I would like to inform everyone about the awesomeness of Bolt Bus. It absolutely gets my full endorsement.
There's a lot of things in this world that suck: taxes, paper cuts, airline food, just to name a few. Thankfully we have something like Bolt Bus to feel good about. $32 round-trip from NYC to Boston is about as good of a deal on anything anywhere.
Is this something lame to be excited about? Perhaps. But I'm an accountant. If I don't get excited about something lame, I'd be way too cool.
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Monday, June 23, 2008
Lost work
I just wrote a short post about my road trip up to Boston w/ two friends when I all of a sudden I accidentally deleted it!
Dammit. It probably wasn't my best work but hey, it was still work. Long story/short we're on a "boltbus" and approximately two hours from Boston where we will be watching the Red Skirts play tonight.
More updates to come. I've got to do the same thing tomorrow so I'm sure I'll have more to write about.
Dammit. It probably wasn't my best work but hey, it was still work. Long story/short we're on a "boltbus" and approximately two hours from Boston where we will be watching the Red Skirts play tonight.
More updates to come. I've got to do the same thing tomorrow so I'm sure I'll have more to write about.
Friday, June 20, 2008
Willie Randolph: Not That Different from the Rest of Us
Strangely ironic that a friend of mine got let go today...I decided I was writing on Willie while on the 'Q' this morning. My hope is that it's not somehow my fault...
For those of you who don't follow sports closely, the New York Mets (baseball) fired their manager, Willie Randolph this week after four seasons. Randolph chronicled his being let go today in the New York Daily News.
The article isn't terribly interesting (it's in the Daily News, after all) but what is interesting is that it shows that even Major League Baseball managers can get treated like complete and utter crap by their bosses.
Randolph was let go approximately 3 am EST. Now granted, that he was on the West Coast so it was only 12 am where he was and he isn't in an office job where the ax drops somewhere between 9 and 5, but it seems a little sloppy.
And, if you read the article, Randolph was completely shocked that he was getting let go. He states that he confronted the GM, Omar Minaya, before leaving for California and that Minaya told him things were "still being evaluated". Randolph goes on to say that he didn't think it would only be one more game before he got fired.
In sports, "being evaluated" might as well mean, "pack your bags".
Many in NYC and across the country have shared a similar feeling with Willie in the past few months. Corporate America has a tendency to be a little more creative when it comes to letting people go. Read this and this. In sports, they take more of a Donald Trump approach.
I guess this may give me some reassurance that no matter what kind of job you have, don't expect your bosses to be above board with you when the possibility of layoffs are looming (unless of course you're a contestant on the Apprentice).
If they're dodgy and non-committal, that usually means they're lying. The problem is, most bosses have bosses who have bosses in sports and in Corporate America. Everybody is under the gun and when "results" are at stake we're all expected to "step it up". What a bunch of shit. If I'm not performing say, "your work is not good, do better or you're going to get fired". Maybe people don't like to hear that but for me it beats the hell out of "you need to step it up".
Refer to other lame buzzwords and cliches here.
The only thing that we can take away from all this is that few people will actually tell you how you're performing because most people suck at delivering bad news or just suck as people in general.
For those of you who don't follow sports closely, the New York Mets (baseball) fired their manager, Willie Randolph this week after four seasons. Randolph chronicled his being let go today in the New York Daily News.
The article isn't terribly interesting (it's in the Daily News, after all) but what is interesting is that it shows that even Major League Baseball managers can get treated like complete and utter crap by their bosses.
Randolph was let go approximately 3 am EST. Now granted, that he was on the West Coast so it was only 12 am where he was and he isn't in an office job where the ax drops somewhere between 9 and 5, but it seems a little sloppy.
And, if you read the article, Randolph was completely shocked that he was getting let go. He states that he confronted the GM, Omar Minaya, before leaving for California and that Minaya told him things were "still being evaluated". Randolph goes on to say that he didn't think it would only be one more game before he got fired.
In sports, "being evaluated" might as well mean, "pack your bags".
Many in NYC and across the country have shared a similar feeling with Willie in the past few months. Corporate America has a tendency to be a little more creative when it comes to letting people go. Read this and this. In sports, they take more of a Donald Trump approach.
I guess this may give me some reassurance that no matter what kind of job you have, don't expect your bosses to be above board with you when the possibility of layoffs are looming (unless of course you're a contestant on the Apprentice).
If they're dodgy and non-committal, that usually means they're lying. The problem is, most bosses have bosses who have bosses in sports and in Corporate America. Everybody is under the gun and when "results" are at stake we're all expected to "step it up". What a bunch of shit. If I'm not performing say, "your work is not good, do better or you're going to get fired". Maybe people don't like to hear that but for me it beats the hell out of "you need to step it up".
Refer to other lame buzzwords and cliches here.
The only thing that we can take away from all this is that few people will actually tell you how you're performing because most people suck at delivering bad news or just suck as people in general.
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
HELP!
I know you are all patiently waiting for my new blog so that I'll discuss my exciting week in California. I need some help titling my new blog. The general topic will be on life as a corporate hack. No guarantees of title, just looking for suggestions.
Thanks for your participation.
Thanks for your participation.
A Horse Walks Into a Bar, the Bartender says...
At several points today I've noticed a number of people (in fact the majority of people) looking really miserable. Personally, I haven't been in the best of moods the last couple of days but I don't think I've been looking as despondent as most of the people out there.
The subway is a classic place for finding the most depressed, despondent, hopeless, tragic, and pessimistic people in the City. That wasn't so surprising.
But then I'm walking to work and I see a couple of people standing outside near the office that look as if they just saw Old Yeller for the first time. Further, I'm suddenly noticing similar looks on people's faces in the elevator, in the cafeteria, all around the office, pretty much everywhere I go.
What the hell is going on? A few possibilities: 1) the weather has been about as comfortable as a 15 year old boy trying to buy condoms 2) the economy is performing like post-steroid scandal baseball players 3) the people that still have their jobs wish they were part of the layoff statistics 4) the hot dog vendors are making everyone bob for their own hot dog.
Are New Yorkers constantly miserable? I guess it's possible. But definitely not these guys though:
This gives the rest of us hope (and these guys aren't even running for President)!
The subway is a classic place for finding the most depressed, despondent, hopeless, tragic, and pessimistic people in the City. That wasn't so surprising.
But then I'm walking to work and I see a couple of people standing outside near the office that look as if they just saw Old Yeller for the first time. Further, I'm suddenly noticing similar looks on people's faces in the elevator, in the cafeteria, all around the office, pretty much everywhere I go.
What the hell is going on? A few possibilities: 1) the weather has been about as comfortable as a 15 year old boy trying to buy condoms 2) the economy is performing like post-steroid scandal baseball players 3) the people that still have their jobs wish they were part of the layoff statistics 4) the hot dog vendors are making everyone bob for their own hot dog.
Are New Yorkers constantly miserable? I guess it's possible. But definitely not these guys though:
This gives the rest of us hope (and these guys aren't even running for President)!
Monday, June 16, 2008
Back in the City
I've returned! Please, no applause. I promised you a debriefing of my week on the West Coast and I assure you that I will deliver. I'm still getting back up to speed on several fronts after returning home but FEAR NOT. There will be many comments regarding my seminar experience. So much so, I may start another blog to focus on corporate life. It's still in discussions.
Anyway, back to life as a straphanger:
I'm on the subway today and enjoying some light reading/Brick Breaker (Blackberry users, you know you're addicts) and all of a sudden I'm at 34th St. I'm completely caught off guard and semi-rush to get my stuff together in order to deboard and mosey off to catch the V.
Point being, after a week at an unfabulous seminar about some very dry material that was predominated by lame people, I may have been a little slow coming back to marvelousness and pace of New York.
Now, if you're worried I'm losing my touch, I was out at lunch today picking up my beloved Samantha and bolted in front of everyone as soon as the light went red for the oncoming traffic and reached the other side of the street before some of those peds even realized they had a walk sign.
Handicapped or not, I flew across that crosswalk.
Good to be back!
Anyway, back to life as a straphanger:
I'm on the subway today and enjoying some light reading/Brick Breaker (Blackberry users, you know you're addicts) and all of a sudden I'm at 34th St. I'm completely caught off guard and semi-rush to get my stuff together in order to deboard and mosey off to catch the V.
Point being, after a week at an unfabulous seminar about some very dry material that was predominated by lame people, I may have been a little slow coming back to marvelousness and pace of New York.
Now, if you're worried I'm losing my touch, I was out at lunch today picking up my beloved Samantha and bolted in front of everyone as soon as the light went red for the oncoming traffic and reached the other side of the street before some of those peds even realized they had a walk sign.
Handicapped or not, I flew across that crosswalk.
Good to be back!
Thursday, June 12, 2008
Seminar Update Thursday Edition
Ok - so I'm making a confession here. I'm skipping the 8 am - 10 am session of my seminar this morning. The most significant reason being that we were out late last night but I only plan on missing a couple hours out of the entire day. This inevitably begs the question: are there consequences to being absent at these things?
Answer in short: don't know, don't care.
Am I being immature? Unprofessional? Careless? Perhaps. In the grand scheme of things, it doesn't probably doesn't result in much being lost. I mean, seriously, I'm missing "Project Management". I'm sure it has some value but it's not going to be a life changing experience.
For those wondering, I'm going write a de-brief posting sometime next week to summarize my time in LA at this seminar. I've been keeping a copious amount of notes about things I want to write about so it should amount to a pretty decent amount of ranting/opining. Stay tuned...
Answer in short: don't know, don't care.
Am I being immature? Unprofessional? Careless? Perhaps. In the grand scheme of things, it doesn't probably doesn't result in much being lost. I mean, seriously, I'm missing "Project Management". I'm sure it has some value but it's not going to be a life changing experience.
For those wondering, I'm going write a de-brief posting sometime next week to summarize my time in LA at this seminar. I've been keeping a copious amount of notes about things I want to write about so it should amount to a pretty decent amount of ranting/opining. Stay tuned...
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