Category Archives: Deep Thoughts

I think…therefore I’m dangerous.

Message from a Reader

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This is the kind of crap I put up with.

Some people really need to get a life. Like this guy, Mike, who took time out of what must be a very boring existence to write me this e-mail:

Look, you and people like you have got to STOP spreading crap like your mouse story around. Seriously, I understand your point of view and if I got to to fly a helicopter around when I wanted to I may adopt your point of view. The problem is that 99% of us DON’T!!!

It matters not what you write… whether it’s a novel or just get up on your soapbox and subletly tell others there moral duty in an internet story about mice. Some responsiblilty should be utilized.

I (and others like me) can not shuttle these vermin to an estate in the GC!! In fact, many suffer disease and health problems from these little bastards, myself included. Remeber the plauge???

Please think of the consiquences of your words.

Seems to me as though you are already full of shit.

Wow. For someone who doesn’t care, he certainly seems to care.

Amazing how a simple post about mice can get a guy so riled up. I guess he really hates the little critters. He should get a job as an exterminator.

Normally, I just delete crap like this. But this one was so spectacular with its exclamation points and question marks and misspellings that I just had to share it with the 1% of readers (by his estimate) who actually do care.

And if anyone reading this agrees with Mike, here’s a solution for you: stop reading this blog. Because no matter how much hate mail you send me, I’m going to write whatever the hell I want to here.

Support Our Troops

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A rant followed by step-by-step instructions for those who care.

I need to start this article with a statement: I do not support the War in Iraq. I think it was a mistake. I also think that the tragic loss of lives — our service men and women and Iraqi civilians — is a tragedy. This is not up for discussion here and if you post a comment trying to argue with me about it on my blog, I will delete the comment. Write your own blog entry about this issue if you feel so strongly about it.

That said, even though I don’t support the war, I do support our troops. The men and women in our armed services are making incredible sacrifices — sometimes even the ultimate sacrifice — to do their duty and serve their country. They’re living in cramped quarters, often without simple luxuries — lip balm comes to mind — and looking forward to the day they can come home to be with their families and friends and rebuild their lives.

Yet while they’re overseas, getting shot at and blown to pieces by roadside bombs, we’re all comfortably at home watching Dancing with the Stars and the latest reality TV crap in front of our wide-screen TVs, complaining about gas prices and our jobs, and spending our money on trivial things that we don’t really need.

Got a Minute?

Yesterday, I got an e-mail message from my friend Joe (not his real name). Joe is a good guy who means well. Like a handful of other people, he forwards jokes and other interesting tidbits to me via e-mail. The jokes are usually pretty funny, but not reprintable here. Many of the tidbits are Democrat- or Hillary-bashing exercises written up by some Republican party-liner to spread the hate. Some of the other tidbits are calls for action, like the one subject-lined “Got a Minute???” that arrived in my e-mail box. (And yes, it did have three question marks.)

The e-mail pointed me to a Xerox-sponsored Web site where you could design a card for and it would be printed and sent to a random service man or woman for free. Here’s the text of the message:

If you go to this web site, www.LetsSayThanks.com you can pick out a thank you card and Xerox will print it and it will be sent to a soldier that is currently serving in Iraq . You can’t pick out who gets it, but it will go to some member of the armed services.

How AMAZING it would be if we could get everyone we know to send one!!! This is a great site. Please send a card. It is FREE and it only takes a second.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if the soldiers received a bunch of these? Whether you are for or against the war, our guys and gals over there need to know we are behind them…

This is wrong on so many levels:

  • This is obviously a public relations ploy by Xerox to make them look like the “we support our troops” good guys. It may seem like a huge effort by Xerox, but the cards you create online are sent to another support organization that randomly sticks them in boxes already going overseas to the troops. So for the cost of a few color printers and consumables, Xerox looks like a big supporter.
  • Can Americans honestly achieve the warm and cuddly “feel good” feelings they’re evidently trying to achieve by clicking a few buttons and filling our a form on a Web site? Is this an appropriate sacrifice to show support for our troops? It’s free and it takes a minute. Is this what we’ve sunk to? We can support the troops by visiting a free Web site and taking “a minute” to create card?
  • How do you think our service men and women really see these cards? These are machine-generated cards with a handful of standard “thank you” wishes. It’s the equivalent of handing a box of Hallmark cards to a stranger. Does it have any meaning? Do you honestly think the service people who get them feel adequately thanked when they get one? Or insulted that that’s the best we could do?

Amazing? That Americans can take a minute out of their day to click a few buttons on a Web site and send a free card? Pretty sad, if you ask me.

Now, I’m not stopping you from visiting the Web site and sending cards. Go right ahead. But don’t stop there.

True Support Takes More than a Minute

As you may have gathered, Joe’s e-mail pissed me off. I responded rather harshly, which will probably offend his Republican sensitivities. Although I don’t mean to hurt his feelings, sometimes you need to be harsh to bring people back to reality and help them see more of an issue than they already see.

But since I don’t feel that it’s right to criticize one solution without providing a better one, I spent about an hour doing my homework and came up with a better idea for folks interested in truly making a difference in a deployed soldier’s life.

I found a Web site called Any Soldier (www.anysoldier.com). It collects e-mail messages from real soldiers and marines in real military units. These service people explain where their units are based, what living conditions are like, and what kinds of things they need or want to make their lives a little nicer. The person sending the e-mail represents a group and has agreed to distribute any material addressed to “Any Soldier” at his or her address to the soldiers that most need or want these items.

Here’s an example e-mail posted on November 25:

Hi and thank you for this wonderful website. I am the leading petty officer for the Medical Department of the USS Tarawa. We are currently on deployment to the Gulf. I have many sailors who are not receiving packages/mail. This is causing a little dip in moral. Even though some families send extra stuff in the mail, it doesn’s even come close to covering all sailors out here. The following are a few items we deem a luxery out here:

Flushable baby wipes, female and male razors, body lotion, Sunscreen (30+ SPF), Lip Balm/gloss, Tiger Balm (for stiff muscles), or any muscle rub, White cotton crew neck t-shirts: S/M/L, Gum, Dental floss, Toothpaste, ponytail holders, bobby-pins (black/brown), Playing cards, Books (mystery, sci-fi, history), Movies (DVD), Music CD’s, writing paper, pens, pencils, post cards, Lysol or Clorox disinfecting wipes, Hand sanitizer, Q-tips, cotton balls, beef jerky, magazines (women and mens), sewing kits, instant coffee, cool-aid packets (single serve), crystal light single serve drink packets, tea, kleenex (tissues), double-sided tape, crossword puzzles.

Thank you so much!! We really do appreciate your support!

Respectfully,

HM1(SW) [omitted]

Get the idea? An e-mail like this makes it possible to send a custom care package to service people who really need them. And look at these items! Lip balm, playing cards, Q-Tips, pencils! The cost of many of these items is trivial, especially when purchased in bulk at a place like Costco. But if they’re simply not available to these people where they’re deployed, they’re priceless.

Sending a care package sure sounds a lot better to me than sending a machine-generated greeting card.

Spend a Few Minutes and a Few Dollars

Here’s how you can read the e-mail messages from soldier in this program and get their deployed addresses to send them packages.

  1. Go to http://www.anysoldier.com/WhereToSend/.
  2. In the left column of the page, click the name of a soldier who has recently submitted an e-mail message.
  3. The message appears in the main part of the window. Read the message.
  4. If the person represents a unit you’d like to support with a care package, click the HERE link near the top of the page to get that person’s address. You’ll have to fill in a form with your contact information — I’m pretty sure this is for security reasons. When you submit the form, the address is e-mailed to you.
  5. Repeat this process as desired. You can request up to two addresses per day.

The soldier’s message page lists all of the e-mail messages that soldier has sent, so if a soldier has sent more than one message, you can read them all on one page. You can also see how many times that soldier’s address has been requested.

You can also donate to AnySoldier.com. Your donation helps keep the Web site alive. However I believe that if you have limited financial resources, they’re best spent sending items to the soldiers themselves.

Some Notes on Shipping

When the address for the service member arrives in your e-mail in box, it will include some links. Click the one beside “Restrictions to this address.” A Web page with additional shipping information appears. This is important information because it will provide additional details you’ll need for shipping. For example, the above-quoted service member’s location does not allow packages addressed to “Any Soldier,” etc. and must be accompanied by customs Form 2976-A if it weighs more than 16 ounces.

Although sending a care package to a deployed military unit does require you to do some extra paperwork, it really isn’t that much of a hassle. And it isn’t as expensive as you might think (from the U.S.), since you’re sending to a FPO address with a U.S. zip code.

Possibly the most cost-effective way to get a package to a deployed unit is with a U.S. Mail Priority Mail Flat Rate Box. This method of shipping costs the same ($8.95) no matter how heavy the box is, so you can fill it with magazines or books and it’ll still get there fast without costing you a fortune. (If you have a lot of printed material to send and don’t care how long it takes to get there, Media Mail is usually cheaper.) You can do all the paperwork to create and print a label, fill in the customs forms, and print postage right on the Postal Service’s Web site, www.usps.com.

All of the resources I’ve seen say that you must be quite specific about a package’s contents in the customs form. Packages may be X-rayed and if something inside the package looks suspicious and is not listed on the form, the package may be rejected or destroyed. Although you can make this easy by sending just a few types of items in a package, remember that this exercise is to provide support — not make your life easier. (If you want it easy, send a machine-generated card.)

When you package the items, be sure to keep edibles separate from non-editble or hygiene items. You wouldn’t want those cookies you baked tasting like deodorant when they arrive, would you? Also, be sure to fill empty spaces in the box with packing peanuts or air bags, etc. Shredded paper works, too. Be sure to properly pad any items that could be damaged in shipping.

And really get personal. Enclose a hand-written card addressed to the unit representative who took the time and effort to post the message on AnySoldier.com. Tell him or her what a great job they’re doing and how much you appreciate their efforts. If you don’t agree with the war, keep it to yourself — they don’t need to know that. Instead, just give them your wishes for a speedy and safe return home.

How can you get more involved?

First, spread this information to as many people who care about our service men and women as you can.

Contact your local school to see if the kids want to get involved by putting together care packages, drawing pictures, and creating cards for service members you can reach with this program. Ditto for your church group, if you have one, or other social organization.

If you’re on a budget and can’t afford to buy care package items or pay for the postage to send them, getting others involved in your efforts could be a good way to say your thanks. Take a copy of an e-mail from a unit representative and approach friends and family members for their contributions. You can do the leg work and let busy people help out with the cost. If you approach 10 people and they each contribute an item and $1 toward the cost, you can easily send a nice little care package to someone who will appreciate it.

How AMAZING it would be if everyone who read this post or got this information from someone else who did sent out a custom care package to one of these units!

Remember what the holiday season is really all about — giving, caring, helping, sharing. Do your part to support our troops in a way they can really appreciate.

Have You Sent a Package?

If you’ve sent a care package to a unit using Any Soldier or a similar organization, I’d love to hear from you. What was your experience? Please let us know by adding a Comment to this post. Please don’t use this space to share information about sites similar to the Xerox-sponsored site mentioned above. They don’t impress me and I think our troops deserve a lot more sacrifice on our part — time, effort, and even a bit of money — than these “free card” sites could ever offer.

Happy Thanksgiving

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A message from the right coast.

I’m in the New York area, celebrating Thanksgiving with family, so I won’t be blogging today. But I do want to take a moment to remind everyone why we’re eating turkey today: to give thanks.

Take a moment today and consider what you have to give thanks for. Whether it’s family or a good meal or a roof over your head or even something as simple as your health, be thankful for what you’ve got. And take a moment to consider those who aren’t quite as fortunate.

And, as always, my very best wishes to our men and women overseas. More than ever, I’m hoping for their speedy and safe return to their homes and loved ones.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Telecommuting: One Solution to Slow Global Warming

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And I don’t understand why no one sees it.

Later this morning, I’ll have the joy of joining thousands of other drivers on I-17 as we head southbound into Phoenix from points north. It’s a typical Monday morning, so I expect traffic to back up in the typical places — a few miles short of the Loop 101 intersection, down around Glendale Ave, at the “Stack” and “Mini-Stack,” at the Durango Curve, etc. The only thing that’ll make this trip to the airport tolerable for me is that my husband will be with me in the car and we can take advantage of the HOV lanes set up for carpoolers along part of the route. We’ll speed by the thousands of cars with only one driver in each one, getting to our destination in an almost normal amount of time while they take 50% longer to reach theirs.

Obviously, one of the best ways to slow global warming caused by auto emissions is to reduce auto emissions. You can do that by encouraging people to buy more fuel efficient cars, but you’ll always find people who need that status symbol Hummer or other ridiculous SUV in their driveway. (You know, the one with the shiny chrome extras that has never been off pavement?) You can do that by encouraging car pooling by adding HOV lanes to the highways. (You can see how well that works on the commute into Phoenix each day; ask the folks in New Jersey about their HOV lanes.) You can do that by encouraging people to live closer to where they work. (But with people changing jobs more often than most folks change hairstyles, that’s difficult to maintain.)

But you can also do that by implementing a solid plan for telecommuting — making it possible to work at home or in a local telecommuting center instead of making the long commute to park their butts in an office or cubicle for the day.

The Benefits of Telecommuting

The benefits of telecommuting go far beyond keeping single-driver cars off the roads during rush hour. For example:

  • Telecommuters spend less time traveling to and from work, so they have more time to spend with their families and friends. This can improve their lives and reduce stress.
  • Telecommuters can easily “pop back into the office” to get a bit of extra work done when necessary, especially if that office is in their own home or neighborhood.
  • Companies that allow telecommuting can reduce the amount of office space needed because fewer people will be coming to a central office. This can save the company money.
  • Companies that allow telecommuting can pay lower salaries because telecommuting employees have reduced commuting costs. (My sister, for example, spends more than $500 per month to get from her New Jersey home to her Broadway and Wall workplace, which is less than 20 miles away.) Savings can be spent on the equipment the employee needs to work away from the central office, such as a computer, Internet connection, and/or telephone line.

Clearly a telecommuting program can help a business and its employees, as well as the environment.

Not Always Possible

Obviously, telecommuting is not possible for all kinds of jobs. A car salesman, for example, can’t meet and greet prospective customers while sitting in his home-based office. Someone who works in manufacturing, where job duties require assembling parts or checking quality needs to be at the factory with tools and materials to get the job done. Policemen, firemen, and ambulance workers must be on the beat or at their base of operations, ready to spring into action when needed.

But there are so many jobs — especially in our predominately service economy — where an employee’s physical presence is not required at a specific workplace. Salespeople can do much of their work on the phone and in front of a computer, with visits to customers and clients to close a deal or provide service. Customer service personnel can work from any location where they have access to a telephone and the Internet. (If we can ship these jobs out to India, why can’t we ship them to people’s homes or telecommuting centers in the suburbs?) Editors, writers, and production people don’t need to come to an office to get things done. As long as they have the tools to work, they can work.

And telecommuting doesn’t need to be an all-or-nothing proposition. An employee can work in a main office two or three days a week and work the remaining days at a home office or telecommuting center. He can share an in-office workspace (cubicle or office) at the workplace with another telecommuter on the opposite schedule. Just taking one day a week off a person’s commute — that’s 20% fewer miles driven — can make a world of difference.

The Mindset

Unfortunately, the mindset of employers and employees makes utilizing a telecommuting program difficult, if not impossible.

Many employers have a complete distrust for their employees. They feel that if they’re not looking over an employee’s shoulders, the employee must be goofing off.

While that might be true of some employees, it isn’t true for everyone. Many employees are responsible individuals who understand that they’re being paid to get a job done. It’s those people who should be given the opportunity to telecommute.

The way I see it, telecommuting is a lot like working freelance, but for one client: your employer. If your employer gives you a job to do and it can be done in the amount of time allotted, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t be able to do it, whether you’re at a centralized workplace or at home with the necessary tools.

If an employee cannot finish a job at the office, he should not be given the opportunity to telecommute. Instead, the employer needs to understand why the employee is falling short of goals. Are the goals unrealistic? Is the employee simply not up to the task? This needs to be established before telecommuting is offered to anyone.

Employers can get peace of mind about telecommuting by granting telecommuting privileges only to proven employees and then monitoring workflow to ensure goals are met.

For example, suppose a support staff member is expected to handle 30 support calls in a day. If given all the right tools at a remote workplace, he should still be able to handle 30 calls. If his output drops to a consistent average of 20 calls a day, this should set up a flag for the employee’s manager. Why has the output dropped? Are there additional tools the employee needs? Or is he wandering away from his desk to chat with neighbors or do errands?

Output will always tell the story and that’s what should be used to evaluate the success of a telecommuting program or a specific employee’s participation in one.

I also think that while in some businesses, telecommuting can be used as a reward for hard-working employees, in other businesses, it can be the way to do business.

After all, why do employers pay employees? To spend a certain number of hours sitting at a certain desk in a certain place? Or to get a job done?

Conclusion

These are my thoughts about something that has been on my mind for years now. My ideas are a bit disjointed and perhaps idealistic. But two of my three primary editors are full time employees for publishers who allow them to telecommute. One editor lives and works more than 1000 miles away from her main office. Both editors are able to get all of their work done in home-based offices. While this is just one example of telecommuting in action — editors in the publishing industry — there can and should be more.

Telecommuting can solve so many problems. Why don’t more employers consider it?

Thoughts on Freelancing

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An answer to a question posted on LinkedIn.

View Maria Langer's profile on LinkedInI was sifting through my e-mail in box this morning and found an update from LinkedIn. It’s the usual update that tells me what my contacts are up to. I saw that one of them had answered a question in the LinkedIn Answers area. It was a question that interested me:

Are most of the freelancers doing what they are happy to do?

The question went on to ask why we chose to be freelancers and, oddly enough, whether we’re “keen” to be freelancers if we have a full-time job. (Must be a Brit; don’t know anyone who uses the word keen that way.)

The question reminded me that there are a lot of non-freelancers out there, peeking at us from over the tops of their cubicles. They like what they see — people working their own hours and being their own bosses — but they don’t quite understand it. They think they want to be freelancers, but if they’re smart — like this guy is — they’ll do their homework first. His questions told me that he was just starting that homework. I wanted to help him get it done.

I logged into LinkedIn and offered the following response:

I started my freelance career in 1990 and haven’t looked back.

I like the idea that I get paid for what I do, not whether I fill space in a cubicle every day. I work harder now and get more satisfaction than when I had the big corporate job with the corner office.

Sometimes I work my butt off to get a job done on time. Sometimes I have multiple jobs requiring my attention. During these times, I work far more than 40 hours a week. But I’m getting paid for doing REAL work. And I’ll get more work based on how well I get each job done. I earn my pay and my job security.

When there’s nothing lined up that requires immediate attention or I’m taking a break between projects, I have the freedom to take time off and do the things I want to do. In my very flexible spare time, I learned to fly, I take road trips, I goof off. If a friend calls with an idea to spend the day and there’s nothing important on the front burner, I go. That makes freelancing worth it.

But there’s no such thing as a weekend anymore. If a job needs doing and the only day to do it is on Sunday, I work on Sunday. Simple as that.

You ask if we’re keen to be freelancing if we have a full time job. Don’t fool yourself — freelancing can be a full-time job. And don’t think about a freelance job if you have another full-time job. Isn’t your life more important than working 60 to 80 hours a week? Instead, let a freelance career replace a full-time job. Use it to improve your life, not make more stress.

But be prepared. When you’re your own boss, you’ll quickly learn the importance of getting the job done and making the client happy. If you screw up, there’s no one to blame except you. And there’s no one to rescue you, either.

Freelancing is not for everyone. If you’re a chronic procrastinator, stay in your cube — you’ll starve if you can’t deliver. If you’re afraid to sell your services or products, you’ll never make it as a freelancer. (There’s always something to sell and someone to sell to, even if you need to sell to the person who will sell for you.) If you think freelancing means a lot of free time without a boss looking over your shoulder, you got that wrong. The client or customer is the boss and you’ll probably work harder as a freelancer than you have in any other job you’ve ever held.

Is it worth it? I think so. But then again, I never did have patience for the 9 to 5 grind and its pointless office appearances.

(If telecommuting is available at your workplace, try that first. You’ll have the same regular paycheck and benefits and the same work but you won’t waste hours a day traveling to and from a central workplace office. Your quality of life simply has to improve — especially if your daily commute is more than an hour each way.)

Got something to add or perhaps a more specific question? Please use the Comments link or form for this post to share them.