Urgency: Does Anybody Have It?

Yesterday, I got hit with another massive wave of discouragement. I realized that I don't want to get good at handling discouragement. It's not worth the pain. But I am resorting to a tactic that got me through boot camp. I keep telling myself that many people have been here before me, and they made [...]

Alternate Work Schedules: What’s Best For You?

The company that laid me off last month rolled out what they called "Flexible Work Schedules" at the end of 2008. I elected not to participate because I considered these schedules to be far less flexible than a regular 8 hour day 5 days a week. One model required you to work 9 hours every [...]

Inc. Magazine: Onboarding a New Hire

Inc. Magazine has an interesting article about how to onboard a new hire. The article seems to have disappeared since I started writing this. Maybe it'll be back. It still shows up on a site search. Hopefully, very soon I'll have to worry about starting work with a new company. That means I'll go through [...]

Do You Know When To Fix Somebody, And When To Just Listen?

This post is hard for me. I like to fix things. I love to have problems to solve. I also love to learn things. I’d love to have the answer to every question. A few weeks ago, a group I was talking with had an interesting discussion. Have you ever had somebody totally drop a [...]

Beware of Scam Sounding Recruiters

I hate looking for a job. It’s never been fun. The last few times, I already had a job, which took some of the urgency away. I’m especially fearful now of ending up in another bad match, stuck in another cubicle near yet another high-traffic/low concentration area. I have to wonder about a few things [...]

When Bad News Is Good News (And People Won’t Deliver It)

I wrote this post yesterday. Then I deleted the entire thing. What came out of my hands onto my keyboard was very angry and reactionary. It was also immature. I should expect better of myself. Have you ever found yourself in a situation where you know the news you’re likely to get is bad? Of [...]

High-Stress vs. High Frustration

I wrote the following post back in January, but never got around to posting it. I hate to let it go to waste, because I was trying to communicate the difference between a high-stress environment and a high-frustration environment. I can handle stress. Needless frustration is a very bad thing. I was ultimately let go [...]

What Do You Consider A Good Workplace Perk?

I have a title for a blog post that I’ve been wanting to write for a while. I don’t quite have the content to go with it yet. I’ve been wanting to write a post about “When Companies Believe Their Own BS.” Have you ever worked for a company that went on and on about [...]

Why Do Companies Make It Harder Than It Has to be to Apply for a Job?

Before I go any farther in this post, I’ll state that I will do what needs to be done to pay the bills. If that requires getting back into another soul-sucking 8 hour a day cubicle job, then I will. But not if it can be avoided. Except for one year (1998-1999), I’ve spent my [...]

Job Update

This post probably won't be my masterpiece. I was dismissed from my job on Thursday. It wasn't a surprise. I knew it was coming, and I was under incredible anxiety about it. Once I found out, most of the anxiety went away. I'm still wondering how I'll pay the bills, but I know I'm smart [...]