Clean Up Time
People,
The decision has been made that even though we are content with our new look, we need to clean up a bit…
So from now on until further notice, things are going to be shifting, moving and shaking…and when we are done…it will be bright, and brand new!
So please be patient, and enjoy….
Hi readers! The comments section works now so comment away! Sorry about the inconvenience!
Obsolete When All Are Employed loves you!
I can't help looking sad. I'm a stick figure.
Debate of the day: Should bosses fire unhappy workers?
I stumbled upon a post in the New York Times called ‘The Secret to Having Happy Employees’ by ‘Your the Boss’ blogger and Chicago entrepreneur Jay Goltz. His solution was to fire unhappy employees to achieve a happier and, therefore, more productive workteam.
Besides my initial reaction of “Oh boy, another insane fanatic who doesn’t care about managerial accountability,” I found the reader’s comment more incredulous. Some zealously wrote, “Fire Away!” and were completely gung ho about getting rid of unhappy workers. One reader, who I assume has some kind of high position, said it gave her “hope” in future hiring processes.
If the world was run by people who just got rid of unhappy people, they are committing a big sin of JOBOCIDE, which is UNHAPPY WORKERS + GENOCIDE = WIPING OUT THE UNHAPPY. Depending on the day, that could be you. Or everybody. But thank goodness Aristotle’s lessons of reason still exists.
Readers that were a little more logical and constitutional, brought up the illegality of firing unhappy people and whether an unhappy employee is the reflection of the boss instead of the worker. And others said that firing unhappy employees only leaves you with fake people pretending to like you and the company, when in actuality they are operating in fear.
A counter article called ‘Fire Unhappy Employees? Wait a minute’ by John Hollen, writer for Chicago Business, spelled out all things wrong with firing people for unhappiness, my favorite being:
This reminds me of the Monty Python skit where all the people of the kingdom in The Happy Valley are happy because anyone that was unhappy was put to death under the Happiness Act. May all your employees be hung by the neck until they cheer up.”
How productive is this Macchiavellian approach to managing people? In this recession, I can imagine that a lot of people are unhappy at their jobs, are being poorly treated and taken advantage of because of the crisis and aren’t being recognized for their value. I mean, there are no laws to protect exempt employees, meaning executives, anyone dealing with business operations (kind of vague), and administration from working “reasonable” overtime (again, kind of vague).
Obsolete When All Are Employed WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU! Speak up for your rights!
Love,
Tiff
Burn baby Burn!
The road is rough. In a way, we are pioneers of our own lives. We have to make meaning in what we do and how we do it. And no one knows the formula to make sure that it ends well. What pressure.
I have been thinking much. People tell me not to. I can’t help my thoughts – I suppose one can control them but they seem to zip on by like flies that you just can’t kill even if you stand very still.
Meditation, prayer … they bring relief and momentary peace but the days blur together in a collage that is so messy and yet so deeply set that I just want to get a pair of scissors and cut a new path. Or dump some funky paint all over this pattern that has been laid out.
The past 6 months has seemed like ages. Time goes by so fast and yet so utterly slow. It’s such a strange thing to reflect on what you have done and still feel the sole of the long road ahead pressing against the back of your neck.
I guess my stiff neck, which has been bothering me for 5 days now, might have something to do with my foul mood. But no more! Even if I have to paint my nails hot pink, schedule a massage or cut salty foods out of my diet I will no longer hold fast to this negativity.
Yesterday, I read an advice column on how to banish bad thoughts. The advice was to imagine a BIG powerful sun killing it and replacing it with good, positive thoughts. It worked.
To all those who just need a huge ball of fire to wipe out all the chaos in your mind, go forth and IMAGINE!
Love,
Tiff
Yes, it definitely does. Stephanie Goldberg for CNN reports that more and more young people are changing their name, or taking other measures (some drastic) in order to conceal, hide or minimize their digital footprint. More specifically, their Facebook pages.
Where you meet people...and your DOOM
Young people hiding their Facebook Page
Its interesting because when I have professional contacts who want to friend me on Facebook I am leery of it…even though I don’t have anything remotely as scandalous as some of my peers. I know people who have status updates that involve drinking and tom foolery on the daily…so why the hesitation??? Especially since I am of age…
Is privacy a thing of the past???
I think this is fascinating because really, how much can people see on Facebook??? Even with all of these privacy controls and what not??? I smell a follow up to this article…
Next: Digital Footprint Myths and Facts
Keep track of that digital path….
Ebony J.
Eludes me!
It’s time for me to update you people,
I have been on a quest for happiness, and it has been a treacherous road people. And I am going to be honest, it’s not as if I am searching for eternal bliss, or nirvana or whatever. I am not looking for enlightenment or any out of body experience. I just want to be content with the life I am living in the moment, in the present, in the NOW. Not the now, but the NOW. Get it?
Maybe not. Maybe I am not making any sense at all…but I do know that these past few days have been days of broken promises, and wishful thinking.
I made the following promise to myself, for each day of the week:
Monday: I will wake up every morning at the same time
Tuesday: I will forgive those from my past who did me wrong, and wished me ill
Wednesday: I will apply to ONE job per day, no more, no less
Thursday: I will look for solid volunteer opportunities, and out of them pick two that I will commit myself to
Friday:
I guess it is a lot of pressure to up keep with all these resolutions, But I think they can only bring good into my life. I don’t think I am going to establish new ones for the weekend, I am just going to make sure I reinforce these ones…till next week….
Ebony J.
I guess I'm the little one.
From Generation RX to the Me Generation, we are now called the ‘Failure to Launch’ generation’ due to the droves of young people moving home with mom and dad. An article in the New York Times predicts that this trend will increase the number of multi-generational families living under one household and push back marriage and having kids.
There are many advantages to living at home: save money, spend quality time with your aging parents, relearn family values, have a support network. But there are also cons: parental control, limited freedom, and, as one girl interviewed said, “extended adolescence”.
A month ago, my cousin visiting from California wanted to go clubbing with me so, with the inner zest of the curious and the young, we happily hopped into his bright yell0w rent-a-car with all the fervor of a typical 90210 episode.
The next day, my mom sat me down and gave me a long lecture of respect and family responsibility. She was disappointed that I didn’t ask her for permission to leave the house.
I suppose I shouldn’t feel too bad about this since I am not alone. Apparently, minorites, unmarried foreign born young men, and college graduates are the biggest categories of people moving in with their parents.
However, seeing that I am one of these “boomerang,” children living with my baby boomer parents, the implications are slightly disturbing now that my theoretical lifepath of my prime years has been plainly mapped out.
Based on this prediction, my goals and current circumstance, I probably will not have the lifestyle I want until I am at least 28 years old.
My goal is to become financially independent, live in the mainland, travel and pursue higher education. I choose to stay home because besides loving my family, moving out and paying off someone else’s mortgage does not make as much sense as living at home and contributing to my family’s mortgage, especially in a much smaller and flexible degree.
Since I do not plan to get married until I am financially independent, theoretically the earliest I will marry is 27, assuming that the economy picks up within 5 years, I have a stable job that can cover my expenses and pay off my student loans, I will have achieved higher education, I meet the right guy, I live in a city that I want to grow in, I have gotten my degree and have lived my single life to the fullest. Realistically, it could be later.
But wait. I live on an island in the middle of the Pacific, which limits my chances of starting a career in the mainland unless I secure a job early and move out. But moving to a new city requires planning and money, which will limit my mobility unless I somehow find a job in this recession that will allow me to move somewhere. And young people just starting out hardly ever make enough to move out, much less live independently.
I guess this is just a long drawn out sigh to my next 6 years unless something BIG happens. True opportunities come and go, but with this economy the choices are limited and I think Ebony Jacobs, writer of 30 Days of Happiness and cowriter of this blog, is right: we need to find happiness in the simple, mundane things as we stick it out.
Agree? Disagree? Comments? Obsolete When All Are Employed is listening!
I am super smart. I am! And ... I can get that stamped for you.
To claim that a piece of pie is awful is a matter of opinion but to claim that a woman, who has spent nearly her entire career preparing school lunches, is a “lunch lady” instead of a “cook” will surely cause a stir.
Jamie Oliver’s “Food Revolution” brought up some class issues during his dietary investigation of the citizens in Hungtington, Virginia, a small town known for its reputation as having the highest obesity in America. The first episode showcased Oliver in the kitchen of a small elementary school, where he analyzed and critiqued how disgusting and unhealthy the food was. After meeting Alice, one of the school district’s cooks, Oliver, a renowned British cook, asked her, “So how long have you been a lunch lady?” Needless to say Alice and Oliver did not hit it off.
Despite the argument that people’s work do not have to be one’s source of happiness, we spend 1/3 of our lives working. Job titles matter. Oliver viewed the school’s use of kitchen equipment as improper to cooking protocol; an oven is supposed to bake something not heat up processed pizza and chicken nuggets.
However, not everyone has the opportunity to attend world-class cooking schools or the motivation to educate themselves in healthy cooking. And is it right to call a person who has spent over a decade in the food business a simple “lunch lady?”
I have been told that investment bankers do nothing; they just sit around in their comfy desks turning numbers. I have been told that managers do nothing; they sit with their fat cats at long drawn-out meetings and collect new projects to delegate to their workers later. But if we were to call these investment bankers “Number Turners” and managers “Kings,” people would be upset.
Whether we like it or not, job titles are intricately tied to personal self-worth and the social structure we live in. And rarely do people pay attention to the simple janitor cleaning our halls or the cashier, necessary people in our lives.
My questions of the day are: Is there a healthy way to separate ourselves from our job titles, labels and statuses? Do job titles genuinely reflect a person’s position and abilities? Has capitalism encouraged personal fulfillment and pursuit of meaning or does it just make us confused with our place in life?
Obsolete When All Are Employed Welcome your comments!
Eludes me!
Okay, I need to make some changes in my life. I used to have such passion, ambition, fire-in-my-belly so to speak.
Now I barely want to leave my house.
I have decided to take this whole “happiness” thing on, one day at a time….so now on, everyday I am going to take one step towards my own happiness…
A month from now…I WANT TO BE HAPPY. I AM SICK AND TIRED OF BEING UNHAPPY…BECAUSE I AM UNEMPLOYED.
It is like the never ending song I hate, the vicious cycle I can not escape. No more! I am taking control of what is going to happen to me in the present, I really can’t deal with the emotional baggage I have been carrying for the past year.
Day one’s goal: I am going to wake up at the same time, every morning. That’s right no matter what, I am going to train myself to get up at 8am every morning.
Since I have been unemployed for a while, my sleep patterns have been erratic…no excuse! From now on..discipline, detail, and structure!
I am also the farthest thing from a morning person…but we shall see…
And also, if I wake up earlier in the day…I can make the most of my day and find more time to search for a job….which I have been doing diligently.
What would make you happy??? I know what would make me happy, in specifics but I also need to inject happiness in to the structure of my life, no cure-alls, no miracles….
Check back tomorrow for my second day quest for happiness…
29 more days and counting…
Ebony J.
Fatty piggy sent me to relay the good news because he’s too busy getting free stuff…
Buy a coffee and get a free pastry at Starbucks with this coupon on March 23, 2010!
Click link below! Oink!
http://assets.starbucks.com/assets/1ac43f0b737a4b778Ba9c80ee14715ec.jpg
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We are two 20 something year olds, fresh out of college, who have just joined the unemployment force. We have decided to take you, readers, on a journey with us as we navigate this economic downturn. We are not experts, but are inquisitive individuals who have decided to use this time to rebuild, renew, and reevaluate our priorities, our values, and our use of time.
