I finally did it!

Yup after about a year and a half of being VERY unhappy, bitching to friends like no other, venting on this very blog, developing stomach issues because of stress, and just down right being frustrated at times I told my boss I am quiting. The relief of being able to actually say it out loud to management is hard to describe in words. To use a cliche, it is as if I got a huge monkey off my back that has been breaking my back. Last thursday I was having a few personal issues, part of them being affected by my stress from work, so I finally let it all out around 1:15 or so. I laid out every issue I had from not getting the help I asked for a year ago to feeling like the company has gone from a close knit family in '03 to a greedy corporation who is driving people away. The good part was he (my local boss) understood and at least admitted that I have every right to be frustrated about the lack of help to do everything. No official word as far as time frame has been made but that is coming this week. I know the #1 rule is never to quit a job until you have found another one but there are times when a person should ignore that advice. If work gets to a point where it is spilling over into personal relationships with friends and significant others you need to get rid of it. If you wake up every weekday muttering to yourself "I fucking hate the 10 hours I am at work everyday" then it needs to be removed from your life. Mental well being is more important then a paycheck. Maybe a different king of stress is created by tossing myself into a somewhat unknown...as in I don't officially have a job yet and I am debating whether to try my hand at my own business but hay fuck it. I rather be stressed out by my own actions then by a company not taking any action.

To add insult to injury here I received an email from a co-worker of mine who is a good friend and it said:

"Funny that when you take a day off people automatically say that you are not happy and are probably out looking for a new job. Everyone knows there is an issue in the office but this company doesn't want to address it"

Yet another job search entry

Back to the Craigslist vs Monster vs traditional means vs MySpace job search experiment. Here is the current break down on how each has been working out in the last 2 months or so since I've tried them. This is all based on the amount of potential leads for jobs, quality of those jobs offered, ease of use, and any frustrations that have came up.

Traditional means: So far I have had two phone interviews (with the same company) that came as a result of meeting a person at a local software conference in LA earlier this year. Right now they are setting up a face to face interview to fly me out to Denver to discuss an offer. I also have another small business that would like me to come work for them in the area I live in now. For me this option ended up still being the best way to find a new job.

Monster: Three leads have been generated from here but nothing really that would work out. This place is highly competitive for IT related jobs so I am not too suprised about this one. The one thing I will mention is that it seems as if most people who want to get ahead using Monster need to pay for their extra services. Unless you are a very very good writer or have had help with your resume chances are you are going to be over looked without paying monster for a 'professional writer'.

Craigslist: One really crappy job interview came from Craigslist and a few 'bites' from other companies. Only problem with those bites was the fact that the HR person (or whatever they are at the respective company) who posts alot of these jobs are not clear on how they want a person to apply. For example, One post asked for a person to submit their resume and salary for jobs listed. I did that. What do I get? An email back from the person who posted it saying that they need a seperate page for each piece of software I know (God knows how many pieces of software IT guys are expected to know) how to use and projects that I worked on. Not to mention a lot of them cannot spell right or are not clear on what the job really entails. This place is free for a reason.

Myspace: To my suprise I have had a number of friends send me messages saying that they would be able to get me a job where they work. I have not really taken anyone up on it yet but one bulletin out to my friends/family and I was able to generate a few potential places to go work. I would say it is a on par with Monster and much better then Craigslist.

Believe it or not I have found that the traditional ways of trying to get jobs is still the best way to go. Networking or asking friends/family for any openings is head and shoulders above all the others.

Fuck-A-Round Friday - Kill time IMing the world

If you are one of those people who enjoy instant messaging or just really rather talk to your friends without getting in trouble from your cube visit the site below...

Meebo

It is a web based way to login to AOL, Yahoo, Google Talk, and MSN. If your corporate firewall blocks AIM.com or even the ports that the full version of the programs use to connect up to the servers you can use this to bypass it. I don't see most IT shops knowing about this website enough to just block traffic from the site itself. Works here. Good time waster for Friday!

myspace job networking - job search cont....

How weird does that title sound for an entry about looking for a job? Talk about a Generation Y way to try to approach a situation like this. Yes.. I posted a bulletin on myspace to see if one of my many friends (whom I don't speak with most of em all that often) could hook me up with a job. This is not an act of desperation. Just trying to pioneer the way teenager-early 20 something people put feelers out for potential job opportunity's . Okay who the hell am I fooling? I couldn't even type that with a straight face. Seriously, it is an easy way to ask all the people I know if they can hook me up with a job in a few clicks. More people then you think get their jobs because a friend of family member was able to get them in the door. That is all I am looking for. I bet I am one of the few people who said they've tried to use Myspace to look for a job. Wouldn't that be funny if Tom added a feature like that into Myspace after my pioneering! Really I am not desperate I have a phone interview on Monday with a company that I got in touch with through a conference in LA earlier this year.

This post is powered by my new Ubuntu Linux desktop at home




Ubuntu click here to learn more....

Another one bites the dust

Another very competent and downright great employee at the company I work for has decided that the career they wanted to pursue is not what it is cracked up to be. In other words, this company has forced yet another person to re-think what they plan to do with their life when it comes to work. So far there are 4 people other then myself in the last 2 months who are actively looking for a new job, are moving away from this office, or have already put in their two weeks. All of them are so turned off by this company (specifically the BS in this office) they are going in way different directions then what they had planned. Many of them slaved away in college to obtain the degrees and knowledge to get into the field they work in. Now? They rather do anything else in the world but what they've been working at for all these years. One very nice woman in the Business Development department has decided to become an english teacher. She no longer wants to do anything related to marketing. Myself? I am pretty close to taking a very regular job just to be able to go to school full time so I can work in any field other then IT. There is one underlying theme that unites all the people mentioned...everyone feels as if they are overworked and the dollars are more important then anything else that might come up. The company is notorious for being cheap and then having it bite them in the ass which is what I see happening when some of these quality employees leave.

On a lighter note....

A man with a piece of paper in his hand comes into an office where another man is sitting next to a shredding machine.
"Do you know how to operate this thing?" he asks. "I have an important paper here and I want to make sure this is done right."
"Sure," the other man answers. "Just put the paper in here and press this button."
The first man does so, saying, "Great. And where do the copies come out?

Replacing Free Dress Friday with a new way to carpool home on Fridays

Wouldn't this boost morale at the office? The Friday Party Wagon is not just for the corporate worker bees who bathe in suds to complain about work on Friday nights. I mean technically they could justify drinking with the guys if they explained to their wives the peddling cancels out the calories. This new replacement for Free Dress Fridays also caters to the group of gym rats that demanded the company open up a corporate account at 24 hr fitness. Think about the resistance a bunch of overweight co-workers will put on your legs. Not to mention water is free at bars. If the company wants to be more environmentally friendly and 'green' this is also a step in the right direction. The bone thrown to be able to wear "wacky" Hawaiian shirts needs to go and this needs to replace it.

Progression of an office cubicle

Fresh start stage: Think of this as the new born baby of office cubicles. Brand new default setup for someone's first day. Basic phone, computer, monitor, and chair setup. Like a new baby no matter if it is ugly or boring you still don't mind since it is new. No personality up front as it has not had a chance to grow. (0 - 6 months old)








Pre-teen stage: Still somewhat pleasant as young kids can be but as the cubicle grows out of the fresh start phase it slowly transitions into a cluster fuck of pictures and soda cans trying to find its own personality. The cubicle at the pre-teen stage is still predictable and tries to stay in line. Some cubicles at this stage may start to look like it's older sibling and could require Ritalin to slow down that ADD. (7 months to 3 yrs)






Teenager stage: Out of control, messy, unaproachable at times, crap all over the place, old bowls of food growing hair in places it never had when it was a pre-teen, and if the cubicle could talk it's voice would crack while yelling 'EVERYONE HATES ME' . This cubicle could use some Prozac (3 yrs plus)

Good ol Sky Mall..always entertaining

For those of you unfamiliar with Sky Mall it is a magazine that sits in the pouch on the back of chairs on flights that is a mix between Sharper Image and Crate And Barrel -sorta-. Always have the habit of reading this on flights because of how funny some of the products are. I found this on my latest flight and couldn't help but laugh. Are there people out there who have to bring their ipod to the toilet to drop a load? Couldn't you chill on the music for 10 minutes or so? Or do you have problems in that department and need to scream along to your favorite death metal track? This is coming from a person obsessed with technology but does not own an IPOD or an mp3 player for that matter (unless you count my phone but I don't use it). Personally I just don't get it.

If for some odd reason you saw this and said 'COOL' here is the link

Ipod...uhh toilet roll music player docking station thingee?

Don't you love getting back to the grind after vacation?

Let me give you a little bit of a back story before I post up this email I got that jump started my first day back from vacation. 3 weeks ago there was a little mishap with our local Windows update server and Internet Explorer 7 (not on my end and this was explained). Alot of users downloaded the update and it automatically installed IE7 messing up our time card software "TimeKeeper". The minute I realized what happen an email went out to the entire office explaining how to change the link provded on their desktop. Since engineers are notorious for not reading email and this guy especially loves to wield his god-like power over the corporate worker bees here this is the email I got.....

"Evidently the new software installed itself on my computer and I am locked out of Timekeeper.

Rather than me wasting 20 minutes finding your email and fixing the problem, please take 10 minutes Tuesday morning @ 10:30 while I am in a meeting and care of it .

Asshole"

More like rather then me wasting 10 minutes @ 10:30 why didn't you spend 3 minutes to read the email and 2 minutes to move the link to your desktop from that email weeks ago? If you really want to get technical it would take him another minute to search for the email AGAIN by hitting control+F , typing my name, and the word timekeeper. What a douche. Not even an hour "back into the grind" and I am reminded just how awesome it is to be a corporate biatch. He just as easily could have said 'Hay could you help me with the Internet Explorer and TimeKeeper issue you emailed us about while I am at a meeting' like so many other people have done company wide.

Ramblings of someone delayed 4 hrs on Memorial Day

I've been asked many times why I write a blog. Or I've just straight out been told im 'lame' for having a blog by my roommate. First and foremost I do not think my opinion is more important then anyone else's. I do not think I am an authority on being a corporate worker bee, corporate life, or anything else I post about. What I say and do on here is simply one opinion, one point of view of millions and millions. I do not do this for attention nor do I do it because I think so highly of myself that I feel that people NEED to know what I am thinking or how I feel (which is why I try to post as a generic 'corporate worker bee' more times then not). If anything comes off that way, it is not on purpose. If you were to go back to 2004 archived posts, when I started this blog, I did so out of frustration. My boss at the time drove me fucking nuts and I needed a way to vent. Everyone in the office loved him so I couldn't vent to them. My friends couldn't quite understand. I couldn't yell and it was important to just shut up to get my foot in the door in IT. No one read my blog except me. Not that many people even read it now. The point never was to be one of those "bloggers" who wants to be the next e-celebrity (no disrespect to Perez Hilton) or even have people who constantly go to my blog each day. Really it is a way for me to look back and see what the fuck I was thinking or doing on a particular day. When I look at the song I re-wrote to vent as my second entry ever I remember exactly what I was thinking when I did it. If people find anything interesting or funny, then that is a major plus. It would be a lie if I said I don't like when a co-worker emails me to say that one of my rants about the office is funny. If no one came to this blog that is fine too. If someone avoids craiglist on their path to find a new IT job because of my personal opinion on it, that's cool. If not, that is also cool. Hopefully in a few years I can come back and laugh at the stupid haiku I wrote about craigslist or how naive I was for viewing work the way I do. Shit, who knows maybe I find the job of my dreams on craigslist and look like an idiot for bashing it. People reading this long winded entry probably wonder why I don't just keep a journal, well there is a few reasons for that. One being that I am obsessed with the Internet and always in front of a computer. I could keep a journal in word format on my computer but there is always that chance the HD could burn out, it could get stolen, or in this case I leave the company that provided the laptop I mainly write on. It is also accessable from any spot that has an internet connection. On vacation in Austin I was able to use another computer to make an entry. Another is that typing on a keyboard works so much better for me as far as getting thoughts into words. For whatever reason a pen seems to slow that down. Plus you don't exactly photocopy articles you want to keep and staple them into a journal. Honestly I am just lazy. It is much more simple to copy and paste or type on a keyboard. No attempt to be deep here.


God damn, this whole entry is now the opposite of what I wanted to be! I'm turning into a blogger. My excuse is my flight home has been delayed 4 hrs and I have nothing better to do on the plane or at the terminal. Boredom and frustration really fuel most of the entries.

6th street continued...

Since we couldn't get enough of 6th street the night before we hit the street again after checking out the capital building. Saturday night is much more busy then it was Friday night. Around 11-12 or so the streets were packed with people and looked like a mini-mardi gras type area.

I was able to find a short video someone else shot when they were in Austin to give everyone an idea of what it is like. The video is not that clear but you get the picture. It really does go off. In fact is was more busy last night then it was in this video.

6th street in Downtown Austin, Texas

6th street in Downtown Austin, Texas is DOPE! If you are ever in that area and love to drink for cheap, love live rock, and just having a good time you need to stop down there. For three of us to go out and drink the entire night it was like 60 bucks which included seeing a really really good blues band that is local to Austin Texas. The show was free as long as you walked into the bar, how fuckin cool is that? The band is called Trent Turner and the Moontowers...they put on a hell of a show and everyone should check out his site

http://www.trentturnermusic.com/

We bought two CDs and left some money in their tip jar. Honestly watching him have a crazy guitar solo using his tongue was enough to bring in like 10 ladies walking down 6th street. He tried to hit on my GF but hay, the music was good enough to where it was ok HAHA

I am now the Corporate Vacation Bee for the next few days

A picture off the wing of the Skywest/United flight I took from John Wayne Airport to Denver International Airport. This is as we are coming into Denver on my way to Austin, Texas for a mini vacation over the Memorial Day weekend. So right now the job search is on hold, fixing god damn computers is on hold, and just about anything but relaxing...well sort of. This is how much my job has moved into my personal life. Last night when I was sleeping I had a dream that the new Cheif Technology Officer (that's his title unofficially but that is what he does for the company I work for) asked me to stay in Austin another day to work out of that office. How fucked up is that? Even on vacation I think about work.

Monster.com doing some shady business practices?

So just now I got an email from 'American Century Investments' telling me "thank you for my interest in my free 401(K) roll over kit." Now I don't have the best memory in the world but I think I would remember signing up for something like this. After about a minute or two of trying to remember where the hell this could have come from an email from Monster.com shows up. Guess what that says? That Monster.com recomends that I sign up with them and then in that same email says that my inquiry has been submitted on my behalf. Now correct me if I am wrong that a recommendation is not the same as being told to do something. Some may say that is not that big of a deal and Monster sells information off all the time. I know that obviously. The problem I have is with the fact that this investment company actually thinks I want or need their services. I am sure they pay Monster.com per user who signs up and I find it very funny that I was used to generate money under false pretense. Plus to make matters worse it is only a matter of time before I get calls or emails from some person with a real fancy title (Senior Advice Specialist) telling me about all the great benefits of using American Century Investments to manage my 401(k) roll over.

That is a strike against Monster.com which up until this point has been a good place to help on the job search.

As for the job search update...I have an interview with a really impressive company within the next few weeks. They are going to fly me out to meet with them in Denver and everything. Hopefully all goes well. This was all setup up using good ol fashioned networking at a conference that I attended a few weeks ago. Sometimes the old fashioned way of doing things is still the best.

Corporate Worker Bee Job Hunt: Entry 2 of ????

Now you know how I feel about craigslist I am going to move on to Monster.com which is a typical place to go if you are doing what I call "new-age job searching". The service itself is actually pretty good and I have found a number of quality job offers on this site, not quite ones I personally want, but it has brought in some very good leads. Just not ones that matched my taste. Maybe I am being too picky? Mainly the good jobs were coming from LA County more so then Orange County but that is expected as LA is a much bigger job market. I'll list a few personal pros/cons that I've come across.

Pros:
Better leads then alot of other online places to find jobs
You can setup searches to go and dig for you automatically every day (very useful)
Some interesting tips and advice on all things career related if you spend the time
It's still free

Cons:
The networking section (for me at least) has not been as good as I thought it would be
The ads are very annoying but expected as I did not pay to be a premium member
The resume builder is pretty generic and I feel it has kept me from getting certain opportunities, better off making one yourself and uploading it.

All in all it is a good place to go to find a job. So far on my list it ranks higher then everything else except for good old fashioned networking. Much better then the classifieds and randomly applying to various locations.

I bashed craigslist yet I still went to it this morning to see if any new jobs posted. Why? Heck I don't know, it is free and that is about the only reason why.

Corporate Worker Bee looking for new hive

How many entries will I have before I find a new hive? Hopefully not a hundred. I'd like to have a new job or direction by the end of summer at least.

This is week #3 officially of my job hunt. I am not 100% dedicated at this point but I thought I'd start the long process. Every entry for the next _____ amount of time is going to be on my expierences and everything that goes along with finding a brand new job. So far I've done what most people would have done. I've tried more traidtional ways of finding perspective jobs, Networking and good ol hook ups from friends. I've also have been using newer methods of looking for jobs, Monster.com and Craigslist. The haiku below should explain how the later is working out for me

craigslists weak prospects
H-R can't even spell job names
posts are decieving

If you were to go to Craigslist to look for a job in any of the categories they have you will find ALOT of misspelled enteries. Why would someone want to work for people who cannot spell Computer Technician right? Not just in one post but for multiple days. Employers should be able to spell the title of the person they want to hire. Not only that but alot of the jobs are not exactly what they say. Be wary if you do ever plan to go there to find a job. I went on a job interview the other day with a company that wanted someone who "had extensive computer knowledge (especially CAD) and experience supporting users/clients". When I showed up for the interview I was told the job would entail answering phones, do data entry, and what amounted to being UPS boy at some seedy office in Santa Ana.

Next entry: Monster.com....

Ahh the roaming co-worker in your dept, don't you love em?

For those of you who have a co-worker in your dept (or even a boss) that floats around the office like a lost soul for many many many wasted minutes upon end a game has been created just for you! With the help of a handful of Corporate Worker Bees this system and rule set has been developed.

The title? "Guess How Many Times ______ Goes to the _____ ? " We are allowing you to customize our game to suit your needs

Here is how it works...

At the begging of each morning send an email out to other co-workers or friends who know of FLOATER and ask them to take a guess of how many points they will rack up in one work day. For our game we used the front desk as the main location. Once everyone has guessed find someone that can easily look up to see if they are at said location ( The worker bees in the mail room who bust their ass help me as they have to route mail multiple times per day). That or I just look my self seeing as I am going around the office too.........to help users or go to the bathroom.

Here is the scoring system:

Person at said location (we use the front desk) = 1 pt.
Person at front w/ person they have a office crush on (may not apply to all) = 2pts.
Person at the cubicle of office crush = 4 pts.
Person running to go fetch cold stone, starbucks, or food for office crush = 5 pts.

The person with the closest amount of points becomes the winner and can be given any award you like.

Or if you happen to sit in the path of the person who has an addictive urge to wander instead of work (like myself, my desk has to be passed to get to the rest of the office) you can count the sheer amount of times they get up to socialize. We ran a test run for this game yesterday and the offending party got up 18 times (no joke) to go up to the front desk to socialize.

The more you know......

09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0

Google that!

Hotel room bordem vol. 1

If this doesn't show how bored I got at the hotel room last night and this morning...I do not know what will. Hopefully there is not a vol. 2 tomorrow because I was unable to sleep.

Google Maps to places i've been code name "London" (in regular speak a work in progress)

There is a few good places to eat on the map if you are ever in those areas and what my stay was like at some of the local hotels.

I am now giving my blog the code name 'Rome'

Parking at the convention center: 12 bucks

Cheeseburger and fries inside the convention center: 10 bucks

Seeing hundreds of IT and CAD worker bees get giddy over software with cool code names like 'Athens': Pathetic.

What happened to fixing a product that is not working properly now? Why is it 'Oh well in Vista we have changed that, if you upgrade it will be more secure' or 'That has been spoken about at the Athens round table discussion we just had and that feature will work as planned if you upgrade" The worst part is tech people ohh and ahhh over the software because it's new and has a sweet name. All techs are guilty of wanting the latest and greatest but why bother if it makes your job even more complicated and/or difficult? If XP is running just fine why get Vista? If V8 XM is getting more stable and users are finally starting to embrace this why go to Athens? Who cares about Avalon and besides that name doesn't even sound that cool. Windows Longhorn? Sweet if you are a redneck or a 12 year old boy who makes junk jokes. IT worker bees should not be salivating at being sold on the next version. They should be fuming that they have to do another big upgrade just for software to be more stable, more secure, or just work as the software company said it would.

On another note, learning new ways to approach software and best practices are useful. So while there was a lot of brainwashed IT managers and CAD managers itching to drop another house payment on code named software at the BE conference in LA there was alot to get out of it.

You know your travel alot when....

You have a rolling travel bag that has spinners on it.

You turn your cell phone off before you pull out of your driveway out of habit.

The only mall you have time to check stuff out at is the Sky Mall Magzine while you are in the air.

While reading Sky Mall you think how cool it would be to have 95 dollar solar safari hat with a fan and an 800 dollar raft for the river.

When your significant other is running late you call them to ask what time they plan on departing and if there was going to be a delay due to the weather.

Your frequent flier miles become an extension of your penis, who needs a ferrari.

You call yourself a Greek shipping heir because you've been in a Hilton literally thousands of times.

You know all the Cranium questions.....not because you are smart per say but because god damn United has been playing the same tape since the last time you got on a flight.

For the same exact reason above you know exactly what suitcase to tell Howie Mendel's bald ass to open up to win a million bucks on deal or no deal.

Your idea of a fancy meal is Wolfgang Puck Express.

Those foam horse shoe things for your neck you use to laugh at old people for holding at the terminal don't look so stupid anymore now that you've gone to and from the eastcoast non-stop a few times.

You refer to bumps in the road as turbulence to your passenger.

Ulga the grumpy TSA guard at your local airport has become like a second mother to you.

You said 'Fuck Atkins' and decided to start your own diet of free soda and airline peanuts to lose weight.

You understood and laughed at half the lines above.

Email mistakes and how to avoid them

Email is an important staple of life in general, not just in the work place. This was a jack move from another site but I think it is pretty important. I thought most people figured that these were common sense. After asking a few co-workers before I posted this I guess some of them are and some of them are not. A few are for the small business owner crowd but there is good advice. Both to keep you from looking like an idiot to co-workers/customers or from limiting your spam (if you shop online alot) Either way it is a good read...
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

1. Failing to follow e-mail etiquette

I believe in the old adage, "You catch more flies with honey than with vinegar." There's no point in belaboring the etiquette issue. We all know we should be polite. But here are a few points to consider:

• Don't write when you're angry. Wait 24 hours. Calm down. Be reasonable. Have someone else edit your e-mail.

• Don't use sarcasm. You may think you're clever, but the recipient will be put off.

• DON'T USE ALL UPPERCASE! That's the e-mail equivalent of yelling. Your recipient won't be appreciative. Go easy on the exclamation marks, too. Overuse dulls their effectiveness.

• Use clear subject lines. That will help people decide whether to read the e-mail now or later. We're all busy. Your correspondent will appreciate your thoughtfulness.

• Keep it short. If your e-mail is more than two paragraphs, maybe you should use the telephone.

• Change the subject line if you change the topic of a thread.

• Unless the recipient has previously agreed, don't forward poems, jokes, virus warnings and other things. You're just wasting valuable time and bandwidth.

2. Thinking you are anonymous
If you are sending nasty missives, you might think no one will be able to figure out that the e-mail came from you. After all, you set up a phony Web address. Think again. E-mail contains invisible information about the sender.

That information is in the header. All major e-mail programs can display header information. Here's how:

• In Microsoft Outlook, double click the e-mail. Then click View > Options.

• In Microsoft Outlook Express, click the e-mail. Then click File > Properties and select the Details tab.

• In Eudora, double click the message. Then click the Blah Blah button.

• In Netscape, click the message to open it. Then click View > Message Source to display the header.

The sender's revealing information is in the sections that begin with "Received:." There may be several of these, depending on the number of computers the e-mail traversed. The originating computer is in the bottom "Received:."

That section will have an Internet Protocol (IP) number, such as 124.213.45.11. It can be traced on a number of Web sites. I use InterNIC (www.internic.net). The number is probably assigned to the sender's Internet service provider, rather than the sender. But the ISP will be able to identify the sender using that number. Remember the header if you're tempted to send an anonymous e-mail. You may be less anonymous than you think.

3. Sending e-mail to the wrong person
Today's e-mail programs want to make it easy to send e-mail. This means that when you start typing the address of a recipient to whom you have previously sent mail, the "To:" field may already be populated. Be careful. Always double-check the recipient is the intended one.

In addition, if you're writing something ugly about Joe Smith, you'll have Joe's name on your mind. Don't send it to him. I once knew an intern at a newspaper who did just that. He didn't like his supervisor and said so in graphic terms in an e-mail. Then he accidentally sent the e-mail to his supervisor. (The intern kept his position, but the atmosphere was cold, to say the least. And there was no job offer at summer's end.)

4. Using one e-mail address for everything
I have four different e-mail addresses: private, public, one I use for online mailing lists, and another for when I go shopping online. These addresses attract mail for those specific areas.

I can have as many as I want, because I host my own e-mail server. But if you are using an Internet service provider, you still can do this. Most providers will give you a half-dozen e-mail accounts. You can also use addresses on the Web for personal accounts. Both Hotmail and Yahoo! are good. You can reach those accounts from anywhere, assuming you have Web access.

5. Forgetting to check all of your e-mail accounts
Checking all these accounts can be a chore, especially from home. So I use ePrompter (www.eprompter.com), which can check 16 different password-protected accounts. Best of all, ePrompter is free. There are other programs that will do this for a fee, including Active Email Monitor (www.emailmon.com).

6. Clicking "Send" too fast
Reread every e-mail before you send it! I actually get e-mails from job applicants with misspellings and missing words. They all go to the same place: the garbage. This is a pet peeve. I'm not going to hire someone who is careless.

Even if you're not looking for a job, you want to be careful. People will judge you subconsciously on mistakes. No one is perfect. But you can catch 99% of these problems by rereading the text.

And don't depend on the spell-checker. It will catch misspellings. But if you use "four" instead of "for," or "your" for "you're," it won't tell you. It also is not likely to catch any missing words in a sentence that you inadvertently failed to include. So take a minute and reread your text. Don't look like an ignoramus.

7. Forgetting the attachment
This seems obvious, but I can't tell you how many times I've received an e-mail with a missing attachment. Since we all do it occasionally, it shouldn't be a huge deal.

However, if you consistently make this mistake, people (perhaps important people) may think you're losing your marbles. They might even hesitate to do business with you in the future. When you get ready to send your e-mail, think: "What am I forgetting?"

8. Using your ISP's domain and not your own
Make your company look big. If you use a Web account or an ISP's name for your business, you're not going to look professional. You can buy a domain name separately for $20-$30 per year from a company such as VeriSign (www.netsol.com), or as part of a package from a Web hosting and e-mail service such as that offered by Microsoft Small Business. Assuming someone else hasn't already grabbed it, you can have your company in the domain name.

Let's say you run The BoolaBoola Co. If you use an ISP's address, you would have something like JoeBoolaBoola@SomeISP.com. But if you buy your own domain name, it could be Joe@TheBoolaBoolaCo.com. That's much more likely to impress your customers.

E-mail is almost like talking. We use it so much that we don't really think about it. But there are rules and courtesies, just as there are with talking. And there are other considerations involved in communicating by written word only.

Giving them some additional thought could make your e-mail experience more satisfying and your recipients much happier.

Men being fashion idiots in the work place or a female journalist being an overcritical idiot? YOU decide!

Your fashion-sense or lack there-of could be offending the eyes of your colleagues and recklessly endangering your career!

Here are 10 of the most common fashion crimes along with tips on how to avoid them:

1. Backpacks. OK, maybe this is just a misdemeanor, but you're trying to climb the corporate ladder, not hike up a mountain.

Carry a briefcase or messenger bag -- and if you need something for your gym clothes -- invest in a nice-looking gym bag.

2. Clashing or too many colors. A coat of many colors may have worked for Joseph, but you, my friend, should limit each outfit to just three colors or shades.

Stick to complementary colors (those opposite from each other on the color wheel) or colors from the same pallet. Match pale clothes with light-colored shoes and dark clothes with dark shoes.

3. Stained clothes. Don't be that guy who's unwittingly walking around with red sauce on his shirt.

Make it part of your daily routine to inspect your clothes when you take them off and when they come out of the wash to make sure you don't miss a spot. Watch for yellow circles under the armpits, soiled collars or cuffs.

You may even want to keep a stain stick in your desk at work.

4. Ill-fitting pants. Even if you're sure of your size, always try on pants before buying them, because different brands have different lengths.

Jeans can be worn to the bottom of your heel, but your khakis or dress pants should end at the top of the heel. Make sure they don't reveal any sock as you walk-- or more than a couple of inches of sock when you sit. Too tight or too baggy won't cut it either.

5. Ponytails. You're neither a wizard nor a rock star. And even if you were, admit it, doesn't Michael Bolton look much better now that he's cut his hair? If you must keep your hair long, make sure it's neat and clean and doesn't fall past the base of your neck.

6. Novelty ties. It's okay to express your individuality through color or pattern. But stick with the classic width of about three-and-one-quarter inches and make sure the colors and patterns complement the shirt you are wearing. Not make people scratch their heads and say, huh?

And one more thing: When it comes to how a tie hangs, it should reach the top of your belt buckle and have a dimple in the center of the knot.

7. Too much cologne. If you must wear cologne, get a quality brand. And since the same cologne smells different on each person, make sure to test it out and get some opinions.

Beware of mixing too many smells at once. Remember, if you wear an anti-perspirant or aftershave, the scents can mingle for an unpleasant effect. And don't be too liberal in your application. The safest bet is to avoid wearing cologne all together and let the clean smell of soap do the talking

8. Funky facial hair. If you're going to do facial hair, do it right. Keep any mustache or beard trimmed. Don't wear a soul patch (that little rectangle of unshaven hair beneath your lower lip) or uni-brow (try waxing or laser hair removal). If you're prone to stray nose or ear hairs, please invest in a special trimmer.

9. Too much jewelry. A simple watch is all you need outside of a wedding band or class ring, if appropriate. Save the gold neck chains, bracelets, pinky rings and facial piercings for after hours.

And the most heinous crime of all:

10. Comb-overs. Draping or otherwise "arranging" those nine hairs on top of your head into an elaborate comb-over doesn't actually work for Donald Trump. He only gets away with it because he's the boss. If you are follicly-challenged, embrace it. Keep your hair cropped short, or shave it all a la Michael Jordan, Andre Agassi or Howie Mandel.

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Before someone gets offended and asks themself (Cuz no one leaves comments here but will email me or verbally tell me about an entry) "How does The Corporate Worker Bee know a woman wrote this".....I don't. Just call it a hunch. Most men I know in the work place cannot even remember what someone wore the day before let alone what their backpack means in moving up. Don't even get me started on "clashing colors" or too much going on the front of your tie. If this article doesn't scream female journalist it must scream queer eye for the straight guy corporate edition. If I had to vote between good information and pointless article? My personal vote goes to pointless write up, regardless of gender or sexual preference. This is just down right retarded. Yes, dressing the part makes you look more professional but if a company passes on promoting a hard working individual because they didn't realize you can't wear a dark blue shirt with black pants then maybe the person worrying about that needs to get fired. Or at least sent to the Style Network as a producer.

And if you think I made this list up the link is below...

Link to Story at CNN.com

In honor of the day known as 'Four Twenty'...an article about god's wonderful medicine

I personally don't celebrate this 'holiday' and I don't know many people out of high school who even get excited about it but hay whatever floats your boat. Do whatever makes you happy. Below is an article about a guy that some corporate stoner bees may envy a great deal.

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Most of us assume that anyone testing positive for marijuana would be instantly fired by his/her employer, but that is not the case for Irvin Rosenfeld of Florida. Not only is he allowed to smoke marijuana, but he is allowed to smoke while actually at his workplace.

Mr. Rosenfeld is a stock broker in Fort Lauderdale, Florida that has been granted permission by the U.S. government to use marijuana to treat a condition that causes benign bone tumors. According to Rosenfeld, age 54, marijuana is the only treatment for his condition that allows him pain relief from his condition.

The typical day in the life of Mr. Rosenfeld involves waking up and smoking a marijuana joint, going to his office at Newbridge Securities where he smokes another joint, and then gets down to the business of trading millions of dollars worth of securities. During the course of a typical day Mr. Rosenfeld manages to go through between 10 and 12 marijuana cigarettes. His job knows his needs, his clients know he uses it, and everyone seems to agree that he suffers no bad side effects to his performance.

As more and more states start to allow the use of medical marijuana the question of marijuana use in the office is going to start to come into play. Right now there are 12 states that have legalized the use of medical marijuana with New Mexico joining the list just this month.

Mr. Rosenfeld is definitely an exception to the rule at this point. Even in states where law makers have allowed the use of medical marijuana, companies are slow to embrace the use in the office. The overall impression that marijuana leads to lack of concentration and the inability to perform one's duties are the primary objections to allowing marijuana use to enter the workplace.

As we start to see more and more states allowing the use of medical marijuana, the debate over marijuana in the office place is definitely going to become more widespread. Perhaps Mr. Rosenfeld's success while self medicating will start to change some people's impression of the impact marijuana has on America's workforce.

Today is a twofer

Two posts for the price of one view!

This email was fwd to me by another super cool Corporate Worker Bee like myself...this is one data processor speaking to someone in marketing about how sweet it is to spend most of your time inside a 4x4 foot cubicle as someone who never gets the respect they deserve

>> VERY VERY old document processing worker bee 4/18/2007 2:34 PM >>>
Yer hired! As a Document Processor, you'll receive a reduction in pay, respect, and sanity. No longer will you have to suffer from the harsh glare from sun or witness stabbings in the Hyundai parking lot. You'll be transported from your run of the mill boxed in office to an open-air, team-building, ComfortSpot. Yes, your new ComfortSpot takes all the best aspects of the boring old office and adds the improvements to safety and comfort everybody is looking for. No longer will you fear permanent cornea damage from harsh sunlight, you can take comfort in your occular safety with our Gallant Grey SoftWalls. PLUS! Gallant Grey is safe for those who suffer from Melanophobia, Leukophobia, or Chromatophobia. And lest you feel it's too dull, every SoftWall has .00000000000000000000000000000000000000001% tint of a color of your choice!! Are you a bit clumsy? No problem! Never worry about giving yourself a concussion on you hard unyielding office walls...your ComfortSpot SoftWall is gently padded to avoid unsightly contusions. No place to hang your Scrapbook art or nephew's monocolored scribblings? Look no further than your SoftWall...all you need is Accessory CS-SW:PPGG, with these pushpins (in soothing Gallant Grey) you'll always have a spot to display these important documents.

Now on to shit-I-don't-want-to-work-cuz-it's-almost-breaktime-but-need-to-stay-at-my-desk- until-then-time-killer...below is a link to have Artie of Howard Stern Show/MadTV fame call a friend, co-worker, or family member up and say crude things you tell him to say to them. This "service" of course is to promote Howard TV's free preview (yet another time killer that will pop up here)

http://howardtv.varitalk.com/

Seeking energetic self motivated person to read blog

Venture over to Craigslist, go to the job section, and try clicking on some of the jobs they have listed... Orange County Residents click here

Go ahead I'll wait.......

How many times did you read some variation of the following?

"In this industry, you HAVE to be extremely self-motivated to succeed. If you are energetic, driven, and a self-motivated individual, then we are looking for you! "

Has anyone in the history of the United States of America been hired at a place that was not looking for a person who is self-motivated, driven, and energetic? Is everyone in this country energetic and driven? What happens to millions of workers in this country who are not happy with their job or career? Does working cause them to be the reverse of those requirements for EVERY job in America? Maybe there is a problem with the system and not the workers?! And honestly do you expect someone to be self motivated and driven if they work at Del Taco or Taco Bell? Agreeing to work at Taco Bell already means you are aiming just high enough not to land in the dirt but just low enough to still see the rats running around the carne asada stuffed grilled burritos.

If only people in hiring positions would explain how THEIR business makes employees want to work hard, try to move up, and be happy to go to work each day in these ads. I think they would get alot more bites.

Fuck-A-Round Friday The 13th

Today is known as a bad luck day right? Well in order to make sure you don't have an chance of putting yourself in a situation at work like slipping and falling in the break room or sending a company bashing email to everyone company wide....just fuck around all day. This is a super edition of Fuck-A-Round Friday!

Need a game to play?

Ditch Lumbergh the Game (Office Space game)


Ahhh this line never gets old.....



Youtube blocked? How about listening to the sweet sounds of Biggie and Frank Sinatra?

Ol Blue Eyes Meets BedStuy

Video: Best Of Kobe on Best Damn Sports Show

How does Elmer Fudd search the Internet?

No not "wery wery care-fuwry cuz he's surfin for wabbit"

This is how Elmer Fudd searches the Internet

Top 25 Engineer's Terms and Expressions (What they say versus what they mean)

A number of different approaches are being tried. (We are still guessing at this point.)

Close project coordination. (We sat down and had coffee together.)

An extensive report is being prepared on a fresh approach. (We just hired three punk kids out of school.)

Major technological breakthrough! (It works OK; but looks very hi-tech!)

Customer satisfaction is believed assured. (We are so far behind schedule, that the customer will take anything.)

Preliminary operational tests were inconclusive. (The darn thing blew up when we threw the switch.)

Test results were extremely gratifying! (Unbelievable, it actually worked!)

The entire concept will have to be abandoned. (The only guy who understood the thing quit.)

It is in process. (It is so wrapped in red tape that the situation is completely hopeless.)

We will look into it. (Forget it! We have enough problems already.)

Please note and initial. (Let's spread the responsibility for this.)

Give us the benefit of your thinking. (We'll listen to what you have to say as long as it doesn't interfere with what we have already done or with what we are going to do.)

Give us your interpretation. (We can't wait to hear your bull.)

See me or let's discuss. (Come to my office, I've messed up again.)

All new. (Parts are not interchangeable with previous design.)

Rugged. (Don't plan to lift it without major equipment.)

Robust! (Rugged, but more so)

Light weight. (Slightly lighter than rugged)

Years of development. (One finally worked)

Energy saving. (Achieved when the power switch is off.)

No maintenance. (Impossible to fix)

Low maintenance. (Nearly impossible to fix)

Fax me the data. (I'm too lazy to write it down.)

We are following the standard! (That's the way we have always done it!)

I didn't get your e-mail. (I haven't checked my e-mail for days.)

Sopranos vs Entourage

Water cooler debate of Monday (at least if you are anywhere near your 20s-30s)...Sopranos vs Entourage. Both shows came back for their new season. Both on HBO. Both back to back on Sunday night. Both the only things worth watching Sunday night unless you had the urge to watch Banned From The Bible II on The History Channel.

Let's first start with The Sopranos....

The show is showing it's age much like it's main character. The show still wants to be young and hip like it was 3 or so years ago but it knows it is on its way out as the boss of the premier cable tv series. The show was somewhat insulated because it was a "boss" and now it knows it is on it's way out. The shot the show took in the stomach in the form of Johnny Cakes and not so gangsta plot lines last season really has done the boss in. Pretty much the show deserves to go to the retirement home after this season. The twists are not quite twists but slight bends. Like Tony, the show is getting beat up by a younger guy...except he is not a fat 40 year old italian but Vincent Chase.

On to Entourage....

While Sopranos was getting coverage everywhere else in the media HBO decided to toss a bunch of money into print ads, commercials with DirecTV, and at the Staples Center. Why? Because Entourage is LA. LA is Entourage. What better place then a Laker game defines celebrity downtime in LA? Not to mention one of the scenes in the first episode of season 4 is...yup court side at the Laker game for Vincent Chase' birthday and also a topic of debate between two agents battling for Mr. Chase. The show is everything the Sopranos is not...young, fresh, hilarious, better plot lines, in it's prime, positive, more realistic, and the main character actually challenges the 'bad guys' in Hollywood.

Not only did Tony get whooped by a rug and a fat italian guy who looks like baby huey, he got his ass whipped by a young upcomming actor in LA by the name of Vincent Chase.

Fuck-A-Round Friday! The Scam Baiter is like digital crack....

The Scam Baiter

This site was shown to me by another person on the Internet and I cannot stop reading it. The site is dedicated to not only trying to take down sites used to scam people but to screw the scammers over themselves. The scams they pull on these scammers is just too funny. Not only are the jokes/schemes hilarious but they are actually doing something very beneficial, which is fucking over people who try (and do) fuck others over. I even registered for their forums to read all the other things they've done to the scamming gangs. As if you sit in an office doing some bullshit job behind a computer all day to let some guy take ya cash on the Internet. The site is also excellent to help you spot tricks that they could use to try to screw someone you know over.

This is a special entry for Fuck-A-Round Friday as this will take a long time to read and you cannot stop once you start. Great time killer and a little humor should help lighten up the day.

Shout out to Anus Laptops (if you are confused go click on the link above) , that is what I should be doing this blog from. They are top of the line 'ladpots'!

God damn I love the 'Internets'.....

While looking up information about training workers I came across across a discussion paper done by a few intelligent bloaks.

Who Gains When Workers Train?

Why do I love the Internets? I kind of found this paper on accident searching for something else. All the links in that search sent me to a place to actually purchase the paper. After typing in the name of the paper in Google I was able to find it in PDF version for free. That is why I love the Internets, free information on any god damn random ass topic you chose to read about. This is a very very long read and I bet most people won't read the whole thing. Understandable, you have to actually work at least a few minutes right?

Office workers who want software they will never use....

To all 4 people who read this blog,

I will send a copy of the software of your choice if you leave a comment giving me a real answer as to why office workers want software they don't need. This seems to be common in the office where a person hears that Gerald The Engineer is using Microsoft Project (for example) and they want a copy too. When they receive the copy they start it up, say oohhhh and ahhhh, then never ever ever use it again. Just because someone has a CD or the installation files for software does not mean they can legally install it on any machine for the hell of it. That would be stealing.

Software is not free.....unless you reply in a comment as to why having software just to have makes sense!

Pandora Free Web Radio

May have already seen this but this is a really great site for free streaming music. If you are tired of what you have at your desk or if you are looking for new artists to listen to who may be similar to someone you type in.

Pandora Internet Radio

Where else would you type in Timbaland and get not only a Timbaland song but tracks from Black Moon, De La Soul, Sadat X, and Camp Lo? Have no idea who those people are? Go to PANDORA and type em in...

Oh ya if you can't stream at work don't blame me, go yell at your IT guy about how the Microsoft Office suite he installed three years ago caused your webpage (not your browser, it's funnier that way believe me) to stream it automatically. He will love it. Might even make his day. Tell him this blog told you that was the problem.

**This is a must read piece** How To: Kiss Corporate Life Goodbye

This is a must read for anyone who is frustrated, tired, suffering from corporate depression, or just need a change...


How to: Kiss Corporate Life Goodbye

Link to great read

The office and fish don't mix like two....

...if you know the end of the line I don't need to say it.

Gonzo Kitchen Odor Eliminator Bag short wmv demo

" All odors are positively charged gases that float in the air like dust particles. The Gonzo Odor Eliminators are all natural, odorless, non-toxic volcanic crystals with millions of surfaces and channels containing a negative charge. The Odor Eliminators act like a magnet does with metal; they attract and hold all odors to keep the air clean and smelling fresh. This is a great item to keep in your kitchen, basement, closet, car, or any other area where odors may linger. "


What does this have to do with a blog that has to do with all things office related?

Nothing...if you don't have someone in the office who thinks everyone enjoys the aroma of a big fat plate of Kim Chi lingering in all corners of the office. Or a gentleman that decides that he needs to get to the microwave before everyone else to cook his leftover fish from last night making your vegetable soup have that deep sea flavor. Come on, everyone has one or two. Maybe it is the curry king in your office? Here is your solution......unless you like to complain about it REALLY loud in a general area so everyone can hear it.

American's kick ass....at wasting time at work!

According to a study done by Salary.com and AOL Find a Job site American's waste up to 2.09 hours a day costing business in this country up to 768 billion this past year. Makes you feel bad for reading this blog right? Maybe the figure would look a bit better if they included how much time employees were forced to waste because of slow co-workers or lack of work? Don't feel too bad though...even if none of those factor in they probably don't pay you enough to do what your job requires.

Here are some stats in case you are wondering....

Top Time-Wasting Activities

1. Surfing Internet (personal use) 44.7%

2. Socializing with co-workers 23.4%

3. Conducting personal business 6.8%

4. Spacing out 3.9%

5. Running errands off-premises 3.1%

Top Excuses for Time-Wasting

1. Don't have enough work to do 33.2%

2. Underpaid for amount of work I do 23.4%

3. Co-workers distract me 14.7%

4. Not enough evening or weekend time 12.0%

5. Other 16.7%

Top Time-Wasting States

1. Missouri 3.2 hrs/day

2. Indiana 2.8 hrs/day

3. Kentucky 2.8 hrs/day

4. Wisconsin 2.8 hrs/day

5. Nevada 2.7 hrs/day

Top Time-Wasting Industries

1. Insurance 2.5 hrs/day

2. Public Sector (Non-Education) 2.4 hrs/day

3. Research & Development 2.3 hrs/day

4. Education 2.2 hrs/day

5. Software & Internet 2.2 hrs/day

Here are some other interesting facts about time-wasted at work:

• Men vs. Women: Men and women waste about the same amount of time per day (approximately 2.1 hours). This, despite the fact that most HR managers surveyed suspected that women waste more time at work than men.

• Youngsters vs. Seniors: As the following statistics show, the older you are, the less time you waste at work.

Year of Birth

1930-1949 0.50 hrs/day

1950-1959 0.68 hrs/day

1960-1969 1.19 hrs/day

1970-1979 1.61 hrs/day

1980-1985 1.95 hrs/day

Link To Article

Im bringing 'bitchin' back to blogging....

And to bring back this 1980s verbage I am putting up a bitchin video game for all to play instead of pounding away at cells inside of Excel...you can thank me later

Free Flash GamesandMyspace Game Codes

Quite a scary read from MSNBC today on Corporations...

Link To Story

"So who really is running the world these days? Answer Desk readers have plenty of opinions. Some, like Marilynn in Baltimore, suspect that Wall Street merger mavens and big corporate interests are gradually usurping government's role in setting up a "New World Order" that will ultimately have the greatest impact on average Americans' lives. For many readers, it's obvious: all you've got to do is "connect the dots.""

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Above is just the introductory paragraph to the article that really got me hooked. Maybe it is a little bit of WOW writing and a little bit of god fucking damnit I hate muthafuckin Monday! Or GFDIHMM like I have on an ultra cool yellow wrist band that shits all over WWJD and testicle cancer awareness bracelets. Now I believe this is border-line conspiracy theory type thinking but very interesting at the same time. Worth reading and wasting time at your boring office job if nothing else!

Keep your Bawls cool with this USB Chiller

No creepy guy, get your mind out of the gutter, look at the spelling of the word before you get excited. Yes same creepy guy with his mind in the gutter, it works for other types of beverages that should be cold.

Link to this cool office gift

The Corporate Boat Race

An American automobile company and a Japanese auto company decided to have a competitive boat race on the Detroit River. Both teams practiced hard and long to reach their peak performance. On the big day, they were as ready as they could be. The Japanese team won by a mile.

Afterwards, the American team became discouraged by the loss and their morale sagged. Corporate management decided that the reason for the crushing defeat had to be found. A Continuous Measurable Improvement Team of "Executives" was set up to investigate the problem and to recommend appropriate corrective action. Their conclusion: The problem was that the Japanese team had 8 people rowing and 1 person steering, whereas the American team had 1 person rowing and 8 people steering.

The American Corporate Steering Committee immediately hired a consulting firm to do a study on the management structure. After some time and billions of dollars, the consulting firm concluded that "too many people were steering and not enough rowing." To prevent losing to the Japanese again next year, the management structure was changed to "4 Steering Managers, 3 Area Steering Managers, and 1 Staff Steering Manager" and a new performance system for the person rowing the boat to give more incentive to work harder and become a six sigma performer. "We must give him empowerment and enrichment." That ought to do it.

The next year the Japanese team won by two miles. The American Corporation laid off the rower for poor performance, sold all of the paddles, cancelled all capital investments for new equipment, halted development of a new canoe, awarded high performance awards to the consulting firm, and distributed the money saved as bonuses to the senior executives.

"How can our politicians call trade 'free' when year after year we sustain runaway trade deficits and the loss of hundreds of thousands of jobs?" Is that pro-worker, left-wing moviemaker Michael Moore speaking? Hardly. Try Lou Dobbs, host of the Lou Dobbs Tonight show on CNN and self-proclaimed "lifelong Republican" on the soapbox against the whole notion of free trade. The issue of American corporations moving overseas in pursuit of cheap labor has become a rallying cry for the otherwise conservative business journalist, and through his national TV show, he has become a lightning rod of controversy for speaking out against it, having been called everything from a protectionist to a communist. True, the book's publication coincides with a hot presidential race, yet Dobbs doesn't see either side as having the answer (Clinton, after all, signed NAFTA into law). Instead, after deftly laying out the problems, Dobbs thankfully offers sound ideas for reversing the course that he thinks will lead to losing another 14 million jobs to outsourcing. A tightly written account of an important economic issue.

Mary Frances WilkensCopyright ©

American Library Association. All rights reserved

Here is the Amazon.com link

Amazon.com reviews are usually on point and this seems to have recieved some favorable reviews. Looks like a good read to me.

Need a new look for your cube?

Here are a few posters that I would like to post up in my office. The first one being my favorite of course. Follow the link below to find others that may suit you or the people around you much better

Link to site!

I'm gonna get you youtube'd today cuz it's Friday and you ain't got shit to do!

Collection of the best clips from Office Space one of many inspirations for all of us!

Best Buy to help keep worker bees buzzing?

Source - CNN Money

"With a classic flextime structure, workers arrange their schedules with their boss in advance. But under a program called Rowe, for "results-only work environment," the boss has no say in scheduling and can judge employees only on tasks successfully completed - even if none were done in the office. The five-year-old plan now covers 60 percent of the employees at Best Buy's corporate headquarters near Minneapolis.

And by all accounts, it's working. Employee productivity has increased an average of 35 percent in departments covered by the program."

"The company says turnover costs - recruiting, training, and loss of operational time - are $102,000 per blue shirt, or about 250 percent of their salary."
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Really random Microsoft worker? I suggest a life in politics post-MS career

Source - EWeek

"I have been here [in Redmond] all day long, and I have seen very few escalations come through from our field. But it is early, so we may see more tomorrow and the next day. But today we have not been flooded with requests for information and guidance or help," M3 Sweatt, the chief of staff for the Windows Core Operating System Development Group, told eWEEK.

But, that being said, Microsoft was already working closely with its enterprise customers to ensure they had what they needed.

"Some of them are happy, some of them are not. But we are working with them as best we can to make sure we are addressing their issues," he said.

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Few problems here...

1) The guy is named M3 Sweatt? That sounds like a posting name on some BMW forum, not something you would see on a birth certificate. Let's hope that one is a typo.

2) Maybe no one was escalated to your department because you don't field complaints? The problem wasn't with the patch itself as much as it was the amount of patches and the fact you guys waited less then a month before the DST to release a patch. As if the US government waited until Feb. 10th, 2007 to make the decision. Also, I highly doubt that every user that had this issue was going to call Microsoft. Why bother? They have IT to yell at that kind of stuff for. Or a tech savvy relative. Even if every IT prof in the country called Microsoft it wouldn't be a fraction of the REAL AMOUNT of people mad about this. Personally if I had to call you for every complaint I personally recieved from another user I would have dialed over 175 times on my own. That is just for users on the westcoast I spoke with. Many people echo what was being said by other people in that interview about calendar issues.

3) Or better yet it wasn't escalated to you because IT corporate worker bees like myself figured out that patches were applied but machines did not have 'automatically adjust for daylight savings time' checked? Pretty sure that could be turned on by the patch somewhere for those who did not have it checked.

4) Maybe no one was in the chat because they have given up on Internet Explorer and use Firefox, a browser that Microsoft does not support on any of their sites. Sorry but I rather not use Microsoft web sites then have to close Firefox to launch Internet Explorer 6 or 7.

Stupid IT Question Of The Day

Names have been changed or edited. Yes..this is a real engineer with a REAL degree....


******Mr. Corporate Worker Bee checks voice mail**********

Engineer: Hi Mr. Corporate Worker Bee, this is *****...I see video on the online training course but I do not have any sound can you please give me a call back.

******Mr. Corporate Worker Bee dials office*********

Mr. Corporate Worker Bee: Hi engineer this is Mr. Corporate Worker Bee.

Engineer: Hi Mr. Corporate Worker Bee, I see the video come on but there is no sound. Does this have sound?

Mr. Corporate Worker Bee: Yes the video has sound. Do you have speakers?

Engineer: *in very confused tone* I need speakers to get sound?


That is it for this installment of 'Stupid IT question of the day" be sure to check in again for yet another awesome IT adventure with yours truly.