Goodbye Casden!
Jun 18, 2004
Today was my last day as Marketing Account Manager at Casden Properties. I was going to write something clever to honor this moment, but that wasn’t in the stars.
First, I was going to do a “Goodnight Moon”-style entry (“goodnight cubicle, goodnight networked laser printer, goodnight HR Manager…”), but when your entire office is gray felt cubicle walls and fluorescent lighting, there’s not that many heartwarming pictures you can take with the camera in your cell phone.
Then I was going Read on… (plus 1 Comments)
Rear-View Mirror
Apr 18, 2004
Like many in todays modern fabric wall-oriented culture, I work in a small cubicle. My cube is along a main aisle, and there’s a lot of traffic past my desk during the day. Sadly, all the desk surfaces in my cube face away from the entrance. So my work often includes looking over my shoulder to see who’s watching me do obscene things in Quark or, God forbid, visiting espn.com to see if Baltimore’s finally found somebody to catch the ball.
So I bought a rear-view mirror from Target and stuck it above Read on…
Outside Lines
Oct 23, 2003
At this new job I have I make tons of phone calls, which is fine, but I have to dial 9 to get an outside line, and I’m not used to that. I keep on dialing numbers without dialing 9 first, and fortunately haven’t yet been connected to any of my cow-orkers.
In college, I lived in the dorms (as did almost everyone), and you could dial other dorm rooms with a 5-digit extension or dial 9 for an outside line. Our local pizza deliverer was Round Table; one of the dorm room lines had the same number as the first 5 digits of the Round Read on… (plus 1 Comments)
It's All About Learning
Aug 21, 2003
Eric Sink writes a great entry about the value of constant learning in one’s career. Now, he’s talking specifically about finding value in going to a very expensive conference, but his fundamental point is correct — it’s important for individuals to take responsibility for learning about their chosen profession and assigned tasks throughout their career.
Of course one’s employer should help one out in doing this, by financing conferences, books Read on… (plus 3 Comments)
I Hate Vendors
May 29, 2003
Vendors vendors vendors. Why do they vex me so?
So, when you’re discussing pricing with a potential customer, and you give him a price over the phone, then discover it’s wrong and add the new price to an e-mail filled with marketing material, well, you should call out that new price, lest the potential customer think that the number from the phone conversation is canonical.
And when a customer repeatedly mentions one specific need in multiple conversations, and you have two products with very similar names, and only Read on…
Palettes, We Got Palettes, We Got Lots And Lots Of Palettes
May 27, 2003
Somehow, 1500 folders destined for one of our clients ended up at our office/apartment instead. That’s a lot of folders. We lack a recieving dock, but at least we have a big ‘ol driveway for the FedEx man to park his truck in. Here’s our full palette of folders, outside and in:
Vito, the Mafia Hit Man Phone Tree Guy
Apr 9, 2002
One of the many fun jobs do here at Runstrong is that of Admin Guy. One of my tasks is to work with Paychex to handle payroll. I love me Paychex’s phone tree! They have the greatest phone tree voice guy. I like to think of him as Vito, the Mafia Hit Man Phone Tree Guy. Their greeting goes something like this: “Tank you for calling Paychex. If ya know da numba of da person you’se tryin to reach, you may dial it now. For payroll, press 1. For New Accounts, press 2. To speak wit a represendadiv, press da star key.”
Read on…
I'm Aquaman!
Mar 4, 2002
We’ve discovered that the biggest problem in building a Web site is not making it easy to update but getting the client to update the site with worthwhile content… Read on…