Cubicle Farms Are Becoming A Thing of The Past

Most people do not like square boxed in particleboard "offices." Thanks to new technologies many career positions no longer need them. However, these remote working arrangements will completely depend on trust between employer and employee. Whether at an office or working from home, if an employee cannot be trusted to get things done without supervision, they do not deserve to have a job. Both employees and companies continue to discover that the web is revolutionizing the work environment.

Most people, myself included, truly believe they are or can be more productive and happier when working from somewhere other than the standard workplace environment. Whether it’s home, Starbucks or Barnes and Noble the increased use of virtual offices is demonstrating the value of losing the micromanagement in exchange for happier and more beneficial employees.

Thanks to the power of the web, anyone can be anything they want to be in life. A hiring manager gives you an opportunity. It’s up to you to capitalize on it and only one thing will define your career, and that’s your track record. Your office cubicle experience (”track record”) in the corporate world will be the deciding factor on rather or not you will make the switch from cubicle employee to virtual worker.

How To Build An Ideal Track Record

Rarely be sick, never be late, always be early and don’t give a disrespectful “why should I” attitude. Don’t abuse your break time or make excuses or waste time on the phone. Avoid arguments but don’t avoid giving your well thought-out suggestions or opinions.

Be dependable, trustworthy, and don’t loiter around the water cooler or kitchen gossiping. Follows company rules, policies, and protocols and give the extra ten percent by working past office hours occasionally.

Don’t get tipsy at office parties, don’t over shmooze your way into a power clique and don’t succumb to vicious rumors. In other words hold on to your ethics but realize office politics will help a career move forward.

Always strive to be the first team member project managers want to recruit for projects. Have the ability to communicate with everyone from the president of the company to the janitor of the company. The best managers and executive associates never disqualify an idea or opinion based on someone’s job title.

• Learn to listen, listen to learn and be an active member of the organization without becoming a drone.

As we’ve seen time and time again, the companies that adopt will lead the way to tomorrow, everyone else will only follow. Too many companies believe that employees should not be trained to be entrepreneurs for fear of losing them. However, retention rates can increase if employees do not feel the need to leave a company that provides them with an inner company entrepreneur ownership state of mind in relation to the work they do. On the other hand, employee must develop a solid track record and demonstrate they can be trusted working with no supervision.

For the employees who desire nothing more than entrepreneurship starting a business is no longer a risky dream. Employees wishing to make the transition from salaried employee to self employed can develop a business on the side as long as you don’t go after the same clients as your day job. This will only burn bridges and future networking resources and opportunities.

Conversely this will require an education. An education is invaluable to the success of your career. However, too many graduates depend on the illusion that what they learned in college or at a trade school learning foundation is exactly what they will do in the corporate world; it’s not. It is not something that prepares you one hundred percent for your career; it gives you the training you need to step into your career. The development of your career is solely up to you.

Experience (track record) results will speak for themselves when it comes time to seek the virtual office in exchange for the cubicle. Build slowly, listen, learn, take some chances so you can learn from both your success of risks and your mistakes from risks.

Soon you will be presented or you will be able to confidently ask for what you want. You may not conquer the universe, but you might have enough to live the comfortably, which is really the goal after all.

Cyber Tracker - Rhinoceros or Natual Disasters?

The Five Things I Learned Last Week

After typing, reading and re-reading and scrutinizing myself a half million times, I realized this week's list seems to be mostly about women's view of things …. Sorry guys, but it's bi$c! week. Maybe next week I will write a “guys are jerks” week.

1) A Series of Failures – Sometimes, procrastination is good

Ever had one of those days where nothing seems to go right? Ever had one of those weeks where all little things that wouldn't normally bother you upsets you because they all add up? Yeah, that was pretty much most of last week for me. It didn't help that I really needed to create an inventory of career profiles for the upgraded website and I just couldn't find the desire to do so or find the appropriate information needed.

"Never do today with a bad attitude what you can put off 'til tomorrow with a great attitude".

Why produce shitty work when you know it's going to be shitty work? Instead, put it off to the side and work on it again in the next day or two. This way you have a fresh approach and a clearer mind to do what needs to be done.

2) Sometimes, "nice" is worse than direct rudeness / manipulation

Remember those popular kids in high school, how they radiated an aura that just made you want to watch them and know them? If you were popular, than you don't know. However, if you were the "weirdo" like me, than you understand what I'm talking about.

The "popular kid" charisma always seemed to dance about them and hover around them as if they sweated charisma. They always seemed to be able to take charge of situations, to lead and direct and it always looked fun and they looked fabulous doing it.

Than one day, for no apparent reason, one of the "popular kids" comes up to you. They're super nice and next thing you know, they wanna be around you, like all the time.

Here's a hint that adults continue to learn and relearn repeatedly and I learned last week. Do they only call or email you when they want something? If they do… "nice" is worse than direct rudeness and or manipulation.

The problem with confronting these types of people is that they probably do not even realize what their doing. It comes naturally… and if you blow up over something that may seem trivial to others it will make you look like your taking things out of proportion.

So where does that leave you? Learn to recognize it and if it becomes bad enough, dump em.

If you're the caller…. Being manipulative takes unnecessary effort; effort that can be better used elsewhere, stop it.

3) Stop Trying To Be Everything - Women Should Be / Women Can Be The rule can also apply to men, but this is written is the view of women.

We are the daughters of feminists who said, "You can be anything".

But we heard "You have to be everything."

Kamy Wicoff has introduced the "sandwich" generation theory, where many women were raised both with feminist expectations and independent ideals but in an impressionable and often conflicting patriarchy. Thus, we get the feminine training to be everything to everyone and feminism ends up getting used against us to make us tap dance even harder and all while questioning ourselves

• "What am I supposed to be?"
• 
  
• "Who should I be loyal to?"
• "What should I do?"

Here are the answers

• Be yourself
• Be loyal to yourself
• 
  
• Do what feels naturals.

Woman should do whatever feels natural to them. Don't let what a man (or a self conscious / self hating women) change what feels right to you.

I know that's easier said than done and I have no doubt that I will continue to fall from the literary proclamation self confident wagon at least a few dozen more times in my life. But it is a good place to return to when you find yourself asking these questions.

4) You Don't Always Need To Doubt Yourself - Always keep your mind open to new ideas and fresh outlooks, but don't let someone tell you, you don't know anything about a subject that you know a lot about. Aka I hate doctors.

This is a topic I've bitch about previously and I'm doing it again because I hated the specialist I saw on Friday. She's a conservative consedending 'know it all' that believes she knows more about my body and what's going on with it simply because she's an over educated medical Librarian. On Friday, I was wearing sweats and a tank top, which means most of my tattoos, were visible. Her very first question to me was:

"How long have you been smoking?"

What? I told her I don't smoke and haven't smoked for over five years.

She than ran her eyes along my body as if some disease would jump from my body to hers. At that moment I should have left, but I didn't…

What I didn't say & should have:

"Who are you to judge my appearance and judge the kind of person I am and the activities I participate in based on my chosen venue of art?

Who are you to decide what is in my best interest? I am more than willing to listen to your theories, opinions and suggestions, but how dare you assume that what I do in my personal life is destructive based only my appearance.

How dare you assume that I know absolutely nothing about my body and or health condition. Especially after I have related to you in Layman's terms exactly what I know through numerous months and even years of personal research as well as collaboration with medical professionals.

I am not five years old and I do not appreciate being treated as if I just announced that the moon is made of cheese for all to believe.

Furthermore, I will make decisions based on informed and researched documentation and medial research, not on your governmental bought degree of memorized exam answers.

{deep breath}

I requested a new doctor at a different office later that day.

5) Don't Grow Up (completely)

I have a friend who is playfully immature and wildly weird and she is approximately five years older than me and yet fifteen years younger than me. If you've ever hung out with her you would swear she's drunk, but the truth is she never drinks alcohol. She's crazy in a good way.

She has her career and ambitions and is just as responsible as she is wacky and life loving. I think that's why I enjoy being around her. She isn't afraid of being herself and doesn't care what other people think of her. In addition, she knows she's not perfect and often questions and asks for other people's opinions in specific topics of her personal life. She makes mistakes but doesn't allow those mistakes to prevent her from living life, being wacky and trying again.

I've been told on different occasions that I'm young at heart and positively immature. While I do take those as compliments, the world in general doesn't seem to understand that you can be both childish and be taken seriously. Women seem to be especially condemned when the title Free Spirited is attached to them. Curious, I researched what is attributed to the keywords 'Women' & 'Free Spirit'. The internet search engine results I received were mostly disappointing.

The most common blog, websites, opinion and or references attributed to 'Women' & 'Free Spirit' regarded women as shop-a-holics looking to purchase 'Free Spirit' theme items, sluts, liars, ugly women and or women who deteriorated men in some form.

I wasn't meaning to go into an off topic of disagreement about how wrong this stereo-type is; but to prove that being young at heart is still looked upon as some mythical spirituality that only the truly gifted are capable of obtaining. Do I really need to shout to the world that it isn't?

Don't put away childish things or activities… do them even more as adults. Don't go eating Play-Do or anything, but try new things

* Draw on the sidewalk in chalk

* Cover an old pair of shoes with silly drawings, glue stuff on them, paint them different colors and than wear them to the café for Sunday morning coffee and a bagel.

* Make a comic strip out of photographs that don't look so great in frames.

The point is, don't grow up too much and have some fun.

Extra helping of happiness

---> Annoying co-host Rosie is leaving The View in June

Kodak - Because they know it's grass! BOO ZHA!

The Five Things I Learned Last Week

Last week was a roller coaster ride I don’t want to go on again. I’m sticking to my belief that someone, some evil entity dropped a drama bomb on the entire southern California / Los Angeles county area and 99% of the population was affected; including yours truly.

If you don’t want to read all of my rambling on commentaries, skip to the bottom for this week’s

The Five Things I Learned Last Week

1) (Negative) Drama is bad – Try to ignore it.

I may seem like a cold-hearted {bleep}, but I have indeed turned my back and walk away from people, places and situations that were exceedingly negative, unhealthy and stressful and I never look back nor do I regret it.

In the last couple of months I’ve slipped. I'm not sure when it happened but I temporarily lost the ability to think like a Vulcan. Last week was proof that I need to remember what is important and remember not to sweat the small stuff.

I hate it when I turn into the drama-queen and I lose respect for myself as well as others in the fit of drama mud slinging. Too much of last week was spent in a sphere of drama and horse waste that didn't do me any good and blemished my vanity loving self with an acne break out. I spent too much of last week sucked into vortexes that weren't mine, that I didn't need to be in.

Drama is a drug, too much of it can rot the mind as much as any narcotic.

2) Excuses are lame

The world is full of excuse makers, blame shifters, people lacking in self worth, attention needy people, etc. There's no avoiding it unless you live in a cave and decorating caves is costly and often lonely.

I decided last year that I wanted to like me all the time, not just 75% of the time. In order for that to be accomplished, I decided to stop allowing excuses to infiltrate my brain and emotions. Last week I fell into the “why I can’t or shouldn’t” pattern. No more of that!

In addition, although excuses can be genuine, more often than legitimate, people use excuses as a way to entice unnecessary drama and or avoid some unknown inner turmoil with themselves or others. I don’t have time for excuses. I will absolutely encourage you and give you reasons and solutions to how and or why you can do something… but if you come up with tenuous excuses on why you can’t do something; than you can’t by your own admission and I’m not going to try further to convince you that you can.

Solutions, not excuses!

3) Laugh and the world laughs with you

…and if they do not, than they don’t get it and that’s their loss, not yours.

One of the things I take some measure of pride in, is the occasionally comments I get from total strangers in my everyday life commenting about my smile and or humor at life. Smiling is great and often when someone looks at me as if they’re looking at a 1970’s punkster inside a Saks Fifth Avenue, I smile. I either get a warm smile back or acknowledgment that they realized I noticed them staring at me. Either way it’s amusing.

Occasionally, my sarcastic but witty remarks produces the person or people directly around me to laugh or start a mini conversation about the occurrence that could have ruined their day…but because I turned it into something humorous, they laughed about it. That’s the best compliment I can get from a person.

Last Friday night friends of mine and myself went to a movie night for old cheezy movies. If you have never seen the original House on Haunted Hill, you have to see it for the cinematic drama and one-liners. Vincent Price is at his absolute best in House on Haunted Hill. Avicado & I stayed to watch Saturday the 14^th and it was better than bad, it held all of the cheeziness I was expecting and more so.

My favorite comment came from Avicado regarding the scene when a police offer tries to subdue the Black Lagoon spoof monster from the movie.

“MAN! The police always trying to hold back the brother from the black lagoon!”

- Avicado

(Still laughing)

Learn to Laugh, Learn to Live. Don’t just exist.

4) Reason number 7 on why you should always wear cute underwear no matter what.
April 9^th 2007: Wind

If you work in a plaza / galleria like I do, you may have tall buildings on either side of you as you walk from your office building to the parking garage. If this is as true for you as it is for me, known that this is a man made wind tunnel... aka a great way to see women's undies in high winds.

When it truly sucks is when your chatting with a really good looking guy with physical attributes you enjoy, joking about the wind... when all of a sudden, {wooosh} and if your smart, you can come back with the witty comment

“at least I'm wearing cute underwear”, which thankfully (oh thank you gawd) I was.

Wind Gust: 43 mph / 68 km/h / 19.0 m/s

Friend asked me when I told him about the incident: “What about the Bridget Jones corollary?”

My Response: I reject Bridget Jones!

Fredericks of Hollywood & Victoria's Secrets could have easily raked in thousands of dollars from skirt wearing femmes by putting up a big freaken sign that said:

“Today Only - 'The 43mph Wind Gust upskirt Sale'

"Don't be caught in Bridget Jones type underwear!"

5) Forgive, Forget & Move On

Sometimes, actions and good intensions should hold precedence above conversations.

I have a friend who has no difficulty in telling me when he thinks I’m wrong. In truth, I love him for that, it keeps me in check with my faults and forces me to work on them. With that proclamation out in the open, know that if I get mad at (you) someone I care about, it will only last for a short period of time. I like my friends too much to hold something against them…and I know I've done plenty of things myself, where I've had to ask forgiveness and it was (most of the time) given.

Life is too short to hold grudges.

Than again, sometimes things are said or done that seem so atrocious at the time that I believe I will never speak to that particular person again. However, the person than does or says something that proves me wrong and I don’t mind being proved wrong.

In summary:

1) (Negative) Drama is bad – Try to ignore it.

2) Excuses are lame – Solutions, not excuses.

3) Learn to Laugh, Learn to Live. Don’t just exist.

4) Always wear cute underwear no matter what.

5) Life is too short to hold grudges.

It really is that easy

Bad Business - Changing Your Truth