Monthly Archives: November 2007

It was the build up of the two best teams in the NFC — the Green Bay Packers and the Dallas Cowboys playing in Dallas. Both teams were 10-1 going into the game. Only one team — in this case, Dallas — was going to come out of the game 11-1. Studying how football teams […]

In case you missed it — and you shouldn’t have if you work in the financial industry — things are not going well in the land of credit. As in, you can’t get any credit and neither can your company. The result is scary headlines with massive layoffs, huge losses by companies — and sweet […]

Here in the United States, most health insurance is graced upon the individual Cubicle Warrior through a health policy provided by their employer. Not all employers, but many. As a consequence, some 47 million are uninsured and an additional 16 million or so essentially self-insure with programs that don’t kick in until one incurs high […]

Here were my cell phone/Blackberry uses yesterday that didn’t make sense: Riding on the silent bus into downtown this morning with one lady loudly speaking with friends. The cell phone in the men’s room. Somehow, the thought of taking a leak while on a cell phone just doesn’t do it for me. Answering the cell […]

On the back of Money Magazine’s December, 2007, issue is a full back cover advertisement in one of the continuing series of “a diamond is forever.” Usually promoting diamonds through some emotional pull, this one shows beautiful diamonds with the simple caption: No Tech Support Required. I’m in the tech business, so I chuckled at […]

Last weekend, I upgraded all of my WordPress sites to version 2.3.1. While using a “one-click” upgrade may sound like it is not a lot of work, the reality is that there is a lot of work to be done after an upgrade — almost all of it unexpected. Plugins Plugins are little software snippets […]

Chalk it up to smug satisfaction or something, but when I found Jack and Suzy Welch’s article on the four questions to ask to decide “To Stay or Leave,” I thought I had the definitive answer for analyzing when to leave your current position. Until the next morning. Then I started having that brain thing […]

There have been some astounding advancements in communications technology in my career. The technology is such that we now expect that we will have Internet availability and cell phone coverage no matter where we go. Whether it be wireless Internet availability on our cell phones at Starbucks or the library Ethernet access, we’ve found convenience […]

While all of us know that e-mail is the communications method of choice for much of Corporate Earth, we also know that, perhaps next to meetings, e-mail is the biggest time wasting tool on the planet. There are countless articles out there that tell us tips on managing our e-mail, including this great one from […]

I’m not a big fan of Jack Welch of GE CEO fame. Too much corporate rah-rah, nose to the grindstone, and 10% of you are gone every year whether you are a solid contributor or not. But I have to agree with the commentary in this week’s Business Week on “Should you stay or should […]

I’m running a little late, but thanks to the October, 2007, contributors to the site — your comments and/or articles help support cubicle warriors in the workplace: Anita Bruzzese of 45 things. What a great blog with superior insights for those of us who work in cubes. Andrew of Great Management. Andrew and I have […]

Last night, I wrote about how careers are now all about acquiring skills that support your personal brand. Rosetta Thurman, writing in From the Pipeline, made a great point that I agree with: It’s over. No more vertical. No more ladder. That’s not the way careers work anymore. Linearity is out. A career is now […]

One of the things I hate about surfing the web is the astounding amount of crap that is written out there. One of the things I love about surfing the web is that every once in a while a great little nugget of coolness presents itself. Coolness happened tonight: a Google Alert sent me to […]

We all have talents and skills that we bring to the world. The interesting tidbit about our talents and skills is that, to us, the living is easy when we are using them. Something that is not in our skill set is hard, if not difficult. We’re told, of course, to work harder on what […]

There is a saying out there that has a lot of truth to it: You are only as good as your last manager. Not that the manager is the difference in your capabilities, your skills, or your talents. Those things don’t change much. But a good manager, at worst, will do your career no harm. […]

Charles H. Green’s Trust Matters blog tells the Russian (or American) story of customer service upon opening a McDonald’s where the trainer spoke of “fast, friendly, courteous service to customers.” An employee approached the trainer one day early in the process, with an offer to help. “Listen,” he said, “you seem like a nice person […]

We live in a social world. Not only do we interact with people all day in person and on the phone, we also interact with them in all of the digital media made available to us on the Internet. But, the digital media on the Internet is not a transient transaction in our lives; instead, […]