Austin Employment Web Log

I love it when I hear or read the phrase "hit the ground running".  I know what it is supposed to mean: (contractor version): "We don't have the time to train you.  You must get meaningful work done your first day on the job, figure out where we hid everything that you need, don't back-talk, and have ten times the productivity of our lazy and entitled employees, who we can't fire because they have legal rights. You will be fired, with no notice, at the earliest available opportunity." (employee version):  "We don't have the time to train you.  You must get meaningful work done your first week on the job, all while plowing through our tiresome and enormous stack of access requests for the resources you need to use, interminable meetings which are little more than talk-fests for our manager wannabees, badly designed and poorly configured workflow systems, and terribly written requirements / user stories to describe the work you are suppose...

In Gulliver's Travels (1726), Jonathan Swift describes the Laputians, people so lost in their own thoughts that they needed servants (flappers) to bean them with a small bag, on the ear if they were supposed to listen, and on the mouth if they were supposed to speak: Gulliver's Travels, Chapter II The flappers did this, when in the opinion of the flapper , the master was supposed to listen or talk. The novel was biting satire, of course, directed at the legions of court advisers and servants who populated the governments of Europe and shielded the nobles from the rabble, and from reality . Anyone who thinks about it for a few minutes can see the obvious danger in allowing those who wield real power from depending on their underlings for everything...  Oh! silly me, forget I said that. You might be asking yourself why this story is on a blog devoted to employment issues.  I'll tell you why: companies are using software to screen resumes .  That software is cal...

This post is like a table of contents for the blog.  There are now over sixty articles here, covering a fairly focused list of subjects: Blog Governance - the rules of the road for this blog   The Table of Context   Comments Opened   Thank you, kindly Job Hunting - articles with specific guidance for job hunting A break in the silence, and a true story   Gig Economy I - Introduction Videos   The Job Hunt, part I: initial preparation for the hunt   The Job Hunt, part IIa: Employee job hunt   Different types of job   The coming gig-based economy   Persuasion, Your Personal Hydrogen Bomb   Highest and Best Use of Skill   I'm older and scared of losing my job. What to do   Ageism and LinkedIn in the modern world   Smart Women Love the Cloud   Learning the Cloud from clear blue sky    The Bell Curve and your chances of success, part II    Some light at the end of the tunnel    On the incredible value of Glass Door    Equity How about a few...

Notes from the field:   First, some links to comments by people who have actually done remote managing of workers:   10 Essential Tips for Managing Remote Employees   How To Manage Remote Workers Like They’re Right In The Office   How to Successfully Manage Remote Employees   How to Effectively Manage Remote Employees   8 expert tips for managing remote workers Note that many of these contain the same tips - provide good hardware, regular (but not nagging) communication, very clear instructions, clear, objective acceptance criteria for work done.  Web cams and Skype can help a lot. Absolute essentials for remote management:   These are: initial tooling and access, learning curves, written instructions, written acceptance criteria, time constraints . Although obvious, they are omitted or ignored often enough so that there are frequent failures in the use of remote workers, most famously Yahoo! under their final CEO. These failures, likely due to management rather...

" Going Galt " is a reference to Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged .  The precise meaning varies with the user, but in general it means something like, "To Hell with this.  I'm working my *ss off and getting robbed blind.  Might as well flip burgers and be happy!"  Some folks add a political spin to it (I don't) but it signifies a deep disgust with the system, enough to want to opt out permanently .  It is much more than a protest. I just paid $725 ( after a 20% cash discount) to find out there was nothing wrong with one of my sons.  That was for two people seeing him for a total of about 10 minutes each and for a few X-rays.  Insurance was not involved . I have paid well more than $2700 for my other son's broken wrist. Both bills appear to me to be inflated by about 100%.  The insurance I buy for my two kids is nearly worthless; I pay for it to satisfy a divorce decree and the ACA.  I worked at the jail a long time ago, and have no desire to be a...

The modern world of high tech work is dominated by only one principle: minimizing time-to-market .  This single concept overrides quality, overrides thorough market research, overrides common sense, often overrides simple human decency. There is very little room for error. In such a system, from the standpoint of the workers, they hear: It's not what you have done, it's what have you done lately It's not what you can do, it's how fast can you do it Yes, you've never done X before , what is your timeline ? Is it any wonder so many people in the work world are anxious and constantly on edge?  That they constantly cover their derrieres and try to lay the blame on someone else?  That the "waste" management is attempting to stop, with the above dis-blandishments, suddenly and forcefully shows up again as increased CYA behaviors that are even more wasteful and much harder to stop? I worked at a major, very famous, huge company that literally ordered us...

Apparently, there was a class-action lawsuit over those horrible "You have won a FREE Carnival Cruise" robo-calls.  Former victims can check here to see if they qualify: Charvat v. Carnival et al You can check whether your number is on the list and then file your claim here: File a claim Valid claims apparently will be awarded $300-900.  I suggest you hurry . Did I just get you some money?  Thank-you donations may be made to my PayPal account potken at yahoo dot com.   You are welcome!