The dreading is worse than the doing

Several of the blinds in my house have needed replaced since I moved in 4 years ago. Most of the issues were pretty minor, with small pieces of blinds missing. I did have one that completely broke a while back. It was in a guest bedroom, and there are also curtains in the room, so I just took it down and never replaced it. Recently the blind in bathroom has seemed determined to force the issue. It has been losing pieces with increasing frequency. Replacing all missing and broken blinds was placed on my goal list for 2023.

I started by measuring all the windows. They are all the same size, so that made shopping easy. I started doing some online research, and fairly quickly I discovered this is a standard window size, so blinds were readily and cheaply available. I placed an order, and they were shipped to my house at no charge.

Once the blinds arrived, it was time for installation. I was thrilled to find that 2 of the blinds that needed replaced used the exact same hardware as the replacements. I simply removed the old ones and put in the new ones. The others required removing the old mounting brackets (very easy) and installing the new. The first one took me a few minutes to figure out, and then the rest were identical so I was able to do them with little fuss. The end result: I am thrilled. The blinds look great. This project was an example of the dreading being worse than the doing. Had I known how little time, effort, and money it would take, I would have tackled this project long ago. Below are before and after pictures of the bathroom blind that forced this project. I think you'll agree it was past time to replace it blind, and the end result was a definite improvement.

The Right Tool Makes All the Difference

 Have you ever struggled to accomplish something, then it almost miraculously becomes easy when you have the proper tools? It could be a literal tool, a piece of software, access to data you need, instructions on how to do the task, or anything else that is renders the job much simpler to do. I experienced this myself recently.

Last year as part of a larger project I replaced the brass door hinges in my house with oiled bronze ones for an updated look. At that time my plan was to add hinge pin door stops when I installed the new hinges. For reasons unknown to me, there was not a single door stop in this house when I bought it. Hinge pin door stops are easy to install. You remove the hinge pin, put the hinge pin stop on top, then reinsert the pin. Easy peasy. 

Part of my house is an addition with a different style of hinges, so I had to purchase two different brands. One brand of hinges worked just like I described above. The pins were easily removed with a hammer and screwdriver. The pins on the other brand seem to have been inserted with superglue. After trying to remove several of them unsuccessfully, I knew I need to stop because I was soon going to damage one or more of the following:

• the door
• the door frame 
• the hinge
• the hinge pin
• my hand 

I looked at the online reviews of the hinges that were giving me fits, and sure enough, I was not alone in having difficulty removing the pins. I did some internet research to find a better way to free the pins. I found out there are actually hinge pin remover tools. They were cheap (under $10) and had good reviews, so I thought it was worth a shot. I bought one of these yesterday at Home Depot. I gave it a try today. OH MY GOODNESS. Worth every single penny and then some. The tool was very simple to use. The pins came out with just a few hammer taps, and there was no damage to any objects either inanimate or human. I had my remaining 7 hinge pins installed in no time. It is amazing the difference the right tool makes.

Perhaps the two are related?

During an interview today, one of the questions we asked was "What about your coworkers bothers you the most?" This candidate is currently is a supervisor at his employer. His response: "The supervisors watch Disney movies all day and complain their employees aren't properly trained". 

Dear supervisors at this employer: Perhaps if, instead of watching Disney movies during the workday, you took the time to train your staff, aka, do your job, the situation would improve?

The industry you ask? Local government. Thankfully I don't live in this location, so at least it isn't my tax dollars being squandered.

Dear Employer: You deserve this and more

 You may have seen the headline around the internet: Kentucky man sues employer for throwing him birthday party, and now they owe him $450K. I have seen it referenced on LinkedIn, Yahoo, TMZ, and even BBC. From the headline, it sounds ridiculous. Once you review the facts, though, the employer deserved this and more.

In summary:

- Employee asks employer not to throw him a birthday party as it could cause him to have a panic attack

- Employer throws him a party anyway. Employee has a panic attack. (Hmm, just like he told you he would...)

- The employee is berated the next day for his reaction to the party (really?) which causes, you guessed it, another panic attack

- Employer sends the employee home and fires him shortly thereafter

- Employee sues (I would have too)

Here is a breakdown of the legal aspects of the case. One of the comments I read on LinkedIn said that employers mistakenly think they can fire employees for any reason because Kentucky, like 48 other states, is an at will employment state. To quote one of the lawyers we used at a previous job "employment at will means you can fire someone for any reason or no reason at all as long as it's not an illegal reason." (emphasis added). In the case, the jury decided it was an illegal reason and awarded damages accordingly.

As I told one of my HR coworkers, this situation could have been avoided if the staff of the employer had just been decent people. Someone tells you he doesn't want a birthday party? Then don't throw him one. This is not rocket science. I have said before that 90% of HR is common sense. I definitely think this qualifies.

Finally, this is costing the employer far more than $450,000 (note- they likely have insurance that will pay at least part of this). First, they have had to pay for attorneys to litigate this case. As someone who used to review legal bills in a previous job, I can assure you lawyers aren't cheap, and this case must have had tons of billable hours. Secondly, this is absolutely horrible PR. Would you want to work for this company? I wouldn't, unless they paid me tons of money to help fix their obviously broken corporate culture. In my book, they deserve every bit of what this is costing them financially and reputationally. 

I-bonds just got even more interesting

 Last fall I wrote about I-bonds. Today, it was announced that the rate for the upcoming 6 months will be 9.62%! Yes, nearly 10%. This will be a record. The financial nerd set, self-included, is practically salivating. As I told my mom previously, some of the people on one of the financial boards I follow have serious bucks. There are people that buy the $45K annual limit of I-bonds each year ($10K for each spouse, $10K for each spouse's trust, and overpay their federal taxes enough to get $5K in paper bonds from their tax return). Though I'm not in their league at this point of my life, I do like reading their posts as I learn a lot. 

I'll repeat my disclaimer from the last time I wrote about I-bonds: I am not a financial advisor, nor do I play one on TV. This article is not a suggestion for you to buy anything. It is my thoughts on something interesting to me. If you'd like to learn more, do your own independent research from reputable sources. 

You have learned nothing from Covid

 Here are two conversations I had this week with fellow employees at my company.

1. Monday I called an employee to talk about his application for another position at our company. When I asked how he was doing, he said "Not well. I have the stomach bug. I made it to work, but my supervisor sent me home." Really? I called the supervisor after the call and thanked him for sending the person home. He said "We don't need that here."

2. Today we were doing interviews, and I asked the supervisor how she was doing (as I've told 2 people, I need to stop asking this). She said her stomach was not feeling well. Later she said it was bubbling. She said she was going home after the interview. I participated in the interview virtually, and I still wanted to bleach my screen. She could have done the interview from home on her laptop.

In both cases, it was readily apparent to me that these employees have learned nothing from covid. For the past two years, my employer has stressed almost ad naseam "if you are sick, do not come to work". It's like these employees have been living under a rock. No, this isn't covid, but the same principal applies. Our employees have personal time for reasons just like this. GI illnesses tend to be highly contagious and spread like wildfire. One of my family members said the stomach bug is apparently running rampant in the local school system. Why on earth would you bring that to the workplace? Please do not be these people. When you are sick, stay home with your germs.

Knowing When To Say It's The End

In the last couple of months I've watched 2 episodes of a long running reality show. At the end of each, I've come to the same conclusion- the show has run its course, and it's time for the participants to get day jobs. When I mentioned this to my mom, she said she has had the same thought.

I've also had this happen with a book series. An author wrote several books featuring a main character that I really enjoyed. When I read what was to be the final book in the series, it was clear that it should be the last. The voice of the character was so different all the others that I wondered if it had been written by someone else. Recently I found out the author has revived the series by writing new books. I read one. While better than the supposed end of the series, it is clear the author is running thin on plots. I won't be reading any more.

Knowing when to say it's the end is tough. Inertia itself is a powerful force. Keeping on doing what we're doing is often times much easier than stopping and doing something new. Also, change is scary. In addition, both of the examples are about money- for the reality show subjects, the studio, the author, and the publisher. 

I experienced what happens when you don't say "the end" soon enough in my own career. For several years I was in a job that was very good for me professionally and personally. Then, in a series of management changes that even to this day I'm not sure how they happened, it became a horrible job. At first, I did my best to change the situation, however, I eventually realized what would have to change in the situation was me. I had to leave. It was to the point that I told myself I could leave without another job if I didn't find a new one by a certain date, not a decision you should make lightly. Looking back, I tell people my mistake was that I stayed 3 years too long. Interestingly, not long before the management changes, I got an invitation to explore another career opportunity that was potentially a really good fit. At this time, I was comfortable and happy in my job. I regret to this day that I didn't explore the option. I don't know that it would have been the right path for me, but I'll never know because I didn't look into it.

My hope for you and for myself is that as we go through life, we will pay attention to signs that things are at their end. Change is scary, but staying too long in something is far worse in the long run.