Is there a pill for Managerial Dysfunction?

My wife has been driving herself nuts worrying about her application to a PhD program. She's not worried about taking the GRE or how to pay for it or the time it'll take or the work involved. Instead, she can't seem to convince her boss to write a GODDAMN LETTER OF RECOMMENDATION. You see, my wife is an assistant principal and as I've had it explained to me recommendations from her direct supervisor are quite important.

Now this request isn't anything out of the ordinary. Writing letters of recommendation for graduate school admissions is a normal activity - part and parcel of the job. Of the five (5) people my wife has requested recommendations from, her principal is the only one to openly give her grief about it. All of the Deans of Instruction and Superintendents she's asked have been not only professional but enthusiastic in my wife's pursuit of her PhD. These people genuinely LIKE my wife. She's one of the rare ones who actually has a CAREER. While most of us suffer through life working a job to pay the bills (I'm now doing my 12th year in my latest job) she has a real, honest to Gawd, penchant and passion for what she does and SHE'S BLOODY GOOD AT IT...and it shows.

So I have to wonder why out of all of those people who know my wife, her skills, her competence and her intellect, her immediate boss is the odd man out? Actually I don't have to wonder as the reason doesn't really matter, it's the actions that count and in this case his inaction is screwing with my wife's life in a way that should piss-off anybody.

I've come to learn over the years by listening to the phone calls and tales and issues that her principal isn't the most solid individual when it comes to strength of leadership and management. Very simply, he suffers from what many managers suffer from: low self-esteem coupled with high ego. As simplistic as this analysis is it amply describes the capricious nature of his treatment of his immediate staff and his invalidating behavior. When asked for a letter of recommendation this guy told my wife to write it herself and he would sign it. Ethical? I think not.

To me and my wife, ethics are important especially in positions where one is imbued with the public trust. For her to write her own recommendation for his signature could be considered fraud if it ever came out. Why he thinks this would be a good idea I don't know but there you have it, the real question: What the hell is he thinking?

Of course, my own experience working in the industry that birthed Scott Adams and his Dilbert cartoon has given me plenty of experience in dealing with people and situations like this. I find that formally documenting such requests with the legalese found in Codes of Business Conduct usually puts things in the proper perspective for everyone. My wife is a little softer in that arena due to her age and lack of experience but she agreed to play MY game for a bit.

Her email elicited the anticipated CYA response from him as well as the silent treatment which can be infuriating in its own way when you work in a tight-knit environment like a public school administration team. However, as I pointed out to my wife, she was suffering before and getting nowhere, now she's suffering and moving forward. Misery loves company and there's nothing like giving as good as you get.

What sort of recommendation she'll receive from this guy is anyone's guess. For someone who is constantly concerned about his image, he's going to look pretty stupid if his letter is so far out of touch with all of the others. It might raise a flag and some questions to my wife why the differences and that's when she can honestly tell them that "He was upset because I told him I thought it unethical to write it myself. I have the email if you would like to see it." Or, it might mean nothing and the letters are just a check box for the application office.

What's next for her? Play it cool and keep the mood light like it never happened. Nothing throws people off more than being smacked down for their B.S. and then taking the professional high road.

Happy Veterans Day!!!

So, I've just ended a conversation with two colleagues that may have also ended our collegial friendship. It was over Veteran's Day and I took exception to the trite statements of a veteran about honoring all those veterans who have preserved and are now preserving our way of life. I don't know what bugs me most about this sort of patriotic and nationalistic claptrap, that it is so prevalent or that people who I think should know better and have very capable intellects spout these bumper-sticker statements as Gospel.

Besides ignoring the history of this country's military endeavors and the current situation we find ourselves in the Middle East, it seems that Reason has been the biggest victim of our military mindset in this country. Since Facebook postings don't encourage lengthy rhetoric I sent an email elaborating my background and my opinions based on sound reasoning (if I do say so myself) and facts. Essentially, my point in response to my colleagues' banal statements had been that I honored veterans mainly because they are the people who pay the biggest price for their socio-economic station in life. Our wars and police actions and interventions are fought in large part by the most economically disadvantaged citizens of this country. I also expressed that it was a shame that we have to honor so many for their sacrifices of limb and life. Well...you would have thought by the reaction I received that I had done the equivalent of spitting on The Baby Jesus.

Of course, not everyone has entered military service for economic reasons. I'm sure there are those who enlisted for sound philisophical reasons, some in search of a fix for their violent tendencies, some to bolst their ego, some to fulfill familial expectations, some to play with really great equipment, some for patriotic or nationalistic reasons, some to be taken care of, some to escape and some to 'straigten themselves out'. Mostly though, our current all-volunteer military is based on an economic exchange. My own desire to apply for admittance to a military academy was first for a free education, second for the boost it would give me for a future career and somewhere further down the list were unformed and uneducated sentiments regarding Duty, Honor and Country. Although Honor was more solid and easier to grasp when I was 18 then the others.

If you are a veteran, ask yourself, did you get your Bachelors degree before or after you enlisted in the military? It is a very pertinent question and if you think about it, you'll understand why.

I think very few want to admit that there were economic reasons for their enlistment. Once inside I'm sure it is much easier to believe that your role as a soldier is heroic and moral and right and Christian then it would be to accept that one has enlisted due to a lack of life options, perceived or otherwise.

None of my rhetoric made any impression on my colleagues. One thought that through my explanation I was attempting to apologize and that it was "lame". I had to assure him that I most certainly was not apologizing. The other wanted me to come to an American Legion meeting with him to meet all the moral and outstanding veterans to give me a better perspective. I had to inform him that I come from a long line of service men tracing back to the American Revolution. The real kicker was the sentiment that because I wasn't changing my mind and agreeing to an argument devoid of reason and logic that the "conversation isn't going anywhere."

Looks like I'm going to be unfriended (Yep, that's an official word now. The latest to be added to the English Lexicon. Look it up.).

A Good Ole' South'n Style Book Burnin'

So some church is looking to have a book burning complete with Nazi uniforms.

This ranks pretty fucking high on the Wacko-Meter. Especially considering that the books they plan on burning are...wait for it...bibles. You read correctly. Not just any particular bible but all bibles that aren't the King James Version. Apparently the KJV is the definitive Word of God because as we all know that Latin version from which the KJV was written wasn't as accurate as the King's English translation. Neither was the Greek version nor the Hebrew version. Never mind that the closer you get to the source typically the more accurate the information. Given these wackos views, the Ten Commandments handed to Moses (most likely in Hebrew) wasn't as accurate as the English translation. I bet even God (may He rest in peace) would have scratched his omniscient head on this one. He probably would have been embarrassed that something so fundamentally stupid was yet again being done in His Name. It's stupid shit like this from our fellow Americans that proves God doesn't exist because no one and no thing could imagine the crap we humans can invent when it comes to religion.

Of course prosecuting these nuts would only engage the moral outrage of those who are ready to accuse the State of persecuting people based on their religious beliefs. Yet, can you imagine how this would have been spun had a group of Atheists organized a Bible Bonfire dressed like your favorite Nuremburg Rally Troopers? They'd be assaulted with some idiocy about the attack on Christianity in America and how this is the kind of thing that led to hijacked planes and the World Trade Center on 9/11 as well as global warming, those inane Survivor shows and gay marriage.

Naturally we as Americans wouldn't want to ridicule or lambast or prosecute these troglodytes for their beliefs because we would be taking away not only their rights to worship but their rights as parents to instill good Christian values into their children. Never mind the benefits of passing on a sense of historical accuracy to their demonic ceremonies.

So I say we join 'em. Let's fly down, dress like nuns (the whole Nazi thing is soooooo cliche) and help heave those ridiculous tomes of archaic religious belief into the fire. I mean really...how many times do you get to dress like a Catholic and burn bibles?

eReaders taking over the world (?)

So I'm not entirely convinced that all of the eReaders coming out are as cool an idea as they're getting promulgated to be. There must be at least 6 or 7 main readers out and the ones I find most compelling aren't offered by the major eBook sellers, e.g. B&N and Amazon.

The iRex iLiad is the coolest of the bunch with a Wacom touch screen that allows you to actually read and write and markup a text just like you might with a paper version. This option I think is really cool as I would love to markup a lot of the books I read for quotes and ideas I find compelling but don't because I have this built-in mental block to markings of any kind in my personal non-scholastic text books. The problem with the iRex model is that it isn't attached to any big eBook seller. Doh! A great reader that doesn't have the convenience of the Nook or the Kindle? Yeah. Not going to buy it.

The other issue I have with eReaders is that it's yet ANOTHER damn thing I need to charge. Between charging my iPod, my iShuffle, my Blackberry, and my iBook, it's yet another device that requires I keep an eye on battery life and plug it in.

Of course there are the protective covers, to keep the screen in decent shape and the folio cover to protect the casing. All this because if I spill something on it or drop it, I might be spending another $250+ to replace it. If I drop my $2 clearance copy from 1/2 Priced Books, I just dust it off, dry it out and walk on. The annoyance factor of me damaging my eReader compared to damaging my $2 book is the same ratio as $125:$1 or $250:$1 or $350:$1 depending on the eReader. And did I mention that I don't have to charge my book? (That's a big one for me.)

And what about cost? eReaders are more expensive but then let's say you want digital copies of your current library so you don't have to house, dust, or move the damn things. Good luck. Some of my books are esoteric enough they were rare finds even in used book stores. B&N sells digital editions of the copyright-expired classics for $5. There are places where they are free but B&N doesn't show a Free eBook listing on their website. Amazon offers some for a penny or so, but how much Charles Dickens and Jane Austen can one read?

If you like comic books, you're SoL. No color screen and I think printed-page artwork is lost when it goes to digital media but that's a completely different topic for discussion.

Where I see eReaders really making headway would be at the college level where textbooks could be downloaded and maintained on an eReader. No need to lug a huge pile of books around and having the ability to mark and annotate your text (a la the iRex way) would have been a godsend when I was in university. Add the ability to search and download library books and you can all but forget needing to search the graduate stacks to find the book you need or pull the microfiche of some old newspaper article. It'll be all there for the downloading. Of course study areas will now need to support banks upon banks of power strips so every student could charge their iPod, iPhone, laptop and eReader, because we all know this wouldn't be America if we had one frigging device that would allow us to do all of those things - actually we do and they're called laptop computers. Why can't they put the eInk technology in a laptop and call it good? A tablet PC would suit this role perfectly. The Netbooks are moving in that direction but screen sizes are *too* small.

Lastly, what happens when all information and access to it is controlled by the corporations that produce it? Some would say they already do but with books you can't just remove information from the general populace with a quick Delete command. Interestingly Fahrenheit 451 isn't sold as an eBook on Amazon.

Nu Moons and Fung Shway

So, I'm sitting in The Cubical of Dying Dreams and my mother calls me to "chat". She asks me how I'm doing and I tell her, "I'm alright." Yeah...I'm just alright. I'm Great from around 5 p.m. on Fridays until about 7 a.m. Mondays and then I'm "just alright". This should tell you how I view my working week. But then she wants to know if I remembered to make my list of things I want to accomplish for my career in preparation of the new moon this week. ?!?!?!? I haven't, of course, but apparently I STILL HAVE TIME but it has to be done tonight. How appropriate that my career goals will coincide with a full moon (take that in all the ways you can).

Then she wants to know how our house is arranged in terms of the rooms and colors, etc. Apparently my father got a larger than normal pay raise because they had arranged their 'career room' to accentuate good luck or greater prosperity or something. What am I supposed to take away from this anecdotal and coincidental evidence? That I have MORE house projects on my List of Unending House Projects instead of LESS.

My father is really liking the changes to the house as he keeps talking about it but maybe that's because they haven't rearranged the furniture for something like the LAST 10 YEARS. Hell...any change would seem like moving to a new house.

So here's my list of career goals for this year in honor of my mother her new moon and her feng shui rash...

1. Stay employed.
   
2. Get the pay raise I've been denied for the last 2 years because of The Economy (despite record sales and profits at my company). I'm thinking 15%.
3. Get 100% of my bonus this year. NO FUNNY MATH!!! Fucking accountants.
4. Get another week of vacation.
   
5. Have all the road blocks to my projects removed.
6. Be listened to and taken seriously.
7. Not having to say, "I told you so."
8. Win the lottery.
9. Win the lottery.
   
10. Get laid off with a fantastic severance package that allows me to take a year off and find out what I want to do for a career.