I know what you are thinking, Tim's going to be talking about golf, well you are incorrect. Although now that you mention it, I really should get out and golf...
Anyway, today, well actually yesterday was an extremely exciting day for me. I was putting on my pants, and securing my belt when I made a discovery. For the last, oh 18 months or so, I have had to wear this particular belt on the third hole from the end. Well yesterday to my surprise, I slid right past the third hole and on to the fourth with total and complete comfort. I was so excited I almost woke up Jill to tell her. I didn't however because I thought about how I'd feel if someone woke me up at 6:00 in the morning to tell me that they could now tighten their belt a little more...the violence that ensued in my head was enough to dissuade me from that attempt. Still, I was, and am excited...simple things people, simple things
Friday, April 24, 2009
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
A bit of fluff
I have been noticing more and more lately that there is too much fluff in this world. What do I mean? Well, to me, fluff is anything that's put in somewhere for the sole purpose of filling time, space, silences, whatever. For example, when you are listening to the radio and the DJ's clearly have run a subject through it's course, and they don't really have anything else to say. One of the hosts will just blurt something out. This morning on my way into work I was listening to a morning show and in one such pause in the conversation, one of the hosts just blurted out "How long does your meat stay fresh?" Whew, radio show saved by, wait, what the...? That doesn't have anything to do with what you were just talking about, and really? Is that what people want to hear about on their way into work? Ok, so that's just one example, and perhaps not even a good one. But, my point is there is a lot in this world that people just throw in to things to fill space.
Last week at work, I was asked to add some more fluff to a study we were working on to look more impressive (and for those of you who read last weeks blog, this is one of the things that set me off). I responded, if the quality of our, and specifically my work is not enough to impress our clients, then we should figure out what we are not doing right and fix it. Putting in fluff that doesn't mean anything is a waste of our time and insults the intelligence of our clients. Now don't get me wrong, some of the bank presidents could use a healthy dose of insults, but not from us when we're trying to squeeze a project out of them.
Maybe I'm a little too touchy about my work, but wouldn't you want to see only what you need to know in order to make an informed decision? Wouldn't you be more impressed by a 5 minute presentation that told you exactly what you need to do and why instead of a 45 minute collage of "pretty" maps that have been "tweaked" to display the results that we wanted? I would, that's for darn sure!
Even outside of work, if we as a country cut out even 20% of the fluff in our lives, we'd be where people in the 50's thought we'd be by now: flying cars, universal bliss, and chocolate that doesn't add copious amounts of fat to your midsection. Seriously, go through your day today and for every little thing you do, ask yourself, do I need to be doing this, or am I just doing this to fill time until I go to sleep? Yeah, it's a bit scary, but I'll tell you what, you'll be surprised, shocked, and maybe even scintillated by the results. Hm.. that sounded a bit like a self help book didn't it? Maybe this can be my big break into politics, I'll start the anti-fluff movement!
Last week at work, I was asked to add some more fluff to a study we were working on to look more impressive (and for those of you who read last weeks blog, this is one of the things that set me off). I responded, if the quality of our, and specifically my work is not enough to impress our clients, then we should figure out what we are not doing right and fix it. Putting in fluff that doesn't mean anything is a waste of our time and insults the intelligence of our clients. Now don't get me wrong, some of the bank presidents could use a healthy dose of insults, but not from us when we're trying to squeeze a project out of them.
Maybe I'm a little too touchy about my work, but wouldn't you want to see only what you need to know in order to make an informed decision? Wouldn't you be more impressed by a 5 minute presentation that told you exactly what you need to do and why instead of a 45 minute collage of "pretty" maps that have been "tweaked" to display the results that we wanted? I would, that's for darn sure!
Even outside of work, if we as a country cut out even 20% of the fluff in our lives, we'd be where people in the 50's thought we'd be by now: flying cars, universal bliss, and chocolate that doesn't add copious amounts of fat to your midsection. Seriously, go through your day today and for every little thing you do, ask yourself, do I need to be doing this, or am I just doing this to fill time until I go to sleep? Yeah, it's a bit scary, but I'll tell you what, you'll be surprised, shocked, and maybe even scintillated by the results. Hm.. that sounded a bit like a self help book didn't it? Maybe this can be my big break into politics, I'll start the anti-fluff movement!
Thursday, April 16, 2009
What was I thinking????
Over the last week or so, or really since I saw that Best Buy had posted an opening for my former position, I have been asking myself what I was thinking to leave Best Buy. Well, I know what I was thinking...we'll be in a much better position and this company seems really interested in getting cranking with new site selection studies. Well, we are in a better position. We have almost all of our outstanding debt paid off, except for student loans, and the company is really interested in exploring new markets for our site selection studies. Did you catch that last part, exploring. Yeah, I bet you can't guess what I felt when I heard that word for the first time...
The thing is this, one of the reasons I felt like it was a good idea to come here was because I thought they were truly interested in building up their studies department. And they are, as long as it's for banks and credit unions and as long as it gets the construction job afterword. I'm basically a nice little thing that they can waive in the faces of the bank presidents and say "Hey, this guy worked for Best Buy and Home Depot. Doesn't that sound nice?"
Really what bothers me is that they under value the work I do. They sell it for WAY below what it actually costs me to do the work in the hopes of getting the construction job where they make the "real" money. And I get that the real money is made on the construction projects, but they could sell the same crap studies as everyone else if that's all they wanted to do. They don't need me to bust my ass and give a great study for some banker who looks at the maps and says "ooh, those look pretty."
It's just a bit sad really. I've decided to give them a chance to prove to me how interested they really are in expanding this piece of the puzzle, but that chance is limited to a year. By that time, retailers ought to be ready to roll again...who knows maybe even Best Buy will want me back...
The thing is this, one of the reasons I felt like it was a good idea to come here was because I thought they were truly interested in building up their studies department. And they are, as long as it's for banks and credit unions and as long as it gets the construction job afterword. I'm basically a nice little thing that they can waive in the faces of the bank presidents and say "Hey, this guy worked for Best Buy and Home Depot. Doesn't that sound nice?"
Really what bothers me is that they under value the work I do. They sell it for WAY below what it actually costs me to do the work in the hopes of getting the construction job where they make the "real" money. And I get that the real money is made on the construction projects, but they could sell the same crap studies as everyone else if that's all they wanted to do. They don't need me to bust my ass and give a great study for some banker who looks at the maps and says "ooh, those look pretty."
It's just a bit sad really. I've decided to give them a chance to prove to me how interested they really are in expanding this piece of the puzzle, but that chance is limited to a year. By that time, retailers ought to be ready to roll again...who knows maybe even Best Buy will want me back...
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