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June 13, 2014
Did we all die and go to Hallmark?
"Praise empowers people, criticism intimidates, ignoring confuses."
--Via LinkedIn mail this morning
Died and went to Hallmark. That's the feeling we had when we read this somewhat Orwellian sentence quoted immediately above. A few inches below, you see the cheery declaration again, this time in its original form, and the way it appeared this morning on the happy, positive thumbs-up image. Just two other things. First, we prize solving hard problems for customers. That's what we do. It's what any services provider does. Second, we would never build, and would not feel comfortable spending any time around, a workplace culture that: (1) praised employees for no reason except to make them feel good, (2) withheld criticism (even harsh criticism) from employees to avoid hurt feelings, (3) expected senior people and supervisors to worry about the effect of every word and action on employees, and (4) otherwise put employees ahead of customers.
Have a nice weekend, everyone. Whether you are working or playing, don't hold back.
Posted by JD Hull at 01:31 PM | Comments (0)
June 10, 2014
Marché aux Fleurs Reine Elizabeth II.
On D-Day, June 6, 1942, King George VI was England's king and his eldest daughter, Princess Elizabeth, had just turned 18 in April. During D-Day celebrations in Paris last week, Queen Elizabeth, now 88, visited the 206-year-old Flower Market on Ile de la Cité, the island in the Seine recognized as the historical center of Paris. From the Paris blog Peter's Paris, by Peter Olson.
P. Olson
Posted by JD Hull at 01:06 PM | Comments (0)
Show of hands. How many of you in the last year have been menaced by an iPhone?
I'll be brief. More than a year ago I switched from Blackberry to iPhone--and for months I've been a robo-spazz. Late one night in April, I was in my bedroom trying to change the main mail app on the iPhone from Outlook to Gmail and started up my vintage 1987 Saab Turbo 900 parked in the garage. True story, mainly. Am I alone in this? Is your iPhone messing with you, too?
Posted by JD Hull at 05:28 AM | Comments (0)
June 09, 2014
Europe's ever-shapeshifting antisemitism just got even lower: "We'll do an oven load next time."
It's very clear what Jean-Pierre Le Pen "was thinking". He's done this kind of thing before. And at 85, the French National Front Party's founder doesn't get a pass on grounds he's a really old French right-wing fascist. When this story broke yesterday, I had to read it twice as I assumed I had misread it the first time. Here's a update at this morning's WSJ: "Jean-Marie Le Pen Comments Stir Outrage in France". It's hard to offend me with speech, but this did. Read both stories. Amazing.
Jean-Marie Le Pen
Posted by JD Hull at 10:42 AM | Comments (0)