Surviving the Workday: Spirituality at Work

Surviving the Workday

2007-10-31T08:07:00.000-07:00

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Do You Have Your Period?

2007-09-28T11:57:00.001-07:00

That's the question a freshman was asked by a security guard at her high school. She was carrying a purse, which violated the No Bags rule at the high school (having her period would have explained the purse supposedly). It seems security guards asking The Question may have been routine at this school.

The small Sullivan County school has been in an uproar for the last week. Girls have worn tampons on their clothes in protest, and purses made out of tampon boxes. Some boys wore maxi-pads stuck to their shirts in support.
After hearing that someone might have been suspended for the protest, freshman Hannah Lindquist, 14, went to talk to Worden [the principal]. She wore her protest necklace, an OB tampon box on a piece of yarn. She said Worden confiscated it, talked to her about the code of conduct and
the backpack rule — and told her she was now "part of the problem."

I'm pretty sure your problem, Principal Worden, is not this kid (who is exhibiting all sorts of problem solving abilities). Read The Question Causes Furor at Local High School to more details on the story and protest.

Spirituality at Work Roundup

2007-09-28T07:55:00.000-07:00

Ageism 'endemic' in workplace explores ageism in Great Britain, some of which seems related to mandatory retirement at 65 and a three-tier minimum wage system. The article uses two interesting examples of supposed discrimination, "A third of those questioned had seen people being managed differently depending on their age, while 30% were aware of an older person getting paid more than a younger one for doing the same job," which aren't necessarily discrimination in my opinion (they certainly could be, but not necessarily as they're written).

Top Vatican official calls for women's rights in tourism industry recounts a letter Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone wrote calling for equal rights for women in the tourism industry and denouncing sex tourism. (I might have split those issues into two separate letters.)

Signature effort to repeal gay rights is too close to call describes the repeal effort in Oregon for one law prohibiting discrimination in the workplace and in housing and one law establishing same-sex domestic partnerships. It's unclear if there are the (just about) 60,000 signatures needed for the repeals to qualify for the November ballot.

Sexual harassment at workplaces describes sexual harassment in Pakistan, including by text messages. The struggle in Pakistan, as it is described in the article, is between the current laws and the attitudes. One of the justifications for decreasing discrimination is that the women's "productivity" is diminished when they are harassed.

It's Friday

2007-09-28T07:38:00.000-07:00

so here is short quiz that calculates your "real age." I'm only 4.5 years old, which explains why I don't remember much of the past 30 years---they never happened. Feel free to post your real age here too.

via ghostgirl

Free Samples

2007-09-27T12:16:00.000-07:00

Who doesn't like a free sample?

I'm thinking of Costco right now as I type and their deep fried samples, which I used to snarf in high school while shopping with my mother. But, ahem, professionally speaking, I'm actually writing about a different kind of free sample, the kind that is customized for a potential client in order to be hired.

A friend who is also a freelance writer/editor (and a graphic designer) and I have been discussing the practice of potential clients requiring customized samples of our work as "free samples" before hiring us (even with relevant past work samples and references). I've done this for three years, but now I'm stopping. *

Why? My friend and I ran some numbers and we rarely (if ever) get the client when we produce "free samples." How can this be? Is it that we (collectively) suck? Well, the rest of our long-term clients don't think so. Is it that there isn't a good match between our skill set and the clients' needs? Certainly that's a possibility.

But I'd like to offer another possibility. Many people think that they write good test questions, but most of us don't. So the "free sample" of work (essentially a test) is often very difficult to take (and subjective to assess). The instructions don't make sense. The actual task is near impossible. And clarification is most often unavailable. So the test is not a particularly fair measure of our skills.

Of course, there's also the possibility that the potential clients simple want work done for free and divide a project into parts, give each part to a freelancer as a "free sample," and then have their project complete.

However, this afternoon, as I quickly expanded my sample size of freelancers to five, it seems that we share a common experience of losing at the "free sample" game. Hmm...

*I should note that most editors, including myself, don't object to taking standard copyediting and developmental editing tests for potential clients, which are totally different than customizing a "free sample."

Dress Codes

2007-09-27T11:02:00.000-07:00

Dress codes are rarely spelled out in this sort of detail, especially for a call center where the interactions with the public are presumably over the phone.

There are almost an infinite number of observations we could make about this policy. Compare the columns. Compare the Monday-Thursday to Friday, Saturday, Sunday. Compare the Managers and Supervisors guidelines to non-Manager/Supervisor guidelines. Consider the inclusion of culottes. Wow.

I wonder what exactly prompted the development of these extremely detailed policies. And note that exceptions are made on a case by case basis for religious reasons.

Any observations that you'd like to share?

Happiness and Time Use

2007-09-27T10:23:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we looked at time use in terms of how we divide our work days. The results of a time use and happiness survey have just been published that indicate some significant differences between men and women:

But there were also a number of activities that produced very different reactions from the two sexes — and one of them really stands out: Men apparently enjoy being with their parents, while women find time with their mom and dad to be slightly less pleasant than doing laundry.

It's possible I should not have exploded with laughter on reading that last sentence. And, because friends and family read my blog, I should note that I really like doing the laundry. Seriously. So why this gap in happiness with parental relations?

Alan Krueger, a Princeton economist working with four psychologists on the time-use research team, figures that there is a simple explanation for the difference. For a woman, time with her parents often resembles work, whether it’s helping them pay bills or plan a family gathering. “For men, it tends to be sitting on the sofa and watching football with their dad,” said Mr. Krueger, who, when not crunching data, enjoys watching the New York Giants with his father.

Clearly I need to get more into football. You can read He's happier, she's less so for more details on time use and happiness (nice interactive graphic too).

Relaxing at Work

2007-09-27T08:39:00.000-07:00

From Relax: Techniques to Help You Achieve Tranquility:

Practice this basic technique twice a day, every day, and whenever you feel tense. Follow these steps:
Inhale. With your mouth closed and your shoulders relaxed, inhale as slowly and deeply as you can to the count of six. As you do that, push your stomach out.
Allow the air to fill your diaphragm.
Hold.
Keep the air in your lungs as you slowly count to four.
Exhale. Release the air through your mouth as you slowly count to six.
Repeat. Complete the inhale-hold-exhale cycle three to five times.

Spirituality at Work Roundup

2007-09-27T06:57:00.001-07:00

In Pregnant High-Flyer Demoted to Penpusher, we learn about a Scottish accountant who trained a temporary assistant for while she was on maternity leave and returned from leave to find the temp promoted over her and herself demoted to filing for the temp. She was awarded a relatively small settlement. I'd skip reading the comments on the article.

In Pagan Organization Offers A Welcoming Setting, we learn about a non-exclusionary pagan organization on a Connecticut campus. Which campus? I can't tell you from my perusal of the article. Kudos to you if you can. The organization sounds like a fine place.

In Hope Rises as Faith Grows on Campus, we learn about a survey conducted by UCLA found that, "that 79 percent of freshmen surveyed said they believed in God, and 69 percent said they pray. And, though a whopping 81 percent said that they have attended a religious service, 64 percent believe that "most people can grow spiritually without being religious." The article goes on to parse the language a bit, which is interesting. If you're interested in Gen Y spirituality and religion trends, I'd read this article.

In Mexican maquila workers need your help to fight for unions, we learn that the worker-leaders of a movement in favor of unions in their garment factory have all been fired. There's a letter you can send/email to those in charge. I also see an advertisement for Ethical Threads on the site.

Internet Law-Internet Hate Speech explores the legalities of, among other issues, hate speech in the workplace. California law supports employers firing employees who use hate speech in the workplace.

Ratios of Sorts of Work

2007-09-26T07:47:00.000-07:00

Recently I wrote down a ratio for how I spend my workday: 50 : 40 : 10. That's roughly 50% writing or editing, 40% marketing (searching for work, applying for work, selling myself in some fashion), and 10% accounting (billing, processing checks, asking to be paid, asking again to be paid, praying to be paid).

Anyone else want to share his or her ratios or percents for the workday?

Business Meetings : Internet Comments

2007-09-26T07:13:00.000-07:00

First, this is most likely not appropriate for you to play in the workplace because of the language used. However, if you've ever commented on the Internet or observed on-line behavior in discussions, I think you'll find it funny. It is college humor (as in the site, not the level of sophistication), and not appropriate for children.

If Business Meetings Were Like Internet Comments

Work Is Only for the Productive

2007-09-26T06:34:00.000-07:00

I find connecting human worth to productivity to be morally gross, but there is a lot of this rhetoric out there. We always hear about "being a productive member of society" as if it's akin to godliness.

Here's an example of productivity at work rhetoric from a recent speech by Nigeria's Minister of Labor, Dr. Hassan Mohammed Lawal:

Let me also use this opportunity to call on all employers of labour to stop stigmatising and discriminating against workers who are HIV positive. This is because a worker who is HIV positive is still very productive. It is illegal and against fundamental principles and rights at work.

It's one thing to call for an end to discrimination because it doesn't treat others as if they have inherent worth and dignity (or doesn't demonstrate justice, equity, or compassion in human relations). It's completely another thing to call for an end to discrimination because the discriminated against can still produce. This thinking puts the only value on productivity, which leaves the very young, the very old, the disabled, the sick also in the category of worthlessness.

100 Best Companies is Bogus

2007-09-25T15:06:00.000-07:00

Becky of Deep Muck Big Rake left a comment about an article she had written investigating 100 Best Companies for Working Mothers...are they really the best? She answers Hafida's question.

Work and Reciprocity

2007-09-25T12:09:00.000-07:00

I've been struggling with the issue of reciprocity for a while, but had been unable to label it as such until this morning. Reciprocity is a key ingredient in many significant relationships, including marriage and friendship. And in the workplace reciprocity affects both those employed as employees and those who are self-employed.

What is reciprocity? Reciprocity is sometimes described as negotiations between equals, sometimes as tit-for-tat, sometimes as mutual actions. I'm not sure reciprocity needs to be between equals, but it does need to involve action of some sort on both sides.

When we work for money, we operate under an implicit (and sometimes explicit) contract. We do work according to certain rules and, in turn, are paid. Many work disagreements occur when parts of this contract are violated: rules are broken, work isn't done, and payment isn't given.

I'm currently in a work funk, and think part of the reason is the lack of reciprocity afforded to the freelancer. For example, if I don't respond to an email within a few hours, I'm sent another email to confirm receipt of the first one. Not every client does this, but enough do to keep me busy.

But let's say I happen to send an email first with a question. Often I hear no response at all, as if the client has decided it wasn't important or they forwarded it to someone who didn't respond. Who knows. But if everyone in the world responds to my emails except for certain clients, and if other freelancers have the exact same problem, then I think it's not necessarily me. It's an issue of expectations and reciprocity.

A much larger issue has to do with getting paid. But I simply can't go there now without having to engage in deep breathing for the rest of the afternoon.

No unsolicited advice please. This isn't that sort of a post.

Generations Declare War

2007-09-25T08:15:00.001-07:00

The title is perhaps an overstatement. Perhaps.

In Generations Declare War at Home and on Work Fronts, we learn that the generational issues among Boomers, Gen X, and Gen Y exist in Australia too. The survey, authored by Mark McCrindle, interviewed small focus groups and reached these conclusions:

"Generation X, now entering their forties, is waiting their turn for senior leadership roles and may have to wait longer as the older generation of baby boomers is still going strong," Mr McCrindle said.

"People are retiring later in life and generation X-ers are feeling frustrated at their lack of advancement up the career ladder. But baby boomers don't like the idea of being dismissed."

The older members of gen Y (aged 13 to 27) are struggling to get a stable foot in the workplace.

Forty per cent of working gen Ys are employed on a casual basis and resent their elders, who grew up in a "job for life" environment. If that wasn't complicated enough, the baby boomers and gen X are getting riled by gen Y's demands for more flexible conditions and increasing work-life balance.

I have to say that I hear these sorts of descriptive statements a lot when I talk to people about their work: frustration on all sorts of levels.

Spirituality at Work Roundup

2007-09-24T07:31:00.000-07:00

In Ex-Employee Alleges Religious Bias in the Concord Monitor, we learn about a Christian who feels discriminated against by her workplace, which, she claims, favors gays and lesbians over Christians (and what of gay Christians? I ask). The case is now at the state Superior Court, and the article reads like a script for The Daily Show. I rather enjoyed it, and then felt guilty about it.

In the Kansas City Star, there's an editorial promoting the Employment Non-Discrimination Act quoting a recent poll that 77% of Republicans think firing someone for being gay is wrong. Again, I'll say that the United States consistently polls far more socially liberal than you would ever guess from watching the news.

In the Chicago Tribune, Employers Get Tough on Health explores the disturbing trend of employers regulating employee behavior after hours to cut health insurance costs. I'm of two minds here. On the one hand, it does tick me off that I can be healthy, normal weight, no illnesses, and have to pay an extraordinary amount for health insurance. Would this reduce my own payment (I think selfishly)? On the other hand, I get a very creepy sensation at the thought of taking a nicotine test before work. Or having my body fat measured in the workplace.

In the Sun Sentinel, Transgender Community Works to Protect Freedoms in South Florida explores how to support transgender people in the workplace at the county-wide level. This is called the potentially "broadest imprint by affording civil rights to people for their gender identity or expression." Clearly something to watch.

Week in Review

2007-09-22T18:03:00.000-07:00

We began the week discussing codes of ethics, including a rather basic one proposed for scientists in GB. Only one person, David, articulated a code of ethics in his workplace, and I'm afraid that was winks and nods. Speaking of ethics, later in the week, we learned that people think that "steal" has an unclear denotation. I'm still processing that one. Possibly on stolen Post-It notes with stolen pens.

We continued to discuss gossip in the workplace. At least I did.

Maryanne and I identified painfully with a quote from Didion on alienation from the self. Just say no to requests for more of your time. I'm trying.

Comrade Kevin and I agreed that the Transgender Job Expo is a step in the right direction, and wished for a couple more steps too.

Southwest Airlines gave the world's lamest apology. Hot flashes. Ha, ha. That's so funny, Southwest.

I began to see that my paranoia about the End of Times (a.k.a End of Civilization as I Know It) has actually a great deal of basis in fact (petroleum geology, at least). Peak Oil is the idea that we have already peaked in terms of how much oil we can extract and it's all downhill from here, kids.

We discussed the prevalence of slave labor in the United States, slackers in general, and we have an author comment by John Bowes!

In Negotiating Religious Accomodation we discussed how to get what you want in terms of religious accomodation in the workplace without getting canned. I appointed Chalice Chick the official lawyer-in-training on the issue. She didn't object.

The Neglected Children Posts (in which no one commented and I wondered if I just bored you):

7 Billion in Sales of Natural Makeup
Chandeliers of Plastic Bottles as Office Decor
Exploring Abandonned Mines for $15/hour (Boy, I'm glad I have a degree in earth science!)
Working in the Shadows (about ENDA)

Depends What You Mean by Steal

2007-09-22T07:56:00.000-07:00

What fascinating results from my stealing of office supplies survey! It looks like the majority of people thought there was some wiggle room in the word "steal." I couldn't really clarify what I meant in the question because of space issues, but basically, if you steal office supplies, you remove office supplies from work for personal use.

I asked the question because of a few recent surveys about the majority of workers admitting to stealing office supplies. From Plants, Decor, Furniture among the items workers admit to stealing:

Turns out the majority of office workers (58%) have taken office supplies for their personal use.... Among those who admit to taking office supplies for personal use, the most commonly stolen office supplies include pens/pencils (77%), followed by self-adhesive "sticky" notes (44%) and paper clips (40%). Some employees (2%) are even taking decorations like plants, paintings and office furniture (2%).

Another survey gives 67% as the percent of workers who have stolen office supplies. And in a third survey concerning stealing office supplies only within the last year, nearly a quarter of younger workers admit to stealing office supplies while only 13% of workers over 50 admit to stealing. And, also interesting to me, only 1 in 5 younger workers (18-24 years old) don't think it's stealing to take office supplies for personal use.

So where does this leave us? I think some of the stealing of literally 50 billion dollars worth of office supplies in the U.S. each year is related to workers feeling mistreated and as if they deserve a pen or post-its from work. Just a hypothesis. I'm open to hearing your own hypotheses.

Advice to Those in Helping Professions

2007-09-22T07:46:00.000-07:00

Maud posted this great advice from Joan Didion in Slouching Toward Bethlehem, a collection of essays published almost forty years ago:

If we do not respect ourselves … we are peculiarly in thrall to everyone we see, curiously determined to live out — since our self-image is untenable — their false notions of us. We flatter ourselves by thinking this compulsion to please others an attractive trait: a gist for imaginative empathy, evidence of our willingness to give. Of course I will play Francesca to your Paolo, Hellen Keller to anyone’s Annie Sullivan: no expectation is too misplaced, no role too ludicrous…

It is the phenomenon sometimes called “alienation from self.” In its advanced stages, we no longer answer the telephone, because someone might want something; that we could say no without drowning in self-reproach is an idea alien to this game. Every encounter demands too much, tears the nerves, drains the will, and the specter of something so small as an unanswered letter arouses such disproportionate guilt that answering it becomes out of the question. To assign unanswered letters their proper weight, to free us from the expectations of others, to give us back to ourselves — there lies the great, the singular power of self-respect. Without it, one eventually discovers the final turn of the screw: one runs away to find oneself, and finds no one at home.

Maud offers it as advice to writers with day jobs, but I think it's broader advice to those of us in helping professions.
Via Maud Newton

100 Best Companies for Moms

2007-09-21T14:00:00.000-07:00

Every time the list from Working Mother of 100 Best Companies comes out, I peruse it and am shocked to find former employers on there. Why am I shocked? Because they were not great places for the working moms I knew.

So I'm not hugely surprised to see in the report from the Institute for Women's Policy Research that the bar from Working Mother to be a Best Company has been set pretty darn low in the first place. The best places to work barely offer paid leave. It's better than nothing, but it's not a lot.

...nearly one-quarter (24 percent) of the best employers for working mothers provide four or fewer weeks of paid maternity leave, and half (52 percent) provide six weeks or less. Nearly half of the best companies fail to provide any paid leave for paternity or adoption. While more than one-quarter of the best companies (28 percent) provide nine or more weeks of paid maternity leave, many of the winners’ paid parental leave policies fall far short of families’ needs.

Ask a new mom if she's ready to go back to work at 4 weeks. Paltry paid benefits aside---the reason I'm surprised to see some of these companies on the list is that they systematically disclude employees from benefits by making them long-term temporary employees. That means no real benefits. And that certainly does not benefit women who have children.

Via Feminist Daily News

Can We See More of This?

2007-09-21T12:08:00.000-07:00

This seems like just about the perfect option for medical care for me post-college and pre-old age. I pay a doctor to be "my" doctor. He's accessible in person, over the phone, by email and IM. And I'm not gouged by a health insurance company hundreds of dollars a month for health insurance I use once or twice a year. I like this.

This model is not without some challenges and questions (What if I'm actually hospitalized? What if I get pregnant? What if I get cancer?), but it seems a big improvement over any of the health insurance I've ever had, which seems to penalize me when I use it and not cover anything of substance. This model has been around for a while, but was offered only to wealthy patients with a substantial buy-in fee. This is the first time I've seen it targeted to younger folks.

Gossip in the Workplace

2007-09-21T11:37:00.000-07:00

I don't think that everything labeled as gossip in the workplace is necessarily gossip and therefore bad. Some information is simply information (and often management does not share information as readily as it should).

During my gossip research, I have run across some words of wisdom that may help you decide whether to repeat information that you've heard at work.

Sufi wisdom: Is it true? Is it necessary? Is it kind?*

The Golden Rule: Treat others as you wish to be treated.

*I don't have a Sufi source for this. If you happen to, please post in comments. Thank you!

Rating the Rejection

2007-09-21T08:10:00.000-07:00

Arbitrary Marks asked in a recent post how many rejections it would take to re-think a career. I started to respond, but couldn't. Writers get a lot of rejection and most of it isn't very nice. My most recent rejection via email? Simply: We will not be pursuing this further.

All right then. Don't. I only asked once.

So I especially appreciate A Writing Year's Rate the Rejection series in which rejections from literary journals are rated. Because many rejection letters lack any compassion or taste. My primary gripe is that the wording of rejections suggests that the writer is crap. Period. Not that this is one editor with one opinion on one piece of work. No. The. Writer. Is. Crap.

For example, here's journal I like very much: Tin House. I've written glowingly about their conference, I've bought their journal, and the work of the writers in it, but their rejections have as much class as....I've erased my metaphor for your own protection. Really. You might look at some other rejections to compare (click on the journal name).

I actually think turning rejections into some sort of a game is a good idea. It gives you a small sense of control and fun over a process that is out of control and no fun.

Via Perpetual Folly via Katrina Denza

Negotiating Religious Accomodation

2007-09-21T07:39:00.000-07:00

The article, Religion and the Workplace, is an attorney's advice on how to negotiate religious accommodation in the workplace as the employer.

The tricky part of religious accommodation (under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964) is that it can't cause financial hardship for the employer. What sorts of activities have been judged by the courts to cause hardship?

In ruling on Title VII religion cases, the courts have held that employers aren't required to accommodate employees' religious activities when it involves increased financial costs, transferring supervisory personnel or employees from other departments resulting in inefficiency, or discriminating against other employees or violating seniority systems.

What sorts of activities have been judged by the courts to be acceptable?

Accommodations that don't constitute undue hardship to the employer include voluntary substitutions or employee "swaps," flexible work schedules, floating or optional holidays, staggered work hours, and allowing employees to make up lost time. Transfers and job changes also are options if they don't cause reduced efficiency or other disruptions.

Consider this a word to the wise if you need religious accomodation. Plan ahead. Talk to your employer. Don't make any assumptions about what hardship is.

It's Friday

2007-09-21T05:47:00.000-07:00

so it's time for a quiz.

Ms. Kitty found the What Time of Day Are You? quiz.

You Are Sunrise

You enjoy living a slow, fulfilling life. You enjoy living every moment, no matter how ordinary.

You are a person of reflection and meditation. You start and end every day by looking inward.

Caring and giving, you enjoy making people happy. You're often cooking for friends or buying them gifts.

All in all, you know how to love life for what it is - not for how it should be.

What Time Of Day Are You?

Feel free to post in comments if you wish.

7 Billion in Sales

2007-09-20T12:42:00.000-07:00

Natural cosmetic sales topped 7 billion worldwide. It's a good thing. Let's ignore the fact that no one ever agrees what "natural" means. In general, it's a very good thing to see natural cosmetic sales boom.

Much of what is sold as a cosmetic or beauty product is simply not good for you. Makeup is absorbed by the skin and swallowed (if it's lipstick), but there are little to no federal regulations on it. Many cosmetics and beauty products contain parabens, which are linked to breast cancer, and pthalates, which are linked to endocrine disruption.

Last month when I went to the dump to dispose of my hazardous e-waste, I was given a checklist of what sorts of hazardous materials they accepted:

Used motor oil
Paint
Batteries
Electronic waste
Household cleaners
Pesticides/herbicides
Makeup

That's right. The dump processes makeup as a hazardous material.

Work Balanced, Not Harder

2007-09-20T12:25:00.001-07:00

During one of the workshops at the sustainable energy fair in Crestone, we took a meditation break. Now before you snort with laughter, let me say that I see the same technique suggested on p. 158 of The Complete Idiot's Guide to Spirituality in the Workplace:

Spirit Tip

Our work ethic tells us that if things aren't going the way we want them to, the solution lies with working harder. Not true. Stop, step back from what you have been doing, and look at the whole picture. From this perspective, reassess your efforts. Consciously involve your Self, asking, "How can I move forward and be in balance?" Work balanced, not harder.

Chandeliers of Plastic Bottles

2007-09-19T13:03:00.001-07:00

Argh! * Most workplaces have enough plastic water bottles to do follow St. Petersburg's lead and do this sort of decorating, even for inside.

Ah, St. Petersburg. One day I will win the Summer Literary Seminar contest and visit you.

*Talk like a Pirate Day

Wisconsin Legislates Withholding Care for Rape Survivors

2007-09-19T10:54:00.000-07:00

Yar.* While I cautiously respect the right of medical staff not to personally distribute Plan B to rape survivors because of religious reasons, eliminating the option entirely is totally offensive to me. Two-thirds of state hospitals in Wisconsin do not currently provide Plan B, over the counter emergency contraception, to rape victims. And now a bill would exempt hospitals from civil liability for withholding care from rape victims. It's one thing to have a nurse swapped for another because one objects to dispensing Plan B. It's another thing to withhhold care entirely. That's repugnant.

On a separate and broader note, if you do not want to be pregnant, you should probably have Plan B at home because it is far more difficult to get than any other over the counter medicine. Skip trying to get it at Wal-Mart. Here it is for $40 at Drugstore.com

*Talk like a Pirate Day

Where Do Supertankers Go When They Die?

2007-09-19T09:43:00.000-07:00

Apparently to Bangladesh. Ahoy!*

A photo essay in Foreign Policy Magazine examines how supertankers are disassembled.

*Talk like a Pirate Day

Talk like a Pirate Day

2007-09-19T07:56:00.001-07:00

According to sources, it's Talk like a Pirate Day. Here are some pirate phrases with which I've already annoyed my coworker:

Bring me one noggin of rum, now, won't you, matey?
Avast, there!
Dead men don't bite.
Shiver me timbers!
Fifteen men on the dead man's chest -- Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum!

If you play along, you probably want to save the rum for after work. Argh!

Minerals Specialist $15/hour

2007-09-18T21:58:00.000-07:00

Working collaboratively with the Nevada Division of Minerals and Bureau of Land Management, the Great Basin Institute is recruiting a team of Minerals Specialists to conduct an inventory of approximately 600 abandoned mines in Clark County, Nevada, for physical safety hazards and risks. Data will be collected using GPS and paper data sheets, which are then entered in to a GIS database. The results of the inventory will help land managers determine the appropriate method of closure and eliminate potential physical hazards and risks. Contract dates are September 2007 - April 2008, with potential for extension; $15 per hour, plus field/travel per diem; health/dental benefits; paid personal leave.

This isn't actually from Craig's List, but ecoemploy.com Still it seems like it should be on Craig's list. Abandonned mines! Physical safety hazards and risks! $15/hour. I hope there's some exposure to carcinogens!

Nobodies: Modern American Slave Labor

2007-09-18T14:27:00.000-07:00

In John Bowe's Nobodies: Modern American Slave Labor and the Dark Side of the New Global Economy, Bowe describes the prevalence of slave labor in the United States through three case studies in Florida, Oklahoma, and Saipan.

I was struck by Bowe's thoughts on our interconnectedness in his interview on Treehugger:

Modern America and ancient Greece both articulated beautifully about freedom and democracy. But in order to do that, you need a leisure class, sitting around, pontificating, and in order to have that, you need a ton of other people doing the actual work work. I’m not just talking about Bush or neo-conservatives or free marketers or whomever. Look at the guys in that movie Knocked Up. None of them did anything all day but loaf. How many millions of similarly slacker-y twenty-somethings are there in the US? What enables them to slack, of course, is the fact that millions of people around the planet work for pennies an hour. I don’t wanna reconcile that, I want people to wake up and realize that if anything, globalization means that soon, we, too, might be working for pennies an hour.

This definitely captures my own recent realizations about work.

Via Treehugger

Crude Awakening

2007-09-18T11:41:00.000-07:00

Last night, Jim and I saw Crude Awakening (available through netflix), which explores the concept of Peak Oil. Now I hadn't heard of peak oil before, which is disturbing in that I majored in earth science, the field that should be discussing this. Peak Oil is the idea that we have discovered most of the oil available to us on earth and that extracting the remaining oil is about to become much more expensive.

What happens when the cost of oil increases? The cost of just about everything increases, including food, gas, and everything plastic, which is petroleum-derived.

For those of us who study workplace issues, the implications of peak oil are significant. We live in a country of suburbs, in which commuting is built into our lives. How do we commute to the workplace if gas is $15/gallon? Will there be a shift toward working at home? What is the tipping point at which it becomes too expensive to drive to work?

Crude Awakening a great geopolitical film, which everyone should see, and it present solutions, including re-localization.

Working in the Shadows

2007-09-18T08:01:00.000-07:00

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) just published a report, Working in the Shadows, with detailed stories about workplace discrimination for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people in the United States. I urge you to read the stories, which hopefully will cause you to email your congressperson and urge him or her to support the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA). It is legal to fire or refuse to hire someone in 30 states because he/she is gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender. Here is one of the stories from the ACLU's report:

Single mother Jacinda Meyer worked as a licensed insurance agent in Southern California. During her first nine months on the job, the company gave her positive feedback about her performance and a raise. But soon after her boss learned that she was a lesbian, she was fired. She later applied for a job with a “sister company” and after several interviews and personality and placement testing, they made her a verbal offer. The next day, she received a call rescinding the offer.

It would be nice to believe in equity and justice in the workplace, but equity and justice need your support. Here's an ENDA toolkit and a way to contact your representative.

When is an apology not an apology

2007-09-17T14:05:00.000-07:00

Apparently when it comes from Southwest.

Here's the press release from the CEO of Southwest regarding the unofficial dress code:

"From a Company who really loves PR, touche to you Kyla! Some have said we've gone from wearing our famous hot pants to having hot flashes at Southwest, but nothing could be further from the truth. As we both know, this story has great legs, but the true issue here is that you are a valued Customer, and you did not get an adequate apology. Kyla, we could have handled this better, and on behalf of Southwest Airlines, I am truly sorry. We hope you continue to fly Southwest Airlines. Our Company is based on freedom even if our actions may have not appeared that way. It was never our intention to treat you unfairly and again, we apologize."
Kelly took an additional step and is sharing his direct comments about the incident by recording ads for national radio. Those comments detail a national fare sale launched today featuring "mini-skirt" fares.

What do you think? Sincere? Ha, ha. Hot flashes. So funny.

Via Feministing

The First Transgender Job Expo

2007-09-17T07:50:00.000-07:00

From Transitioning into New Jobs and Genders about the transgender job expo this weekend in Atlanta:

The etiquette of transgender resumes was just one of the myriad challenges facing job seekers who packed the Atlanta convention hall. For transgender people -- at Friday's expo, they ranged from cross-dressers to those who had changed their gender through hormone therapy or surgery -- the workplace can be a minefield.
Many cannot find jobs. Even those who come out after they have settled in with a company risk losing their job. No federal civil rights protection exists for transgender employees, but 12 states have passed legislation ensuring employment protection. The House of Representatives is scheduled to vote this month on the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, which would prohibit discrimination against employees on the basis of gender identity.
The Career Expo -- organized by the Southern Comfort Conference, the country's largest annual gathering of transgender people -- drew recruiters from more than 20 major corporations including Microsoft Corp., Deloitte & Touche LLP, Ernst & Young, American Airlines, Hewlett-Packard Co. and J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.

In general, it sounds like job seekers skeptical of how transgender-supportive policies actually play out in the workplace. Still, the expo seems like a very good idea for corporations to step up to the plate and behave as if they support the inherent worth of each employee. Opportunities are good. Follow through is impresses us more.

A Code of Ethics

2007-09-17T06:09:00.000-07:00

Does your profession have a code of ethics?

If you don't subscribe to a code of ethics, do you think it might help if one existed? Would you behave better? Would you turn to the code to help you evaluate with ethical isues?

These are the issues in Britain surrounding a proposed code of ethics for scientists:

Act with skill and care, keep skills up to date

Prevent corrupt practice and declare conflicts of interest

Respect and acknowledge the work of other scientists

Ensure that research is justified and lawful

Minimise impacts on people, animals and the environment

Discuss issues science raises for society

Do not mislead; present evidence honestly

These principles sound fairly basic, so basic in fact that the Ethical Paleontologist suggests a simplification: Don't be a dick.

I try not to use male and female genitalia terms pejoratively, but that works for me.

Week in Review

2007-09-16T09:17:00.000-07:00

We have a new quiz to the right. Confess your office supply sins here. Anonymously, please. I'd like to compare data gathered here to some other data, but first I need data. :)

This week, we explored the trend of play in the workplace in The Monkey Really Builds Team Spirit and then play in the natural world in Play During the Workday.

We discussed praise in the workplace (be specific), how to be thorough in a critique, and a number of approaches to criticism in the workplace.

We discussed gossip in the workplace by defining the problem (or attempting to), and an example of gossip. More to come with gossip.

In Too Much to Bare and Southwest Objects to Breasts Too, we learned more about the conflicting messages to women about appropriate attire in the workplace (and out of the workplace). Take it off! Cover it up! No! Yes! No! It's enough to drive a sane woman to use Nair.

Speaking of which, my corporate disgust grew just a bit with Nair, which has chosen the middle schoolers as a target for their "first hair removal experience." And then Toys R Us let me know that it's looking out for me.

And, on a personal note, we had a CD release party for my husband, which is our first attempt to honor our artistic achievements rather than waiting for corporate America to notice.

And if you haven't read the feel good story of the week about bullying in schools, you should. It's about high school kids standing up to bigoted bullies. Love that. We should all take notes.

"The monkey really helps build team spirit"

2007-09-15T21:37:00.000-07:00

Led by google, some workplaces are trying to infuse fun into the workplace. Does this sound like fun?

THE attack monkey has struck again. So far the hornyheaded sock monkey has killed 45 employees at Appriver, an e-mail security firm based in Gulf Breeze, Florida.

Gulf Breeze is famous for a wave of UFO sightings in the late 1980s – but these attacks are more easily explained.

The monkey first struck three years ago after Hurricane Ivan ripped the roof off Appriver’s headquarters, forcing it to set up shop in a temporary location. Software developer Erik Forsberg used a digital camera to film his monkey – a doll made out of stuffed socks – attacking a colleague. The film was a big hit with staff and a wave of copycat killings ensued.

So far the evil monkey has killed staff members by electrocution, strangulation, poisoning, and a hit-and-run. The attack monkey finished off chief executive Michael Murdoch during a job interview. Murdoch appeared to suffer a fatal heart attack after reading the monkey’s salary requirements.

I'd like your opinion on this monkey in the workplace. Fun? Not fun? Extremely odd? Is this going on in your own workplace? Read Forget Work, let's just have fun for more "fun."

CD Release Party

2007-09-15T07:35:00.000-07:00

A while ago, Jim and I decided that we would celebrate our artistic successes. It sounds like a little thing, but as artists we found that birthdays and graduations are honored with parties and praise, while artistic accomplishments tend to fall by the wayside unless they result in a corporate financial deal or entanglement. Since that hasn't happened to either of us, and since we don't actively look for corporate relationships, we haven't celebrated often. We're trying to change that.

So today we're having Jim's CD release party, so I'm going to be cooking and hosting, but not blogging. You're welcome to listen along at his web site where he added 20 songs that stream when you load the site. We're starting at 1 p.m. PST, so feel free to play along at home, listen, and drink a beer or lemonade.

My favorite song is the third one on the site, In Abyss, which is an anti-war anthem with sort of a Neil Young spirit. I also like Wanderer's Waltz. And Without a Trace. I'll stop now.

Opening in Inner Circle of Hell Filled

2007-09-14T15:12:00.000-07:00

with Nair Executives.

As a Greek-Italian person, I know body hair very well, and would be covered in a fine pelt if I did not remove it. That said, I think there is a special place in one of the inner circles of hell for Nair, who is aggressively marketing its chemical ooze to middle school girls. And, Nair? Why wait that late? Why not start with kindergarten girls? That way they never show those unpleasant secondary sex characteristics.

The product comes in kiwi and peach scents, in packages that show illustrations of doe-eyed teenage girls, and for the first time Nair is marketing directly to middle-schoolers. Ads for Nair Pretty, which are running in magazines like CosmoGirl and Seventeen, make no mention of boys or romance, but rather suggest that the depilatory is a stubble-free path to empowerment.

“I am a citizen of the world,” reads the ad copy. “I am a dreamer. I am fresh. I am so not going to have stubs sticking out of my legs.”

I am a dreamer too, and I dream of a world without the world's grossest hair removal product, Nair. You could read Dipilatory Market Moves Beyond Short-Shorts Wearers if you want to feel ill. You've been warned. Hair removal is not empowerment.

Via Gawker

Bullying in the Schools

2007-09-14T14:47:00.000-07:00

Let's Hear It for Humanity. Or at least Canada.

Last Wednesday, a grade nine student at Central Kings Rural High School in Halifax, Nova Scotia, was beat up for wearing pink to school. Two grade twelve students decided to do something about it. Using the Internet, they encouraged at least half of the 830 students in the student body to wear pink.

Travis [one of the grade twelve students] said the bullies "keep giving us dirty looks, but we know we have the support of the whole student body. "Kids don’t need this in their lives, worrying about what to wear to school. That should be the last thing on their minds."
When the bullied student put on his pink shirt Friday and saw all the other pink in the lobby, "he was all smiles. It was like a big weight had been lifted off is shoulder," David said. No one at the school would reveal the student’s name.

Kudos to those students for standing up to bullies in their school. You might want to read the entire story at I've Stood Around for Too Long.

Friendships at Work

2007-09-14T13:10:00.000-07:00

Can you have friends at work? I certainly thought I could. I have a coterie of friends from former jobs. The job is long gone, but the friendship remains. At least I thought this was the case, until I read this in Are Workplace Friendships Healthy?:

Ken Siegel of Beverly Hills, a psychologist and president of the Impact Group, a psychologists' group that consults with business management, says he doesn't believe workplace friendships are real. True friendships, he says, can't exist when there are issues such as money and status at play.

"It's a myth, desired but not achievable. When you inject money and power into the equation, it changes things. Friendships at work are an oxymoron," Siegel says. "People try to create workplace friendships out of their own vulnerability, and the more companies talk about friendships at work, the less real it is."

My work friends must not be real friends! That's it. Actually, my work friendships have almost entirely been with people who earn roughly the same and are at the same level, so I think that Siegel does have a point about equality between friends.

Since Plato, philosophers have debated the requirements of friendship. It's one of my pet topics. To make a huge generalization, I will say that many of the qualities that philosophers value in friendships (intimacy, equality, kinship, virtue, reciprocity) are qualities that are now seen mostly in friendships between partners in the modern marriage.

Career Quiz

2007-09-14T10:34:00.000-07:00

Results from a recent career quiz bring up a few random careers(sports instructor and taxidermist), but actually seems fairly accurate for who I am and what I want to do (and what I currently do in work and volunteer life):

1. Association Manager
2. Ecologist
3. Biologist
4. Environmental Consultant
5. Marine Biologist
6. Actor
7. Zoologist
8. Industrial-Organizational Psychologist
9. Forester
10. Sports Instructor
11. Professor
12. Recording Engineer
13. Coach
14. Lighting Technician
15. Health Care Administrator
16. Management Consultant
17. Director
18. Industrial Engineering Tech
19. Botanist
20. Comedian
21. Critic
22. Casting Director
23. Economic Development Officer
24. Public Policy Analyst
25. Print Journalist
26. Lobbyist
27. Musician
28. Veterinarian
29. Market Research Analyst
30. Translator
31. Economist
32. Composer
33. Taxidermist
34. Veterinary Technician
35. Special Effects Technician
36. Technical Writer
37. Communications Specialist
38. Activist
39. Political Aide
40. General Contractor

Toys R Us Cares about Me

2007-09-14T08:57:00.000-07:00

I have no memory of buying anything from Toys R Us on-line, but apparently I must have (baby shower gift?) because of this helpful email from the CEO assuring me that they are setting a high bar for product safety as a retailer. They claim to have introduced:

- a new Safety microsite to help you find all product safety and recall information;
- the introduction of an email notification system for product recalls;
- the addition of bilingual recall notices should there be future recalls; and
- the introduction of new Safety Boards in all of our stores, which will contain important product safety information, including recall notices.

It seems like this is basic stuff that I would have assumed that they already do. I hope some of it is useful to some of you.

Praise in the Workplace

2007-09-14T08:46:00.000-07:00

The best way to praise a child is to be specific. I would guess this is also the case with workers. How often are we specific? Perhaps not often enough.

"You did a good job" is generic for a workplace task.
"You did a good job with the analysis on page 2" is specific.

Taking the Long Stance at the Urinal

2007-09-13T13:11:00.000-07:00

Finally, a question on male bathroom etiquette to Prudence (we covered some female bathroom etiquette earlier). Read the question and answer at Dear Prudence on Slate.

Source of Squeamishness?

2007-09-13T10:54:00.000-07:00

I read Praying for Gain in The Economist this morning on the increase in demand for workplace chaplains and experienced a squeamish sensation.

I like the trend toward chaplains in the workplace. So was my reaction toward The Economist itself (I was forced to read it as a child)? Was it the meatpacking industry, which formed part of the context of the article (I'm a vegetarian)?

I fear there are other issues that provoke squeamishness. Care to guess as I'm not in a deconstructing mood? (Readers did an excellent job of deconstructing my dislike of Al Gore when we played this game before.)

The Evolution of an Approach

2007-09-13T07:49:00.000-07:00

I'm always interested in how non-traditional approaches begin. Q & A with Robert Alter explores the evolution of his literary approach to Biblical translation:

IDEAS: Why did you get so strongly drawn to the Bible as literature when you did, in the 1970s?

ALTER: Since my late teens I've been fascinated with biblical narrative - why it seems so great and yet also so simple. I couldn't explain that. Then, in the late '70s, when I was writing regularly for Commentary, the idea popped into my head that maybe I could say something about biblical narrative.

I wrote a piece arguing that biblical scholars lacked any sort of literary approach, and got a shower of letters. Then I wrote a second article, and my book ``The Art of Biblical Narrative," all the time thinking, this isn't my field, I'm going to get this out of my system. But I found the intrinsic literary and intellectual interest of the Biblical stories and poems so compelling that I've kept working at it ever since.

If you haven't read The Art of the Biblical Narrative, you're missing out. Read the entire interview in Q & A with Robert Alter.

Via Maud Newton

Community Champion for $8.75/hour

2007-09-12T11:51:00.000-07:00

Some days it's very difficult to find work that affirms the dignity of human beings. An example? Here's the rundown on a "typical day" from a job description for a community champion for a web site (excerpted from Craig's List):

You wake up feeling totally jazzed and alive.

You drive to our office, most likely listening to a great book on CD to keep learning (or great music to get you pumped up).

You get to the office and jump right on the site to see what’s new.

You send several welcome emails, comment on the new posts, and answer people’s questions, all with a great friendly tone and articulate language.

You churn out the messages, and everyone on the site is relieved to have you there, singing your praises. (Someone proposes a parade in your honor, but they’re all talk).

After the morning you look at your notes and talk to the community director about trends on the site, how we can improve the experience and ways we can offer better help.

You head to lunch in the break room, joking around with the crew, laughing so hard that your VitaminWater comes out your nose.

Lunch is making you a bit sleepy, so you go to jump on the mini trampoline for several minutes, perhaps while listening to “Eye of the Tiger” on your ipod.

After an afternoon of more comments and responses, you switch gears and contribute a story about how you overcame what seemed like an impossible situation, balanced by a lighter blog post about when you choked on a tofu skewer and managed to get a date with the person who gave you the Heimlech maneuver.

Midway through writing the story, a crisis comes up. Never one to panic, you stop typing and confidently say, “I’m on it” like you’re Bruce Willis taking on Russian terrorists in Die Hard.

Crisis solved. You shoot off a few emails telling a few friends or colleagues about some posts they might like, and then wrap-up and head home. This time you drive in silence, thinking about the people who are really putting it out there to change their lives... The ones who have had enough, the ones who want more, the ones who are not afraid to create their own happiness, and...all the crazy and wacky ones that every online community has! You laugh to yourself and then think... “How might I help them out tomorrow?”

Are you ready for this? This an opportunity with a high potential to grow. And to grow big, one must start small. Our starting compensation is $1400 per month.

Via LA Observed, but priceless comments on Gawker

It's not a parody. It only reads that way. Good luck creating your own happiness and dignity in Santa Monica on $8.75/hour.

Southwest Objects to Breasts Too

2007-09-12T11:29:00.000-07:00

Two things right off the bat:

1. These outfits aren't the sort of thing I would wear.
2. My opinion and taste regarding these outfits doesn't matter one bit.

What exactly is going on with Southwest and their supposed dress code? Yesterday, Southwest stopped another passenger, Setara Qassim, and told her to "cover herself" with a blanket. Her breasts seem to be the offending objects this time (not the entire outfit as with Kyla Ebbert). Who were the breasts offending? Another passenger? The flight attendant? And where is this supposed Southwest dress code?

I took 12 Southwest flights last summer and can vouch that many passengers were dressed for the beach with far more skin exposed than either Ebbert or Qassim. I saw underwear. I saw butt cracks. I saw cleavage. What's more some folks smelled, some folks were extremely loud, and some folks were drunk. Nothing happened to any of these people. So why does Southwest seem intent on jumping on the shaming-women-bypolicing-their-attire bandwagon? And who makes the decision about how much skin (or how tight) is too much?

This is complete and utter nonsense from the airline that used to advertise its primary attraction as flight attendants in hot pants.

Via Feministing

First Freedom Seminars

2007-09-12T09:34:00.000-07:00

The Department of Justice has regional seminars on religious freedom as part of the First Freedom project. The next workshop (and last scheduled) is September 19 from nine to noon in Chicago.

More Tolerance for Muslims in the Workplace

2007-09-12T09:22:00.000-07:00

Muslims see more inclusive workplaces suggests that post 9/11 there have been considerable improvements in religious accomodation for Muslims in the workplace. Lina Sayed's story is particularly compelling in terms of her own advocacy for her needs as well as her employer's ability to hear and address her needs:

"A place to pray, that was a big thing for me," says Sayed. "But I walkedinto my boss's office and told him and he went to human resources and figuredout a place where I could pray. It's the Muslim's responsibility to expressthese things. If I hadn't told them, then I'd be sneaking in and out of conference rooms trying to find a place and people wouldn't understand what I was doing. Then you start to feel people are looking at you weird. When you're open about things and people can ask questions, it's less likely that they'll be discriminatory."

Read 6 Years After Sept. 11, Muslims See More Inclusive Workplaces.

How to Be Thorough with a Critique

2007-09-12T08:08:00.000-07:00

So if you choose to critique someone's work in the workplace, how can you be Oh So Thorough? After all, you see what's wrong immediately and you'd just like to say it and hear your glorious words of truth ring throughout the land! Just because you see what's wrong doesn't mean the writer will hear what you say (or agree with you). If you'd like to be truly heard, then you need to demonstrate that you've thoroughly evaluated the positive attributes as well as the areas that need improvement.

God help us all, I fear I've critiqued more than a thousand writers in on-line workshops, in person workshops, and for paid editing work (only a few of whom have come to hate me). I believe this is because I really try to understand the work before I say anything about it. I try to get it. I don't just lambast, because frankly, lambasting is easy.

There are always general elements that you can make specific comments. I'm going to focus below on critiquing in fiction, but much of this also applies to non-fiction and poetry.

characters

diction (word choice)

logic

pace

passage of time

point of view

plot

setting

structure

tense

You could make up your own list in your own field and I bet it would have as many if not more elements. Again, there are always positive things going on in someone's work. You just need to find them and explain what is right before delving into what may not work. And when you go into what may not work for you, remember that it's only your opinion.

And, writers? If someone can't find what's right in your work (as well as what's wrong), don't let that person read it. Period.

Criticism in the Workplace

2007-09-11T19:04:00.000-07:00

As a student in the field of correction, I've noticed a few approaches to criticism in the workplace. I'm going to focus on editor-writer interactions, but I think this actually applies to many other jobs in which criticism has to be given:

Let the Brutalizing Begin Many writers request this treatment ("Please be brutally honest with me. Does it suck?") Being brutal isn't helpful to most of us, even when we request it. As an editor I refuse to brutalize a writer, because brutalizing fundamentally ignores that my opinion on a work is just that. My opinion. And you know what opinions are like, right? Everyone has one. And as a writer, I run away shrieking if I sense I'm about to have my work brutalized. I just don't think this works in the long term unless you're into some intellectual version of S & M.

The Cursory Positive Assessment This approach seems generally well-intentioned, but poorly executed ("Thank you for all your hard work (overall it was fine), but I've found 42,310 things wrong with it.") I think this is lazy on the part of the editor though it is terribly widespread as a practice. As a writer, the list of 42,310 things wrong always leaves me feeling hen pecked.

The Sandwich This is an often recommended approach for correction in the workplace in which you sandwich the criticism between two pieces of fluffy white bread praise. ("You did this well (the top bun), but there is an issue with blah-blah (the meat), and finally you also did this well (the bottom bun))" If the praise is superficial and fluffy, I can sense that as a writer (I can also sense that I'm being manipulated).

The Oh So Thorough This is my growing edge for giving criticism in which I thoroughly address and describe all the positive aspects of a work before going into anything that might be able to be improved. As an editor, it's a ton of work, but it leaves me feeling I was fair to the writer's work. And as a writer, it's the only one of these methods that leaves me excited to revise, which is truly something else.

That is all I got.

More than 180 Days in California

2007-09-11T12:37:00.000-07:00

In California Acts to Correct Ledbetter Decision, we learn that the California state senate is correcting that terrible Supreme Court decision that limited an employee's ability to sue her employer about an discriminatory pay decision. You can read about the original decision in my first post on the subject, You have 180 Days.

What Happens When Creative People Work in Corporate Structures for Too Long

2007-09-11T10:14:00.000-07:00

It's possible that I enjoy the creative subversion of the corporate machinery a tad too much. Periodically when I work on a product, I'll notice that say part of it looks a bit phallic (e.g., like the giant penis that was supposed to teach kids math---it was supposed to look like a stand up skateboard). And then I'll have a dilemma: How can I tell the client that their primary image looks like a penis? I have to admit that most often I just don't say a word, mostly because I haven't been hired to critique the design.

I can only assume that something similar happen with the Harry Potter broomstick with "grooved stick and handle for easy riding."

We know this is intentional on someone's part, right? It's not like you can accidentally create a vibrator. You can, however, create one as part of your strategy to survive the workday and then see how far you can get into production before someone notices. And I checked snopes to see if this was an urban legend, and it's not listed.

Via Feministing (again)

21 Things You Can Recycle

2007-09-11T07:34:00.000-07:00

Co-op America has a list of 21 things that you may not have known you can recycle, including Tyvek envelopes. Most of the items are found (or used) in the workplace.

Speaking of recycling, has anyone joined bookmooch? I read about it last night in Vegetarian Times. Basically, you join, type in your books to give away to others, accumulate points with each book mailed, and then can request books that you want with your points.

Boomer Managers of Gen Y

2007-09-10T17:51:00.001-07:00

I have to say that I was relieved to see this article. I'm a bit weary of the Boomer-Gen X conflict in the workplace. But if you thought that Gen X had the potential to drive the Baby Boomers nuts in the workplace, you'll really be impressed with Gen Y (also known as the Millennials) in Boomers, Gen Yers mix it up. I'll summarize for you---unlike the main conflict between Boomers and Gen X concerning work habits and work importance, the main areas of conflict between Boomers and Gen Y seem to center around authority and demeanor.

While Boomers grew up during the wild and crazy social action sixties, they are now considered part of the status quo (sorry). And Gen Y, for the most part, represent children of the status quo. They challenge authority and don't give it the respect that Boomers think it deserves. And, God help them, Gen Y seems to expect promotions and raises while Boomers have grown used to waiting. That's the authority conflict.

The demeanor conflict is just as vexing for those involved. While Boomers strived to fit in to corporate culture over the past four decades, Gen Y doesn't understand that they may have to dress and act the part to fit in (and perhaps they don't). Many of the conflicts originate from expectations about appearances (flip flops! tube tops! mini skirts!) and professionalism (that photo on facebook! that video resume! that gum cracking!).

You might like to read the full article for more on this particular Boomer-Gen Y management dilemma, and for a broader perspective Mixing and Managing Four Generations has good tips too.

Play during the Workday

2007-09-10T11:53:00.001-07:00

Inspiration for play during the workday from dogs and polar bears

*almost dying of cuteness*

Via Treehugger

Hildegaard and Bartholomew: Subjects of Intense Gossip

2007-09-10T10:08:00.001-07:00

So if rumors about company mergers and acquisitions aren't necessarily gossip, what is workplace gossip? A few examples come to mind (with names changed):

1. Did you hear that Hildegaard and Bartholomew are dating?

2. Did you know that Hildegaard and Bartholomew spent all night at work on that project?

3. Did you hear that Hildegaard and Bartholomew were married over the weekend?

4. Did you hear that Hildegaard is pregnant with the UPS guy's kid?

Which one (or ones) of these is gossip? And why? All? None? Only #4?

Your thoughts in comments, please, if you have them.

Office Gossip: Defining the Problem

2007-09-10T08:54:00.000-07:00

It's gossip week here at Surviving the Workday. I'm always a little skeptical when I hear about the horrors of office gossip because I find some of what's labeled as "gossip" to be useful information. Not always believable, mind you, but helpful in terms of knowing what's going on in the office.

In Office Gossip Has Never Traveled Faster, we learn that gossip has two varieties:

Gossip generally takes two forms, either rumors about company changes, such as mergers, layoffs, managerial promotions or staffing changes, and personal gossip about specific employees: who is doing well, having an affair or grappling with personal problems. Because people spend more of their waking hours today at work than with their families, offices are rife with gossip — and both kinds of rumormongering can be detrimental to the workplace.

I'm not so sure that rumors about company changes are gossip. I think it's information-sharing and, as far as I can tell, it's networking. One of the issues that fuels this sort of "gossip" is bad communication from management. If you are a manager and want to quell gossip about mergers, layoffs, promotions, or staffing changes, then you need to communicate to your employees. They are "gossiping" because you are not communicating well.

Volunteering

2007-09-10T07:23:00.000-07:00

Elizabeth Weber in Confessions of a Prodigal Volunteer articulates why it is difficult to find the balance between volunteering and participating in church life:

I knew I’d erred in gravitating toward roles that, although worthwhile, didn’t feed my spirit. I’d come to care too much about the work, for a mishmash of reasons—ego, certainly, and strong convictions based on a by-now prodigious institutional memory. A sense of earned power—that occupational hazard of intense volunteer commitment—also tethered me. And if I set the work down, I feared it might lie there a good long while (horrors!) before others picked it up.

As Weber points out, volunteering in church requires that you not only serve others but serve your own spirit. It's just as difficult to navigate as paid work, but is a practice that we don't always pay attention to. Many of us volunteer until we are burnt out.

A key element of long-term volunteering is being mindful of your own needs as you volunteer and not just the many needs of others. You might like to read Volunteering 101, Why Volunteer, How to Know When Not to Volunteer, and Beyond Capitalism for information on other economies.

Via Philocrites

Too Much to Bare

2007-09-09T21:41:00.000-07:00

Too Much to Bare describes the naked trend in reference to recent magazine photos of Nicole Kidman and Maggie Gyllenhaal:

I think what I find so incredibly discomfiting about these pictures is their suggestion that, no matter how talented a woman is, how many plaudits she has received, how intelligent her reputation, how garlanded she has been for depicting one of the most talented writers of the last century while sporting a huge prosthetic conk on her noggin, at the end of the day, if she wants to stay in the public eye, if she wants the magazine covers and the leading roles, she has to be willing to reduce herself to tits and arse.

Possibly this is one of the major reasons I find popular culture depressing. I'd like to be able to see women continue their illustrious careers without having to get naked.

Weirdest or Worst Jobs

2007-09-08T14:25:00.000-07:00

Smith Mag has a hundred-word descriptions of the weirdest and worst jobs of readers. You can submit your own. Here's my favorite submission:

Through high school and college, I was a lunchlady at an exclusive Catholic boarding school in my hometown. I stood behind a stainless steel counter, under the hot lights of the serving line, doling out pizza, wiping down tables, and forming a harsh class consciousness that still hasn’t left me. I don’t remember the physical work so much as the bleak feeling that I wouldn’t amount to much, starting as I was from a financially meager and connection-less spot. Ten years later, the fear of somehow getting dropped back into that job persists: I periodically picture myself in a hairnet, making $5.50 an hour, weeping into the beef stroganoff.

Possibly I like the image of weeping into beef stroganoff a bit too much. I also worked in a kitchen, but that wasn't the worst job. While I was in college, I had a job cleaning the bathrooms in my dorm on the weekend as well as a job with developmentally disabled adults that involved catheters. It's hard to choose between those two.

Workplace Bullying

2007-09-08T08:42:00.000-07:00

What is workplace bullying? It's harmful mistreatment of people with verbal abuse, threatening, humiliating or offensive behavior, or sabotage that prevents work from getting done.

Workplace bullying
(a) is driven by perpetrators' need to control the targeted individual(s);
(b) is initiated by bullies who choose targets, timing, place and methods;
(c) escalates to involve others who side with the bully, either voluntarily through coercion; and
(d) undermines legitimate business interests when bullies' personal agendas take precedence over work itself.

Some scary results for those of trying to survive the workday without being bullied:

37% of American workers, an estimated 54 million people, have been bullied at work.

Bullying affects half (49%) of American workers, 71.5 million workers, when witnesses are included.

Bullying is 4 times more prevalent than illegal forms of "harassment."

72% of bullies are bosses. 55% of those bullied are rank-and-file workers.

Women are targeted by bullies more frequently (in 57% of cases), especially by other women (in 71% of cases).

Only 3% of bullied targets file lawsuits. 40% never complain.

The Workplace Bullying Institute offers telephone counseling for those who are bullied. It looks like it costs a $25 donation. Other resources on bullying may be helpful.

Alpha Females in the Workplace

2007-09-07T16:31:00.000-07:00

Frans de Waal analyzes the Alpha Female in Alpha Females I Have Known. It seems like he's pointing out similarities between ape behavior and politics, but I couldn't help think of the workplace and women. And not just because I've been called an alpha female as he defines one:

It [alpha female] refers to women who are in charge, for example, by flirting and dating on their own terms. It is also used maliciously for a loud-mouthed, controlling woman who has no patience with deviating opinions.

That sounds about right.

De Waal presents a number of observations, all of which seem to fit the modern workplace in the United States:

1. Age helps a female more than a male. Since physical strength and stamina are largely irrelevant in the female hierarchy, getting older, more experienced, and better connected offers females an advantage.

2. Female solidarity is the key to female leadership. Since males respect power better than age and personality, the alpha female must be heading a large coalition to effectively deal with males.

3. An alpha female needs to be able to rise above the parties. This is hard for females. Older female primates often head large families and have a natural tendency to be extremely loyal and committed to every member. This bias may be fine in relation to kin, but if extended to friends and politics, it becomes a problem.

4. While high-status males enjoy great sex appeal, the relation between power and sex is different for females.

Indeed. Read the whole article here.

Policing Women's Attire in the Workplace

2007-09-07T09:32:00.000-07:00

First, let me say this: Southwest probably has the legal right to refuse service to Kyla Ebbert. That's really not my concern. However, given the hundreds of hits on my blog this morning from people searching for Ebbert's revealing outfit (photos here and here), I think it's appropriate to say a bit more about why I find this entire issue concerning in terms of ethics, morality, and even theology.

In the past year, I've seen a number of news stories about policing (and shaming) women for wearing outfits that reveal their bodies in various ways beginning with the spectre of cleavage on Hilary Clinton. God forbid she has breasts because we know what they're used for....breastfeeding. And both Victoria's Secret and Applebee's are apparently not comfortable with the entire notion of breastfeeding, asking women to use a exterior restroom rather than a dressing room, cover up, or leave the property. And then I wrote only yesterday about a Hollister store manager who required that the young female store employees present their work outfits to him in a fashion show so he could instruct them to make their shirts lower cut and pants tighter.

Now was Kyla Ebbert's outfit too revealing? Was it lewd or offensive? Seated she looks like many other young women. Standing she looks like she shops at Abercrombie & Fitch (or Victoria's Secret), which is to say, she actually bought one of those really short skirts. She subscribes to mainstream culture. Big deal.

Honestly, it doesn't matter what I think or you think of her outfit. I'm very concerned that this culture sends a message to women that their bodies are both disgusting and offensive when they serve a biological purpose like breastfeeding and will inspire lewd behavior when they're revealed in some fashion. In all of these instances, women's outfits were policed by corporate employees and then women were publically shamed because of how they presented or used their bodies.

Do we do that to men? Do we consistently shame them in their bodies? And do we constantly present conflicting representations of how to present themselves at work with books on how to use their chests responsibly? I don't think we do.

And how many male butt cracks have I seen in my life on an airplane? Has a man ever been removed from a plane because his thin pants made it obvious he was freeballing? I think not.

The Worker's Survival Kit

2007-09-07T05:00:00.000-07:00

Now, this technically is called an Artist's Survival Kit, and it's a brilliant idea, free (you can donate), and applies to many sorts of work (even those that don't seem like art). This kit for preserving your artistic self and treating yourself tenderly is the brainchild of Keri Smith:

For the really bad days, for the days when you want to quit, when you feel like everything you do is shit, when you feel your self-esteem plummet, when you decide that you would rather wait tables for a living, when you start to think you will never make a living making art, when you are working on something and feel like you hate it more than you've ever hated anything in your life, when someone makes an offhand remark about your work and afterwards you feel dejected, when you wish you had gone to school for accounting, when you start to believe that maybe your family was right, when you want to lie in bed for a month and eat chips.

The Artist's Survival Kit has many tips, but I'm partial to Survival Card #4.

By the way, Keri also designs non-planners for those of us looking for alternatives, like the hipster PDA, to conventional Franklin planners.

Greening Your College Workspace

2007-09-06T18:14:00.000-07:00

What's the primary workspace for the college students? Why it's the dorm room. And why not have a clean green room that inspires you rather than a gray slovenly pit of despair that many of us lived in (Wesleyan's Butt B, I'm thinking of you).

Here are some top tips for greening the dorm room:

Old Paradigm: regular coffee
Easy Greening: organic, fair trade coffee

Old Paradigm: no plants
Easy Greening: Top 10 house (dorm room) plants for cleaner air

Old Paradigm: plugs everywhere, no easy way to turn off electronics
Easy Greening: Take a power strip to attach all the sundry electronics *and* easily turn them all off to reduce phantom loads (electronic devices that keep running clocks, etc., even when the power switch is turned off).

Via Treehugger

Working at Hollister

2007-09-06T17:35:00.000-07:00

Sigh. Apparently this is the second post in a series: Talk to your teenager about her after-school job. And, suggest avoiding Hollister as a first retail experience. Here is the tale of the opening of a test-market Hollister store in the Midwest:

It wasn't until the days before we opened to the public that everything changed: The Douche informed us he would have to approve the outfits we wore on the job. We had to pay for all our clothes, but in order to qualify for the discount, he had to approve our purchases first. The approval process consisted of parading in front of him and subjecting ourselves to his critiques and suggestions as to how to make our clothes 'hotter" -- like cutting the necklines to make our V-necks lower, or buying jeans in a size or two smaller.

The Douche, of course, is the store manager. And it gets worse. It is really important to talk to adolescents about their experiences at work and not assume that all is peachy keen because they're too young to deal with adult challenges in the workplace. You might find the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) a good resource for basic information about sexual harassment.

Will Baby Boomers Ever Retire?

2007-09-06T11:57:00.000-07:00

Yes, of course they will. We hope so. For their sake. Wave of Retirement Will Thin Ranks of Skilled Workers projects great numbers of job openings for Generation X due to the Baby Boomer retirement. I'm not quite as sure.

On the one hand, Baby Boomer retirement is good news for most of Generation X waiting for senior level positions. However, I hardly think many Boomers can retire anytime soon or will retire en masse. Baby Boomers have a three-part challenge: potentially paying for college tuition for their children, aging parent costs, and funding their own retirement. Those three factors don't spell retirement to me (or for me for that matter)*. That spells working quite a bit longer.

*I'm not a boomer. I'm firmly in the middle of Generation X.

Post-Colorado Nihilism

2007-09-06T07:07:00.000-07:00

This is a test of the emergency blogcast system.

This is only a test.

I seem to be descending into the dreaded awareness of the pointlessness of my current work. This is perhaps the most interesting time to read the blog. Or worst. Depending. Also, I'm just going to go with it.

Now is not the time to give me unsolicited advice about perking up because you do not want to be virtually dope slapped. Seriously. And compassionately. Please don't.

Perhaps I really need a cup of coffee or some sort of drug. Or a hike. Yes, perhaps that's it. I haven't been exercised.

Southwest's Dress Code

2007-09-06T05:49:00.000-07:00

Southwest generally has an excellent reputation not only with frequent flyers, but as an employer. My cousin works for them and seems to be in love with the company. Last summer, I had a long talk in Austin with the spouse of a Southwest pilot about how much she loved Southwest too. So I'm a little surprised to relate this story of discrimination and harassment.

Southwest tends to empower their employees and not honor the "customer is always right" rule, which I don't have a problem with. The customer can certainly be wrong. However, I do wonder what exactly was going on with flight attendant "Keith" the day when he asked Kyla Ebbert to change clothes or leave the plane. She wore what seem to be totally ordinary clothes including a short skirt, tank top, and sweater. Not that this is any of my business. I don't feel especially lewd when viewing her clothes. Wait, wait, wait...no.

The experience sounds humiliating for Ebbert, who was forced first to leave the plane, and then allowed on if she pulled her skirt down and tank top up. Some have argued that her clothes simply reflect current fashions, which tend toward raciness. However, the irony, which Feministing points out, is that Southwest required its female flight attendants to wear hot pants just as short as Ebbert in the 1970s.

It's not that I object to Southwest having a dress code for flyers, though I think publicizing it is a good idea, but Ebbert doesn't seem to violate current standards (or past) of appropriate attire.

What's going on Southwest?

Sucked into the Vortex in Sedona

2007-09-05T20:25:00.000-07:00

Based on my in-depth analysis today, I can tell you that Sedona is extremely popular with people who like pink and have a lot of money. Those conditions led to my inability to photograph the excesses of Sedona due to nausea. Not that rich people can't be spiritual. They can. But why is it all for sale?

The photograph above is the canyon above Sedona, and below is a bristlecone pine with whom I began a relationship. Bristlecone pines are the longest living organisms on earth. I think this is a Rocky Mountain Bristle Cone Pine. The oldest one is around 2400 years old. Really.

Tomorrow we return to our previously scheduled programming.

Abuse of Scare Quotes

2007-09-03T19:16:00.001-07:00

has spread to rural Colorado

Please stop the abuse of scare quotes. And possessives for that matter.

Did Your Employer Give You a Cell?

2007-09-03T13:17:00.001-07:00

Because your location can be legally tracked by your employer with the gps device in your cell phone.

John Halpin knows this all too well. He worked for the New York Public School System as a carpenter for 21 years before he was fired because the gps on his cell phone revealed that he had been leaving work early in 2006 (hence falsifying his time sheets).

Only two states (Connecticut and Delaware) require that employees are notified that they can be tracked using gps.

Yikes. It's not that I think we should get rid of gps technology, but I do think we should understand how and when we're being monitored by our employers.

The Sustainable Home Tour (Reports on Some Homes)

2007-09-03T13:04:00.000-07:00

We're taking home tours of different sustainable homes at the Crestone energy fair. We began with a wooden 24-sided yurt of about 750 square feet. It was constructed over a year while living in a second more temporary yurt on the same property. The wooden yurt is passive solar, and has some of the same challenges we had when living in a passive solar home with heat regulation. Our passive solar rental was in New Mexico, and lovely and warm in the summer, but you definitely had to regulate and monitor the blinds in the summer or the house became oven-like. Still this wooden yurt was breathtakingly beautiful inside, had wool carpets and lovely plant beds in front of the south-facing windows for growing food.

We then walked to a strawbale home that has been in construction for several years and built as money and time were available. The home was around 650 square feet on the inside (strawbale square foot figures are often for both the inside and outside since the walls are so thick), and had a gorgeous brick floor and composting toilet! The owner and builder didn't seal the outside walls soon enough (straw bale walls are sealed with linseed oil once the mud has been applied) and had a small amount of rain damage in the winter. She did most of the labor herself with locally available materials. Her home had a really nice shape and feel to it.

The third home and studio was that of Annie Pace. It was really a mini-ashram, demonstrating how the yogic lifestyle is essentially about living sustainably. It's is on the grid, but with solar energy from adjustable solar panels (and the option to use the grid for emergencies). The facilities of the structures are strawbale, coated with adobe mud, linseed oil, two additional coats of lime plaster and something called "crack master." There was a wild hail/snow storm yesterday afternoon and her exterior walls looked absolutely fine, while other strawbale walls in town are reportedly damaged.

It was a full morning, and it's hard not to be immensely thankful that there are people who are willing to let us into their homes with our questions about building options.

Building with Straw Bale

2007-09-02T18:41:00.000-07:00

Why build with straw bale? It's a sustainable resource, and often goes to waste and is burned. Straw bales create thick walls, which are energy efficient. Straw bale homes use untrained labor, like me. They also have a thick rough look to them, which I rather like.

The walls are covered with mud or mud/lime or mud/cement. Most of what I learned at the Earthen Plaster Demo was about how flexible you could be with your mixture both in terms of the components and the application.

Little House on a Small Planet

2007-09-02T12:30:00.000-07:00

I just went to a talk by Shay Solomon, author of Little House on a Small Planet (which I'm about to buy). She is the co-founder of the Small House Society, and extremely well versed in the history of homes as spaces in the United States. And although Jim and I do live small in 600 square feet, I learned a lot of historical and political background on housing. I learned, for example, that there is no housing shortgage despite what it seems like from the number of new developments. The economy is measured in terms of home unit growth, and so we build homes even when we have plenty.

Here are some of her tips for living small:

1. Stop Jonesing. Stop yearning for what other people have. Stop comparing yourself and your possessions to others.

2. Choose what you need in your home, not what you want.

3. Live in a space that fits you like a glove, not a space that fits your stuff. (Shay says that the storage industry is larger than the music industry in the United States!)

4. Pay off your debts. (Many people who live small have little or no mortgage.)

5. Go outdoors. Reclaim the common spaces.

6. Give up loneliness. Bring others into your space. And go out more.

(That's an Ezra Pound quote in the sign).

Greetings from Crestone

2007-09-02T08:55:00.001-07:00

This morning Jim is learning about energy efficiency retrofits (best bang for the buck) at the Crestone Energy Fair while I'm out taking photos of town with our dog, writing poetry, and, apparently, blogging. Crestone looks like an old mining town, but it's actually far older. It was part of the Spanish Land Grant and is on the Old Spanish Trail, which also connects New Mexico to Los Angeles. And before the Europeans, Crestone was used by the Commanche, Kiowa, Ute, and Pueblo as hunting and camping grounds.

Today Crestone is home to dozens of religious centers, including the Dharma Ocean Foundation, Dragon Mountain Zen Center (gorgeous photos!), Crestone Mountain Zen Center, Karma Thegsum Tashi Gomang, Yeshe Khorlo, Haidakhandi Universal Ashram, The Spiritual Life Institute, and Vajra Vidya Retreat Center. I'm pretty sure that's not even all of them. But to summarize, I think it's mostly Buddhist (and mostly Zen and Tibetan), some Hindu, and at least one Christian (Catholic).

And then there are spiritual centers and organizations without explicit religious affiliation: Crestone Healing Arts Center, EarthArt Village (great photos there too!), EDUCO, Sacred Passage and the Way of Nature Fellowship, Shumei International Institute. And that's not all of them. Take a moment to poke around on those sites because there is intriguing work going on.

Why are there so many spiritual and religious organizations in rural Colorado? Because of the Manitou Foundation, which removed a large portion of the surrounding land from housing development and consolidated the lots for use in their mission: to create a place for spiritual retreat and donate land for the preservation of world wisdom traditions. So there you go. Sustained spirituality. Sometimes it takes a foundation.

Samuel Gompers

2007-09-02T07:21:00.000-07:00

In honor of upcoming Labor Day, consider the fact that were it not for Samuel Gompers the state of labor in the United States might be drastically different. Child sweatshops, for example, might be common and widespread as they were when Gompers arrived in New York in 1893 (and as they are in many parts of the world).

Labor unions are important not only because they carve out and defend rights for their worker members, but in the larger picture, they illustrate the fact that it is possible to have rights for all workers in the workplace. For me, Gompers is in the same category as Martin Luther King, Jr. Gompers is a visionary, and I think the world of work is lucky he existed. Would someone else have defended workers' rights so vigorously? We'll never know.

...and the time has come when we must assert our rights as workingmen. Every one present has the sad experience, that we are powerless in an isolated condition, while the capitalists are united; therefore it is the duty of every Cigar Maker to join the organization. . . . One of the main objects of the organization is the elevation of the lowest paid worker to the standard of the highest, and in time we may secure for every person in the trade an existence worthy of human beings." (Mandel p. 22)

You might consider browsing the archives at Boy in the Bands under Unions and Unionism.

The Four Corners

2007-09-01T20:32:00.000-07:00

This is what you do at the Four Corners: You pay $3 to the Navajo Nation and then wait in line to stand on the supposed borders of all Utah, Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona. I'm not really sure what the draw is...yet I 'm pretty sure it was my idea. Today it was also about 100 degrees, which makes border straddling and fry bread a bit less interesting.

And this is Ute Mountain, my favorite photograph of the day. It was also very hot, which may explain the beer bottles.

From the Four Corners area, we drove east into Colorado through Pagosa Springs, where we saw this double rainbow (perhaps visible if you squint). We're attending the Crestone Energy Fair in Colorado the rest of the weekend learning about small community energy systems, building with straw bale, and little homes.

Greetings from Flagstaff

2007-08-31T17:57:00.000-07:00

We're in Flagstaff for the night on our way to a conference on sustainable energy. This photo was taken on "Fatman's Loop," a trail in the Coconino National Forest so long we couldn't finish it. Not sure where that name came from. Love how I've taken the time to put on a slicker but choose to hike in Tevas.

Flagstaff is a funny place. It's at 7000 feet with tons of hiking in the surrounding mountains. Demographically it seems like if you took all the white folks in Santa Fe (where we used to live) and just hauled them down I-40 to Arizona, you would have Flagstaff. I'm sure there is more to it than white Santa Feans....I see that there are Sedona Hummer Tours advertised in our hotel room. And they're biodiesel powered. I shouldn't find that as funny as I do. But, in all seriousness, Flagstaff and Santa Fe seem examples of convergent evolution---despite wildly different histories, they are places that look and feel remarkably similar to me.

By the way, you only have a few hours left to take my readership poll in the side column....

Mindful Sharing

2007-08-31T15:41:00.000-07:00

My last thought on sharing in the workplace is that this discussion is ultimately about being mindful of how we present ourselves in words. Words matter. How we describe ourselves and our lives matters. Assessing your audience helps. Keeping your internal monologue internal helps. But really this is about paying attention to our thoughts and how we use words in the workplace. Important stuff that.

And equally important is to note how individual all of these decisions are. We all have different thresholds for what information we're comfortable keeping close and revealing. I make calls based on my knowledge of self and of the folks involved. You do too.

What I Didn't Share

2007-08-31T08:53:00.000-07:00

So last week while I was consulting, we did a warm up activity involved teachers drawing two representations on their name tents: how they saw themselves and how their students saw them. I facilitated the end of the activity and what followed.

As I circulated in the room, here's part of what I thought, but didn't share:

Wow. This is actually sort of an example of post-modernism and multiple selves. Or is that post-structuralist? No, it's post-modern. Derrida? Foucault? Who remembers...Where is Aribitrary Marks when I need her?

Why didn't I share that pithy observation about multiple selves? Because I couldn't remember the difference between post-structuralism and post-modernism? No. Because I knew the audience and knew I would sound like a pretentious ass and turn them off in the first five minutes. This is not to say post-modernism isn't appropriate and even quite relevant. And maybe if I had time to find a way to talk about multiple selves that closely related I would have done that. But I chose to keep my mouth shut. And that's absolutely okay sometimes. We don't need to share all that we know at one time.

Along those lines, I also thought:

Why I remember when I taught high school how I used ot drag myself away from Jim and writing in the morning, put on a long wool skirt and button down blouse to dress like a nun in order to create a sexless teacher persona. Yes, what a perfect example of the difference between how students saw me and how I saw myself!

I also didn't share that. It was more personal. I hadn't thought about how to present it. And I didn't want to risk suggesting that the people in the room were sexless. The memory probably could have been finessed, but I didn't have time, and I was so tired that I couldn't quite predict how it would come out of my mouth. Again, it's not that I wasn't fully myself in the consulting role. I truly was. But I didn't have to share every thought that came into my head in an attempt to bond with the teachers. And my internal monologue can remain internal without losing anything.

These are examples from my own life (obviously) and about my own choices with sharing and not sharing. However, I think everyone has to negotiate her own choices about this. My decisions were informed by both knowledge of the audience and the importance of appearing methodical to them, and knowledge of myself and that when I'm tired, I simply don't ad lib well. So no off-script sharing.

What Does A Manager Do?

2007-08-31T06:32:00.001-07:00

A reader writes, "Please tell me what a manager does."

Please write your best definition in comments of what a manager does in your workplace. I happen to know this reader is a manager, so we're not looking for a diatribe on how useless managers truly are. She really wants to know what her job is. And, yes, she did ask her boss, read her job description, and talk to those she supervises. No one seems to know specifically how she is supposed to fill her day when her one hour or so of duties has passed. So now we're taking her question to the masses, and hoping you can comment specifically on your own workplace.

I will be in transit to the Great American West today so your comments make take a while to appear, but I appreciate them greatly.

It's Friday....

2007-08-31T06:00:00.000-07:00

And it doesn't get any better than Glamour Magazine's quiz: Are You A Spiritual Person? It's actually not a bad quiz. And #13 has some interesting results.

And did you take my little poll in the side column? Yes? I hope so. You can mark more than one answer too.

Not the Harshest Rejection Letter I've Seen...

2007-08-30T12:14:00.000-07:00

but still very harsh.

One of the reason writers tend to dislike editors is because editors can be downright nasty when it comes to rejecting ideas and writing. I recall the letter from an editor that suggested with some training, I might not be bad. Thanks! (Actually, I have a lot of training.) Or the letter that suggested once I had processed the experience with some therapy, it might be proper fodder for an essay. Great! (Already have the therapy too!) And then there is the endless stream of Not for Me's, which sort of wash over me like the August heat.

But that is just what it means to be a writer. You submit, you get rejected, and occasionally, you're accepted somewhere. You just learn to live with the fact that editors will often read too much into fiction and assume it's nonfiction, like certain techniques and not others, and won't read beyond the first paragraph if it doesn't grip them. It's most of all not a quality issue (because editors don't agree on quality for the most part....what I like others don't, and vice versa), but an opinion issue.

For an editor, learning how to say no kindly is important. When I worked as an editor at a literary journal, I learned never to give too many specifics about why something didn't work. The truth is that it just didn't work for me. It might work for someone else. When I gave specifics (too much narrative summary, not enough evocative detail, cliched dialogue, whatever), I inevitably ended up in an argument with the writer who naturally disagreed with me.

All of that said about how nasty rejection letters can be, I found the overall tenor of this rejection letter truly appalling. You can say no without threatening to shoot yourself in the head. You can reject someone with dignity.

"A Lone and Tarnished Star"

2007-08-30T09:00:00.000-07:00

470 of the Fortune 500 companies voluntarily include sexual orientation in their employment non-discrimination policies. And the 30 that do not? 13 are in Texas. Why that's just under half!

"When 94% of the FORTUNE 500 Companies and 89% of the public support workplace equality, Congress is derelict by its failure to include GLBTcitizens in federal workplace discrimination protection," stated Malcolm Lazin, Executive Director, Equality Forum. "There is no cost to provide sexual orientation protection.
Corporations and shareholders benefit from a workplace where merit, not intolerance, prevails."
Of the 30 FORTUNE 500 Companies that are noncompliant, 13 (43.3%) are headquartered in Texas. "When it comes to equality, Texas is a lone and tarnished star," Lazin stated.

The United States frequently polls with a much stronger interest in equality and justice than you would think from watching the nightly news. Did you see those figures? 89% of the public support workplace equality.

Which One of These Is Not Like The Others?

2007-08-30T07:44:00.000-07:00

Let's play a quick game. I'll paste in five sequential paragraphs from Gallagher just latest city pol behaving badly, and you tell me which one doesn't belong with the others.

Paragraph One Dennis Gallagher, the Queens councilman recently indicted on charges of raping a 52-year-old grandmother he met at a Middle Village bar, is just the latest in a long line of New York City pols to have been accused of behaving badly.

Paragraph Two At the turn of the last century, a cigar-smoking, hard-drinking, womanizing Tammany insider named Murray Hall was discovered upon death to actually be a woman. When Hall died in 1901, a friend who knew him, er, her, through her work in the State Senate remarked, "A woman? Why, he'd line up to the bar and take his whisky like any veteran, and didn't make faces over it, either."

Paragraph Three Ninety-one years later, Sol Wachlter, chief judge of the state's highest court and a presumed front-runner for the GOP gubernatorial nomination, was busted by the FBI for harassing his ex-mistress after he mailed her threatening letters and sent a condom to her teenage daughter.

Paragraph Four And Gallagher isn't the first City Councilman to get into hot water.

Paragraph Five His former colleague, Allan W. Jennings, was censured for allegedly sexually harassing two female staffers after he ordered one to clean his house and gave another pornography as a present. Jennings also took out an advertisement in a local Chinese-language newspaper professing his love of Asian women.

Via Feministing and AM New York

Plants in the Office

2007-08-30T07:19:00.001-07:00

Indoor air quality is frequently much worse than outdoor air quality. That's why you need lots of plants in your office space, which can contain traces of acetone, ammonia, benzene, and formaldehyde.

Students at Chichester College rated a number of plants according to their effectiveness in removing toxins. . Their findings are below:

The students rated the most effective plants and the ubiquitous Areca Palm came first for removing ammonia, and formaldehyde (found in many cleaning products) from the air and releasing moisture into the air. Next was the Peace Lily which removes acetone, then the Rubber Plant, then Ficus Benjamina (weeping fig) then the dracena. Number 6 is english ivy that eliminates mould causing asthma, boston ferns are highly rated for improving air quality, then the spider plant ( is there any
office that doesn't have at least one of those) and lastly the moth orchid (phalaenopsis).

Hm. I don't seem to have any of these (or I've killed the ones that I've had), but I see that my pothos scores well too. It looks like philodendrons do too.

Via Treehugger

Judging Your Audience

2007-08-29T09:53:00.001-07:00

As a continuation to Oversharing in the Workplace, I'd like to say that many of us can benefit by a quick assessment of the audience at work before we choose to share information about ourselves.

This is a technique that writers often use in order to choose the tone and information conveyed. Judging the audience is also a technique speakers use to write an effective talk (or sermon). You can also judge your audience in the workplace pretty effectively before you share.

What sorts of details might you consider sharing (or not sharing)?

I had a very romantic weekend in Pagosa Springs. It's great to be in the saddle again.

I hate it here and need to get another job. I'm so damn depressed.

My partner and I are considering adopting, but we can't because of our bankruptcy.

I just had a colonoscopy. Yow.

Now there are times, places, and people with whom all of the above are appropriate discussion topics. How can you tell if it's appropriate in your workplace? You have to use empathy, and try my little list below to evaluate your sharing beforehand the words leave your mouth:

1. Consider if this is the sort of information that you want the audience to know for the rest of their lives.

2. Consider what happens if the audience tells others people. Could that hurt you? Help you?

3. Try to predict how the audience will react. Smile? Nod appreciatively? Run toward the exit? Picture your anus?

4. Consider how you will respond to their reactions.

If these questions leave you with an icky feeling, consider not sharing it. There are pages and pages of exceptions, of course, but I think a little thought beforehand can mitigate a lot of regret afterward.

Oversharing in the Workplace

2007-08-29T07:17:00.000-07:00

I'm going to pick up on two posts that have ramifications in the workplace: Holding Some Back at The Journey and Chronic Sharing at My Moxie Life. These posts discuss the practice of women sharing too much in the workplace in attempts to be open, honest, and bond with other women. Both posts chart how this is treacherous territory.

If you have a best friend at work whom you trust, you can share with her or him whatever you wish within the confines of the friendship. That's absolutely fine. That's healthy. But do not share with other women (or men) that you do not know as an attempt to bond.

And here's why we don't want to overshare at work: we give up control and we give up power over that information. Once it's out, it's out. Oversharing often leaves an icky feeling, which I consider to be a reliable internal barometer of when I've overstepped a boundary.

As you may know, a giant metal pipe fell from the sky into my windshield while I was driving Thursday night in rush hour traffic. This deeply affected me in ways I'm not documenting on-line because I like The Privacy (and in fact The Privacy is strongly connected to The Creativity. No privacy. No creativity for me). However, the pipe incident did affect my work that was due on Friday and was incapable of finishing Thursday night. So I wrote a short email to the supervisor saying essentially, "I had a minor car accident Thursday night, so this work will not be done until Monday rather than Friday."

And his response? "I'm sorry about your issues."

That definitely caused me to have the oversharing icky feeling and re-evaluate how I could have handled the situation. I don't consider the car accident oversharing exactly or an "issue." I consider PMS "an issue." The car accident is a valid excuse.

Nevertheless this anecdote emphasizes how we need to be exceptionally clear on where our boundaries are in terms of what we share (I actually have a list of what I don't share). In terms of my own work boundaries (and apparently my supervisor's), I was oversharing my "issues." In retrospect, I wish I had just said the work would be late. Period.

Just because I've written of the decompartmentalization in the workplace in which you bring your whole self to work (the ethical self, the mommy self, the wife self, the volunteer chair self, the crafter self), does not mean that you need to share the entire self with the entire office. That is not what Parker Palmer was intending in A Life Lived Whole. You can bring the whole self without sharing the whole self. Being whole? Good. Sharing whole? Not necessary in the workplace.

Ms. Theologian Raises Your Value

2007-08-28T20:01:00.000-07:00

Dear Ms. Theologian:

As the baby-boomer with 17 plus years of valued experience and service in this organization, I am working for someone who is 27, with a PhD. Very intelligent, but does not have any management experience and about 2 years (or less) with this organization. I sense I am being marginalized in favor of the younger 20 and 30 somethings with MAs and PhDs. How do I overcome this and raise my value in this environment?

Dear Baby Boomer:

For a long time, Ms. Theologian thought that this generation gap business in the workplace was a load of hooey. She thought that if you treated people fairly and with respect, they would work together well. But no. Really. No.

She now thinks it is helpful to look at the workplace as a mingling of four generations (Institutionalist, Baby Boomers, Gen X, Gen Y) with radically different expectations and attitudes, and the greatest differences are between Baby Boomers and Generation X. Ms. Theologian has even gone so far as to interview Lewis Richmond about some of these generational differences. She takes this seriously.

You will find Workplace Generation Gap helpful with your query in terms of general ways to relate to Generation X. You'll want to read the entire article, but here is a relevant excerpt:

If you're a baby boomer, rely on these tips to smooth interactions with your generation X co-workers:

Get to the point. Avoid corporate jargon, buzzwords and cliches that obscure what you're really trying to say. State your objectives clearly when communicating with generation Xers.
Use e-mail. Take advantage of technology in your correspondence with a generation Xer. Save meetings for issues which require face-to-face communication, and use e-mail when the matter can be handled via a well-worded, concise written message.
Give them space. Don't micromanage generation Xers. Generation Xers crave autonomy. Give them direction and then allow them to figure out the best way to get results.
Get over the notion of dues paying. As a baby boomer, you worked 60 hours a week to get ahead. Maybe you started at ground level and worked your way up in a company. You think members of younger generations ought to do the same. But generation X — which values a healthy work-life balance — typically isn't spending that many hours in the office. And they're getting ahead anyway.
Lighten up. Remind yourself that it's OK for work to be fun. Generation Xers tend to think you're too intense and set in your ways.

Let me know how that works. I'm not sure it concentrates so much on demonstrating your value as understanding Generation X and adopting some of their behaviors. If you don't see any improvement, email at ms dot theologian at gmail dot com.

-Ms. Theologian

Emails that Get You Through the Work Week

2007-08-28T14:23:00.000-07:00

I've joined a listserv that may be saving my work life. It's Wom-po, which is a discussion of women's poetry. And although the listserv seems to have veered into a T. S. Eliot's critique of William Blake (neither of whom was a woman as far as I know), I'm still loving it.

Anyone have an email list that gets them through the day?

Free Yourself from Corporate Power

2007-08-28T13:09:00.000-07:00

This is the third part in a five part series of posts from Yes! Magazine on Freeing Yourself from Corporate Power. We've already covered food and entertainment. On to clothes.

We know that many clothes are made in sweatshops, right? Not just in China, Mexico, or Indonesia, but right here in the U.S.

Good Choose union- and U.S.-made clothing.

Better Make your own, patch holes, buy secondhand. Avoid big brand
names.

I mostly buy secondhand, but am trying to buy only sweatshop free clothes when they need to be new (e.g., underwear).

An Improvement in the Fringe Economy

2007-08-28T07:27:00.000-07:00

Scott writes in Two Cheers for Credit Union about the development of a Payday loan between Goodwill and a credit union in Wisconsin that would allow workers to avoid the insanely high interest rate of most payday loan establishments.

Payday loan businesses are part of the fringe economy, which I've written about in Borrowing on the Fringes. This is a particularly nasty slice of business. Big corporations, including the biggest like CitiCorp, operate largely unregulated loan centers that take advantage of the poor and credit-poor with interest rates in the 500% category. And as you might imagine the fringe economy is booming.

Sixth of China's Population Threatened by River

2007-08-28T06:48:00.000-07:00

The Huai River in China has been found "unfit for human contact" at half of its checkpoints as a result of directly dumping effluent and industrial waste into the river. That sounds horrible, but look at the how many people depend on its water:

The rivers posed a "threat to the water safety of one sixth of the
country's 1.3 billion population", the China Daily said.

It's not that the water is unfit to drink. It's unfit to have any contact with. The groundwater to 300 meters is also contaminated. Read more in China Rivers Threaten Sixth of Population.