I need music in the office to help me concentrate, so I stream jazz from Pandora and have tailored that feed so there are no songs with lyrics to tempt me to sing along.  Having music helps screen out hallway conversations and other types of distractions.

As far as baby gifts go, my all time favorite is to give books, and my all time favorite book is "Ride a Purple Pelican" by Jack Pretlutsky and Garth Williams.   It's a series of poems and has the most wonderful illustrations.  Every family I've given this book to has thoroughly enjoyed it.

Hi Donna,

My understanding (based upon many years working in New York City) is that goy or goyim are the Hebrew or Yiddish words for someone who is not Jewish.  Neither is a derogatory term as far as I know.  

Chris

Jury duty isn't so bad; in fact it can be downright interesting.  I've been called 6 times and only served once, so the odds are in your favor.  

Should you go through the voir dire (vetting) questioning, be sure to tell the judge of the limitations on jury pay from your employer.  In my experience, they are quite willing to take things like this into account, and they should be able to tell you how long they expect the trial to last.

An elderly Irishman lay dying in his bed. While suffering the  agonies of impending death, he suddenly smelled the aroma of his  favorite cheese scones wafting up the stairs. He gathered his  remaining strength, and lifted himself from the bed....

Leaning against the wall, he slowly made his way out of the bedroom, and with even greater effort, gripping the railing with both hands, he crawled downstairs. With labored breath he leaned against the door frame, gazing into the kitchen.

Were it not for death's agony, he would have thought himself already in heaven, for here, spread out upon waxed paper on the kitchen table were dozens of his favorite cheese scones. Was it heaven? Or was it one final act of heroic love from his devoted Irish  wife of sixty years, seeing to it that he left this world a happy man?

Mustering one great final effort, he threw himself towards the table, landing on his knees in a rumpled posture. His lips parted, he could  almost taste the cheese scone before it was in his mouth, seemingly bringing him back to life. The aged and withered hand trembled on its way to the nearest  scone at the  edge of the table, when his hand was suddenly smacked with a spatula by his beloved wife.
*
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Bugger off !! " she said, "They're for the funeral !!"

My favorite website for bags & totes is www.ebags.com.  Their selection is huge and they always seem to have just what I need at a price I'm willing to pay.

Hope that helps.

Firing someone is never easy, but with some preparation and moral support from your boss, it’s possible to manage through.  Also, I'm in the US and am sure that labor relations in the UK are managed differently than they are here.  You may need to check with your local Employment Department (or whatever it's called where you are) for advice.

First, document the deficiencies that this person (let’s call her Jane) has ... in writing. I.e., “Contrary to company policy, Jane has been using the company FedEx account to send personal packages” or “Jane has not completed the monthly report for the past 3 months” - whatever is set out in her job description that she’s not doing or personnel policies to which she is not adhering.

Next, determine the acceptable performance level and write that down too.  Then use this document (the corrective action plan) to have the counseling session with Jane.  In the examples above, the corrective actions could be “Jane will not use the company FedEx account to send personal packages” or “Jane must complete compilation of the monthly report by the 10th of every month”.  

Have a frank discussion with Jane, telling her that her job is on the line due to her poor performance.  Detail the corrective actions necessary to retain her job and the agreed upon time frame for improvement.  Have her sign the corrective action plan acknowledging that she understands the issues and agrees to the plan.

Then you monitor Jane’s performance over the agreed upon time frame.  Should Jane’s performance continue to be sub par, that’s when you have the “You’re Fired” discussion.  Tell her that even though you’ve counseled her and given her a chance to improve her performance, her unwillingness or inability to change has led to this consequence.  

I’m sure labor law in the UK varies from that in the US, but in addition to her final paycheck,  we had to give her a check for her unused vacation time or send it to her within 3 days.  Be sure to have all your ducks in a row in that regard.

The only time I had to fire someone, I worried about having to confront “Liz” and put a single mother out of work.  But “Liz” had stolen from a guest of the company and was using our FedEx account to send personal packages (to the tune of several hundred dollars).  When we had the “You’re Fired” talk, I think she was more relieved than me.  She never asked for a reference (nor would I have given her one), and I learned that I really could manage through a very difficult situation.  

I’m sure you’ll do just fine.  Like Raindance says, document everything.

That last post jogged my memory ... I had to buy a luxury car for someone I worked with about 10 years ago.  He told me what he wanted, but I did everything with the dealer.   Then when the car arrived, bossie was still overseas, so I picked up the car and got to drive it for about a week (bossie was sure I'd do a better job of "breaking in" the car than he would).  I'll never have a car that nice, and it was a real treat.

Ah, but if your car is like mine, when I lock the car using the key fob it sets the alarm.  One time I forgot that I'd use the key fob to lock the car and blithely unlocked it with the key.  I woke up ALL my neighbors that morning.  

Thanks for all your input as it helps put things in perspective.  I was so irritated when I saw his e-mail because I try very hard to accommodate everyone's calendars.  When I look at things from his perspective, I understand why he wants the meetings moved (they'll be at 7:00 or 8:00 pm his time).

Touching base with bossie to find out if this fellow is a key player is going to be tricky because bossie is in India on the vacation part of his trip.  He'll get to the business part early next week when I'll be on vacation, so unless he calls tomorrow, I won't talk to him until July 14.  I'm sure it will all work out.

Chris

How do you deal with scheduling several meetings with 13 attendees, some of whom are in different countries?  I'm in the US, some of the folks are in the UK, and after many e-mail messages back and forth about possible times, I finally got 3 meetings scheduled.  The meetings have to happen before August 15, so I can't push them out too far, and since bossie doesn't return from vacation/business until July 18, that's complicating things.  To give the attendees as much flexibility as possible, I compiled a list of possible dates and times and asked everyone for their availability.  I've reserved conference rooms, set conference calls and advised everyone that the times selected were based on the highest number of available attendees.  

Then this morning, bossie gets a plaintive e-mail from one of the UK folks (it could just as easily have been one of the US folks ... no disrespect meant to the UK) suggesting that the meeting times are a bit late and could they be moved to earlier in the day.  I don't understand why this person couldn't have said something earlier in the process or indicated he was only available earlier on the days in question so this could be avoided.  He delegated responding to my initial e-mail to an associate (I don't think it's his PA, but don't have that info available to me), and she indicated which times worked for him and which didn't.  The meetings I've set adhere to that list.  If it were possible to accommodate his request, I'd gladly do it, but it just isn't possible.  Most of the other attendees can't make the earlier times.

I resent this and am totally frustrated.  Do any of you have some words of wisdom?

Thanks for listening,
Chris

I have to agree with Donna; no one is forcing anyone to take advantage of credit cards or the checks the credit card companies send out (which they will stop sending if you ask them).  It's really tempting to use those tools when funds run short, but we all need to learn to look at the big picture and be sure we can repay the obligations we've taken on.  It's all part of being responsible adults.  And as responsible adults, we need to make sure our kids learn good financial lessons so they'll have good money handling skills.

This is an incredibly sensitive subject, but one with which I have some experience, so here's my take on things.  

My dad was in a somewhat similar state after having a stroke subsequent to bypass surgery.  He was able to communicate with us for a couple of months following his surgery but then deteriorated to a point where he just wasn't "there".  His body was, but his spirit was gone.  

I can certainly understand the Schindler's hope for recovery, but based on what I've read about Ms. Shaivo's condition, that's extremely unlikely.  The pictures I've seen of her are all dated 2002, so I wonder how she's really doing.  When I see her moving her head and blinking her eyes, it makes some sense to me to continue to treat her and hope for the best.  But (again based on my experience with my dad) the likelihood that she's still in the same condition is slim.  At the end of his life, Dad was a shadow of himself and totally uncommunicative.  Every touch, no matter how soft, caused him to grimace.  So we elected to discontinue his treatment and let his body die.  It was wrenching, but necessary.  He didn't want to live like that (and thankfully had made those wishes clear with a living will).  

As a parent, watching one's child die has to be unbelieveably awful.  But in essence they've been watching her die for 7 years now.  Why prolong things?

The only good thing I think may come out of all of this is that folks will have discussions like this one and determine what they would want and not want and then document their wishes.  

I wish the Schiavo and Schindler families peace.  They're going through so much right now.

Edited by cmeknit on 23/03/05 07:14 PM.

Hi Clare,

The survey and prizes sounded so tantalizing, but I was disappointed to find that the program is only open to UK & Ireland residents.  Is there any chance something similar might happen for the US folks?

Thanks,
Chris

CountriGal - can you provide more info on the 343 series?  I've not heard of it and am interested.

Thanks much,
Chris