The Next Dark Age
We're in it Now
Help! Was that a Career Limiting Move? by Pamela J. Holland and Marjorie Brody
Book 9 (Which I seem to have skipped over earlier)
Help! Was That a Career Limiting Move? was literally assigned reading in my current course, “Managing People, Professionals and Teams”. This is a business etiquette book. It was a whole bunch of short pieces that sometimes might be considered no-brainers. It was all good material, but trying to read it all in one sitting was a bit much. Some favorites:
The idea that you are here to serve the work, the work is not here to serve you. It was in a piece about how no job is perfect.
Do not stand directly behind someone at his or her computer. You are invading personal space.
Keep your shoes on.
There was also an interesting statistic about smoking (the advice was to quit) that makes me wonder about hiring discrimination:
Smoking employees have 34% more absences from work, are 29% more likely to have industrial accidents and are 40% more likely to suffer occupational injuries.
I am totally going to leave this at my desk.
Would You Believe?
I left my textbook at my desk at work?
And I’m not going back to get it.
As if I Needed One More Reason to Love Warren Buffett
USA Today gave me this:
His base salary remained at $100,000, the same level it’s been for more than 25 years. He picked up an additional $75,000 for director’s fees from some outside companies in which Berkshire has significant investments. That pay did not change from 2007 either.
Buffett, one of the most successful investors of all time, has been an outspoken critic of lavish executive compensation packages at other companies. In keeping with that philosophy, his own company doesn’t award large pay packages or give out perks or stock options.
Cutting Expenses
MSN Money ran an article called 4 Expenses You Shouldn’t Cut. I was particularly interested in the pieces on prescription drugs and car maintenance. My mechanic recently told me that he is seeing people forgo regular maintenance a lot lately. Worse – when the price of gas shot up, he twice had the same customer call him because he ran out of gas. I didn’t even ask how much he charged to rescue someone that ran out of gas. On the Kennedy Expressway. Anyway – I know that many cars do not specifically require an oil change every 3,000 miles. But. From the article:
There is an added benefit of a regular oil change. While getting it changed, your mechanic will check all the fluid levels in your car, helping ensure your safety on the road, Ammons says.
That is exactly what I think.
I also liked the part about raising your deductible – as long as you stash the different somewhere in your savings. I should look at that stuff again.
Telephone Etiquette
Miss Manners wrote on a subject that touched pretty close to home. A reader complained about two people in her life that quiz her on her whereabouts whenever she fails to answer the phone (home or cell).
My solution is simple – I tell the whole world that I almost never answer the phone. And almost no one hassles me. Well – there was one guy in my office voicemail saying – not to me – “God! This woman is never at her phone!”
At work, I get so many sales calls that any number I don’t recognize is sent straight to my voicemail. Just now I was trapped by someone with a survey because the area code was the same as my other office and I thought one of my people might be calling from a cell phone. That is not going to happen again (today). I also don’t return calls from people that I don’t know if they don’t tell me why they are calling me.
At home, I might hear the phone. I might see the caller i.d. I might get up to answer it. But you really can’t count on that. E-mail is better.
Incidentally, Miss Manners suggested that there is no need to apologize. “I was away from the phone” is a perfectly acceptable response.
Talking Cutbacks
MSN Money ran an article the other day called, “10 Cutbacks You’ll See At Work”. As I read through the list and saw things like “Travel” and “Parties”, I thought that was nothing and I am happy to be working.
“Eliminating 401(k) match”? OK. “Hiring freeze”? We’re doing that. Not too long ago, one of the news magazines asked the question, “Would you take a 10% cut in pay so that your employer didn’t have to lay off 10% of the workforce? How about 20%?”
That one could give you a headache.
The “Healthcare” one could hurt. We have struggled for years to maintain a balance between company cost and what we pass on to employees. And I am not entirely sure how I feel about the “Training Budget” one. On one hand, there are things – like Harassment Prevention – where I just don’t want to mess with it. On the other hand, if that is a line item on the budget cuts that can ultimately save jobs, I can’t argue.
So today, let those of us that are working be thankful. And make sure that our résumés are current.
Quote of the Day
I just saw the Quote of the Day my widget-thing produced:
Wanting to be someone else is a waste of the person you are. Kurt Cobain
Was that supposed to be irony?
New Session
As you can tell by the book to the left, I have started my next class. I am happy to say I will not be required to take my mid-term at the HR Conference. But otherwise I am counting down the weeks until the end of the semester.
I mentioned that I have booked my summer vacation. Funny thing..several years ago, in a Myers-Briggs seminar, the facilitator asked whether we prefer to take vacations with other people or take them alone. She was establishing the difference between extroverts and introverts.
Umm…both?
Last year, I did the solo road trip, which rocked. This year, I am headed back to New Orleans with Rich and Jodi and whomever else they invite. I am pretty excited about it.
And I kept my B+ in Accounting.
Mileage Plus Choices
After United Airlines announced the recent changes to the Mileage Plus program, I noticed a new benefit to Mileage Plus cardholders:
No restrictions, no blackout periods, any flight. If you book the flight on United.com, charge the flight to your Mileage Plus Visa, and you can put in a request to redeem miles for up to the cost of the ticket as a credit to your Visa account.
I have been sitting on a whole bunch of miles for so long that they are going to expire. I was planning to use them to go overseas, but I just don’t fee like going overseas this year. That’s a different rant, though.
I am going to New Orleans this summer, so I planned to try this new trick on my flight. But it turned out that my flight was not blacked out or restricted and I was able to use the standard 25,000 mile redemption. Then I saw all of the other things I could have using miles.
Red Carpet Club was tempting. But then I saw that I could use it on the hotel.
The best hotel deals seem to involve pre-payment. I’ve been to New Orleans several times, and there weren’t any hotels that I know that weren’t on United’s list. So after going back and forth with my friend Jodi for a few days, we settled on a nice looking hotel that had really good rates for the week of Memorial Day.
I reserved two rooms, and put them on my credit card. Today, I went for the credit.
The good news is that it isn’t an all-or-nothing proposition. If the bill is $1,000 and you only have (or want to use) enough miles for half of it, you can. There is a calculator feature that tells you exactly how many miles you have, how many it will cost and how many you will have left.
The bad news is that it isn’t tied to your flight miles, only to the miles you have earned on the credit card. Significantly fewer, in my case. And only those earned since January 1, 2006. Now, I didn’t want to cash in the whole bill, anyway, because I pre-paid for two rooms and Jodi is going to pay me back for her half. But I thought I could do my half. In the end, I was able to put in for a redemption of $540.00 – most of the expense for my five nights. It cost me 67,500 miles. I have no idea how that compares to other programs.
Assuming the “request” is accepted, it will be 3-5 days before the credit hits my account. Well in advance of the Visa’s closing date.
I wouldn’t have tried this for a trip that I couldn’t otherwise afford to take. And since I primarily use my Amex (cash back) these days, it is unlikely I will be able to use this feature again any time soon. But it seems to have worked for me.
Raves and Rants
I was saying that a lady in our office shaved her head for St. Baldrick’s Day. I saw her yesterday and she looks great. I’d post a picture, but I think that is crossing the line. Some women can pull off that look and she sure does. I asked her how she worked up the nerve. Her hair was as long as mine.
“I hated my hair,” she said. The event was the excuse to start all over. And now she can try every hairstyle in between. She is my hero.
And now to gripe about my job (which you aren’t supposed to do on the Internet)…
There are some cool things about working in HR and some things that are terrible. One of the terribles?
People assume that if someone is talking to me – sitting down in my workspace or theirs – that someone is about to get fired. It makes me crazy.
First. How often does someone really get fired around here? Second. Do you really think I am going to talk about that in a cubicle? Third. Is that all you think HR does? Plot to fire people? But mostly…
It’s personal. Do you really think that no one in this whole company talks to me about anything other than the termination of employment? That just hurts my feelings.
The Next Dark Age 