Ivory Tower Nonsense

Rick, Knut, Gary, Vicky, Mark, Kelly, Doug, and Larry.  These are the people who I have laid off during the past 2 or 3 years.  Each one was an excruciating decision, followed by  a few weeks of anguish.  As lay off day approaches, anxiety increases.  The days before "Tell Day" day offer little sleep.  Then "Tell Day" arrives and stress level goes off the charts.  Each employee is greeted by the angel of death (me) at their cube doorway asking them to follow to a conference room.  Once there, I notify them of a company decision to reduce workforce, and those decisions have impacted them.  Most are shocked.  A few cry.  No one has shown anger.

After delivering the message, I explain their severance package and we move to their cube to collect personal belongings.  One person expected the lay off and was already packed.  From notification to building exit only 5 minutes elapsed.  Most require 15-30 minutes.  It is a difficult and awkward time for both of us.  Once all notifications are delivered and former employees have left, I gather the survivors together and announce the job actions I have taken.  This is the time I worry most of angry demonstration, but no incidences so far.

Occasionally, I follow up or hear from a laid off employee.  Even after they are no longer part of my team, I remain concerned.  Gary was a new father.  Mark was planning to marry within a few weeks of the lay off.  Kelly was a college hire the company had committed to train for 3 years, then reneged.  Larry was a 50+ white male with little chance of recovering his former income level.

It feels very odd to reach out on facebook to someone I have laid off, but I have twice. Both times the former employee responded with an update on their new careers.  Both found employment quickly.  One is now making more than they did in their old job.  Both seem happy about their change.  Neither harbored ill feelings towards me.  I have heard of others that acquired good jobs before their severance ran out.  It usually works out, even in these bad economic times.

Until yesterday, I was able to wrap my head around the reasons for each lay off.  The economic and business environment was such that any well run company was forced to reduce expenses to remain in business.  In most companies, labor costs account for the majority of expense spending.  In this economy, if a company is serious about remaining in business, hard decisions must be made.  The manager is merely one cog in the machine that carries out these decisions.  I am fine with that.  I don't enjoy it and would worry if I did.  But I understand it.  Lay offs happen.  Laying off a few people to save the company and remaining jobs is better than letting a company go bankrupt.

Yesterday I added one more name to my list of lay offs.  I let Melody go.  She was an average employee on a team of high performers.  The amount and quality of work she did was adequate.  Over her 14 year career she had always been an effective contributor.  So did I need to reduce expense in order to support company profitability?  I did not.  This lay off was a result of an Ivory Tower desire to follow the principals of Jack Welch.  Jack said that you reward your best performers and replace your worst.  The anguish, anxiety and stress leading up to this "Tell Day" was higher than any other.  Even though I have known it was coming for some time now, I could never justify it in my own head.

An executive who acts on that principal without adequate forethought, is completely unaware of the carnage they create.  Bad behavior through the entire company ranks is result.  Employees quickly understand they need to perform better than their peers, or make their peers look worse than they do.  Managers begin to look ahead to the next round to make sure they have a below average employee to sacrifice.  Morale and job satisfaction decline.  Everyone loses the company loyalty that is so important in maintaining high performing teams. 

Melody will be fine. She will likely land on her feet and obtain a good job for a good employer.  My worry is now the 23 employees I did not lay off.

Seperation of Church and State

Localities are sued for displaying the Ten Commandments, Christmas trees become Holiday trees, prayer is banned from public schools, and recently a congress woman omitted the words "under God" when leading Congress in the Pledge of Allegiance.  The omission was apparently on purpose.  Why do liberals go to such lengths to remove any mention of religion?  Is it becasue of that pesky seperation of church and state language in the U.S. Consistution? 

I don't think so. While we are led to believe that our Constituion restricts mixing religion with the public business, it does not.  In fact, there is no mention of a seperation in the document.  The language of the Constituion is extremely clear.  So clear it really doesn't need a Supreme Court to interpret for we, the great unwashed. 

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof...."

That is all it says.  So in modern English, I interpret this to mean that our elected doofus' in CONGRESS cannot pass a law establishing a national religion, or prohibit the free exercise of an individual's religion.  It says nothing about how local govenments should act, or that any mention of a religious term or person cannot be uttered..  I realize there are many other letters and writings of our founding fathers that hint at a "wall of seperation", but the text above is lifted directly from the consititution.  Any other ideas that conflict should be disregarded.

Now Christine O'Donnell is being ridiculed for stating the obvious.  Don't these liberals realize how ridiculous they seem with their complex meandering auguments on how the Constitution says what is obvoiusly does not say? 

Thanks Charles

Thanks to my friend Charlie for forwarding the following cartoon.  He's a long time friend, a fellow conservative and an all around good guy.  He'd be perfect if not for his adoration of the Kansas State Wildcats.  Charlie is feeling pretty good about his team during this football season.  His team is also favored over my Jayhawks this year in basketball.  But as certain as the sun rises in the east, March will come and I predict the Jayhawks will be ranked higher than his Wildcats. 

Charlie needs to remember that a long tradition and consistency over many years makes a dynasty, not a couple of good seasons.  KU has beaten Kansas State 32 out of 34 meetings since the Big 12 was established, including the last 5 straight.  Overall KU holds a 180 win, 90 loss advantage.  This year is likely to be more of the same.

I really loved the cartoon.  It summarizes why America will be firing a lot of democrats next week.

Whoopi and Bill

When I first saw this clip of Whoopi Goldberg and Bill O'Reilly on The View, I considered it just another example of liberal elitism.  Whoopi is a big liberal and I haven't agreed with her often.  But later that evening, I watched her explain her behavior and was swayed.  She showed contrition for walking off the set, but her reason for becoming upset has merit.

She was offended by O'Rielly saying that Muslims killed the people in the World Trade Center.  Muslims is a big word.  There are 1,820,000,000 Muslims worldwide.   O'Reilly should have been more precise.  Nineteen specific Muslims did commit the crime, not the entire Muslim faith.  Whoopi stated the way he said it was like saying that "Blacks like fried chicken", or "Italians are in the mafia".  Okay, point taken.

O'Reilly should have said the 19 people who killed 2,752 people in the World Trade Center attack on 9-11 were Muslim.  The other 1,819,999,981 Muslims just smiled and cheered. 

I'm thinking that I probably won't be asked to be a guest on The View.

Freedom of Speech? Your fired

"I mean, look, Bill, I'm not a bigot. You know the kind of books I've written about the civil rights movement in this country. But when I get on the plane, I got to tell you, if I see people who are in Muslim garb and I think, you know, they are identifying themselves first and foremost as Muslims, I get worried. I get nervous."

-- Juan Williams

National Public Radio to Juan: "Your fired".

 


Duane Hammond, a union stagehand who was part of the crew that built the platform for an Obama event, came to work early on Friday wearing clothing that says "George H. W. Bush". Hammond's son is in the Navy, currently serving on the aircraft carrier U.S.S. George H. W. Bush.  That didn't go over well with his union supervisor. Hammond says he was told to take off the sweatshirt, or he would have to go home. He refused.
Union supervisor to Duane: "Your fired".

I guess that freedom of speech is a right reserved for the politically correct.

I Like to Listen - The Incredible Machine

Earlier this week, Sugarland released their fourth CD.  I am a Sugarland fan.  Heck, I practically discovered them.  Their first CD was a brilliant Country/Pop record that established Jennifer Nettles as one of the best vocalist from any genre of music.  Subsequent CDs continued to highlight her vocals.  Air play featured their commercial Pop recordings, but each CD had a treasure of pure Modern Country songs.  I had learned to disregard the tunes heard on Country radio knowing the best songs were the ones they didn't play.

So last Tuesday, I visited the local Best Buy and bought their latest CD, The Incredible Machine.  As I usually do, I rip the wrapper from the CD and deposit it in the Best Buy trash can as I exit their store.  Once back in my car, I pop the CD in the player and turn my attention to the linear notes.  Jennifer and Kristian wrote every song.  So far, so good.  I always give extra credit when artists write and play their own stuff.  Only 11 cuts, that is a little light for a Sugarland CD.

1. "All We Are"
2. "Incredible Machine"

First couple of songs play and I am thinking, this must be their Pop/Rock stuff.  Seems to be a little more to the Rock side than normal, but that's okay.  I like Rock music too.

3. "Stuck Like Glue"

This song has been playing the Country stations for several weeks.  Didn't like it much when I first heard it, still don't.

4. "Tonight"
5. "Stand Up"

Okay, this is getting serious.  Five tracks into an 11 track CD and not a Country tune yet.
6. "Incredible Machine (Interlude)"
7. "Every Girl Like Me"

Alright, cut six was the first song they have ever released that did not feature Jennifer Nettles vocals.  That was interesting.
8. "Little Miss"

Cut eight, that sounded familiar.  I finally found a modern Country song.  Pretty good one too.

9. "Find the Beat Again"
10. "Wide Open"

Back to the Pop/Rock.

11. "Shine The Light"

I spotted this one quickly when scanning the linear notes.  Shine the Light is a song written by Jennifer Nettles and recorded by her alone.  Just Nettles singing and playing the piano.  After 9 of the first 10 cuts disappointed, I hung my hopes on this last ballad to justify the CD purchase.  Reminiscent of "Stay", Shine the Light delivers.  I expect to see this song performed at all the live awards programs in 2011.  Great song, great performance.

So now I'm wondering, who will play songs from this CD?  Did Sugarland just walk away from their Country fan base and completely cross over to Pop?  If this CD is what we can expect in the future, the answer is yes.  The Country music stations continue to play Stuck Like Glue, but I am not sure why.  Maybe they were as surprised as I was by the new release.  Or maybe all you need is a southern twang to be considered country by them.

The Incredible Machine is a good CD.  The music is upbeat and energetic. Jennifer Nettle's incredible vocal talent is featured on all but one track.  It will get a lot of play on Pop radio stations, and the Country stations that play a lot of cross over music.  The CD may even get a few awards next year.  Shine the Light might be the grammy for best song.  But Johnny Cash will turn over in his grave if this CD wins an Academy of Country Music award.  This CD ain't Country.

Deluded

“We must win, and we will win, this election”

“The Republicans say if they took over, they would take us back to the exact same agenda. We are not going back. We are not going back,”

“In this election, let’s continue to take America forward,” she said. “We’re not going back to the failed policies of the Bush administration.  “We all know that not enough has been accomplished. We need many, many more jobs.”

These are recent quotes from the Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi.  Surely she must have been briefed on how dire her party's chances are to retain a majority.  Yet, she still stands in front of cameras and does what she does best, lie.  Maybe she is just following  a policy of not admitting defeat before the battle is over.  But, it is over.  From the woman who told us we could see what was in the health care bill once it was passed, absurd statements are nothing new.

Or maybe she believes that all of America is as liberal as her home district in San Fransisco?  That a currently uninterested and unmotivated liberal base will rise up to save the democrats from the coming catastrophe that will occur on 11/3/2010?  Or is she that delusional?

Arrogance of the Man

"Part of the reason that our politics seems so tough right now, the facts and science and argument (do) not seem to be winning the day all the time is because we're hard-wired not to always think clearly when we're scared. And the country is scared."

In a nutshell, this recent Obama quote tells the story of his first two years.  He believes that he and his team of so -called experts are the true intellectuals.  Only they are smart enough to know the answers.  Common sense and reality should be disregarded, because the facts are on their side.

The message to the American people is that we would understand if we were just as smart as he is.  We would understand why running up trillion dollar plus yearly deficits will ultimately save our economy.  If we were smarter, we could understand why America is the root of all evil in the world.  We would know that imposing onerous taxes on energy is the penalty we must pay for daring to be prosperous. 

We would be able to see how punishing corporations will benefit the middle class and poor.  I could excuse him for the 9.6 (actual 17%) unemployment rate because that is the previous administration's fault.  I would understand that even in the face of these problems and 2 wars, nationalizing health care was the most important thing to work on.  And I would understand why passing that law without knowing what was in it  was okay.

I think the message is that if I disagree with Obama, I should go back to clinging to my guns and religion.

Golf Jokes

You will get these if you are a golfer.  If you don't, ask one.

Golfer:"Think I'm going to drown myself in the lake."

Caddie:"Think you can keep your head down that long?"

Golfer:"I'd move heaven and earth to break 100 on this course."
Caddie:"Try heaven, you've already moved most of the earth...”

Golfer:"Do you think my game is improving?"
Caddie:"Yes sir, you miss the ball much closer now."

Golfer:"Do you think I can get there with a 5 iron?"
Caddie:"Eventually."

Golfer:"You've got to be the worst caddie in the world."
Caddie:"I don't think so sir. That would be too much of a coincidence."

Golfer:"Please stop checking your watch all the time. It's too much of a distraction."
Caddie:"It's not a watch - it's a compass."

Golfer:"How do you like my game?"
Caddie:"Very good sir, but personally, I prefer golf."

Golfer:"Do you think it's a sin to play on Sunday?"
Caddie:"The way you play, sir, it's a sin on any day."

Golfer:"This is the worst course I've ever played on."
Caddie:"This isn't the golf course. We left that an hour ago"

Golfer:"That can't be my ball, it's too old,"
Caddie:"It's been a long time since we teed off, sir."

One Nice Day

Kansas City weather can be summed up as a place where you have 2 nice day.  One comes every Spring before the heat and humidity arrives, the second in the fall just before cold and snow.   Last year was below normal.  We really did not have a nice Fall, as October was unseasonably cool.  Spring was also as 70 degree weather did not arrive until late May.  Our reward for the endurance may be this Fall.  We are in a 2 week stretch of rather nice weather. Temperatures have been in the 70's and 80's with no rain (until Monday) and virtually no clouds.  It has been a great run of weather.

Last Saturday, the Grandmother and I spent a good deal of the afternoon with the grand kids.  We started by attending the annual Basehor Car show held at the local high school.  I wasn't expecting much, but was pleasantly surprised.  There were hundreds of classic cars in all stages of renovation.  The 60 GTO brought back memories for me.  Clay and Madison quickly bored of the show.  Cole did not.  Even as we left, he was repeating "car, car, car" and straining to see each one we passed. 

I snapped a few pictures.

A picture next to this car was taken only to make their daddy proud.  It's a 1969 Mustang Cobra.

Clay gives two thumbs up to a classic MOPAR.

They just wanted their picture taken in front of this 3-wheeler.

This one is for Grampa Hansen.  A beautifully restored International Harvester pick up.

 Next we took advantage of the 80 degree day with a trip to the park. 

Cole discovers the joy of teeter-tottering.

Stupid Letter of the Week

There are no stupid letters, only stupid people who write letters.  Cindy Clark of Smithville provides this week's gem.

Corporations winning



Attention tea partiers and all you lovely loyal Republicans. Thank you from all the corporations in our country.


We love that you’re so easily blinded by flags waving in your faces and rhetoric such as, “Take our country back,” that you are happy to surrender your best interests so that corporations may prosper. Big business is going to enjoy that big tax break you’re willing to give wealthy people.


Corporations are glad they convinced you that you don’t want health care reform. Big businesses also are pretty tickled that they’ve done such a good job convincing you that unions are bad. Those guys and their safety concerns and silly ideas of treating people fairly in the workplace were really getting on corporate nerves.

Big businesses kind of snicker amongst themselves when they lay more and more people off and watch those who are left scurry around to carry the work load.

Corporations have sure got you scared don’t they? Oh, if they had eyes, corporations would be wiping away tears from laughing. They’re pretty close to owning this country. Don’t let it stop now. Keep voting Republican.

Cindy Clark
Smithville

At least I can agree with her last line, "Keep voting Republican.  Thanks Cindy for the clue.  Maybe you should get one too. 

I find it difficult to understand how someone can wish bad things to happen to American corporations.  Most of us work for one, and we prosper when our employer prospers.  We suffer when our employer does.  Cindy doesn't agree, so I hope that her employer pays more taxes and lay off more people. That will make Cindy happy.

Is Life Better With Kids?

When I was younger, those who know me would comment that I seemed to operate on a very even keel.  I never got visibly angry or depressed and never seemed to get too stress out about anything.  I adopted the "What Me Worry?" attitude of Alfred E. Newman, and left the worrying to Terri.   I am no longer that way.  I occasionally ride the emotional roller coaster.  I can't think of a turning point, although Terri might point to my stroke.  To me the change has been gradual. 

Last week, my daughter Allison asked what I thought of a story she read that claimed childless people were happier than parents.  The "offspring-correct" answer would have been that I couldn't imagine being happier without kids.  Instead I took a more reflective approach and wondered if children were the reason for my change.  I think the progression from having young children to teenagers, young adults and grandchildren brings with it a roller coaster of emotions. 

While I cannot say that I am happier, or less happy with children, I can say that with them the highs are higher and the lows are lower.  For me, kids amplify the variations to what was once a very even keel.  In the time Before Children (BC), I could never have understood how good it would make me feel to see the birth of my child, to see them take their first steps or hear them utter their first words, to teach them to ride a bicycle, see their first achievement in sports, witness their pride on getting an 'A' in school, teach them to drive a car, or watch as they graduate, fall in love, marry and have children of their own.  All along the journey there are examples of the little monsters maturing, developing character and a belief system, becoming responsible and making their parents proud.  These are all highs that we've had, and continue to experience with Lyndy, Allison, and our grandchildren.

But with the highs, there are lows.  In the time BC, I could also not understand the emotional depths when seeing a beautiful and cute child who when angered would transform into a tantrum-throwing demon who would rip the wallpaper off her bedroom wall just to spite her parents, or the hoarder that would pile clean clothes on top of the dirty in her bedroom, the child paralyzed by the thought of boarding a school bus, the rebellion that comes natural to a teenager, or seeing your child embarrassed by something they or I had done.  The lows do not disappear when they become an adult.  We feel low when they are confronted with financial issues, or struggle through the difficult decisions adults are expected to make. 

But overall, the highs seem to outweigh the lows.  It helped having children that were either better people than I, or better at finding ways to keep their parents in the dark.  I suspect the former and not the latter.  I am confident that life is richer because of the highs and the lows.  The people who are happier without kids may not know what happiness is.  I guess that is my answer to Allison.