I.T. Employment Satisfaction

According to a survey by Careerbuilder.com, 1 in 5 U.S. technology workers are dissastisfied about their jobs and 1/3 of them intend to find a new job in 2006.

While this seems a staggering number, I am curious to see if there is comparative data from other fields. When you turn the numbers around it says that 4 in 5 U.S. technology workers are satisfied with their jobs and 2/3 of them plan to stay right where they are in 2006. That actually sounds pretty good to me.

The survey goes on to report unmanageable workloads, low pay, and a lack of effective leadership as the primary causes of employees' displeasure with their current situation.

There is not much that can be done about ineffective leadership, except to always do your personal best, others, who may be in a position to help you in the future, will notice your struggles against the tide.

I won't even touch the low pay. Most companies have HR policies designed to prevent rewarding employees who go above and beyond. I feel that the thinking behind this is that if everyone worked hard and received a good bonus or an excellent raise, they would start telling others. The others would then work hard, making good bonuses and receiving excellent raises. The company would do more work, make more sales, grow exponentially, and HR would have more people it had to deal with, therefore they limit the company. (Please, HR People, don't email me about this, it is a silent conspiracy concocted far above your level many, many years ago. You can't see it, it isn't written anywhere, but if you start looking at the compensation plans in many large and long-established companies, you can't help but draw this conclusion).

As for workload management, I would recommend getting a copy of David Allen's "Getting Things Done - The Art of Stressfree Productivity" and "Ready for Anything". I have just started reading and already also recommend "Take Back Your Life!: Using Microsoft Outlook to Get Organized and Stay Organized" by Sally McGhee. These books will help you to reign in your inbox, declutter your world, manage your projects and make sure all your open loops get closed. I have had a significant increase in my productivity since adapting their suggestions.

If you are a part of 33% determined to leave this year, please investigate carefully the opportunity you are leaving for before you leave. The grass is not always greener. A former employee of mine left my company for a job that paid him only $1.50 more an hour. The company he went to is notorious for never extending contracts past the sixth month anniversary date. Even though several people told him this, he went for the short term goal of $60.00 more per week before taxes instead of steady regular employment. He recently contacted me for a reference because the company didn't extend him, even though he was certain he would be the exception to their rule.

If you are leaving good luck! I am always hiring good people and maybe I will run into you!

Winter Olympics 2010

In case you are wondering, the next Winter Olympics will be held in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada from February 12th-February 28th 2010. The website for the games is http://www.vancouver2010.com/en.

Control Freak

One of the greatest challenges I have ever faced is learning to overcome being a control freak. I am writing this while on vacation and I have been fighting the urge to check my work email for the last two days. My staff, my management and most of my clients know that I am on vacation and I do not expect many emails, however, I always have the compulsion to check. I am working very hard to overcome this, because I am trying to learn that the work will continue without me.

I experience similar struggles when letting my children attempt new things. Our thermostat broke and needed to be replaced. My 16 year old son offered to install the new unit. It is an easy thing to do, the kind of repair, I would normally do myself, just to get it done quickly. This time, I let him do it. As he struggled to connect the wires, I wanted to take over, after all, I could do it faster. I decided to walk away, he completed the wiring, the thermost has worked flawlessly, and he has learned another skill.

We often do not realize how much we have grown because someone else let us try, I know I need to do this more often. If you are working with your children, with your staff or just the new person in the department, let them try, let them fail, even. They will get better, sooner and develop more confidence in their abilities.

Winter Olympics

Congratulations to all of the Winter Olympians! Especially TEAM USA! I have had many enjoyable nights watching these, the world's best athletes perform. I give such credit to the Winter Olympians, especially, because while I enjoy watching winter sports, I have little desire to participate in them. I much prefer to participate in sports that only occur in weather warmer than 65 degrees. I never cease to be amazed by athletes who not only perform well but perform well in the cold. Only 4 more years until the next Olympic games, I can't wait!

Tag I am it

My good friend Eric, The Blogging Boss, has tagged me.

So without further ado:

Four Jobs You Have Had in Your Life:

1. Paper Boy

2. Grocery Store Clerk

3. Dun & Bradstreet Business Analyst (One of the youngest ever starting at age 19)

4. Manager of Desktop Support Services

Four Movies You Would Watch Over and Over:

1. Patton

2. Any of the Lord of the Rings Movies

3. The Empire Strikes Back

4. Any James Bond movie starring Sean Connery, Timothy Dalton or Pierce Brosnan.

Four Places You Have Lived:

1. In an over 100 year old house built by my great-great grandfather.

2. On a farm.

3. In an apartment next door to a Michael Bolton addict. [If you think Michael Bolton is bad, you should here him cranked up through a wall. If you think Michael Bolton is good, email me, I will send you an address where you might want to move ;-) ]

4. In the suburbs of beautiful, Philadelphia, PA.


Four TV Shows You Love to Watch:

1. Stargate SG-1 / Stargate Atlantis (Does this count as two?)

2. Battlestar Galactica (New)

3. The Prisoner

There are other things I like to watch, but nothing that if I miss, the world comes to an end.

Four Places I Have Been on Vacation:

1. Boston / Cape Cod, MA

2. Virgina Beach, VA

3. Shenandoah Mountains, VA

4. Knoebel's Amusement Resort (The best little amusement park in America)

Four Websites I Visit Daily:

1. www.foxnews.com

2. www.google.com (I use this so often, it is now my home page)

3. http://dilbertblog.typepad.com - The Dilbert Blog

4. http://www.davidco.com - The David Allen Co. (Check out the forums for excellent advice on "Getting Things Done"

Four of My Favorite Foods:

1. Pizza

2. Buger King's Bacon Double Cheeseburger (Plain)

3. Philly Cheese Steak

4. Spinach Salad (I had to put something healthy in here)

Four Places I Would Rather Be Right Now:

1. On vacation anywhere with my wife and kids!

2. Tuscany

3. The International Space Station

4. Knoebel's (Assuming it was sunny and 85 degree there rignt now)

Four Bloggers I am Tagging:

Since most of the bloggers that I read and communicate with have already been tagged, I will have to come back to this one after I find some new victims :)

Am I, or Not?

I came upon the following question while taking a survey the other day.

Am I Spanish, Hispanic, or Latino or Not?

With the choices being yes or no, I really did not know how to answer.

I could have answered yes because I fall into the not category. But if I answered no, just what was I saying?

Gramatically speaking, if I said no to the answer, I am saying I am not Spanish, Hispanic, or Latino and I am also saying that I am not, not Spanish Hispanic or Latino. Therefore I am Spanish, Hispanic or Latino (Double negatives = positive).

Usually I do not care about mispellings or poor grammar on blogs and personal webpages. It really irks me however when commercial sites have errors of this nature. I feel maybe that they save costs by not having someone do QA on their site.

Am I being too critical? Please let me know what you think.

Fun With Conference Calls

My company uses a conference call system for our meetings. Everyone dials in from their desks to an 800 number. Then they enter a "conference code" for the meeting, usually the telephone # of the meeting organizer. The robot voice then asks you for your name and to press the # sign. The robot dosen't care who you are, and it does not announce you to the group. As soon as everyone is in the meeting, we all have to identify ourselves again. In one of my "rage against technology" moments, I started making up names to identify myself with. It is extra fun because two of my staff share my office and there is an unending stream of people who drop by to talk to me each day, usually during meetings. If I can be a small source of amusement in an otherwise dreary and mundane work existence, then I have fulfilled a small part of my purpose here on the planet.

Here are some of the names I have used:

President George W. Bush (in Bush accent)
President William Jefferson (Bubba) Clinton (in Clinton Accent)
Zaphod Beeblebrox
Gandalf the Grey
Zippy the Pinhead
Arrr, Blackbeard the Pirate (in Pirate accent)
Bond, James Bond
My boss
My boss's boss

It is my unending hope, that someday there will be a reason and a way to go back and review the tapes of everyone logging into the call. I just wonder how long it will take for them to realize it was me.

So this week when you are back to the daily grind, impersonate someone famous in you conference calls and smile to your self in satisfaction that you can have some fun (albeit, very little) at work.

Fun Quiz

We all secretly desire to be someone heroic. Even the heroic amongst us (firefighters, police officers and soldiers) would like to be more like the TV and Movie heros. Here is a little quiz to help you find out which fictional hero you would be most like.

http://quizfarm.com/test.php?q_id=92013

And my results - which I whole heartedly agree with:

You scored as William
Wallace. The great Scottish warrior William Wallace led his people against their English
oppressors in a campaign that won independence for Scotland and immortalized him in the
hearts of his countrymen. With his warrior's heart, tactician's mind, and poet's soul,
Wallace was a brilliant leader. He just wanted to live a simple life on his farm, but he
gave it up to help his country in its time of need.

Here is the list of the other heros I am most like based on my personality. I good bunch I might say!

William Wallace		92%
James Bond, Agent 007		67%
Indiana Jones		63%
Maximus		54%
The Amazing Spider-Man		50%
The Terminator		50%
Lara Croft		50%
Captain Jack Sparrow		42%
Batman, the Dark Knight		42%
El Zorro		38%
Neo, the"One"		38%

Which Action Hero Would You Be? v.2.0
created with QuizFarm.com

Cheese Loving Cat

There is nothing, our dairy-obsessed cat, Emily, will not do for cheese. When our 2 year old dropped cheese into the rabbit's cage, Emily put aside her fear of the bunny (who is really a piranha with soft fur and big ears) to climb into the cage and eat the cheese. As you can see, Cinnamon Bun (yes, that is his name) was too stunned to do anything but watch.

Business Meetings in the 21st Century

I have just finished listening to Keith Ferrazzi's wonderful book on business and life "Never Eat Alone". One of things I found interesting about it, is the way he is moving away from the traditional business meeting over meals that is so common in our society today. Keith will often take prosepective employees, friends and clients on a run, to a gym or to his favorite workout location, Barry's Bootcamp. He feels that doing business during a workout is a much more personal way of getting to know the people his dealing with.

Currently, I work as an I.T. manager. This means I rarely have the time to workout, however, my weight is not a problem since skipped meals are frequent. Lunch is something users go on, right after they call the help desk to report a problem, so that when a tech gets there, no one is around to explain the problem (see also other things users do that I.T guys don't: "Leave work on time", "Vacation")

As I continue to move up the corporate ladder, I am definitely going to try and put this idea into practice. More importantly, I need to get into shape. It would be a sad, sad time for me, if I went to meet with a client and had to run anything more than my mouth.

Check out a New York Times article on this new phenomenon:

http://tinyurl.com/avlte

You can visit Keith Ferrazzi's blog at : http://nevereatalone.typepad.com/blog/

Princess on A Pony!

This weekend my family were guests of friends of ours at their horse farm in New Jersey. We had a wonderful time, but the biggest surprise of all was my baby daughter's blossoming horse obsession. I expected that, at best, she would be shy and, at worst, totally petrified. Boy was I wrong! She loved it! She followed the miniature horses around their field making sure she petted every one and she had several rides. Towards the end of the evening when her siblings were riding and she was waiting, she kept yelling to them to "Get off HER horse". I guess I should not be surprised, my wife spent a good part of her child hood riding and my eldest daughter has always loved horses as well. Almost as impressive as the baby's comfort with the horses, was that of all of my boys, who without hesitation saddled up, climbed on and went for a ride. Kyle, my eldest, who has alreay flown planes, wanted to ride by himself after just a few minutes in the saddle. It was a great weekend and I am very thankful to our friends for the opportunity and the hospitality.

More GTD Resources

For more reading about "Getting Things Done" please check out the following blogs:

http://www.davidco.com/blogs/david/ - David Allen's Blog

http://www.davidco.com/blogs/jason/ - Jason Womack's "In The Life" Blog.

http://www.davidco.com/blogs/kelly/ - Kelly Forrister's "Simply Kelly" Blog.

Jason and Kelly are coaches at the David Allen Company. All three of the Blogs are about their life and how GTD helps with their extremely busy schedule.

For more great tips and tricks, please also see the David Allen Comany forums:
http://www.davidco.com/forum/

The David Allen Newsletter can be subscribed to at: http://www.davidco.com/productivity_principles.php

And finally David has written a series of excellent tips that you should check out:
http://www.davidco.com/tips_tools.php

Good luck in "Getting Things Done"

Hospital Waiting Room

I spent the better part of yesterday waiting in a hospital waiting room. My poor wife was undergoing a procedure in the short stay surgical unit. There probably isn't a worse place to be for everyone involved, except in the surgical unit itself as the patient. I am not a people watcher and I think I rank pretty low on the "Emotional IQ" scale, however, I did take good notice of everyone there. There was another gentleman who, like me, was trying to work as a distraction, he really wasn't doing any better than I was. An older gentleman, waiting for his wife, nervous about her outcome. A mother waiting for her daughter. Another mother with a bored teen-aged son. It was obvious that at his age he could not understand the seriousness of everyone there, and has not developed the ability to focus his attention into situationally-appropriate behaviour. We all sat around making small-talk about the big news issue of the day. We live outside of Philly, so it was the Terrell Owens situation. We waited and waited. All things being equal, we were not there long, just over an hour for most of us, but it did seem like forever. It was a good day for everyone there. All of our loved ones had successful outcomes from their surgeries, while certainly everyone's lives are a little different from what happened that day, I am thankful that God was watching over everyone there.

Death by Soda

I recently gave up drinking soda, (again). This time I finally have managed to make it through the withdrawl and then the cravings to have it with some of my favorite soda-necessary foods, ie: Pizza, Burger King. I have not had any in a month and my resolve becomes stronger every day.

I used to drink a lot in a day, not as much as many people I know, however. I was always certain it would be the death of me one day, and my body was rebelling quite a bit, telling me that this was not what it wanted.

Now there is a website that will tell you if soda will be the death of you. From the pull-down menu you put in your choice of caffinated poison, then enter your body weight. It will tell you how many sodas you need consume, in a short period, before you will self-terminate.

While I don't think I ever came close. I would need to drink 325 cans of Cherry Coke at once, there are a few people who will be getting warning emails from me because, they are in the ballpark.

Check it out at: http://www.energyfiend.com/death-by-caffeine/

Make mine water! Bottoms up!

Funny Blogs

Scott Adams, creator of Dilbert, and by far the most accurate mirror of corporate life has started his own blog. Its still in its early posts, so you can read it all without a serious commitment of time. Check it out at : http://dilbertblog.typepad.com/

If you are interested in a satirical view of the news, check out this fantastically written blog. I love the artwork and the layout, even if it wasn't as funny as it usually is, just looking at the website is a visual treat. http://watleyreview.com/

GTD Websites

In yesterday's post, I mentioned I would be following up with a separate entry of great GTD links. Here they are:

www.davidco.com - The David Allen Co.
http://www.43folders.com/ - 43 Folders Site, Blog and Podcast
http://www.officezealot.com/gtd/ - The Office Zealot
http://wiki.jeffsandquist.com/default.aspx/GTD/GTDTools.html - A great list of GTD Links

There are many more out there, but these are great starter sites. More to come soon!

Check 'em out and then go get things done!

If this is a cult, pass the kool-aid

Getting Things Done

The second most life changing book (Bible #1) I have ever experienced is "Getting Things Done" by David Allen and his follow-up "Ready for Anything".

This life-changing methodology for managing the flow of work and personal life is simply amazing. There are now dozens of websites, email newsletters, productivity products, etc devoted to Allen's teaching.

GTDers as we are called are considered "cultish" by those who have not yet been able to experience the transformational impact of doing things the way David recommends.

For example, he recommends breaking down the next actions for any tasks or projects by context instead of the ABC, 123 methods recommended by so many other productivity experts. Phone Calls go on a @phone list, things to do at home are on @home list. He recommends reviewing these whenever you have a moment and are in the right context. If you have 10 minutes away from having to go to a meeting, need tires on your car and are a near a phone, make the call, schedule the appointment, now you have used a nearly useless block of time and removed something from your to do list.

One of the most telling examples of the productivity I have gained from these practices is in my email. I now keep a clean inbox, I process everything as quickly as I can. Reference email is filed in folders releveant to the subject. Anything that can be responded to immediately, is. If it requires action that is going to be longer than 2-5 minutes, I will drag the whole email into a task in Outlook, set a reminder and move on, not letting myself got bogged down. Most of my peers and my immediate managers constantly complain about how many emails they recieve, and how clogged their inboxes are, and while they have expressed their envy at how I run mine, they just assume that they cannot do it.

Someday, I hope to achieve super-organized. I still slip from the ideals I am setting for myself. But someday, I will truly have a "Mind Like Water"

Check out David's website at: http://www.davidco.com

More links from some of the better blogs and websites related to GTD to come in the next few days.

Happy Birthday!!!!!!

As far as I am concerned, today is the most important day of the year. A day I can never honor enough. It is the birthday of my best friend, closest confidant, #1 cheerleader, all around better half, pain in the side telling me I could do better when I want to be lazy, mother of all of my wonderful children........... my wife.

We give gifts to our loved ones to celebrate their birthday, but in reality they are God's gifts to us. I cannot imagine what my life would be like if He had not gifted her to me. I know I would not be the person I am today.

Happy Birthday Sweetheart, and I selfishly pray for many, many, many more :).

Didgeridoos

I had the opportunity over the weekend to take a participate in didgeridoo workshop this weekend with Ash Dargan (http://www.ashdargan.com). If you have a chance you should check out some of his music. I was completely blown away, I had no idea that so much could be done with this instrument. If you enjoy the music, maybe you can try it. It easier than you might expect to start. Check back here, if I start making music of quality perhaps I will post it.

He Has Been Beamed Up

I just found out that my favorite actor from any Star Trek, James Doohan, has passed away. I am one of the many Trekkies that believe that his was the best character in the Original Series. In addition to being a fine actor and master of many accents he was also a bona fide war hero fighting with his Canadian brothers during the Allied invasion of Europe on D-Day.

My favorite memory of him was from the very first Star Trek Convention I attended. Using his gift of accents he gave a long demonstration of what the Chief Engineer would have been like in every nationality imaginable.

"Mr. Scott, the word is given"