« January 10, 2010 - January 16, 2010 | Main | January 24, 2010 - January 30, 2010 »
January 19, 2010
Sarah Kate Silverman doesn't like PC, either.
Sarah Silverman is saucy and attractive, too. If you don't think that's very important, you're wrong--but you can write us an angry letter, not invite us to parties, or tip off Nina Totenberg and NPR.
The Future is Not for Weenies. We have this Vision of It:
When politically-correct culture, and other goofy forced-conformity social agendas wane and disappear, you will be able to say what you want. (Okay, anything that puts kids at risk--and about Mothers--will not be fair play.) You will use words like "secretary", "stewardess"--and even "stew", if you've had a few drinks on the plane.
If you're a lawyer, you will start using the term "Chinese wall" again. You will be able to swear, and loudly, in the workplace, and start war stories with: "You know, I had this case in the Southern District, back in 1987, when men were men."
After the Revolution, you will be able to flirt, and be playful and even a tad eccentric, at work.
If someone you work with is lazy, you will be able to say things like, whoa, that dude Josh "is lazy" rather than have to say it's so awesome that Josh is "low profile/independent/a team member requiring minimal face time/empowered by his flexible hour arrangement/a pioneer in work-life balance".
The expression "Not Work-Oriented" will be okay, too.
Using "not work-oriented" rather than "lazy" is also a proven attention-getter. Granted, it's too indirect. It's soft. Sounds a bit PC. But think of it as a transitional term you can employ until people start saying what they mean.
For example, we have used "not work-oriented" frequently in recent years in telephone conversations with people, unknown to us, who check references, of former employees, who we know too well. Saying that your ex-employee Kendall, who had top grades at Dartmouth and Duke Law, and had interviewed well, is "not work-oriented" is easier, faster and frankly more fun than struggling through on the phone with:
Mr. Bloor, it just wasn't a 'fit'. Kendall has many gifts. But we always knew she would flourish more in an alternative work setting where, you know, team members were, uh, not required to do any work per se, or actually perform, or add value. You know what I mean.
After the Revolution, you will also be able to use your real name when you give your opinion in the ether of the Internet.
In fact, anonymity will be banned--and reserved for rape victims, Iranian and Cuban dissidents, Ned Beatty "Deliverance" casualties, and the ballot box at primary and general elections. You will be able to utter all manner of potentially rude, offensive, defamatory and even straight-up tacky things--but you will take responsibility by backing it all up with your real name.
More great news: In the New Order of Things, long after PC culture has dissipated and died, the Seas will not turn Red. No One will go to Hell. The Family Unit will not Implode. The Clintons won't Abduct Your Kids.
You get the idea. We don't like "PC culture" that much--sane First Amendment people of any political persuasion never do unless to make fun of it--and so we do cherish Sarah Silverman.
Right now, America needs shock troops. Yanks don't think much on their own anymore. So Sarah's our girl.
Besides, Sarah is saucy and attractive. If you don't think that's important, you're wrong--but you can dash off an angry letter, not invite us to parties, or report us to Nina Totenberg and NPR.
Silverman's also a fine comic, writer, actress, musician, and rebel's rebel who never met a taboo she did not like.
While at first blush Silverman's humor may seemed based on stereotypes, she's smart and ironic, not mean, and an unrelenting satirist of life and priorities in America.
Meet Lenny Bruce's adorable grandchild who has escaped from Scarsdale, New Canaan or Shaker Heights and now has a bunch of uncomfortable questions for us all. She's going to ask them, e.g., "Sell the Vatican, Feed the World".
Let's see, what else?
Her sister is a Rabbi. But Jesus is Magic? She's ethnically Jewish--but for years allegedly wore a St. Christopher medal from her boyfriend Jimmy Kimmel ("It was cute the way he gave it to me. He said if it doesn't burn a hole through my skin, it will protect me...").
She claims ancestry from Hungary, Poland, France and Slovakia. She does not drink. For you snobs, she graduated from a prep school in New Hampshire. She attended NYU. She turns 40 this year.
How about this: Can we run her for Congress in, say, California, New York, or New Hampshire, this year or 2012?
That might help move things along.
Posted by JD Hull at 02:45 AM | Comments (0)
January 18, 2010
Dude, where's my MLK Day?
UPI reports that, in Cincinnati today, "Construction work faces MLK Day protests". It's nice to see that Americans everywhere remember and honor a great man and world leader. But implying that people who want to work today cannot work on a public school construction site?
Hey, Cincinnati NAACP Chapter, we love you. We love Dr. King. We love the Queen City. But the entire U.S. in not yet a nationalized Oberlin College. Not yet, anyway. Get the net. Excerpt:
CINCINNATI, Jan. 18 (UPI) -- An NAACP official said Cincinnati Public Schools construction sites faced protests Monday because of work taking place on Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
Christopher Smitherman, president of the local chapter of the NAACP, said while students and school staff had off for Monday's holiday, construction workers were busy working on the day honoring the fallen civil rights leader, The Cincinnati Enquirer said.
"The public school offices are closed, the teachers are not working, the children are home from school, but, for some reason, Cincinnati Public Schools allows this work to go on on Martin Luther King Day,'' said Smitherman, whose fellow NAACP members were joined by Baptist Ministers Conference officials Monday.
School board president Eileen Cooper Reed defended the construction work on the public holiday, saying the administration allowed contractors to decide whether or not work would take place Monday.
"These are for the most part hourly employees,'' Reed said of the construction workers. "If they don't work, they don't get paid. There are a lot of people working today."
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 12:59 AM | Comments (0)
Greenfield: When is anonymity "all talk, no responsibility"?
"Okay, kids, get your learn on. Today we will learn about the right of all Americans to throw stones at your house and run away like thieves into the night." Do see "All Talk, No Responsibility" at Scott Greenfield's Simple Justice. It's a piece we wish we had written about a new U.S. Supreme Court case (cert. just granted) that we will follow. Doe v. Reed, No. 09-559, concerns the "right" of Washington state petitioners to be anonymous after successfully bringing a referendum to the ballot for the November 2010 general election. The referendum seeks repeal of a controversial law on domestic partnership rights. Frankly, we could care less about the law at stake here. (We haven't read it.) The item on the ballot is not the issue. Anonymity in "getting it there" is. The Supreme Court's decision is expected early this summer.
Posted by JD Hull at 12:59 AM | Comments (0)
Hassan: You can't teach attitude.
Sorry--but I'm no Stephen Covey. Most employees cannot be "saved". Burning inside 99.5% of all employees worldwide is an overwhelming ambition to Get Home, Eat Twinkies and Watch Wrestling.
What About Clients?, July 2, 2009
But some of us keep make-believing we can "inspire" attitude. We get hurt. Worse, buyers, customers, and clients get hurt.
This MSNBC video is worthwhile. The attitude "can't be taught in a course" part starts at about 2:50. A native of Pakistan, Fred Hassan was chairman and CEO of Schering-Plough from 2003 until late 2009, when in merged with Merck & Co. (Merck Sharp & Dohme Corp. outside of North America). Hassan is now on Time Warner's Board.
Nearly everyone sane believes what Hassan is saying. But hardly anyone (except maybe Jack Welch) has the sand to both say and act on it. You don't need to be mega-rich and have attended HBS to tell the truth. Straight talk is not a luxury of the world's elite.
Say it out loud first: "Very few humans will amount to the dream employees my customers and my firm want and deserve."
To be sure, "nice", "intelligent", "good", "talented" and even "brilliant" is not enough. It was never enough. You need people on fire. Is that what you have? Do you feel as though you have to demand quality? (If "yes", a bad sign.) Are you hiring and keeping people who are poor to mediocre--and then "pretending" they are good or will come around? (If "yes", a bad plan.)
Unless you have it in writing from your buyers, customers and clients that retaining "so-so" employees thrills them, get a new strategy.
Posted by JD Hull at 12:57 AM | Comments (0)