Proofing matters

Last week there was a want ad for a local company in the newspaper. I was reading it as the company is just down the street from mine, and the position is one we hire for from time to time. It was standard verbiage until the part where they preferred the candidate to have experience with an "anal boom lift". Yes, you read that correctly. I believe they meant an "aerial boom lift". I e-mailed the person who placed the ad to let her know, but I bet she'd already heard.

I truly believe that proofreading is a lost art. I am amazed how often I find typos. I found one last week in a best selling novel, and I saw one today on a website for a huge insurance provider. Spell check is a good first step, but it won't catch instances where a real word is used incorrectly for another one, as happened in the ad above. I've said before that one of my side businesses is going to be proofreading (another one is how to interview). It's a direly needed.

One of the down sides of HR

Every job has its down sides. One of the big ones in HR is knowledge. You get information that you wish you never had. You know when people are getting terminated, and you for some reason also tend to find out about people's personal drama (finances, relationships, health). There are many times I obtain information that I deeply desire to unlearn. Unfortunately, knowledge is a one way street. Once you get it, there's no giving it back.

I bet you feel really dumb right about now

My state recently passed a no smoking law. The only real impacts it has on my company are 1.no smoking within 8 feet on an entrance, so no more stepping just outside the door onto the patio to smoke and 2. signage must be posted regarding #1.

To comply, I printed approved signs from the state's website and laminated them. I posted the ones for our common spaces, and I gave the appropriate supervisors the ones for their areas. An e-mail was sent to all our managers and supervisors notifying them of the contents of the law and their responsibility to see that it is enforced.

Yesterday I went to a different part of our building. While there, one of the associates informed me that last week a manager had taken down all the signs for their area. Was it this area's manager? No. Did the manager ask if he could take them down? Of course not. I immediately went back and sent a professional e-mail stating that signs had been posted by my request. I asked the sign remover to let me know why he took them down. I of course copied my boss. The manager replied that he felt the signs give permission to just walk 8 feet out the door and smoke rather than limiting smoking to just our designated areas. So he couldn't have talked to someone about this? Instead he takes it upon himself to remove the signs and not tell anyone? I forward the manager's response to my boss and said "FYI. This has to be posted". He then sent a message to the manager, stating "It's the law. Please put them back up." He of course copies this manager's boss, the boss's boss, and several other managers.

This morning I get a call from the manager in question. He asked "Do you have a copy of those signs that I wasn't supposed to take down?" I told him I would send him a link and immediately did so. I bet he feels dumb right now. No only did he act like a little kid by doing something he shouldn't have done in a really weaselly way, he got called out about it in front of a whole lot of management.

We pay you a WHOLE lot of money to be a manager. Grow up and act like one.

Life is hard sometimes

Today we had some visitors at our plant. There were three people from our parent company, one of whom had worked at our facility for 5 years before he returned to Japan for his new assignment. With them were 3 people from a software consulting firm. About 10 I got a call from the person who'd worked at our plant. He said they needed to make arrangements for lunch. I asked if they needed reservations. He said no. He was sort of cagey, not really coming out and saying what he did want. Finally he said there was a large group, and they would need to take 2 cars. He asked if I could go to lunch. I said "I can go if you need me to." He did.

After we hung up, I told my boss "I just got invited to lunch. Instead of my winsome personality, I think they want my American driver's license". Indeed they did. That was fine. We were able to fit everyone in one of our company minivans. Once we got seated at the restaurant, I discovered the other reason I was invited. The server asked how many checks and we said "one". When asked who got the check, eyes were on me. At my company, the rule is normally "senior person pays." Thus, I was the last person who should have paid. But I said "I can pay and the company will reimburse me. " That was heartily accepted.

It was a very good meal. Upon arriving back at work, I told my boss "It's like we tell you. They invited me along to drive and pay." We often tell my boss that's why we take him places.

To recap: I got a nice lunch for free, spent time with a very enjoyable group of people, got paid overtime (working lunch), and I was gone from work for 2 hours. Life is hard sometimes.

More HRspeak

Recently the University of Louisville's Law School uncovered a small problem. It seems they promised more money in scholarships to students than they had in the budget. To the tune of $2.4 million. Oops. You can read more about it here. My favorite part of the article is about the resignation of the school's assistant dean of admissions:

Hebert also confirmed that Brandon Hamilton, the school's assistant dean for admissions, had resigned the day before. Hebert declined to say if the university had demanded his resignation.

Translation: He was either fired or resigned because they were getting ready to fire him. Had he voluntarily resigned, the answer would have been something like "The university did not ask Brandon to resign, but he felt it was necessary for the good of the program that he do so. We appreicate the great work he's done for the univeristy."

Further confirmation of the translation is contained in the next sentence:

"All we can say is that he resigned and we are looking into it," Hebert said. "At this time, we do not know of any criminal conduct, but we are reviewing the entire matter and seeing where it takes us." 

Anything that begins with "all we can say" means "this is all the lawyers will let us say".

And there is your bit of HRspeak for the day.

First impressions matter

Monday I got a job lead from a recruiter I know. I read through the job description, and it's a great fit for me. Even better, it's in a small town less than 10 miles from me, and the route there has no traffic. I applied Monday night through the company's online system, which was great. Tuesday night the regional HR guy called and did a brief phone interview. He then asked if I could come in today for interviews with him and the plant manager (who would be my boss). I of course said yes. This process gave me a great first impression of the company.

However, my first in person impression of the company was not so good. I pull into the parking lot, and it's in HORRIBLE shape. Big holes, cracks, etc. It's needs to be jackhammered up and completely repaired. What does this company do? They make CONCRETE. Not good.

I proceed into the lobby. I contact the HR person via phone, and he says he'll be down shortly (I had  arrived early of course). I thought to myself "this place is a disaster". The clock didn't work. The end tables were all scratched and very dusty. Several of the ceiling tiles were missing, and more than one lightbulb needed replaced. Something green had dripped from one of the pipes in the exposed ceiling to the floor. Tiles were missing at the threshold of the entrance, and one of the door closers was broken. "Bad" was written on one of the electrical outlets. They had a phone list posted that visitors use to contact their desired person as there's no receptionist. The list was out of date as the person whom I would be replacing was still on there.

Now, had the hr person apologized about the condition of the building saying that repairs were pending, I'd have felt better. After all, my building is missing the ceiling and floors in many places due to our ongoing renovation, but we make a point to tell people that upfront. But not a mention was made of the poor repair of the area at this company. That tells me it always looks like this. I'd be embarrassed to bring a customer or potential employee into this area.

I was already pretty put off by this point. My interview went well with the HR guy, but based on the condition of the building and some things about the position, I knew it wasn't for me (even though the pay was very competitve). I went through the motions with the plant manager, if for no other reason as I hadn't interviewed in over a decade and thought the practice would be good. I obviously did well because the hr person had left me a message at home less than half an hour after I left. I called him back after I got home, and he wanted to know if I could come back again tomorrow. I nicely expressed that the position wasn't a good fit for me and asked to be removed from consideration. When he asked why I said "I'm trying to find a tactful way to say this. I found the condition of the building to be a bit offputting." He said he understood and appreciated my honesty. I told him between that and some of the details of the job I knew it wasn't for me. After this conversation, I still went ahead and sent a thank you e-mail to him and the plant manager for their time. Good manners are always necessary.

Had the parking lot and lobby been in better shape, might my view of the organization been better? Probably. The sad thing is the lobby could have been whipped into shape with a couple hundred bucks of supplies and a couple hours of time. The next time you go to work, look at your facility with a fresh eye. Even better, ask someone else to do the same. Then fix what's wrong. First impressions matter.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

During one of my spates of cleaning and organizing this year, I came across a recipe for chocolate chip cookies that sounded great. I made it on Sunday. Here's the result:

They were great. I love them, and I received strong compliments from others who tried them.

Fun facts about these cookies
1. There are more chocolate chips than floor in them. Yum.
2. They are some BIG cookies. The recipe called for using a quarter cup of dough per cookie. Again, yum.
3. This batch is egg free. The recipe called for 2 eggs, but I was out of eggs and didn't feel like going to the store. I found a substitution using flax , which I did have. They turned out great. A side bonus: this was the first time I'd eaten cookie dough in probably 2 decades. I'm paranoid about salmonella, but without eggs, I could enjoy the dough worry free.

You have not because you ask not

I've written before about our team's motto at work. Today was yet another example of how true it is.

Our local paper has recently had an extreme rate hike. My price went up 292%. Yes, you read that correctly. I decided that it's just not worth it. I called them today to cancel. There is a competing smaller paper that is cheaper for 6 day a week delivery than what I was paying just the Sunday edition of the larger paper.

When the person asked why I was canceling, I told her it was the price. She talked to me briefly, then put me on hold. She asked me if they reduced the rate by 1/3 for the next six months if I would keep my subscription. I said I would. I hung up happy.

Everyone won in this scenario. I got a reduced rate for 6 months. I'll call them again in 6 months to renegotiate. They kept an existing customer which is much cheaper than finding a new one.

The key: I was nice and went in with an open mind. I know that places will often give you a deal to keep you. If they hadn't, I'd have cancelled. Either way, I was saving money.

I'm handing over my tiara

If you've read my blog for a little bit, you've probably gathered that part of my job is safety management for my company. For the last year and a half, I've desperately been trying to get away from doing this, either by pawning it off on someone else (I was told there's no one else) or by finding a new job entirely (I've been very actively looking). The reasons why aren't important for this post, but they were very strong, trust me. Well, low and behold, my reign as the Safety Queen is OVER! We recently hired a new person on our team for another reason. My boss knew I was trying to quit since I'd told him SEVERAL times how unhappy I was. Guess what the new guy got as part of the team realignment? SAFETY. YES, it's time for a HAPPY DANCE. I'm not sure what else I'm getting, but I am THRILLED to be free from safety. I'm training the new guy now, and I am hoping for a complete hand off soon. I'm still supposed to be his backup when he's traveling, on vacation, etc. but that is an easily bared burden. Am I still looking for a new job? Yes, but more passively now. I'm ready to do something different, but my current gig suddenly became much more tolerable in the interim.

Thankful for the small things

I try to be a thankful person. I don't always succeed, but I make it a point to incorporate gratitude into my life. I had a moment yesterday that reminded me to be thankful even for the small things. Last evening I sat outside at Dairy Queen enjoying a candy shop blizzard. First of all, this was the first evening in what seemed like forever that was beautiful AND cool enough to be outside without the imminent danger of heat stroke. Secondly, this blizzard is amazing. You need to try it. Finally, I was so fortunate to have the opportunity to do this. Blizzards aren't that expensive, but they are certainly not a necessity, even though I dearly love them. For some people, they simply can't afford one. I was so thankful as I sat there and considered how very blessed I am.

How can you be this dumb?

The following story happened at the company where someone my boss knows works.

Employee D (for dumb), a guy in his early 20s, had a picture of his wife on his company issued cell phone. She was either totally or completely naked from the waist up. Yep, you probably already know this isn't going to end well. He sends the picture to one of his buddies at work. who of course also forwards it on to more people. Employee D also left his phone at work one day, and someone else used it to forward the picture onto others. Another employee (who didn't know who the person in the picture was) showed Employee D the picture. He got mad and went to complain. Um,  probably not the brightest move. The company is in the process of investigating the incident, but Employee D has already been canned.

It turns out there is even more potential trouble for the company. Someone tried to show the picture to another guy, a married guy in his 40s. In a clear illustration of old and wiser, he told the person to put it up, that he was not interested in seeing it. What did this display of good sense get him? His desk got moved from an air conditioned room with all his coworkers into an unairconditioned area in their distribution center. In HR-speak this is known as retaliation, which is a BIG problem.

Are you feeling smart by comparison right now?

Mango Sweet Chili Shrimp

I hadn't cooked any real food since well before I went on vacation last month. Today it was time to end that streak. I had some shrimp in the freezer I'd purchased several months ago. I thawed, peeled, and deveined it. I put some oil olive in a pan, added the shrimp, and threw in some steak seasoning (great on shrimp if you've never tried it). Once the shrimp had partially cooked, I added some defrosted mango pieces and some sweet chili sauce. I simmered everything until the shrimp was thoroughly cooked, and then I poured the mixture over couscous. Here is the final outcome:

It was delicious.

4th of July Food

For my family's 4th of July gathering, I made chocolate covered stawberries and chocolate pizza.

Around Valentine's Day one year, I was shocked to see chocolate covered strawberries sold in the grocery store for almost $10 for a 6 pack. CRAZY. If you can operate a microwave, you can make them for a fraction of the cost in just a few minutes. What you see is about a pound and a half of strawberries, $0.99/pound at Aldi. I bought the dipping chocolate some time ago, but I paid no more than $3, probably more like $2. So, at most I had $4.50 in the whole tray. A tip for making them: the strawberries need to be completely dry so the chocolate won't clump when you're dipping them. The easiest way to do this is put them on a towel or pan and leave them overnight. Make sure you flip them once so all sides will be dry. You could of course wash them and dry each one right before you dip them, but who wants to do that?

Give it a try some time. The presentation is beautiful, and it tastes amazing.