One of the challenges of a campus environment (or park, golf course, beach, etc.) in the Pacific NW...goose land mines.

My brother and I have lunch together a few times a week, which means I walk to a cafeteria in another building. Today I found myself navigating the goose poop on the sidewalks. From the evidence, several others had already failed this navigational challenge. I'm glad I don't share an office with any of them.

This just struck me funny. Should Microsoft hire poop scoopers to clean the goose poop from the sidewalks? Maybe we just need to clean the carpets and floors more frequently? Perhaps install boot scrapers at every entrance? Or on a more serious note, follow in the footsteps of Seattle and get rid of the geese?

Me? I just see it as an excuse to play a little hop-scotch on my way to lunch. My daughter will be playing that soon so I'll need the practice.

~tod

life: Even if you're intimidated by someone's knowledge, experience or attitude, just ask them your question...you might be surprised at how eager they'll be to help you instead of laugh at you.

Huh?

~tod

work: Lack of planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on mine.

This one deserves a hat-tip to my buddy Mike.

Huh?

~tod

email: Signing off with a smiley face doesn't make it ok to be an asshole.

Huh?

~tod

If not bigger, than at least more is better. I'm referring to computer monitors by the way.

A recent study at the University of Utah found that "people using the 24-inch screen completed the tasks 52% faster than people who used the [single] 18-inch monitor; people who used the two 20-inch monitors were 44% faster than those with the [single] 18-inch ones." (emphasis mine)

Wow. If you were a manager wouldn't you want to help your employees become 44% faster? Do I hear a resounding, nay, deafening YES?

Personally, I have been using 2 monitors at work for the past 3-4 years and I feel like it made a significant improvement in my productivity. I usually have at least 5-8 applications open at any given time and am actively switching back and forth between 2 or 3 of them. I could be writing code in Visual Studio on one screen with a browser open on the other for research. Or I could be writing a document in Word and referring to email in Outlook and an internal web site in the browser. No matter what the configuration, having 2 monitors is so much easier.

Any person or company that doesn't realize the benefit of bigger and/or multiple monitors is being penny wise, pound foolish.

~tod

work: As the workload increases it either takes longer or the quality goes to shit...unless beer is involved.

Huh?

~tod

This sums up pretty nicely my opinion of whether or not video games catapult people into violence:

~tod

I think it's pretty fair to say that public humiliation is not an effective way of motivating people. People can argue the definition of what constitutes humiliation or degrees of how it is applied, but the sum of the story seems to be that it just doesn't work.

I also think it's fair to assume that this is common knowledge for most managers. We live in a world where we are constantly bombarded with self-help information and training through work, internet, magazines, tv, books, etc. Honestly, if you're a manager and somehow didn't catch this tidbit of news then you really have your head in the sand. And if the perpetrator's boss doesn't notice and deal with it, then you've got a potentially bigger problem on your hands.

Speaking of common knowledge let's take this a step further. I think most would agree that publicly humiliating people actually deters motivation and creates hostility. It's entirely possible that no hostility existed before said humiliation technique was applied, but I would bet my beach-front property in Mexico [I wish!] that there will be some lingering resentment after the fact. I know that it pisses me off.

Oh, and a lot of other people feel the same....

~tod

PS: I'm speaking solely about motivating people to do something, not punishing them for a crime committed.