The cube farm environment is already unpleasant enough with its ugly, drab walls and the steady, droning hum of incessant noise that sucks all the life out of people and turns them into brain-drained zombies, but at least once a week, something else happens. Someone answers a cell phone. No, I’m not talking about the people who are stuck in the cubes next to yours, and who are going about their daily activities, and happen to need to answer a phone because you and… Continue Reading
Most are probably familiar with that verse from the New Testament that states, “The love of money is the root of all evil,” but I’m really beginning to wonder if that verse contained a typo, or if “money” was really symbolic of something else. Like Powerpoint. We’ve had all sorts of common, famous, and infamous people stealing and committing fraud for thousands of years, but a whole host of crimes picked up tremendously once Powerpoint came into existence and people… Continue Reading
I’m finally reading The Millionaire Next Door, a book that I’ve been wanting to read for a long time but just never got to it before now for whatever reason. A main premise of the book is that millionaires can be pretty hard to spot because they aren’t necessarily the same people who live in expensive houses and drive luxury cars. The authors have studied how people become wealthy and have discovered that fewer than 20 percent of Americans have inherited 10 percent or… Continue Reading
Class started up again yesterday, and we have a weekly assignment to complete a point paper (a one page outline) of an article from the The Wall Street Journal. I chose one titled Who has innovative ideas? Employees. The idea in this article is that employees from all functions and ranks within a company can form innovation communities to come up with…you guessed it…innovations! The trick is in getting everyone enthusiastically and voluntarily involved. But how to do that when many employees of… Continue Reading
The Box Enforcer looked confident as it stepped into the alley behind the unassuming office building. Quietly, it slipped unnoticed through the lobby and into the myriad maze of identical cubicles. Waiting for its moment of opportunity, it lurked and listened to the surrounding clicking of keyboards and ringing phones. Suddenly, it perked up in excitement. A manager was in a heated dispute with one of the workers: “So you sent a direct response to the customer without first getting approval?” the manager was angrily asking. The… Continue Reading