It looks like California may be the place to live.

Recently the California Supreme Court ruled that non-compete clauses to employment aggreements are null and void. This is good news to all of you who are sick of your current company and hear that the grass is greener on the other side of the fence.

I know that many a person is afraid to pursue their dreams due to the fear that their current employer would sue them if they went to a company that may be a competitor.

Hopefully this is the first step in the legal battle to allow employees find a way to pursue a job they desire and support their family. Now all we have to do is find a job we actually want to do!

Nothing like a sales presentation to find out what your company can do!

I like to think I have a pretty good idea of what my company has the capability to deliver.
However, the more sales calls I sit in on the more I realize that one of three things is true:

1. Our salespeople know a lot more about what my company (and in particular my department) can deliver.
2. Our salespeople are completely unaware of what we can do.
3. Our salespeople will say whatever it takes to get the sale.

 

When I first joined the company and would sit on a sales call, I would think that the salespeople simply knew more about the company since they had been there longer and had seen more of our projects.

After a few months on the job, and several salespeople later, I would think that the salespeople have no idea what they are talking about when they promised things I knew were unrealistic.

Now, I think it is a combination of #2 and 3. Our newer salespeople seem to be unfamiliar with our offerings and abilities. Our more senior salespeople on the other hand, seem to be under the impression that we can deliver whatever they think up in their mind.

It is getting so bad that our salespeople now try to convince us that we are wrong when we alert them that a claim they make is unrealistic. My team is the group responsible for creating/deploying the majority of company deliverables, but our salespeople seem to feel that they know more about the system because they have demonstrated it to a few clients.

So far, these claims have not come back to haunt us, but I am afraid that one day it will. So for now, I will continue to tell the salespeople what our system is capable of...all the while smiling when I hear claims to the contrary from our sales force.

It seems that people and their inability to properly use Outlook have been my main causes of anger lately...and that trend continues today.

I went to schedule a meeting with a few coworkers. I found a time when everyone's calendar showed that they could make it and booked the meeting. I was getting everything prepped for the meeting...only to receive a phone call from one of the proposed attendees stating that she was unable to attend the meeting because she was leaving for vacation at noon.

Interesting that she was going to be out of the office because her Outlook calendar showed she was available and had other meeting in the afternoon. She then told me that she simply did not update her Outlook calendar!

This typifies the state of Outlook mastery at my company. People do not block off vacation days in the calendar, don't book conference rooms as resources (thus not reserving the room), and don't even check to see if everyone is available to attend the meeting before booking it.

 Maybe one of these days my company will make basic computer skills required for employment.

I just wasted an hour of my life for no good reason!

My coworker and I received an email asking for assistance accomplishing a task. Being the responsible employee that I am, I read the email and began to address the issue. I was nearing the end of my task, so I sent the requester an email for clarification so I could finish up the job. After a few minutes I got a response:

"Oh thanks for working on this, but John already replied that he is doing this for me."

Freaking awesome that I had spent the past hour performing redundant work.

I then told my coworker to Reply to All when he is performing a task so that we don't duplicate work and cost the company money and cost me my sanity. He looked at me with a blank stare and said "Sorry". Maybe one day people will master the etiquette of email use.

Researchers at Michigan State wanted to investigate the stereotype that overweight people are lazy and emotionally unstable in the workplace.  So they ran a study and found that fat people are just as effective workers as normal people.  Yes I said "normal" people.  I'm comparing those who can't manage to put down the bag of donuts and get a little exercise after work, to those who eat right and stay fit.

You can already tell what I think of the MSU study.  The stereotype of the lazy fat person just makes sense to me.  If you are the kind of person who has the willpower and personal drive to go for a long bike ride on the weekend and pack a healthy lunch for your workday, then I'm guessing you might have the same level of motivation in the workplace.

Exhausted every single day when you get home from work as you crash on the couch with a bag of chips and a milkshake?  Then why would I assume you'll be full of energy in meetings and on client visits?

Nothing like having a meeting booked by your boss from 4:30-5:00. This means that you will be in the office until at least 5:30 because your boss is never one to let someone leave when they are supposed to. Meeting like this are bad enough, but when your boss schedules them with a client they are even worse. My boss seems to be a big fan of the end of day meeting, but I hate them. Maybe one day we will have a company policy against making people work late, but until then I will just do my best to deal.

What a way to start the weekend. On Friday, I received a call from my boss asking why I was having one of my employees perform a certain task. My reply was a simple "because you told me to". I know this is not the best repsonse, but it was the truth. My boss' reply was "I most certainly did not". I then went to my archived emails and found the specific email that my boss sent me that instructed me to do just what I had my employee do. Just further proof that I am smarter than my boss!