Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Office peeves revealed

Another interesting article

New York - Work colleagues who spend their day gossiping, organising their home lives, or who press "reply all" on e-mails are among the biggest nuisances in the office, according to a survey released on Monday.
A poll on the biggest pet peeves in the workplace by market researcher Harris Interactive found 60% of 2 429 US respondents listed gossip as the biggest annoyance.
The online survey, conducted for staffing firm Randstad USA, found the second biggest peeve at 54% was poor time management which included people making personal phones calls at work or surfing the internet during work time.
Messiness in communal spaces, such as unwashed dishes in the kitchen sinks, irked 45% of respondent while potent smells like perfume, food or smoke came in fourth in the list with 42%.
Rounding out the list of seven office peeves came loud noises such as speaker phones, loud talking and loud phone ring tones at 41%, overuse of electronic personal communications devices in meetings at 28% and misuse of e-mail at 22%.
Behaviour unchanged
Eric Buntin, managing director of marketing and operations for Randstad, said the survey indicated people had not changed their behaviour as office layouts changed, becoming more open,so people heard colleagues talking and knew more about theirhome lives.
"If you were sitting in your office with the door closed no one would be able to hear you unless you were very loud but if you open the door then people hear everything, blurring the lines between personal and work lives," Buntin told Reuters.
"People are not taking into account that the workplace is very open now and they need to think about that interaction with their colleagues."
He said the misuse of e-mail was among the top peeves, with people particularly irritated when people e-mailed to "reply all" on an e-mail unnecessarily, or used blind carbon copying (bcc).
"And people who think e-mail is private? No e-mail is private. Everyone knows if they are bcc-ing an e-mail it is like standing up and shouting fire in the middle of a building," he said.
But when it came to taking action against the offending colleagues, people were not so willing to act.
About 42% said they would say something directly to a person being too loud but only 34% would raise their concerns about gossiping and only 25% address a person directly about misuse of e-mail.
- Reuters
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Dinner is Roast chicken with salad and watermelon- njam!!

Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Dealing with workplace babies


I was send this article- I think it is very interesting
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"A baby is an inestimable blessing and bother."
Mark Twain
By Michael Masterson

What do you do with a chronic complainer, an employee who is always
dumping his problems on you? Please note: I'm not talking about the
industrious individual who has a rare and significant problem that forces
him to come to you. I'm talking about whiners.
The ceaseless complainer takes your time. He steals your energy. And he
diverts your attention. If you try to help, you discover that the problems
seem to escalate. The more attention you pay to him, the more things he
finds to complain about.
Your impulse to help him is human, but troublesome. It is based on some
bad but commonly held ideas. For example:
The employee's job is to show up in the morning, willing to work. Your job
is to figure out what he should do, show him how to do it, and motivate him
to do it with enthusiasm.
There is something in the relationship of boss/employee that requires
caretaking. You are in a superior position. You make more money. You have
more power. You have control over some aspects of your employee's life.
This creates for you a responsibility. If he needs help, you should be able
to provide it. This notion is the workplace equivalent of noblesse oblige.

If you support such notions, you will get such behavior. The chronic
complainer will show up in the morning. But with a bagful of problems.
Unless and until you can solve them, he won't feel like he has to work very
hard. He'll do what he's asked, but no more.
Besides being misguided by the improper thinking described above, you may
be tempted to take care of such a person because you are challenged by the
problems he brings you. What is more fun than fixing something someone else
can't?
It's fun - but don't do it. If you make it a habit, you make two mistakes
simultaneously: You waste your valuable time by taking it away from a more
profitable endeavor, and you reinforce the nonproductive behavior of your
employee.
According to the experts, workplace babies are caused by workplace
mommies. If you resist the temptation to nurture and suckle each
employee-child who comes to you, you'll do yourself and your business a big
favor.
"People become babies because we let them. They'll kick up a fuss so we'll
do whatever they want," says Hank Trisler, author of No Bull Selling and No
Bull Sales Management. And Larry Schulz, author of Selling When You Hate to
Sell, says, "A child is quick to blame someone else. It's up to the manager
to point the employee in the right direction."
You don't have to be rude to the complainer. But you do have to let him
know that his complaints will not work with you. Listen briefly, but don't
indulge him. The main thing is to give the chronic complainer the message
that business is not about him and his problems. Let him know that the
solutions must come from him.
In the sales arena, most objections are merely camouflage for a deeper
problem: The complainer is afraid of something in the sales process. He
masks his fear by mentioning objections that he hears - and the objections
never end. The real problem is that he hasn't the guts to close the sale,
but he's afraid to say so.
"Lies are convenient because they keep [salespeople] out of action," Steve
Chandler, author of 17 Lies That Are Holding You Back, told Selling Power
magazine. "But a good sales manager can point out these falsehoods and
allow someone's self-esteem to keep climbing."
I've run into my share of chronic complainers over the years, and I have
tried all kinds of ways to respond to them. Basically, nothing works except
a firm and direct reorientation. You have to let them know that your job is
not to sympathize with their troubles but to demand and receive performance
from them. Ask them if they can understand that. If they cannot, fire them.
If they can, tell them very directly that the next time they have a problem
they need to do the following things before coming to you:
Ascertain the real problem. You don't want to waste time and energy fixing
situations that aren't really broken.
Define the problem as precisely as possible. The finer the definition, the
easier it will be to discover a solution.
Come up with at least three possible solutions.
Decide which is the best solution, and explain that decision.
Make this a formal procedure and enforce it. You may get a little
grumbling at first, but before long your complainer will be trained to
solve his own problems, and you'll hear from him less and less as time goes
by.
If you are lucky, he will retrain himself to be good at overcoming
objections. This will make him a much stronger salesperson or problem
solver.
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Dinner tonight is crumbed porktjops and salad

Monday, October 29, 2007

Contact Lenses


I haven't worn my contacts for a while as I was giving my eyes a rest after a bad eye infection.

Today I'm wearing it for the first time in 2 months- and all feels fine. It's also nice not to be wearing glasses after so long.


Dinner tonight is spaghetti bolognaise

Sunday, October 28, 2007

Botanical Gardens




We went for breakfast at the botanical gardens this morning with my mom and dad. It was a lovely day. And like a numbnut I forget the camera and couldn't take pics.grr
We are members of the Botanical Society so trips to the gardens are frequent :)


I did manage to take a pic of an oncidium we have growing in the house. Pierre and his mom has quite a knack for growing orchids- and we really are enjoying this fragile, beautifull flower.
I bought myself some lillies at the shop this morning. They are still closed. I will try and take a pic every day as they open. Cant wait to see what colour they are :)
Dinner was : Roast Beef,roast veggies,roast potatoes. Strawberries and icecream for desert. Njam!!




Saturday, October 27, 2007

Party,Party,Party


Sjoe- what a busy day. We had a babyshower in the morning. It was pouring in the morning,but luckily let up later- shame the kids wanted to go outside all the time-so I took them for like 10 minute breaks every now and again. I really didn't want them to get full of muck.

Then in the afternoon we had a birthday party for my friends 2 year old. She cancelled the jumping castle in the morning because of the rain- but luckily the rain stopped- so the jumping castle arrived.

The kids only ate sweets and chips the whole day- with the result that Carmen got as sick as a dog in the evening and had some bombastic nappies too boot. Blegh!!

No dinner- we had hamburgers at the party :)

Friday, October 26, 2007

Cramping my style



This dang oil allergy is cramping my style. I have discovered to my shock that I cant even have Provitas- it has oil in . Grrr






Tonights dinner is our traditional Fish and chips. Pierre very kindly grills my fish and makes me a salad.

Thursday, October 25, 2007

Busy Today


In fact so busy I cant think what to post.

I will leave you with a quote for your enemies. LOL

"May your left ear whither and fall into your right pocket"


Dinner tonight is Quiche with steamed vegs(decided salad was too cold)

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Conversations with a 2 and 4 year old


This morning I took the kids to school. So the conversations from the backseat went something like this:
2 year old- Why bird nest?
4 year old (peanut gallery) - Why does the bird have a nest?
Next question
2 year old- Why bird eat?
4 year old- Why is the bird eating?

LOL- It was great fun!!
Dinner tonight was : Roast chicken and couscous salad. The salad had couscous,cheddar cheese(better with feta cheese),tomato,olives,fresh rosemary and fresh thyme. The kids did not like the fresh herbs- but liked the couscous and cheese.

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Old Friends


How awesome is this?! A few months ago I made contact with an old school friend. She's just invited me to a birthday party for her son and says other old schoolfriends will be there- super cool!!

I'm quite excited :)
(Picture by Stan Moeller)
Dinner tonight was Beefolives,green beans,baby marrows and pattypans- The kids ate it! (shock horror-lol)

Monday, October 22, 2007

Piston Cup


WE WON!!!
How awesome is that- it was like new years day on Saturday night, everyone was hooting and shouting. Andrew (my son of 4 years old) calls the Webb-Ellis cup the Piston cup aka Cars LOL- He's very sweet.
Menu
I seem to have a semblance of a plan for this weeks' menu- so I'll post it a bit
Tonight we had Chicken Snitzel with Potatoe salad and Carrot sald - njam!!

Thursday, October 18, 2007

A few minor

irritations this morning. grr- The traffic was still an abortion- and even though I left early I still got here late.
Then I had a discussion with one of my collagues about Lucky Dube- and she didn't even hear my view on this- just shouted me down until she got her point accros- loud and repeatedly double grr
The parenting forum that I frequent has their usual Friday morning tiff going on-ag ja.
Other than that everyone has GREEN on today!! OUR BLOOD IS GREEN




Change

Change is as good as a holiday. Let's hope I can keep this up. LOL.

This is a pic of an airplant in our garden. It grows on air and flowers beautifully in spring.

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