to others their vast knowledge. These are the tech showoffs you can find in almost all development teams.

The behavior of these creatures is clearly derived of insecurity. Not long ago men resorted to their cars to make up for their shortcomings elsewhere. Later, cars were replaced (or accompanied) by gadgets such as laptop computers, cell phones or smart-phones. Nowadays, for developers, penis size can be measured by the amount of unnecessary frameworks they are able to pile up in order to create a single “Hello World” application.

It doesn’t matter if something that could be done in fifteen minutes took five months to build, or that it has the hardware requirements of an electric power plant; showing off to your peers justifies almost anything.

When confronted with one of these creatures you need to know this is almost always a sin of youth and will eventually fade away. Anything you can do to speed up the learning process could help, but remember no matter how much you try to teach life experience, there is nothing like experiencing by one-self. Working a five-day rush will teach any showoff that sometimes a smart architectural or design choice will pay off big at a later stage.

Self Promoter 2.0

I know self promoters are no novelty, but social networking has helped engineer a completely new breed of this fascinating species. They don’t just brag about their accomplishments (whether real or invented) in office halls anymore. They have expanded their domain and now spend most of their time building their 2.0 personas to be the very reflection of the perfect professional, something of course they could accomplish by doing some actual work once in a while, but… why bother?

This creature is cunning, let’s face it, there is no way a person with no smarts can pull this off. However, they tend to build as much enemies as fans, since subordinates or peers of these individuals often feel social self promoters are full of it and take credit when they don’t deserve it or just plain don’t do the job they are supposed to and more work falls on their laps.

I have yet to figure out a way of dealing with social self promoters. I can’t say I have had direct interaction with any of them, but I keep hearing about them from acquaintances. Boy, do they sound pissed off. I eagerly await to see what happens when one of these individuals falls from grace. I believe that given their exposure they could immediately become pariahs. The bigger they are…

Flavor Combination

Any one person could simultaneously be more than one of the creatures described above. Surely a showoff has some traits of an un-feedback-able individual, and a traditional suck-up or self promoter could easily have the characteristics of both a copycat or a social self-promoter.

If you see a person that combines the four, please send a picture to both me and National Geographic. You could have an amazing discovery on your hands.

Shuje

On my next post I will explain why you should not feed developers after midnight. In the meantime, I would very much like to hear about the fauna in your workplace. Any creatures I should know of? Comment below or e-mail me at shuje@holoom.com

Hello Friends , I was honored by this precious Award and like last time this time too it’s awarded by Doraz ! Thank you so much Doraz for all your support and love Like she said I need to pass this award to 15 of my blog friends , here are the names of each of them . Congrats to all !

1- Gary

2-Silindile

4-Bill

5- BlissBait

6-Jaymie

7-CoolnWeird

9-To Youuuu Doraz

10- Azfree

11-Girgeum

12-Dennis the Vizla

13-Joan Harvest

14-Tony

15-S.Le

Top 10 most stupid questions people usually ask in obvious situations

1. At the Movies:

When you meet acquaintances/ friends.. .
Stupid Question:- Hey, what are you doing here?

Answer:- Don’t u know, I sell tickets in black over here…

2. In the bus:

A heavy lady wearing pointed high-heeled shoes steps on your feet…
Stupid Question:- Sorry, did that hurt?

Answer:- No, not at all, I’m on local anesthesia.. …
why don’t you try again.

3. At a funeral:

One of the teary-eyed people ask…
Stupid Question:- Why, why him, of all people.

Answer:- Why? Would it rather have been you?

4. At a restaurant:

When you ask the waiter Stupid Question:-
Is the “Chicken Noodles” good??

Answer:- No, its terrible and made of adulterated cement.
We occasionally also spit in it.

5. At a family get-together:

When some distant aunt meets you after years
Stupid Question:-Munna, Chickoo, you’ve become so big.

Answer:- Well you haven’t particularly shrunk yourself.

6. When a friend announces her wedding, and you ask…
Stupid Question:- Is the guy you’re marrying good?

Answer:- No,he’s a miserable wife-beating ,insensitive lout…it’s just
the
money.

7. When you get woken up at midnight by a phone call…
Stupid Question:- Sorry. were you sleeping?

Answer:- No. I was doing research on whether the Zulu tribes in
Africa marry or not. You thought I was sleeping…. you dumb witted
moron.

8. When you see a friend/colleague with evidently shorter hair…
Stupid Question:- Hey have you had a haircut?

Answer:- No, its autumn and I’m shedding…. ..

9. At the dentist when he’s sticking pointed objects in your mouth…
Stupid Question:- Tell me if it hurts?

Answer:- No it wont. It will just bleed.

10. You are smoking a cigarette and a cute woman in your office asks…
Stupid Question:- Oh, so you smoke.

Answer:- Gosh, it’s a miracle ………..it was a piece of chalk and
now   it’s in flames!!!

You came out here just hoping

To try and set us straight

We’ve proven to you without a doubt

That it was much too late.

You tried real hard to help us

You gave the job your all

But all you got from Denver

Was a lonely empty mall.

With your fifty cups of coffee

And your greasy fingerprints

We’re always cleaning glass

And passing you the mints.

Your anal retentive ways

Are borderline OCD.

You’d think you’d wash your hands

And learn to brush your teeth!

You shoot those rubber bands

At employees of Whitehall

You do it all in fun

Just To keep them on the ball.

You think that you’re the “Heff”

With all that graying hair

But the only “Playmate” that you’ve got

Is a ragged teddy bear.

The world’s greatest boss

Is what you really are

We’ll miss you every day

As we think of you afar.

As you look down at your watch

On that last and final day

This time we HOPE that taxi cab

Will take you on your way.

~ Pamela K. Berkhiem

Steele Steadiman,  gives his fractured viewpoint on how to handle conflict at the office.  Pretty hilarious.  There is even a counterpoint from  faux animal rights group.

Walter Smith is in optimistic mood ahead of Rangers’ Tuesday’s must-win Champions League tie with Stuttgart…. From BBC News. Full story

This site may contain information about: english football. The blog is also related to: football club.

  Adult Children of Alcoholism / Addiction in the Workplace

ACOA’s often transfer behaviour learned in childhood into other adult spheres of life. In true co-dependency style these often confuse and confound us.

Some of these are;

1. We confuse our boss or supervisor with our alcoholic parents and have similar relationship patterns, behaviors, and reactions that are carryovers from childhood.
2. We confuse our co-workers with our siblings or our alcoholic parents and repeat childhood reactions in those working relationships.
3. We expect lavish praise and acknowledgment from our boss for our efforts on the job.
4. Authority figures scare us and we feel afraid when we need to talk to them.
5. We get a negative gut reaction when dealing with someone who has the physical characteristics or mannerisms of our alcoholic parent.
6. We have felt isolated and different from everyone around us, but we don’t really know why.
7. We lose our temper when things upset us rather than dealing with problems productively.
8. We busy ourselves with our co-workers’ jobs, often telling them how to do their work.
9. We can get hurt feelings when co-workers do things socially together without asking us, even though we have not made an effort to get to know them and join in the social life.
10. We are afraid to make the first move to get to know a co-worker better, thinking they will not like us or approve of us.
11. We usually do not know how to ask for what we want or need on the job, even for little things.
12. We do not know how to speak up for ourselves when someone has said or done something inappropriate. We try desperately to avoid face-to-face confrontations.
13. We are sensitive and can get extremely upset with any form of criticism of our work.
14. We want to be in charge of every project or activity, feeling more comfortable when we are in control of every detail, rather than letting others be responsible.
15. We may be the workplace "clown" to cover up our insecurities or to get attention from others.
16. We are people-pleasers and may take on extra work, or our co-worker’s tasks, in order to be liked and receive approval from others.
17. We do not know how to be assertive in getting our needs met or expressing a concern. We may have to repeatedly rehearse our comments before delivering them.
18. We have felt that we do not deserve a raise, promotion, better workspace, or a better job.
19. We do not know how to set boundaries, and we let others interrupt us. We can accept more work without knowing how to say ‘no’ appropriately.
20. We are perfectionists about our own work and expect others to be the same and have the same work ethics and values.
21. We become workaholics because it gives us a feeling of self-worth we did not get as a child.
22. We may jump from job to job, looking for the perfect position as the substitute for the secure and nurturing home environment we did not have.
23. We get upset when people do things that affect us or our work without asking us first.
24. We have a high tolerance for workplace dysfunction and tend to stick it out in an unhappy job because we lack the self-esteem to leave.

After the ACOA laundry list of characterisation.

See also;

• Adult Children of Alcoholics
• Al-Anon May be able to help
• Alcoholic Family Roles
• Workaholism

Note: Cross posted from Recovery Is Sexy.com.

Permalink

 Chapter 4 108-110 Lead With Love By: Gerry Czarnecki

Your toughest challenge may be to focus your efforts on your strongest associates rather than the weakest. Anyone who loves people is likely to feel a strong desire to provide support to the organization’s problematic members. Again, it’s tempting to play amateur psychologist or social worker and try to modify behavior. You could spend much of your daily routine focusing on strengthening the weakness points of underperforming staff. You could commit to making them a success. But when you place your focus on helping the weak, you leave the strong to fend for themselves. You cannot allow your love to distract you from loving all your associates. By loving all your associates, you will find that the ones who can benefit most are the ones with the greatest potential. Do not cheat them by assuming that they can make it on their own.

 I learned this lesson from a candidate who was vying for a senior management position in my organization. During the interview, I asked him to tell me about a time when he had taken a problem employee and helped that person to become an excellent associate. His answer shocked me. He said he had never been successful in transforming a truly weak employee and that he had never really spent much time trying. Early in his career, his mentor gave him some sage advice. He told him he should spend almost all of his development time—80 percent or more—helping high-potential people become great, leaving weaker associates with the remaining 20 percent of his time. Since this idea violated everything I then believed about leadership,

I did not hire the candidate. As fate would have it, my very next meeting was with a manager who had already taken up much of my time the day before by making a serious managerial mistake. I spent an hour with him explaining why his decision was simply wrong and destructive to the organization, but he could not understand why I was making such a fuss over the issue.

 Right after that meeting, my best manager came to me with a problem he needed help with. At this point, I only had five minutes before I had to meet with my boss. By the time he laid out the problem, it was time for me to leave. As I was going out the door, he said to me in a rather frustrated tone, “Gerry, I really needed help, and you couldn’t give me five minutes. I guess I’ll have to find somebody else to help me.” I knew I had let him down. He was my best manager and deserved better. That night I was forced to look at myself in a very painful way. That first candidate was right about the 80/20 rule with employees. I began to change my thinking about leadership development. This lesson must be remembered if you are going to build an organization committed to peak performance.

 This was a tough lesson, and it also drove home the need to embrace completely the love concept. If I had truly been practicing love for my managers, I would have realized that this manager needed me. Indeed, a little careful evaluation of that manager would have reminded me of the fact that he seldom came to me for advice, but when he did, he really was stuck. If I had been thinking of him, instead of myself, that mistake would never have been made.

 It is a tough position to be in, but their needs are so much more important than ours. Our associates must find us available with the love that allows us to help them when they need it. With a commitment to help the strong, you will fulfill the true support  function that the best really need. The good get better, the best excel.

You are not going to achieve peak performance with a mediocre staff. Your company may be better than another company, or your unit may be better than another unit, but you will not achieve peak performance until stars dominate the staff and you spend time to develop those stars. The key to this concept is a core principle: a star is not always the star performer. A star is a person who has the potential of being the outstanding associate, yet may not have arrived at that achievement level. A star is defined by long-term potential, not by current performance. Focusing your development efforts on your stars is not an elitist philosophy; it is simply the best use of your time. When you help a star develop to become a star performer, you have not only served yourself well, but you also have served the individual and the organization as a whole. Ten minutes of helping a star to do a better job will pay greater dividends than ten hours with a mediocre or unsatisfactory performer. You should not write off the unsatisfactory performer, but you must make certain that the star gets the benefit of your leadership first. The investment will have a phenomenal return.

 Ask yourself which staff member is your potential star. Have you adequately trained that person? Is that person performing at his capability? What could you do to make the person become one of the company’s highest performers? Armed with the answers to these questions, sit down with that person and tell him you want to develop a plan for advancing his growth. Give that associate the opportunity to participate in the plan development. You will get his attention, and you may even energize him with your commitment and your love.

Swedish researchers from the University of Stockholm have published a report which shows that putting your boss in his/her place is a great way to prevent a work/stress related heart attack.

The Independent reports that…

“The finding backs up research which has shown that “covert copers” – those who suffer in silence – have worse health than those who confront their tormentors. People who bottle things up show signs of high blood pressure and heart disease and are more likely to go off sick.

[T]hose who persistently bottled up their anger rather than expressing it openly were more than twice as likely to suffer from heart attacks or heart disease.”

Those who stood up to their boss had better blood pressure, lower cholesterol levels, a more healthy BMI and made better lovers. OK, we made the better lover thing up – but we bet they do!

So there you have it, if you want to stay healthy at work – BASH YOUR BOSS!

But if you want to stay employed wear a balaclava.

*It’s also worth noting that the Independent page entitled “Stressed at work? Shout at your boss.” regularly has problems due to the amount of traffic that it receives – so if you want to slap your boss about you can rest assured that you’re not alone.

Teacher: What is the full form of maths?
Student: Mentally affected teachers harassing students

Teacher: How old is ur father.
Sunny: As old as I am.
Teacher: How is it possible?
Sunny: He became father only after I was born. (1st Rank)

Teacher: There is a frog, Ship is sinking, potatoes cost Rs3/kg…Then, what is my age?
Student: 32 yrs.
Teacher: How do you know?
Student: Well, my sister is 16 yrs old and she is half mad.

Rangers boss Walter Smith refuses to be drawn on whether leading scorer Kris Boyd will start the must-win Champions League tie with Stuttgart…. From BBC News. Full story

This site may contain information about: soccer matches. The blog is also related to: french soccer.

It had been almost over a year since i wrote my article about Hollister, but yet i still had the job.

I did not seem to mind anymore. I continued the tradition of swallowing my pride, but no longer  did I care about my discount, my job became an important social aspect of my life.

Oh yes, this was until we got the new boss.

Everyone knows what it’s like getting a new boss. He or she will either be a pushover or a complete toolbag. For me, it always seems to be the latter.

His name was Derek. He was a large man who barely fit into the company’s clothing. This was because he spent most of his life at the gym. I think by spending so much time sculpting his guns he may have constricted a few too many blood vessels.

He seemed to have been pointing out flaws in everyone’s work and letting us go unappreciated for the hours we were putting in.Luckily for me, he hadn’t found a flaw yet.

I think this panicked him. So for my final month working, he stalked me. Hid behind plants, lurked quietly in the corner, watching, waiting for me to screw up. And then I did.

A woman old enough to George Burn’s mother walked into our store. I was not about to berate this woman with the company’s tagline “Hey, what’ up?” It would have only have confused her, and I did not feel like giving this woman a cerebral aneurysm by explaining it.

"My mother was a saint!"

So I said “Hi, how are you doing today?!”

Big fucking mistake.

According to my manager, being hip and cool out weighs friendly and polite. No more could i work for this man, so I wrote him this letter

“Dear Derek,

If you don’t know by now, I don’t enjoy my job. If you haven’t noticed, it’s because you’re completely devoid of human emotion.

I started this job with high hopes. I thought working here would be a relaxed environment; my oh my how naïve I was.

I soon was whisked into a world of mass consumerism and materialism that I couldn’t have begun to fathom before I started working here. For instance: the company’s idea of model standards.

I’m not an idiot; I can hear your conference calls. I heard Chelsea complaining about our model’s not wearing enough plaid. I heard the other managers talking about their new recruitments. “I think she’s really cute, she’d be great” or “I don’t like him, especially after he shaved his head.”

How about this, who gives a fuck?

It wasn’t until recently that I realized this, I’ve known this forever. If you didn’t know I’ve been with the company longer than you have, so for me to only notice this now would be absurd.

The last string was pulled earlier this week. According to anonymous sources at the manager meeting, the managers, you believe that we are stressed out because of the company’s instance for us to wear plaid.

^Way too stressed out

I’m tired of making witty comments and transfusing them with sarcasm, so I’m just going to be blunt. It’s not the plaid; it’s you.

By hearing this quote I realized there is no getting through to you. You have no idea of how other human beings think or act. It’s the only explanation

You’re like a robot.

But it doesn’t matter, because you don’t. I can think of a long list of things that are more important than Hollister’s and your impact in the world including Atkins, contact lenses, snuggies, antiperspirant deodorant,  Go-gurt, crystal meth, red states, socialism, Hayden Panterrie, that funny asian guy off of Knocked Up, construction paper, Bonanza, barracudas, cheap cologne, and George Clooney.

So I’m going to go back to my life of yager bombs and happiness and you can go back to yours of snorting testosterone and So Cal.

Yours truly,

Mario

PS: PULL UP YOUR FUCKING PANTS!!!!!!! “

I hope I made my point.

Yesterday, Betsy and I took a walk downtown to see if there were any goings-on surrounding the 36th anniversary of the assassination of John F. Kennedy. We headed through the undulating canyons of the central business district, and tried to stay on the sunny side of the street as autumn temperatures arrived and a gentle wind ushered leaves down the cool streets and across lengthening shadows.

The JFK Memorial is a not-quite-stark white box, made of concrete, that rests just about two feet from the ground, seeming to float despite its bulk. The box is cleft on the North and South ends to create two towering halves that surround a slightly sunken central square in which rests the main dais. The dais is, as the information says, too low to be a table, to square to be a tomb, and too large to be merely a commemorative plaque. On the two sides facing the exits to the cenotaph is engraved “JOHN FITZGERALD KENNEDY” and painted gold to catch what light enters from the gaps, or manages to rappel its way down the massif.

This day, the anniversary, we were expecting not fanfare, but perhaps black ribbons or even a flag at half-mast. Maybe the flags were at half-staff, but I didn’t notice. There were few people save for what seemed like a couple of groups of tourists – families – snapping pictures. In fact, as we approached the memorial from the opposite side of the street, a large group of bicyclists, mostly dressed in Victorian garb, went past. The peloton seemed not to notice the memorial. In fact, it turns out it was a “tweed ride” and it’s only connection to Kennedy was that the group was rallying at the Grassy Knoll.

The Memorial was quiet, as I said, and a few small bouquets seemed lackadaisically placed atop the marble slab, along with a smattering of coins that gave it the air of a wishing well or busker’s hat. Two women, reading the information and inscriptions on the north side suddenly came to the realization that today was, in fact, the day. They seemed surprised.

Dallas, it seems, still bears a heavy weight. Downtown has some elegant buildings, but there is a certain silence and seediness. If not seediness, there is a stillness that exists downtown like a moment frozen in time. Like that gunshot was a shutter release, forever cementing Dallas in a foggy void, like a grainy photo. That vacuity was never more evident that yesterday. A 1965 Mustang parked nearby seemed to further the notion that nearly 50 years hadn’t elapsed in this city.

The city is trying to overcome the stigma that I think is attached to it. It bears a heavy cross and I think that there is an intentional lack of publicity around the anniversary. Perhaps we came too late in the day. The Observer claims there were ’scores’ of tourists. The Sixth Floor Museum seemed to have a small crowd outside, but was by no means scores of people. The Cowboys game had ended so there wasn’t really a reason for people not to be outside.

Maybe, much like Ground Zero in New York City has become hallowed ground, yet ground that many New Yorkers feel too gutted to visit regularly, the JFK Memorial is still too haunting for some.

A City financier accused of trying to kill an employee sent a work experience girl an obscene message in Latin, a tribunal hears…. From BBC News. Full story

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Chapter 4 105-108  Lead With Love By: Gerry Czarnecki

 Not all development should focus on job skills. Personal growth is also important. Encouraging personal growth is not just good for an associate, it is good for the organization. The whole person comes to work each day, and associates who know and understand themselves have more time to know and understand their work. Far too many staff members spend half their lives searching for themselves and the rest of the time just “getting by” at work. An associate cannot be productive if his day is consumed by self-doubt or worry over personal inadequacy. It is not the leader’s responsibility to fund such efforts to find inner-confidence, but the leader does have an opportunity to encourage them.

 Deciding how to encourage these efforts for personal discovery can be a challenge. On one hand, we must avoid appearing to act like amateur psychologists; on the other, we actually need to do just that. As leaders, we are not therapists helping people work through their personal identity and psychological-well-being issues. We are, however, in many ways diagnosticians. We must be able to recognize psychological challenges that negatively impact an associate’s performance. How we use the diagnosis to facilitate resolution of the problem is a sensitive and difficult matter. Once again, it is much easier to be sensitive to the psychology of your associates if you love them enough to probe what makes them “tick.”

 As a leader you should get all of the professional help you can to facilitate increased wellness of your staff. This is one of those times when consulting with your superior is probably the best advice. If your organization has a human resources department, then go there for counsel. If the problem is important enough, it may be necessary to rely on or establish an organizational process that refers individuals to a therapist, social service agency, or even private-sector support such as a minister or counselor. If you have a relationship with the associate or the associate discusses the problem with you, then you might be able to suggest he or she seek help. It is imperative that you not damage your working relationship by appearing to interfere in the personal life of an associate; hence, getting professional support in handling this type of situation is always the best course of action.

 What responsibilities do your staff members have for their own development? Have they created their own development plans? Have you asked them to write out those plans and then commit to accomplishing them? Have you reviewed and approved the plans? How do you decide what extraordinary training or development your staff requires? Do you have those programs already established? If not, you should create a program that can be used as a general development tool for the entire unit, not just one or more staff members. Your commitment to supporting the continual development of associates should also extend to broadening their knowledge beyond what is required for the day-to-day tasks of the job. A course in art history may have very little to do with your work environment, but it can have everything to do with the development of a person who appreciates aesthetic beauty. In turn, it can influence an employee’s ability to appreciate the value of the organization and its support of the arts in the community. The same  could be said for a course in biology, which can help an individual appreciate the need to preserve the environment. In turn, it can help that same associate recognize, and even get involved in, the efforts of the organization to preserve the environment at the workplace. In short, seldom does a learning experience go to waste. Organizations should encourage general educational development. Those that can afford the expense should continue to subsidize advanced education as they are able, but they should also encourage learning in any formal or informal setting that helps associates grow.

 Don’t just allow your staff to self-improve, encourage it. Expanded knowledge helps your associates grow. On the job, you must allow them to learn tasks they do not need to know. One day, their knowledge may have a profound impact on your ability to fulfill the organization’s needs. Today’s seemingly extraneous knowledge may lead to tomorrow’s promotion from within. Let the B clerk learn about the A clerk’s job. Someday you may need another A clerk. The added cost of satisfying the intellectual curiosity of an associate is trivial in comparison to the cost of ignorance. Just as important, if you believe workplace improvements can and should come from the people in the workplace, then increased knowledge and skills will enhance associates’ ability to contribute to employee-driven change through suggestion systems, quality control circles, and other employee participation systems. Harness the power of staff members instead of stifling them. Their growth can enhance the organization’s growth.

Do you have a staff member who has received all the training your organization requires but is still not performing to expected levels? What do you think you could do to facilitate a development experience that could make a real difference for that staff member? Why have you not done it? If you could do anything you wanted, how would you develop or train your staff member? Weak performers may well be the result of inadequate training and development. Your weak performers can be a clue to a failure of the development process, and that should be the first place you look for improvement. Create a list of your weakest staff member’s shortcomings and create a development plan that will provide the changes required to improve his performance. Compare that plan to the training and development plans already in place. If there is a disconnect, then talk to the training department about the problem. Continuing growth is essential, even when excellence has been achieved. Keep the pressure on and push your associates to continuously improve. Complacency is a serious problem for a developing associate. The need for continuous improvement is never greater than when the staff members are fully comfortable with their current level of knowledge. As they lose the thrill of growth, they will become bored and may decide to leave to find something more exciting. Those who stay will settle into a comfortable rut, and inevitably their performance will deteriorate, or worse, they will fail. Standing still is not possible. The choice is between moving forward and falling behind.

alien.
BOSS RUN AWAY!! ALL HALF PRICE

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youth

I think that there is a woman at work who hates me because I’m young, white, college-educated, and her boss.