Our primary is on Tuesday -- I’ll vote Democratic this time and looks like my vote is going to Warren -- she’s in second place behind Sanders. My logic? Keep their primary going as long as possible and hope for a brokered convention -- that seems to be what would help Trump most in the general election, especially if Sanders somehow doesn’t get the nomination.
I do too. I follow him on Facebook and he is interesting as always. I got to meet him at Kate’s house when we visited her after moving to Texas in 2007, along with Fatwa and the lovely Brenda. Tex went with us.
(Pro tip, don’t let Tex navigate, she fell asleep coming back and we ended up in Dallas. Don’t tell her I ratted her out)
(Second Pro tip, don’t let Mac navigate. I got us lost coming back from the California Gerbilee and on some highway to Who Knows Where. Don’t tell him I ratted him out.)
There’s much concern over where mystery coronavirus infections are coming from -- those people infected with the virus that haven’t had contact with other infected people, contact with foreign travelers, etc. I suspect that coronavirus has been here for years, but we never tested for it and just thought it was the more common flu.
Teh bestest place ever is scrambling to come up with contingency plans and isn’t doing a good job of it. As usual, the lack of accessible institutional knowledge makes it difficult for any team to easily figure out what should be done. Lack of leadership doesn’t help either -- like there’s been no announcements as to what if anything the business is doing/considering. In that void, individual departments are coming up with their own policies without coordination with corporate or other departments. For instance, one department has banned onsite visits with vendors/reps from outside the US; another department has banned onsite visits with anyone from out of state if they flew in.
There are some very smart professionals who just don’t understand the value of management. I was uneducated and boot strapped up but it made it easy for me to look great when going into one of those situations. Several times I gave understated and conservative estimates of what I would accomplish in the first year and they were considered unrealistic. When I blew them away it made my star shine. At Lee Meyers Company, where I met Elena, they patted me on the head and told me not to be discouraged if it was harder than I anticipated. I blew through all my one year predictions in six months or less and kept going. It helped later when I pushed for things they just thought had to be completely wrong. I enjoyed that job, I made the most I had ever made, had very high credibility, and it was the first job that seemed to have a future and retirement for me. I was rather bitter after having to quit after 12 years and that is why I decided to go into machining professionally. I was working two full time jobs and making less than I had at that company. Ended up much better though. I had had stress headaches since I was a teenager. Elena was surprised how quickly they went away when I got out of management.
Ha! I had not seen this. I never went to college or trade school. I started in fast food at 15 and was in management by 18/19. I taught myself machining at home from books, I did not even know a machinist, and went to work in shops as a machinist when I left management. I had two careers and was successful in both. That is America. She and “you didn’t build that” are certainly not.
Caturday greetin’s from surprisingly pleasant Camarillo, CA. GN!
Hi, Sven and Mac!
Fries have eyes?
I occasionally find aged taters in the larder which have eyes, so I suppose it’s possible.
Mac --
I’m telling Mac that you ratted-out Mac.
Brenda and I were reminiscing earlier this morning about when we both got a nasty HellColdFlu back in -- I think -- ’16. And how we just rode it out as best we could. Good times, good times.
Thank you, it seems to have worked out. I have personality defects, obsessive compulsions, that have blocked me from many jobs and cost me others, or opportunities. I just had to learn to work within the limits I had. I often wished I had gone farther in school but I think I would have wasted it at the time, I was real anxious to get to work full time and get on my own.
Happy Caturday, Gerbil Nation!
Good morning, Sven, Mac, and Fatwa!
A lot of posts to read through this morning -- well done!
If the coronavirus spreads asymptomatically, we would expect to have cases arise where there is no known nexus with an infected individual. If that’s the case, the only way to reduce the spread of the disease is through strict quarantine efforts, including strict immigration control.
Mac -- in regards to management, in education people move into management directly from teaching -- you can’t get there any other way. This means you’ve got a supply of people performing management tasks that don’t necessarily have any talent at it. They also tend to have a very provincial view of how things should work. My boss, for example, does a really good job, but the idea of rewarding stellar performance with a pay raise is foreign to her.
Yes Sir, I saw that too much. Too many people get promoted to management from accounting or administrative positions. They tend to see employees as assets like machines or equipment, you dump it when not needed and just buy more when things get busier, but machines don’t accumulate years of experience and wisdom, people do. That goes with them and the new hires that replace them need years to get it. I was successful at almost all the places I managed. I did this by having good employees. That meant taking the trouble to hire, train, and orient good people, and make sure I knew who was doing well and not make them carry slackers. It worked very well. These people made me look good. I had higher managers tell me I was not strict enough with my employees, yet tell me when they covered while I was off they were amazed that my crews just did their jobs properly without being told or prodded. They had trouble seeing the connection. I taught my people what I wanted and expected, and that I did not want to have to tell them to do their job. If they didn’t, they would have to tell me why.
I also found normal training methods poor, they just put new employees with other more experienced people. They ended up being told several different ways. I selected one trainer, not just a good employee but someone I felt could be relied on. I taught them the importance of proper training, made sure they knew how I wanted people trained, and taught them how to teach. It worked well, I did the initial boring orientation and them turned them over to the trainer telling them her word was law. They were all properly trained in the right way. They became productive faster and soon everyone was doing the job the same, correct, way.
At Lee Meyers Co. when I took the management position the most an order filler could make was $7.50 an hour. In two years or so I had some making $12.50 an hour with more benefits, and the company was making more profit at that rate than they had at $7.50. We ended up increasing productivity and accuracy all the way up to the General Manager, my boss. I used this system for everything from fast food to warehouse, truck driving, forklift, and machine shops.
In my experience, companies often promote people to management slots because that’s the only way they can give them more money and retain them, the employee being maxxed out in terms of salary in their current position.
In education, the jump to management usually occurs within the first 7 years, when teachers still have lots of salary growth left. It does give one an immediate, large boost, but the move is entirely at the initiation of the teacher, not a promotion from the school. It’s a very different world.
Lazily poking around in some old folders on my computer and I ran across two videos of piano performances I used to listen to a lot. Mendelssohn #5 and Beethoven #5. I have been listening to them. Beethoven’s has been a favorite since preteen days. Moved them to my music folder. Piano Concertos that is.
Fries have eyes?
Elena buys an extra order of fries so she has some when she gets home. (We used to split mine. Don’t tell her I ratted her out)
Our primary is on Tuesday -- I’ll vote Democratic this time and looks like my vote is going to Warren -- she’s in second place behind Sanders. My logic? Keep their primary going as long as possible and hope for a brokered convention -- that seems to be what would help Trump most in the general election, especially if Sanders somehow doesn’t get the nomination.
Biden keeps dropping in California.
You would think our deal to withdraw from Afghanistan would be a big news story…
Good morning, Sven.
Hello, Mac. Happy Leap Day to you and Elena.
Thank you. I have been wanting to tell you how much your very thoughtful posts on your personal journey have meant to me. Thank you for sharing these.
I was very interested in dv8’s as well.
You’re welcome, Mac -- I too was interested in hearing Dv8’s story. On the faith/God side, I miss JtB’s posts here.
I do too. I follow him on Facebook and he is interesting as always. I got to meet him at Kate’s house when we visited her after moving to Texas in 2007, along with Fatwa and the lovely Brenda. Tex went with us.
(Pro tip, don’t let Tex navigate, she fell asleep coming back and we ended up in Dallas. Don’t tell her I ratted her out)
(Second Pro tip, don’t let Mac navigate. I got us lost coming back from the California Gerbilee and on some highway to Who Knows Where. Don’t tell him I ratted him out.)
Has anyone heard from him? I miss all the old wheelies.
He is on Facebook. I see him there.
There’s much concern over where mystery coronavirus infections are coming from -- those people infected with the virus that haven’t had contact with other infected people, contact with foreign travelers, etc. I suspect that coronavirus has been here for years, but we never tested for it and just thought it was the more common flu.
Teh bestest place ever is scrambling to come up with contingency plans and isn’t doing a good job of it. As usual, the lack of accessible institutional knowledge makes it difficult for any team to easily figure out what should be done. Lack of leadership doesn’t help either -- like there’s been no announcements as to what if anything the business is doing/considering. In that void, individual departments are coming up with their own policies without coordination with corporate or other departments. For instance, one department has banned onsite visits with vendors/reps from outside the US; another department has banned onsite visits with anyone from out of state if they flew in.
I’d bet we aren’t alone in not being prepared.
There are some very smart professionals who just don’t understand the value of management. I was uneducated and boot strapped up but it made it easy for me to look great when going into one of those situations. Several times I gave understated and conservative estimates of what I would accomplish in the first year and they were considered unrealistic. When I blew them away it made my star shine. At Lee Meyers Company, where I met Elena, they patted me on the head and told me not to be discouraged if it was harder than I anticipated. I blew through all my one year predictions in six months or less and kept going. It helped later when I pushed for things they just thought had to be completely wrong. I enjoyed that job, I made the most I had ever made, had very high credibility, and it was the first job that seemed to have a future and retirement for me. I was rather bitter after having to quit after 12 years and that is why I decided to go into machining professionally. I was working two full time jobs and making less than I had at that company. Ended up much better though. I had had stress headaches since I was a teenager. Elena was surprised how quickly they went away when I got out of management.
Uh, I hate to mention this, Mac, the whole boot-strapping thing is a hoax.
This woman being a freakin’ member of Congress is a joke, but there you have it.
Someone should ask her if it’s possible to tip over an island.
Ha! I had not seen this. I never went to college or trade school. I started in fast food at 15 and was in management by 18/19. I taught myself machining at home from books, I did not even know a machinist, and went to work in shops as a machinist when I left management. I had two careers and was successful in both. That is America. She and “you didn’t build that” are certainly not.
Caturday greetin’s from surprisingly pleasant Camarillo, CA. GN!
Hi, Sven and Mac!
I occasionally find aged taters in the larder which have eyes, so I suppose it’s possible.
Mac --
I’m telling Mac that you ratted-out Mac.
Brenda and I were reminiscing earlier this morning about when we both got a nasty HellColdFlu back in -- I think -- ’16. And how we just rode it out as best we could. Good times, good times.
Beware…after sundown on Leap Day comes…
“I’m telling Mac that you ratted-out Mac.”
Heeeeeee!
Haaaaaaa, I actually saw that movie!
Teh bestest place ever focuses on tasks and projects, but never on process. As large as they are, it’s a mystery to me as to why.
It looks like you made the right choices throughout your career, Mac, and took the right risks.
Thank you, it seems to have worked out. I have personality defects, obsessive compulsions, that have blocked me from many jobs and cost me others, or opportunities. I just had to learn to work within the limits I had. I often wished I had gone farther in school but I think I would have wasted it at the time, I was real anxious to get to work full time and get on my own.
Happy Caturday, Gerbil Nation!
Good morning, Sven, Mac, and Fatwa!
A lot of posts to read through this morning -- well done!
If the coronavirus spreads asymptomatically, we would expect to have cases arise where there is no known nexus with an infected individual. If that’s the case, the only way to reduce the spread of the disease is through strict quarantine efforts, including strict immigration control.
Mac -- in regards to management, in education people move into management directly from teaching -- you can’t get there any other way. This means you’ve got a supply of people performing management tasks that don’t necessarily have any talent at it. They also tend to have a very provincial view of how things should work. My boss, for example, does a really good job, but the idea of rewarding stellar performance with a pay raise is foreign to her.
Yes Sir, I saw that too much. Too many people get promoted to management from accounting or administrative positions. They tend to see employees as assets like machines or equipment, you dump it when not needed and just buy more when things get busier, but machines don’t accumulate years of experience and wisdom, people do. That goes with them and the new hires that replace them need years to get it. I was successful at almost all the places I managed. I did this by having good employees. That meant taking the trouble to hire, train, and orient good people, and make sure I knew who was doing well and not make them carry slackers. It worked very well. These people made me look good. I had higher managers tell me I was not strict enough with my employees, yet tell me when they covered while I was off they were amazed that my crews just did their jobs properly without being told or prodded. They had trouble seeing the connection. I taught my people what I wanted and expected, and that I did not want to have to tell them to do their job. If they didn’t, they would have to tell me why.
I also found normal training methods poor, they just put new employees with other more experienced people. They ended up being told several different ways. I selected one trainer, not just a good employee but someone I felt could be relied on. I taught them the importance of proper training, made sure they knew how I wanted people trained, and taught them how to teach. It worked well, I did the initial boring orientation and them turned them over to the trainer telling them her word was law. They were all properly trained in the right way. They became productive faster and soon everyone was doing the job the same, correct, way.
At Lee Meyers Co. when I took the management position the most an order filler could make was $7.50 an hour. In two years or so I had some making $12.50 an hour with more benefits, and the company was making more profit at that rate than they had at $7.50. We ended up increasing productivity and accuracy all the way up to the General Manager, my boss. I used this system for everything from fast food to warehouse, truck driving, forklift, and machine shops.
In my experience, companies often promote people to management slots because that’s the only way they can give them more money and retain them, the employee being maxxed out in terms of salary in their current position.
It is always sad to see a good employee become a poor manager and end up being fired as a failure. I have seen it too often.
In education, the jump to management usually occurs within the first 7 years, when teachers still have lots of salary growth left. It does give one an immediate, large boost, but the move is entirely at the initiation of the teacher, not a promotion from the school. It’s a very different world.
Well said.
YEAH! for Joe Biden! He’s alive! Although he probably thinks he won California.
He won CA for the first time right after his arrest in South Africa. 👿
We’ll see how many primary voters Choo-Choo-Choose goofy Uncle Joe.
I can’t believe he took the time to go to South Africa while 150 million Americans were being slaughtered in the streets.
Drive by snerk
27 delegates for Biden
7 for Sanders
with 89? reporting.
54 total delegates available.
Lazily poking around in some old folders on my computer and I ran across two videos of piano performances I used to listen to a lot. Mendelssohn #5 and Beethoven #5. I have been listening to them. Beethoven’s has been a favorite since preteen days. Moved them to my music folder. Piano Concertos that is.
Safe travels, Brother Arbuckle.