Vegas & The Aftermath - Diary

[AndrewT]

Love this. I honestly think most people are incapable of working smart so they work hard instead.

I always make sure I work hard too - get in the office and put in a hard day's graft without any slacking off, no big long coffee breaks, no standing around chatting, no dicking about on the intern...oh.

[TightEnd]

Have stopped even switching on skype. Quality of life far better as a result

If someone wants me they can get me via email, i can then reply when i wish

somehow if skype is flashing you feel obligated to reply straight away and end up talking with whoever usually about nothing much 

[AlunB]

Just been chatting about the Virgin Holiday policy. I heard it on the radio and it sounded great until I heard "their careers" at the end of that sentence. You can imagine the conversations now

Employee "i'm going to take tomorrow off I have some things I need to do"

Boss "ok if you think you should"

Employee ".......ffs see you tomorrow"

This is from a Netflix director's blog

"At the core, Netflix does not have an “unlimited vacation” policy, we have a trust policy. If we trust you, then we will trust you and will give you great liberty to accomplish amazing things. If not, we will part ways."

I can't find anything on actual holidays taken v standard companies (obviously won't as Netflix "doesn't measure them") but would bet lots they have lower holiday numbers than competitors.

google did it in their early days. You can with low numbers, but once a company acquires reasonable size & mass, the whole thing falls down.

JNK did it with us, too.

"I don't WANT you here all day every day, come & go as you please. I want you to work smart, not hard. If you can beat forecast (profits, cash management) by coming in the office once a week for an hour or two, that's fine by me, you go play golf Tony".


The unspoken bit was key though.  

"If you do not achieve forecast targets & have been tossing if off, you've got another think coming if you think I'm gonna wear that, sunshine"

He did the same with Company Cars.

What would you like Tony? A Jag? Yes yes, no problem. Wants some extras on it too? Yeah, whatever you want. Go on, name it, & you can have it".

And I'd be sat there thinking "dare I ask for a Jag?"

Then he'd pour a coffee, light a ciggie, & lean forward in his chair.

"Course, if I give you a Jag, that's the same as JB over in Housing has, & his outfit earns £5 milly per year. So thats what I'd expect from you. And if you fail..........."

"Err, I'll have the top of the range Golf please John".

It's "ideal world" stuff. In practice, nah.

PS - You still see much of Mole?

Love this. I honestly think most people are incapable of working smart so they work hard instead.

I was infinitely more productive when working for myself at home than I am in an office. But I'm yet to meet a boss who doesn't assume the converse is true.

Because I went away for a long holiday in November, I worked right over Chrismas one year, barring the days the office was closed.  It was brilliant, no phones, no meetings, never got so much done.  I think a lot of this is key, some days you just get overwhelmed with meetings/group phone calls etc.  You manage to put one meeting off and somebody else puts one in the gap. It is the same at home, if the kids have gone, the phone is quiet, you can get down and concentrate, other days the wife goes "as your at home, can you find time to do a, b, c and d".   

Back in the day there was a pay dispute at work, so the union had a rule that nobody should answer phone calls (doesn't sound so bad when we all have emails).  The only people answering the phones were the managers.  Back logs that had been there for years were cleared in a couple of weeks.  Don't think the office had ever been so efficient.   

My favourite meeting I've ever been in was when I worked for a short while for a city council.

We had a meeting about how we could stop having so many meetings. It ended with us booking in another meeting to discuss it further.

There is a HUGE groundswell of opinion against email at the moment. I actually really like it and think the old days of phones were way more of a time suck.

My god I could write a book about this. Email is the biggest productivity killer around (Skype the second). I dont check my email usually for the first three hours of the work day and I can safely say that I get more done in those three hours than most of my colleagues/peers get done in a day. The average worker spends about 30-50% of their work replying to emails and at the end of the day they think they have been productive.

Because my 'next door' is based in Gib they have a lot of bank holidays and I always get a shit ton done those days when there is nobody to pester me.

When someone sends you an email, they are essentially making demands on your time.

Skype sucks too.

I find email a really really useful tool. But I guess I type very quickly and have no concern about ignoring irrelevant emails.

[AlunB]

Love this. I honestly think most people are incapable of working smart so they work hard instead.

I always make sure I work hard too - get in the office and put in a hard day's graft without any slacking off, no big long coffee breaks, no standing around chatting, no dicking about on the intern...oh.

 

You can tell what type of day I have by my blonde usage at times. Definitely Twitter.

[DaveShoelace]

Have stopped even switching on skype. Quality of life far better as a result

If someone wants me they can get me via email, i can then reply when i wish

somehow if skype is flashing you feel obligated to reply straight away and end up talking with whoever usually about nothing much 

Yeah that's why I hate it, it's like an itch that is begging to be scratched.

Its awesome too of course. I have now worked for two companies who in fairness have operated very well managing a lot of employees remotely. However, they dont like/understand why I refuse to log on before 10AM. Its just constant distraction. The worse thing is when you see you have a message, you use a huge reserve of willpower ignoring it which ends up becoming a distraction, then you finally click on it and its just a smiley face.

[AlunB]

What a ridiculous self bok

Just been subject to one of the most tilting work email conversations of the past two years. And it's still going on.

[Eck]

Love all the working from home stuff, just asked my boss if i could do that for a day a week in future as it would make life a bit easier. Sure no problem was pretty much the reply that I wasn't expecting but quite happy to get. I should have asked for more money as well...

Tony, haven't seen Mole in quite a while but still speak fairly regularly. Was hoping he was going to come along this Saturday as I am going out in Glasgow with Vinnie, Geo, Fett and ForthThistle. He has been having some upheaval at home so our Vegas trip this year got binned, hopefully catch up with him soon as my liver really needs that......

[tikay]

Love all the working from home stuff, just asked my boss if i could do that for a day a week in future as it would make life a bit easier. Sure no problem was pretty much the reply that I wasn't expecting but quite happy to get. I should have asked for more money as well...

Tony, haven't seen Mole in quite a while but still speak fairly regularly. Was hoping he was going to come along this Saturday as I am going out in Glasgow with Vinnie, Geo, Fett and ForthThistle. He has been having some upheaval at home so our Vegas trip this year got binned, hopefully catch up with him soon as my liver really needs that......

Every time I think of you two, a memory trigger from Vegas enters my mind.

You & Mole were sat at that bar near the Masquerade Tower, having a quiet drink or two, & I was on my way to play a Tourney Downtown.

I ran deep, & returned about 9 hours later, & the pair of you were still sat there, merrily supping.......

What a character he is.

When I was with Sporting Bet, as sort of Pro/Ambassador/Host or whatever, we took "Priority"players awat on little overseas trips, & Mole came with us to somewhere in Belgium. What fun he was, & he drove the locals mad with his antics at the poker table.

He became a very big poker Client of Sporting Bet, & he made a ton of money, or so I believe. Amazing to think back on it now, but Sporting Bet were on "Boss Media" (as was) at the time. Nobody seemed to bother about their software.

Boss Media later became some other name - International Poker Network? - & at one stage, DTD were on there.

Doubt that software changed much in 15 years, but they must have earned a goodly few bob from it down the years.

[tikay]

As I write this, the Ryder Cup 2014 is about to start.

The newspapers have supplements devoted to it, Sky Sports have bedecked all their lovely new builkdinmgs with Ryder Cup photos, & the great Rory visited the Studios last weekend. Sky Sports will show every minute, & plenty more.

Over on the blonde Betting Board, everyone has gone Ryder Cup loopy, "yay, never miss a minute. ">Ryder Cup, oioi".

They even have a grand "Opening Ceremony".

[tikay]

There is some ridiculous Ryder Cup convention that all the players have to dress identically, like schoolboys.

And then the wives, girlfriends & Mums followed suit.

And the spectators.

Click to see full-size image.

Click to see full-size image.

[tikay]

Then the crowds, football style, start chanting & cheering, hooting & hollering.

Even the players get caught up in the hype.

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[horseplayer]

Morning Tikay

The sky commentator Ewen Murray (Spelling) moaning about the noise on the first must be the most ironic comment for a while.

They have been ramping it for nearly a month!

Enjoy

[tikay]

And we get 3 whole days of this chap, to cheer us all up.

He was a great golfer, & previously, a Ryder Cup Captain.

Click to see full-size image.

[horseplayer]

He doesnt like to mention it?

Afraid to say i have switched to an American stream, they seem to have a novel approach of actually showing all the shots (twitter tells me Sky have missed two already)

[tikay]

Well I'll tell you what. It's all bollox.

Sod the hype, golf has no place for all that shite. Golf has dignity, grown ups play it. People dress properly, tuck their shirts in & everything, after YOU Sir.

Golf Courses are an oasis of peace & quiet.

Now I'm supposed to watch 3 days of all this dumbed down nonsense, drunk & rowdy supporters, & Mardy Monty moaning as only he can?

Sod that.

Pretty sure I've entered the grumpy stage of life, but I'm not buying all this Ryder Cup bollox.

It used to be a fine thing, (it used to be GB v USA) but Team Hype & Team Money grabbed hold of it & utterly destroyed it.

Not for me, thank you.

Guess I'll watch a bit, sat in front of the screen bewildered & bemused at all the atrocious behaviour, mode of dress, & "greatest thing ever" hype from the commentators.  

They can all bugger off. I'm gonna sit & sulk in the corner for 3 days.  

THIS is how a golf course should look.

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Click to see full-size image.

Click to see full-size image.