The Next Dark Age
We're in it Now
Amazon Feedback Makes Me Insane
A couple of months ago, a lady left negative feedback for the Library Used Book Store on Amazon. If I remember correctly, she said it was a horrible, useless book. Really.
First of all, it is hardly the fault of the seller if you find that a book does not suit your needs. We listed it by the ISBN and described the condition. Accurately.
Second, we never sent the book. We could not find it in stock and promptly refunded the money with an apology. We politely sent a message to the lady regarding the latter and asked for a retraction. Never got one. Finally, it dropped out of our 30-day feedback and life went on.
Today, I saw another negative:
“A rip off. Does not work. Bought the Apple cable with more plugs, and it works perfectly. Don’t waste you money or time on this junk. “
What the heck kind of A/V stuff did we sell? I clicked on the link. It was for a cloth-bound book with gilt lettering.
What? Did we actually get negative feedback meant for someone else? A small seller account like ours takes a pretty big hit from that feedback and I am livid. And all I can do is send out this public service announcement:
Please be careful with your feedback. We want it to be honest; we want it to be an accurate reflection of the transaction. And we want it to really be meant for us. Don’t just click on your last transaction and start typing. And? You might try contacting the seller about a problem before leaving that feedback.
Thank you for your attention.
In Savannah
I flew in to Charleston, rented a car and drove down to Savannah. It is a lively drive that I have done before. It is too early in the season for roadside farm stands of peaches, but I did stop at the Carolina Cider Company for cherry cider. I swear they have this exact same place in Door County, WI. They just call it something different!
Driving into the city, I nearly missed the fact that our hotel is on the other side of the river. I have felt all turned around all day. This is the view from my dirty hotel room window:
If I angled a bit left, you would see the fabulous parking lot.
We had our meeting today, which went fine. Then I spent almost two hours with my boss in the bar while he helped me with a school assignment involving self assessment. He was unbelievably nice to me. Then we went to dinner with a couple of colleagues. The Olde Pink House is a big deal here, and I had been there before. Unfortunately, it is Saturday and we could only get two tables pushed together in the basement bar area. Food was good, though. I was too lame to remember to take a picture (ok, I was talking), so this is the best I can do:
Now I really have to do some homework.
And the New Doors
The front hall is much darker now that we have the smaller windows way up there. Our compromise was I wanted to keep the double door concept and she wanted something that a burgler couldn’t smash to reach an arm in and unlock the door. Everyone is happy.
The doors are fiberglass, rather than metal. I would never know the difference there. But I must say I was surprised by the change in noise level. The echo we started hearing a month or so ago (when we replaced carpet with laminate in one room) is that much more pronounced. And oh, my. When the dog barks.
Frugal Fliers
MSN Travel had a good article, Two Words for a Frugal Flier: Patience. Wednesday. I am not a particularly frugal flier in that I am spoiled by my home town airport and think that a layover is about the worst thing one could endure while travelling. I am also rather loyal to United Airlines. And I don’t like the risk of waiting for fares to drop. So I suck at this particular game. But I found two good tips that will work even for me:
“The best time to shop is late Monday or early Tuesday, some fare experts say. Airlines often start fare sales on Sunday night or Monday morning, said Rick Seaney of FareCompare.com. Those sales alone are fine if they include the flight you want. But other carriers generally match the fare sale by Monday evening or Tuesday morning, giving you more choices.”
OK. I can be flexible about when I shop for a flight!
“Wednesdays are generally the cheapest day to fly. Tuesdays and Saturdays are also good days to fly because demand is low and the airlines are trying to fill seats.”
I think I knew that already, but it is good to keep in mind.
I think the point here is that we as consumers should gauge the value of our own convenience. Ugh. I just realized my mother must be credited with teaching me that.
Before
As we speak, new front doors are being put on my house. Unfortunately, my “Before” shot was an afterthought as I was leaving for work today:
Why, yes. They are very 1977. I could go on a complete rant about the silly looking fancy-schmancy doors going up around my neighborhood these days. And take pictures. And write about how the people who caught me taking pictures probably think that I am taking pictures so that I can find something just like it.
But I am much too lazy.
School Debate
I had an interesting debate in school last week. We were talking about managers and trouble with managers and then someone mentioned going to talk to HR. Two of my classmates suggested that talking to HR is useless when you have a problem with your boss. I have been debating whether to post my response to the discussion here, but decided to just go for it. I feel like it is my responsibility to my profession. Or something.
HR varies from company to company, and professional to professional, and I realize you are only talking about your current employer. But I strongly disagree with the perception that “HR is only concerned about helping managers take actions in a way that avoids potential future lawsuits”. In fact, in the last two investigations that I have conducted, managers complained to my supervisor, saying that I was taking the employee’s “side” and not being “supportive” of the manager. That wasn’t true, either.
I also disagree that HR’s job is (or should be) to “look out for the employee’s best interests”. Neither is it to protect a single manager’s best interests. We are hired by the company to protect its interests. Happily, that often means helping one person to solve one problem with one supervisor. But it also means (sorry for the cliche) that sometimes the good of the many outweighs the good of the few.
The Society of Human Resource Managers has a huge page defining the HR discipline of Employee Relations, but here is a snapshot:
“Basic employee relations concepts include equal employment opportunity, fairness and consistency in the treatment of employees, effective communications between management and employees, documentation of employment actions, recordkeeping as required by law and practice, complaint resolution processes, managerial and employee training, and “best employment practices.” Employee relations also encompasses the organization’s overall approach to maintaining a positive, productive and cohesive work environment within the organization’s particular business model and corporate culture.”
You can see that there is some bureaucratic responsibility here, but I believe it is in the spirit of “maintaining a positive, productive and cohesive work environment”. From an employee relations perspective, I consider my job to be seeing a problem from multiple points of view and trying to open communication between employees and their supervisors. The goal is to build or rebuild trusting relationships. It is only when I am convinced that won’t work that I start defending the proverbial lawsuit.
Reference:
Anonymous (2009). Introduction to the Human Resources Discipline of Employee Relations. Society of Human Resource Management. Retrieved on March 26, 2009 from: http://www.shrm.org/hrdisciplines/employeerelations/Pages/EmpRelIntro.aspx
Diversity: Leaders not Labels, by Stedman Graham
I picked up Diversity: Leaders not Labels from the library as research material for my group project. Then I realized it was written by Stedman Graham, who is a big deal management consultant in Chicago and also known as Oprah’s Significant Other. I read the introduction just to see if he was any good, and he is. I kept reading and finished it in a day.
The book is part “yay diversity”, part “if your company is not diverse, your bottom line will suffer” and part, “here are the things that you should know about some minority groups in the U.S.”
That last part rocked. Besides describing the history of each group in the U.S., Graham offers short descriptions of heroic members of each group. One rather interesting (and heartbreaking) note is that when young Native Americans were interviewed, they hard a hard time naming any modern Native American Heroes. Most could only come up with Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse.
Yes. Graham singled out Oprah in his list of heroes.
I learned that things, too. Apparently, the phrases “differently abled” and “physically challenged” are sometimes considered condescending. I always thought that. Here was a shocker:
I didn’t know that the word “peon” was considered a racial insult to the Hispanic community. My brain (and Encarta, the that dictionary Microsoft uses) equated it primarily with the word “drudge”, meaning someone who performs menial work. So, not a nice thing to say, but hardly racist. Then a secondary definition listed “laborer”, particularly Hispanic farm worker. A third definition was “low paid worker” and mentioned Asians. Now I know.
Graham also stressed the personal responsibility of each member of a minority group to manage their own destiny. As a woman in the workforce, I heartily agree that I should not be waiting around for an employer to build opportunities for me.
I think the big take away from this book is that true leaders do not take the shortcut of judging people by the labels society pegs on them. Leaders take the time to judge people on their merit. I’m not saying that I am personally any great leader. But I buy the message.
End of the Weekend Blathering
I was going to take a picture of the snow and give you a “Mother Nature always saves one last snowstorm for April” speech. But that bored even me.
The school news today is that I turned in my first paper yesterday. It was returned, graded by my course facilitator, inside of 24 hours. I love that guy.
The score was a 91. My mother will want to know how I only managed a 91 on a paper for a course on managing employees when I work in HR. The answer: I got bored.
And now we know the theme for today.
In other news, I had to purge my “to be read” bookcase because it was overflowing. Now it is merely totally full. Which doesn’t count the book on my nightstand that I haven’t opened in days because I am always reading school stuff and the Star Wars book in my bag that I am really getting into and must only read at lunchtime.
OK. I really have to get in the shower now. And finish that other book for school.
I Want this Semester to Be Over
Finishing up Week Three. Four more until the end of the semester. One paper. One group project. One final exam.
My To Be Read bookcase is officially overflowing and I am reading library books for school. Doesn’t stop me from going to Half Price Books because my mother is looking for a couple of things. On top of all the books, I bought a computer game.
I am going to spend the summer catching up on reading and playing computer games.
This week, a classmate on the Discussion board said this:
“…Hr is only concerned about helping managers take actions in a way that avoids potential future lawsuits.”
She is in my project group, too.
But my first paper is done and I have taken the midterm and I am getting through the reading. Four more weeks isn’t so bad. I guess.
Thought I’d Outgrown This
It’s like high school all over again. With a cat.
The Next Dark Age 