Photo Memory of the Week
Posted: 2025 May 17
Face Photos from Readers
Thanks to John Whitman for this slightly dismayed face from downtown Ottawa.
This space is available for other submissions.
Category Archives: Management and Work
Is That the Best You Can Do?
Netflix traffic accounted for 34% of North America’s downloads during the busiest hours of the day this year. Drew Fitzgerald, Wall Street Journal, 2014 May 14 Maybe you already knew that Netflix accounts for one-third of internet downloads. But maybe … Continue reading
We Appreciate Your Business
Thank you for calling the blank-blank-blank. All of our associates/agents/technicians are currently serving other customers. We appreciate your business. Please stay on the line and your call will be answered in the order in which it was received. In the … Continue reading
We Know Where That Information Is
Have you seen a blue binder? From his glassed-in perch, the bulldozer operator frowns for a moment at the note in his hand, looks down suspiciously at the guy with the mop of curly hair who is looking up at … Continue reading
Instructor, Instructee
Learning (in part) not to accept responsibility for another’s problem, and not to need to make others happy with me, and to accept my own rightful authority in a job. He asked the same question six times. I was … Continue reading
Bee-beep, Bee-beep, Bee-beep
Working in a rental unit’s kitchen (hard to claim “cooking”), my irritation with a different microwave’s timer beeps causes me to consider my own skills as a supervisor. Bee-beep. I look around as the timer sounds off. What was … Continue reading
To Be? That is the Question
An article about elk advocates – no, strike that, “elf advocates” – gives me a whole new way to think about who I am. Elf advocates have joined forces with environmentalists to urge the Icelandic Road and Coastal Commission … Continue reading
All It Takes
Lessons learned about management from watching flash mobs. The woman stands composedly in the half-empty space in the middle of the vaulted rotunda, long hair pulled back in a tidy braid. Her unhurried removal of her overcoat reveals a military … Continue reading
The Non-post Post
After 9 straight 10-hour work days, my brain is in overdrive, skittering from the confessional, to AA, to the ShamWow! Bless me, Father, for I have sinned. It’s been nine days since my last timesheet. I shake my head — … Continue reading
Wolf!
A warning label about a silica-gel packet provokes anxiety, curiosity, and, finally, disbelief. Do Not Eat the Silica Gel. The warning on the pre-cooked bacon-bit package practically screams at me. In large lettering, Caps For Emphasis, it is, … Continue reading