Job Jollies | ***Dave Does the Blog

2020 in Review: The Christmas Letter

For the record …

For the record (and since I’ve been so lax at blogging here this year):

Well, that was sure a year.

COVID-19 dominated our lives in a dozen different ways, as it did everyone else’s. In our case, we went from Empty Nesters to a Fully Full House. First James came home from school for Spring Break … and never went back, as the school went all-remote for the rest of the semester and this fall. And, of course, all those cool summer archaeology programs and internships were canceled, so he did some remote learning classes.

Then, once he was home, Dave’s mom, Gloria’s retirement community went on indefinite lockdown, so we had her move in with us. Dave’s office closed, sending him off to Work from Home. So all four of us got to rattle around together for months until it was safer and easier for Gloria to move back to her place.

On that work front, Dave’s still busy doing chief-of-staff and program management work at [REDACTED], albeit from a laptop and spare monitor on the breakfast room table. He hit two years tenure there this December, and is quite happy about it. Margie continues as the Human Resources Data Governance & Management Lead for [REDACTED], and has been recognized for her achievements by being handed even more big high-visibility projects. She was already full-time Work from Home; the biggest difference for her has been no trips out to the corporate HQ in [REDACTED].

James’ college career at Scripps has been turned into endless Zoom sessions. Fortunately, in our connected world, he’s stayed in touch with his friends. He’s completed the first half of his junior year, and plans a semester abroad in Sweden, focusing on Viking studies. Our cats, Kunoichi and Neko, at least, have enjoyed all the extra company.

Aside from that, things have been quiet. No live theater, no restaurant visits, no vacation travel. We did fly out to Scripps for Parents Day in February, and Margie and James made an isolated drive out there in the summer to donate James’ car (which was just accumulating dust and car insurance bills in a college parking building).

Aside from that it’s been sitting at home, cutting our own hair, ordering delivery from local restaurants to help them stay afloat, having video happy hours with friends and family, and staying safe for ourselves and our loved ones. We miss traveling, having folk over for game parties, and we’ll miss our Twelfth Night party this year, but we’ve been blessed in not having anyone in our immediate circle die or face permanent health damage from COVID-19, and we intend to keep it that way.

So, all in all, not the best of years, but a memorable one — and one we lived through. As always, being together makes both the occasional bumps survivable and the good times even better. So a very Merry Christmas (and other seasonal holidays and celebrations) to you all, and a Happy New Year, too.

Happy Service Anniversary!

I started a new job a year ago today.

One year ago, I started at the New Employer.

Working for one company for 30 years, being laid off, finding a new job after nine months, being unemployed again six months later, and going for almost two more years without a job … was not a good experience for me. It had an impact that, even a year later, I’m only beginning to understand. I mean, it gave me an opportunity to do some good things (helping my mom move out to Colorado, doing stuff to help the kid during senior year, etc.), but the weight of Not Working … was a heavy one for me.

But … hey, a year on the new job is a good thing to flush those mental toxins, something to celebrate, and goes a long way to make up for the above. The job has been a good one — not unalloyed, but with plenty of potential for the future, and using (intermittently) the talents I wanted to bring to gainful employment.

The salary coming in has been pretty nice. But working in general — even “losing” that eight hours a day — has been even better.

Onward and upward!

Six Months!

And the job is going well.

When I was unemployed for so long, the idea of even getting a job, let alone celebrating a six month anniversary, seemed like such a far way away.

Today I celebrated six months in the New Job, which means, I guess, that it’s no longer new (as I encounter people now who have been around a shorter time than I have). In answer to the standard question, yes, I’m largely happy in it — there are aspects I care for less than others, but overall I’m satisfied to be working there, feel like I’m contributing, am learning more every day, am getting positive feedback from senior management, feel like the company is a good company that overall adds more to the world than it takes from it, and I once again have career hopes for the future that don’t end in living in an alley in a damp refrigerator box. So that’s all good!

Oh, and the commute is about 15 minutes by surface streets, at rush hour, which is very nice.

Not much more I can say. Gainfully employed, future prospects seem decent, feel good about what I do. Lots of people have a lot less.

SCOTUS takes on LGBTQ employment and Title VII

Is LGBTQ discrimination actually sexual discrimination? (I think so.)

The Supreme Court has agreed to hear a combined set of cases, based on differing rulings in US Circuit courts, as to whether Title VII of the Civil Rights Act protects LGBTQ individuals from employment discrimination — specifically, in these cases, whether an employer can fire someone for being gay.

The issue is whether Title VII of the federal Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits sex discrimination, protects LGBT people from job discrimination. Title VII does not specifically mention sexual orientation or transgender status, but federal appeals courts in Chicago and New York have ruled recently that gay and lesbian employees are entitled to protection from discrimination. The federal appeals court in Cincinnati has extended similar protections for transgender people.

While it’s almost certainly true that the congressfolk who passed the Civil Rights Act 55 years ago gave no thought to it protecting LGBTQ folk (indeed, I suspect that, had that been mentioned during legislative debates they would have carved out an explicit suggestion), it would not be the first time the letter of the law has been used to give new meaning to the law as society has changed, as new applications have come up, etc.

So, for example, Title VII has been used to prevent firings based on stereotypes regarding sex — regarding dress, hairstyle, behavior. “I fired her because she wanted to wear pants and I won’t have any pants-wearing women in my office” will get you in a load of trouble these days, because you are deciding to discriminate based on the sex of the worker and what you expect from them because of that. Or, put another way, if you would have a different criterion on what’s acceptable (wearing pants) from an employee based on their sex, e.g., only when it’s women doing it, not men, you are engaging in discrimination based on sex.

Various courts have taken this precedent to say that singling out sexual orientation (for example) as a basis for firing is also discriminatory — “I fired him because he kissed a man and I won’t have any man-kissing men in my office” is a parallel construction, and if your restriction on kissing men is only when it’s men who do it, not women, then it’s discrimination based on sex.

It’s a logical argument to me, but that “what would a congressman in 1964 have said” has also weighed on the various courts that have considered it. As SCOTUS takes up the challenge, how Trump’s two appointees, one of them very much an originalist, will weigh in on the cases is of particular interest.

Of course, all of this could be easily resolved if Congress passed a law explicitly adding sexual orientation and gender identity to the protected classes under the Civil Rights Act. But that seems highly unlikely, given GOP control of both the Senate and, of course, the White House.

The other wild card here is with the question — as it’s been so far ducked by SCOTUS — of whether “religious freedom” trumps such civil rights laws — allowing people with “sincere religious beliefs” to discriminate under the Civil Rights Act, most prominently against LGBTQ individuals, but also potentially based on sex, age, religion, etc. How that plays out will probably be an even more significant question.

Do you want to know more? Supreme Court to hear LGBT job discrimination cases | PBS NewsHour

Would you … like … to have … a … job?

Job interviews are inherently flawed — can a robot make them better?

As someone recently (and at length) on the job market, I have a keen interest in the recruiting process and the efforts by companies to improve it.

Is a robot interviewer an improvement?

tengai recruiting robot — Tengai, the robot interviewer (on the right)

Meet Tengai, the job interview robot who won’t judge you – BBC News

Huh.

So job interviewing is kind of crazy, largely because everyone along the line — from HR / “Talent Acquisition” to hiring managers to (if you are so unfortunate) the hiring manager’s boss is convinced that They Know How To Tell Who Is The Right Candidate.

But studies have shown that interviewers are actually pretty awful at picking out good candidates for the job — the criteria that interviewers use, beyond the questions asked, simply do not correlate with ultimate job success. Heck, I know that from my own hiring manager experience, and yet I would still resist any suggestion that I shouldn’t interview someone.

This creepy robot person … well, they have the advantage of skirting around extraneous issues — visual prejudices around dress or weight or race or other extraneous factors (recognized or not) — and first impressions that may or may not have anything to do with job success. And I now that I did video interviewing during my last j0b hunt that, while frustrating to me by not providing a conversational / interactive experience, might have eliminated some extraneous factors as well (or might not have, since I didn’t get those jobs).

A creepy robot may seem … well, inhuman and demeaning, but it’s not much worse than a written set of questions one is asked to respond to. And, honestly, also probably no worse than some of the utterly IT-clueless talent acquisition folk who interviewed me and were clearly going off of a script that they didn’t understand.

Bottom line, the whole job interview/acquisition model is deeply flawed, which anyone involved with it will tell you … but by the same token, nobody has any silver bullets to make it better, either.

Appearing Smart at Meetings

Here’s a handy (tongue-in-cheek) guide for how to appear smart at business meetings.

Some of these actually aren’t bad ideas — asking “will this scale?” regardless of what’s being talked about is funny, but confirming scalability (and sustainability) of solutions is a step that’s left out of too many meetings where it should be a key point.

Anyway, enjoy.

Kitchen Mis-Design

The New Employer moved into this building last summer, everything all new-designed and spiffy and fresh.

The kitchens are a disaster.

They’re huge, certainly — forty feet long, a dozen feet wide. You could hold a small party in here.

Entrances on either end, so traffic flow of that sort is okay.

One wall is taken up with fridges and food/drink you can buy.

But it’s this wall there’s a problem.

“But Dave,” you say, “it’s broad and spacious. Lots of drawers. Lots of cabinets. Lots of microwaves. Two dishwashers! A coffee machine! A water machine!”

But …

Everything is along one counter. So any activity that takes more than one spot means crossing along, across, around, behind, through anyone else who’s at the counter. Like, for example, getting coffee from the coffee machine, then adding half-n-half and sugar and stirring it, then throwing the stirrers and half-n-half container away. Or working at the counter on your lunch or tupperware container or something, or monitoring the toaster — and thus either blocking the tea/coffee creamer/sugar station, or blocking the trash cans drawers.

Want a paper towel? There’s someone putting stuff into the dishwasher who’s blocking your path. Rinsing out your coffee mug? People have to work around you.

If there’s more than one person in this kitchen, one of them will inevitably find someone else in their way. Which seems just crazy for a space so large. Something, anything … an island would have been a fabulous idea. Extending the counter along that short wall would have helped a lot.

Kitchen design usually calls for a “triangle” of locations people move between. This kitchen is just one line. It’s poorly designed.

(It doesn’t make me regret taking this job, of course. But it is a constant low-level irritant.)

“Get a Job! (sha-na-na-na, sha-na-na-na-na)”

Congrats to +James Hill on his first official paycheck-and-SSI-withholding job, at one of the local King Soopers (Kroger) stores, working graveyard.

They even armed him with a box cutter. Now that's scary …

(Musical Accompaniment: https://youtu.be/ysKhbaLyIFw)

Original Post

“Where Are My Clients’ Kids?”

So I've been taking project management classes. And I've run a lot of projects. And here's how you run a good project.

1. Understand the needs.
2. Figure out what you are going to do about it.
3. Build that solution, prepare for it, deploy the resources for it, test it, plan the deployment process.
4. Deploy it.
5. Monitor what's going on to make sure that the change took place well.
6. Declare victory and have a party.

The Trump Administration's execution of their "Zero Tolerance" immigration policy was do 2, do 4, do 6.

No really understanding of what's going on, certainly no planning or consideration of what it might mean, or what harm it might do, or even what the political fall-out would be.

Or, let me put it another way: If you are going to pursue a draconian policy that will clearly mean that kids will be torn away from their parents, then you must plan both for what is going to do with those kids and how you will reunite those kids and parents at the other end of that process.

(This assumes you have already done the moral calculus regarding this policy and decided that the existential threat to the nation outweighs the horror of ripping kids from their parents — and are ready to stand up and defend that moral calculus.)

Instead, the Trump Administration just set up the policy, and then started scrambling to find enough chain link fencing and empty warehouse stores and tent city sites to build on military bases, and then realized that they had to duck answers, then lie, then make up stuff, then start planning, then still lie about how parents would be reunited with their children.

(This is making the huge assumption that the principles involved actually give a flying fuck about moral calculus or pain-and-suffering or trauma. That this is simply being a bunch of bumbling ideologues who had no idea of what they were doing, and so did it really badly, as opposed to these being evil people who actually revel in suffering, or psychopaths who simply cannot empathize with it. Which, given the number of high ranking government officials on record before the fact talking about how this would be a fabulous deterrent against illegal immigrants, is probably a poor assumption.)

This story is from a Assistant Federal Public Defender in El Paso, Texas, who is having to explain to parents why he can't tell them where their children are, and to Federal Prosecutors why that's a question that they should be able to answer. It's worth reading.

washingtonpost

Original Post

Because OF COURSE the Trump Admin wants to roll back child labor laws

“Are there no work houses?”

Now, to be sure, what’s being discussed are some easing of regulations on edge cases, in the context of apprenticeships. The argument is made, for example, that if once someone turns 18 they can operate hazardous machinery full-time, why have stringent restrictions on an apprentice who is only 17½? Or 17? Or 16?

Well, maybe for the same reason we have other hard-and-fast cutoffs, even if you can point to individual cases where they don’t work. We don’t say, “Hey, since you can binge-drink at 21, then at 20 you can drink up to X amount of alcohol per day, under supervision.” Because the situation is inherently open to abuse.

And open to the slippery slope, too. Why stop at 16? And if it’s okay within an apprenticeship program, and if, well, keeping close watch on teens doing this stuff is hard, why not allow it outside of apprenticeship programs, so that all poor teenagers can work full time for their welfare, instead of just sponging off the system?

Are there ways that this could be done carefully, cautiously, in limited fashion, and in ways that won’t lead to teenagers being killed on the job? I’m sure there probably are. Do I trust that the Donald Trump Dept. of Labor is going to make sure that’s the case, vs. simply giving companies access to cheap teen-aged labor and justifying workfare requirements? I’m sure I do not.

Trump Administration Wants to Train Teens in ‘Hazardous’ Jobs
The Labor Department plans to unwind decades-old youth labor protections by allowing teenagers to work longer hours under some of the nation’s most hazardous workplace conditions, sources familiar with the situation told Bloomberg Law.

View on Google+

Back to School!

So this coming week, I’m back to school — five-day, 8-5 boot camp training for my PMP (Project Management Professional) cert. I’ve actually been managing projects and programs (and managing project and program managers) for a decade or two, but enough of the jobs I’m trying to get (and not doing so) seem to want that official “PMP” showing up on the resume that it seems necessary to do something about it.

I’m managing to do this via some federal grant money administered by the state through the county workforce centers for technology and engineering professionals who need (re)training to qualify for jobs in the current market.

I’ve been in company training courses a lot of times, but this is really the first Serious Training that Has A Big Test at the End that Actually Means Something since I was doing teaching credential work back in the (mumbleearly90smumble). So I’m feeling mildly stressed about the situation (more because of the certification test that will follow, as it seems to rely mostly on regurgitation of words and lists and stuff like that, rather than actual conceptual understanding, which is where i tend to do better).

Still, it’ll keep me out of trouble and off the streets. And be almost like a real job. 🙂

I also get a week-long ITIL Foundations class out of the deal (with certification testing, too), later in May. Oh, boy!

View on Google+

Fast away the Old Year passes

It’s been a… stressful year.

The biggest stress was the whole most-of-the-year-unemployed thing. Which would have sufficed, but there were enough other blood pressure pumped during the year — not even counting US political madness — to challenge my hypertension medication mightily.

On the other had, there was a lot of positive in 2017. Life with my loving wife. A kid who gets niftier with every passing year. Some satisfying writing in November (and elsewhen). One of the most enjoyable RPG campaigns I’ve played in perhaps ever. Teeing things up for a remarkable 2018.

And that year has so many possibilities. A couple of incredible trips. A new chapter with the kid heading to college. My mom moving to Colorado. And, one trusts, a new job.

Past realities. Impending possibilities. With friends and family to make it all worthwhile. I look forward to it.

(Picture from a few weeks ago. :-))

View on Google+

Perhaps I should get an exciting career as a warehouse worker

An executive networking group I’m in did some volunteer work at Food Bank of the Rockies this morning, helping pull donated goods (all corporate donations in our case) onto pallets, shrink wrap them, then identify what shipment they were for (mostly to food banks or religious groups that organize food distribution for poor in their communities).

In the course of the morning, the trio I was in loaded up six pallets six feet high full of light things (13 cases of Sriracha Cheez-Its! 30 boxes of Sweet Potato Flake Cereal) and not-so-light things (71 12-packs of Coconut Water! 12 20# bags of onions!), all for one particular organization. It was very tiring work, but interesting to see how it all worked.

FBR provides food relief for 30 Colorado counties and all of Wyoming, delivering close to 49 million meals a year. Volunteering helped me feel a part of that, which is a neat thing to do around the holiday season, but I suspect they can use help all year around. And I suspect there are other organizations of this sort in communities around the nation that could use help in these times.

(Also, they have a huge wall in the warehouse covered with giant checks — company X gives a $20K donation to the FBR, and there’s a photo op with the giant check, and they actually keep them here (after deposit, one presumes), mounted on the wall. It was kind of fascinating to see; not sure why I didn’t take a picture.)

In Album 12/19/17

View on Google+

Terry Tate: Office Linebacker

If an armed society is a polite society, then an office linebackered workplace would be a polite workplace.

Hmmm. Probably just as well not, but there are times when I’ve wish I could invoke such a spirit.

[h/t +Stan Pedzick]

View on Google+

This should be posted in every break room in the United States

If you empty the pot, and it’s not five minutes before quitting time for everyone, make more coffee.

Originally shared by +Les Jenkins:

I need to print this out and hang it up at work.

PHD Comics: The Office Coffee Flowchart
Link to Piled Higher and Deeper

View on Google+

So in case you’re of a mind

Any positive ju-ju, good thoughts, intercessory prayers, or well-wishes you might be inclined toward, I’ve got an important job interview Friday that I would not at all turn down a scosh of meta-whatever you want to toss my way.

I haven’t talked much about my unemployment and job search and that sort of thing, as it too often feels like either crying in my beer or kvetching about something far too many others are going through.

But … it would be nice for a number of reasons to be done with the not-having-a-job, and the particular position I’m interviewing for (final round, as far as I can tell) would be an excellent fit in multiple dimensions for what I’ve been looking for. So … yeah, ‘twould be nice.

More anon. Thanks!

View on Google+

Slides without Bullets

The problem with most PowerPoint presentations is that they are trying to serve two incompatible roles at once: visual conveyor of key information in support of the speaker, and documentation of what is being said.

It’s this latter role that gets people into trouble, creating multi-column, multi-colored blocks of bullet points in 10-point text, complete with arrows to draw connections between different points (because the connection is unclear). And while people are puzzling those slides out, they aren’t listening to the presenter. At which point, why not just hand out a document that has that info and be done with it?

If you really want to both communicate and include all that info, add the latter to the notes of each slide, and hand out a print-out (or electronic copy) of the deck afterward. It’s okay to want people to have all the detail for later reference, if that’s important.

Using PowerPoint to convey complex visual information in the middle of a verbal presentation is, in nearly all cases, a poor use of either the venue or the tool.

All of this means more work for the presenter: creating polished detailed material alongside simplified material (and the latter, winnowed down to capture the key concepts, is often the more difficult). But if it conveys the information you feel is important to convey more accurately and memorably, it’s probably worth that extra effort.

Google’s CEO Doesn’t Use Bullet Points and Neither Should You
Google’s Sundar Pichai gives a master class for creating simple, engaging presentations.

View on Google+

An Accomplishment!

I don't know that I'm doing more, or that I'm a "Master" of doing stuff, but I'm getting attaboys from Todoist, so that's kind of nice.

(Todoist is my to-do system of choice for stuff at the office. It's simple enough to keep track of things for me without a huge amount of overhead effort. After intermittent use on the last job, it's been working well for me for going on five months now on the new job, so take that for what it's worth.)

Todoist Karma: Master Level
Track, visualize, and improve your productivity.

View on Google+

Do interruptions actually improve productivity?

Which makes me wonder once again about the current "open office" fad (something I haven't minded, but which seems to drive some folk crazy).

Everything You Think You Know About Interruptions Is Wrong
Contrary to popular belief, interruptions have been shown to improve productivity, not impede it.

View on Google+

This is the funniest "Lord of the Rings" video I have ever seen

At least it is if you've ever worked in or around an IT project.

(h/t +Doyce Testerman)

View on Google+