So, I closed the page.

Why did I close the page?  Because I was a bit offended that the company either does not trust me to scrub through the videos, or the company lacks the technology to allow me to scrub the videos.  Either way, I am not going to purchase a service from a company that refuses me that basic luxury.

Video scrubbing is now the norm online!  No scrubbing is so linear (read: “1997″).

Click here to view the embedded video.

“Stop being hateful, and start being grateful!”

This is good advice.

I was a front desk person once.  I loved my job.  Seriously.  I loved coming in every day to work. My co-workers were a joy to work with, and I was given responsibilities that fall well outside of what is generally considered “front desk work”.  I was asked to write articles, build websites, schedule events, benchmark similar offices, and all sorts of other fun stuff.

While I always worked to give everybody great service, folks who were courteous and nice definitely got preferential treatment, all other things being equal.  For example, if I had two meetings to schedule, I would likely have scheduled the nicer person’s meeting first.  This might sound like a small thing (it is), but sometimes being a priority makes your day.

Also, it is important to note that front desk people are the hub of offices.  They are the first point of contact for pretty much everybody that comes in.  A front desk person in a bad mood can really mess with the overall mood of the office.

The following is a true story.

Back in 2001 I was interviewing for a job.  I was neither nice nor rude to the front desk person.  I merely walked up and asked to see the person that I was scheduled to interview with.

Well, I lost that job partly because the front desk person thought I was being rude to her – it was noted in the reasons why I didn’t get the job.  If I had come in and chatted the front desk person up, who knows?  Maybe I would have got the job.

On a similar level, when I worked my front desk job, the higher ranking folks would often come out and ask for my opinion on possible new hires.  They would ask me about the prospective hires’ demeanors and attitudes.  While I made a conscious effort to never tank someone’s chances no matter how rude they were to me, it just goes to show that front desk people are often more powerful than their job title might imply.

So, do what you can to be nice and lift the spirits of your front desk person.  It can’t hurt, and it just might make somebody’s day!

I am incensed.

My girlfriend has worked in the same job for the last 3 years, and over that time has learned to hate it.

I worked in my last office for 4 years, and loved every second of it, until….a new boss took over the department.

Where my old boss fostered openness in communication and trust in getting the job done, my new boss fostered an environment of fear from retribution and a “cover my ass” mentality that saw, sometimes, 5 or 6 people being carbon-copied on emails that had nothing to do with them.

Where my old boss let me make decisions, my new boss had every decision go through her.

My old boss offered us flexible work schedules that were especially helpful for working moms.  My new boss made us work Saturdays, Sundays, and 9-5 on weekdays (with two random days off per week).

My old boss used my talents at writing and the web to make the organization stronger.  My new boss tied my hands behind my back and took away all of my responsibilities.

I enjoyed working for my old boss.  I enjoyed every day.  I hated working for my new boss.  I dreaded coming into work every day.

The old office was bright with laughter and chatter.  The new office saw, for the first time in 4 years, a higher-up walk by the water cooler and tell us to “get back to work.”

By the way, by all measurable results, our old office was much more productive.  Why?  Because we liked coming in to work.  We enjoyed each other’s company.  We liked working together.  How did this happen?  Our boss set a tone that was fair, flexible, encouraging, and respectful.  Put simply, we wanted to work for the company.

It only takes one bad boss to ruin a whole office.  It takes a lot more bad underlings to make things miserable.  But it’s not the people that makes for a bad work environment.  It’s a bad boss.

I am convinced that you could put any 15 people under my old, good boss, and they would have had an equally-great time and would have been equally-productive.  You could put any 15 people under my new, bad boss, and they would all suck.  It comes from the top!

I got thinking about this today when I had a question about the Rock the Garden event at the Walker Art Center.  My question, “Is re-admittance allowed?”, is simple and could probably be answered quickly by any number of staff members over at either the Walker or at The Current.  The problem/opportunity is that the official web page advertising the event for The Current does not allow commenting.  There is also no contact email listed on the page.  So, I am left without any recourse for finding an answer to my simple question about the event.

It seems that web pages don’t allow commenting, simply out of tradition – an old tradition that pre-dates Web 2.0 functionality.

Are there other reasons why people shouldn’t allow comments on web pages?

I walked up to a person at a conference and introduced myself.  I quickly learned that we work in similar fields, so I started up a conversation about that.  After a few minutes, I realized that the person was not sharing any information about her work beyond the basics, whereas I was sharing details of my day-to-day experiences on the job.  To make a long story short, the person did not reciprocate my level of sharing.  This left me with a feeling of distrust of that person.

My friend, Megan, always says, “Share and share alike!”  Usually, she is referring to the Snickers bar that I am holding, but it can also apply here.  “Share and share alike” is actually a great rule for trust-building in relationships.

It can be especially helpful to remember the rule when dealing with new relationships.

BUT…There is a point where you have to draw the line in the sand and stop sharing, and the difficult part of all this is that everyone draws that line in a different place.  This is evident by the way that different people approach blogging – some blog about intimate personal details while others stick to facts and figures.

The problem with these lines is that nobody knows where they are until they ask, and by then it’s probably too late anyway.  So what are we to do?

Well, firstly, it is ALWAYS a good idea to wait as long as possible to pass judgement on people.  This is also the most difficult rule-of-thumb to follow in the world.  First impressions mean the world to us humans, which isn’t always a good thing. 

Secondly, be flexible.  If someone is sharing less or more than you’d like, take note of that fact and respect that person’s shareability index.

So, can you handle that?  It’s a surprisingly tough row to hoe. 

photo credit: davef3138

Do you send emails without signing your name at the end?  When booking shows for my band, I have noticed that a lot of venues don’t have a name attached to their email addresses (example: booking@thebar.com).  To complicate the problem, whoever is sending/responding to emails does not include a name or signature at the end of her emails either.  In addition to being poor etiquette, this practice leads to confusion and a lack of trust (If they aren’t willing to share their name, can I trust them to pay me?).  So I don’t know if I’m talking to the owner, a volunteer, a friend of mine, or a professional booking agent that I have a professional relationship with.  As in any interaction, information about who I am talking to informs the way that I communicate.

Two weeks ago, I led a technology brainstorming session with many of the finest and most able educators in Minnesota.  These are the all-star teachers that every parent wants teaching their kids – highly-educated, caring, and always working to better their craft.  I was amazed to learn that not one of them uses MySpace as part of their teaching curriculum.  When asked how many of their students used mySpace, the answer was unanimous – EVERY singly student is on mySpace.  I asked them why none of the teachers use MySpace, and the answer was also unanimous – our administrators tell us not to.

So let me get this straight.  Teachers are always trying to connect with their students in helpful ways.  And here is a technology that EVERY ONE of their students is plugged into.  Yet the school districts are forbidding teachers from using the tool.  Hmmm….  Something is out of place here.

The interesting thing about all this is that millions of dollars are being spent by school districts across the country to develop tools that do exactly what MySpace does.  So, it isn’t the tool that is the problem, it is the administrators.  At a high level, those software development dollars could be better spent developing feature-rich applications for MySpace that serve a particular need of the students (as opposed to reinventing the wheel).  The dollars saved from leasing/buying MySpace clones at the district level could also be better spent training teachers how to use MySpace in the classroom.

I hold that it is better to meet students where they are at than to try to get them to learn a new tool and interact in a new environment.  The facts are that students know MySpace.  They like MySpace.  And they spend many of their waking hours on MySpace.  Why not add some value?

UPDATE 2/19/09: Check out this great post (and read the comments) for a great discussion on some University of Texas professors’ use of MySpace and Facebook in the classroom.

5 days ago, I checked out a Redbox DVD from the local McDonald’s with the intention of returning it the next day.  For those of you who don’t know, Redbox is a DVD distributor that charges $1/day for rentals and has distribution outlets in all sorts of places.  Pretty convenient, eh? The problem is, I forgot to return the DVD and am now left paying $5 of what should have been a $1 bill.

This experience makes me much less likely to rent from Redbox next time around, because I feel like they are nickel-and-diming me (i.e. ripping me off).  I would rather spend the $4 to get a rental at Blockbuster and not worry about returning it on a certain date.

So, I got to thinking about my website design business.  I don’t nickel-and-dime.  That is, I am very up front about costs, and so long as my clients ask nicely, I will even make little tweaks to their websites for free that are completely outside of any agreement we may have.  I figure that sort of customer service leads to happier customers which leads to a better reputation for my business.  So I ask this of you: Are you nickel-and-diming your customers?

Inspired by Garrick Van Buren, I have decided to brainstorm and document some presentations I would like to give in the future. Here they are:

PRESENTATIONS I WOULD LIKE TO GIVE:

• Blogging for Beginners (I am scheduled to give this one in April!)
• Making Wordpress Work for You
• Building Your First Wordpress Theme
• Advanced Wordpress Themes
• Harnessing the Power of Online Social Media; or How I Became Friends with Maria Shriver
• Computers In the Classroom: The Medium is Still the Message

PRESENTATIONS I HAVE GIVEN:

• Wordpress for Beginners (at Minnebar 2008)
• Manipulating Classroom Space to Suit Pedagogical Ends
• Using Wordpress as a Content Management System (at Unsummit 2009)

For my colleague, a great worker is someone who busts her ass, making sure everything is done on time and to specifications.  But to me, a great worker is something else entirely.  I mostly don’t concern myself with deadlines much.  I believe that creative results take time.  Lots of time.  Creative people who adhere to client-imposed deadlines produce inferior products for the most part. You can see it in their work. I have seen great artists turn out total crap full of inconsistencies and errors, because they were rushed to produce a work. I have seen people pulling out their own hair (figuratively speaking) as a result of being stressed out from deadlines. And to what end?!

It seems to me that people who are overly-concerned about money get overly-concerned about deadlines.  The two are bedfellows – syrup & pancakes, beds & sheets, Facebook & stalkers. I am not overly concerned about money.  In fact, I am generally not concerned about money at all.  I don’t have any investments, my savings doesn’t generate much interest, and my wallet is generally empty. But still I have everything I could ever want while earning a lower-class wage. And I am happy.

The result of all this is that my clients who value idea cultivation, relationships, and patience get a much better experience with me (and me with them) than my clients who value deadlines over redesign. They are happier, I am happier, and my cat is happier too.