Control Freaks

 Yesterday at work, I stumbled upon some more of the fallout from controlling people.  In the almost 30 years in the field of IT, I have seen varying levels of control, and how it's affected the businesses I've worked at.  I have some theories as to why so many people are so controlling, so follow along and see if you agree, disagree, or just don't have an opinion.

So, early on I wasn't that aware of control freaks in IT, partly because I came from a manufacturing background where I worked on the factory floor, and just assumed some of what I was seeing was just that I wasn't quite knowledgeable yet, and my ideas were probably just that.  Ideas.  I assumed that my lack of experience might have been the reason for others not entertaining some of my ideas.

What I've seen over the years is that many say no to new ideas because they either don't understand the new technology, or they are afraid of losing that control over things, and will no longer be the "go to" person for problems of new ideas.  The second job in IT that I had, my Team Lead was a really nice guy, but he had built his own little fiefdom.  He was an expert in the limited area he oversaw, and everyone was pretty happy with his work.  There were a lot of things that could've been less manually laborious, but he would always tell the end users that he was just too busy to do much about it.  Understand that this was green screen era, and nobody was willing to learn or utilize new technology there.  

Instantly I saw some ways to help improve things.  I made it a point to sit with each of the end users for a few hours out of the day to observe their daily routines.  Nobody had heard of that before, and they wondered what my purpose was in doing so.  From watching one person grab her daily report with over 150 pages, and she just took out 5 sheets and threw the rest in recycling, to the other who would manually enter accounts payable information in to a spreadsheet from a report, to assist with reconciliation.  What I did was started to put together notes, and found a way to get that report down to those 5 pages that the end user needed, saving over 100 sheets of paper per day just on that report alone.  What it ended up doing was also shortening our nightly batch window by over 1 hour, and shortened up our report printing window by 15 minutes.  The person who was doing the manual entry of AP info into a spreadsheet, I wrote an application that would parse the report output that was sent to a file, and then pushed that data in to a spreadsheet.  That save the end user about 12 hours per month of manually entering data, and removed the human error piece of it all.  Interestingly, my Team Lead questioned it all as to whether or not things were accurate, and tried to find reasons it couldn't be a permanent solution.  8 years later, these 2 things were still being utilized before they changed their purchasing and accounting software.

There were so many more examples like this, but what I found interesting, was the lengths the Team Lead would go trying to quash my ideas.  Later on I realized, it was because they were afraid that all of what I was doing would make them more vulnerable in the event of cost cutting/downsizing.  And I've notice this same trend happen at the jobs I've had since then.  Each place, there were individuals who would try to impede progress, and keep things status quo.  I'm just glad that now I don't let it eat my lunch like I used to.  I do what I can, and if I run up against the wall of controlism (my phrase), I just don't push it anymore.  I realized that the stress of battling those trying to hold on to control was just no longer worth it, and that if I can't change them, then I'll just implement these new ideas and technologies where I can.

Time To Fire This Up Again

 I've taken a 10 year hiatus, and I think I'm ready to get back to this now.  So much took place over the past 10 years, between family, work, and the political arena that I just found it hard to put my thoughts down in a routinely manner.  My hope is to post at least weekly, about topics ranging from aging to zealotry, and everything in between.  I also plan to allow for comments to try and bond with others who are like minded.

Some of these posts may be funny, some might be bitter, but all will be my opinion or my experience of what is going on.  If you don't agree with my blog, then let's have a discussion about that.  If I am attacked, then I may have to limited commenting to avoid me walking away from this.  So, if you do read this, then I thank you.  If you do subscribe, I thank you as well.  If you get anything out of it, then I am glad.

So, what has happened since I last blogged?  Well, I was let go from my previous job for speaking truth to power, and that set me on my current path.  As scary as that was, it was a 7 week hiatus that allowed me to read, and reflect a bit on my life and career.  I was fortunate enough to find a good paying job in my community, that has allowed for my wife and I to purchase a piece of land on a lake, and pursue our dream of living on a lake.  Kids are both done with college, and we just recently sold our house of 23 years.  It was bittersweet walking away from that house, and the city we moved to in 1997.  We made some good friends, and created thousands of great memories.  But now, with less than a year until retirement, we are ready to start another chapter.

Stay tuned.  I'm hoping to let you get to know me better, and to possibly find some like minded people as well.  Oh, and by the way, part of this is due to the fact that I was permanently banned from Twitter a while back, and I need a way to get my thoughts out to the world.

It's Pretty Clear

I grew up in a lower middle-class family.  My Mom was a homemaker, and my Dad worked in a factory.  When, at the age of 28 I decided to go to college, I did so while working 40+ hours a week.  Mom and Dad didn’t hand me a loan, and I didn’t have stock investments to sell to live off of, nor SSI to pay my tuition.  That folks, is earning one’s way.

What we have with the Romney\Ryan ticket are two people who have no idea what a struggle is.  They cannot relate to trying to make ends meet on a lower middle-class income.  Both men came from wealth, and both have made money off of investments, not from hard work.  Regardless of what they claim, they have never known, and probably will never know what it’s like to have to tell their kids they can’t go to a birthday party because you can’t even afford to buy a card, or to tell their kids they can’t participate in other youth activities because they don’t have the money.

The candidates from the Obama\Biden ticket know more about what struggles are, although they are as far removed from those struggles as I am, they too have gone through them personally and know how important a support system can be.  Joe Biden knows more about what it’s like for a bread winner to lose his/her job, than Paul Ryan or Mitt Romney do.  Therefore, the Obama\Biden ticket can relate more to the struggles of the middle-class.

I have seen people lose everything because of healthcare bills.  I have seen people lose jobs due to outsourcing.  One ticket only knows how to mouth the word “middle-class” and the other came from the middle-class.  I will vote for the latter.

Of Labor And Leisure

Today is Labor Day.  A holiday that less and less people realize what it really is all about.  If you took the time to ask, you'd find very few who could tell you the history of Labor Day, and what it represents.  Today, more than ever, people should be aware of what Labor Day's roots are.

In the current political foray, where we've got one party trying to tell us that business are solely responsible for their success, holding their convention in a 90% union city.  And we've got another party that decided to hold it's convention in a Right to Work state, in a stadium named after one of banking industry leaders partly responsible for the financial mess we found ourselves in.  What is most baffling is that the party that loathes unions is the one that held their convention in a major union city.  What does this all mean?

What is causing this disdain for labor, especially organized labor?  Why are those workers within the public sector treated as leeches who are draining our countries fiscal resources?  Where does this emanate from?  Did millions of people wake up one day and say to themselves "gee, those damn teachers and city workers have brought this country to it's knees"?  No, they didn't.  They've been spoon fed this garbage from a corrupt media who's only loyalties are with their advertisers, and we all know it's not labor that does all the advertising.

What might be causing this disdain for public sector workers?  Well, I've got a few ideas that have come from observing the shift as it has taken place.  There was a time in the country, when people cheered for their neighbors who seemed to be "lifting themselves up by the boot straps" by working hard and negotiating for good benefits and decent wages.  There was a time when a group of people working for company A, would look at the wages and benefits of those workers at company B and would say "gee, we should negotiate for those same types of benefits and wages instead of working so hard for less".  But now what we have is jealousy.  Neighbors are jealous of neighbors because their company started to take away their benefits and freezing their wages because laws favoring labor were changed to the point that they no longer favor labor, and favor those companies who are doing all they can to eek every last penny out of their corporation to hand over to their stock holders.

I have made it a point to help out labor as much as I can today, and to patronize those businesses who treat their workers with respect and dignity.  For example, in our small town, we have 3 grocery stores.  They are Wal Mart, Pick N Save, and Festival Foods.  Festival is the one that has union workers, and so we patronize that store more often than the other two.  When it comes to hardware items, I refuse to shop at Menards, and give the local hardware store my first shot at business, and then look to other sources.

Take a look at the history of labor force, and seeing how as the number of organized workers diminished, and the laws favoring labor have dwindled, so too has the wages and benefits of all workers.  Corporate CEO's and other top level executives are reaping the benefits of a harder working workforce, all the while those who toil on a daily basis to help make that company strive,  are being handed a hand-to-mouth existence with little to no expectation of things getting any better.

If you're not better off today than you were 10 years ago, ask yourself why.  Is it because of higher costs of public employees, or does it really have to do with dwindling benefits from greedy corporations who treat their labor force as nothing more than another liability on their spreadsheets?

You can choose to sit back and whine and cry about what others have that you don't have, or you can get off your ass and demand a living wage and decent benefits like those others have managed to wrangle for themselves.  Quit buying the rhetoric that corporations can't continue to pay it's workers and that taxes are too high because of all the benefits that public sector employees receive.  Start to question why, when corporations are cutting the wages and benefits of it's labor force, the exec's at the top continue to walk away with huge raises and greater benefits than have ever been realized by executive management in the history of this nation.

It is time for a renewed and refocused labor movement, to bring back the type of livelihood those in the 50's and 60's were able to realize.  It seems one party wants us to move back to the 50's and 60's, but only in regards to the rights of minorities and women.  Remember, the only way this was all built was due to a less divided nation that realized that labor was as important to a corporation as the exec's at the top, working together to make a company better.  If we don't turn this current trend around, we will be nothing more than workers there to satisfy the whims and needs of the rich and the elites.

Business Succeeds Because of Government

I read a rant on Facebook about how Charlie Sykes was ripping on Obama for saying that businesses wouldn't exist if not for the government.  Of course Charlie Sykes, being the inane dolt that he is came up with another attack of Obama on the grounds of his remarks.  He would never answer my questions, so I'll post them here in the hopes that one of his followers might stumble upon this blog and try to refute my comments.

Joe Blow decides to start a business, and he needs to find a piece of property to put his business on.  And, let's say that business would need a way to ship it's goods, sell it's goods, and bring in raw materials to produce those goods.  The business would also require large amounts of power and clean water.

Joe drives around looking for property to put his business on.  What does Joe use to go from property to property?  Of course, an automobile.  Now of course, we all know the government doesn't make automobiles, but they do help to regulate those industries to make sure they are building a safe vehicle for which Joe can drive around looking for land to purchase.  Oh and guess what?  Those roads that Joe is using to go from location to location, yep, they were built and are maintained by the government.  Joe finds the property he wants, and decides to purchase it.

Joe buys the property, but is unsure of whether or not that property really is safe to build on.  How can he find out?  Well, from the government of course.  The government has a listing of all toxic waste sites that have ever been registered.  How can Joe be assured that the property he just purchased doesn't have any liens against it, and is rightfully his?  The title, that's how.  And how keeps records of all land sales and purchases?  Yes, the government.

The location Joe found was along a highway and railroad tracks bordered his property as well.  There was a fire hydrant adjacent to his property and the city had a fire truck with a ladder that would be able to reach a 5 story rooftop.  This is important to Joe because his business will have to sections over 4 stories high.  He will also receive a break on his fire insurance due to the close proximity of the government sponsored fire hydrant, and it's a really nice amenity that the city has a fire truck whose ladder can reach the top of his businesses roof.

Joe set's out to find a contractor to build his building.  The contractor Joe decides to work with has one of his people draw up plans for the building based on Joe's requirements.  The architects, who were educated by government funded schools mind you.  Those plans are then handed off to all the sub-contractors to place bids on the building.  And guess what?  Yep, all those sub-contractors come with an education that was subsidized by the government, and the contractor knows these sub-contractors are legitimate businesses because the government has a way of making sure all contractors are licensed and valid.  All of the employees that the sub-contractors have, were also educated through government run schools and technical\trade schools.

Now, Joe's building needs to bring in heavy equipment to start breaking ground.  Good thing the government built strong roads that were inspected by government inspectors to make sure those roads could support the type of heavy equipment necessary to haul them.  Gravel and concrete will need to be hauled in as well, and again, because of the heavy loads being carried, it's a good thing these vehicles have maintained roads to travel on versus driving along dirt roads to get to their destinations.

I could continue on with all of the benefits that businesses here in the U.S. reap because of our government, and I might even do so.  But you get the point.  Businesses alone cannot succeed in today's economy without Government.  There's just now way.  And for a business to claim they built their empire on sheer hard work and determination is pure and utter bullshit.  They would go broke trying to build the damn business, let alone try to maintain one.

Observations and Realizations of 2011

As most people do, I have been reflecting a lot on what's taken place in 2011, and as is my nature, have observed some very interesting things.  First and foremost, the uprising of the downtrodden.  Whether it be here or abroad, people are sick and tired of being fed lies and deceit.  They are tired of being robbed by the rich, and being slaves to corporate greed.  They are tired of seeing the rich get away with crimes that the common man would be imprisoned for.  And it's all come to a boiling point.

Growing up during the 60's, I took an interest in what was going on in the world.  The civil rights movement was happening, and even being a white kid in a predominantly white city, I still felt that what was taking place was wrong, and that people of all races should be treated equally.  Something I felt the catholic church and school I went to had taught me.  Then came the ecology movement, and the anti-Vietnam protests.   Through it all, I would read the newspaper, and watch the news with my parents, and would discuss a lot of what I had been reading and seeing on TV.  I am ever so grateful to have had parents who were willing to discuss these things.  .

I came from a blue collar family, where my Mom was a home-maker and my Dad worked in a factory.  We lived in a small 3 bedroom house, with no garage.  I was already learning then, how those with wealth had the power, and how "privileged" those other kids from those families were.  I remember when the church we attended would put out a listing of all the members donations, and how the rich kids would tease those of us whose parents weren't able to give as much.  I didn't understand it then, but I realize now they were just repeating what they were hearing at home.  And this image of wealthy privilege has stuck with me since childhood.  I was 8 years old, and had worked with my Dad to make my pinewood derby car in Cub Scouts.  My Dad had been working nights, and we only had a weekend to work on it, and he helped me make a spectacular car.  Well, the night of the pinewood derby, I had sewn up 3rd place with that car, and was really proud of what my Dad and I had accomplished together.  But before the awards were to be handed out, in walks a well known doctor in town with his son.  Although the rest of us all had to be signed up 30 minutes before the event, this guy waltzes in and basically demands that his son be allowed to race.  He was allowed to enter his car, and I was kicked out of 3rd place.  I learned then that some were more privileged than others, and weren't made to play by the same rules.

The next year, I was being harassed by the son of the president of pretty big business in the area.  He grabbed my shirt and pulled so hard that he ripped buttons off of it, and had tore part of the shirt.  This was a shirt that was part of the uniform I had to wear, and I knew my Mom was going to be irate.  I try to walk away and this kid keeps harassing me, and I end up beating him up.  The next day, after I get to school, the nun sends me to the principals office.  When I get there, the head nun starts scolding me for the fight, and when I tried to explain to her about the shirt and him harassing me, she told me I was to sit in her office all day as punishment.  Of course, the other kid didn't get any punishment at all.  That was pretty much the last straw with my Mom.  Plus the fact that tuition had increased, that was my last year at that school.

As I went through school, I noticed how those who came from money were always looking down at those with less.  Mocking our clothes, bikes, etc.  This went on all through my school years, seeing those with money getting special treatment.  And here's what I realize.  Through the magic of Facebook, many of those same people who were of the privileged class, are now hard-core conservatives.  They have little empathy for those who have nothing, because they never had to experience it in their lives.  They don't understand the concept of class struggle, because they themselves were from upper middle-class families that never struggled to make ends meet, and they were always on the winning end of the equation.  The division of classes was already taking root at that time.  You had white collar vs. blue collar then, where today we have the rich vs. those who aren't rich.

But what's different today is that there are a class of people who side with the rich, even though they themselves are being pushed down by their actions.  And what I find so puzzling is how many of those who went through those times like I did, being made to feel less than from the kids of the white collar class, are the ones who are now admonishing the lower class and blaming them for all of our ails.  And I realize now why that is.  Many of them, like myself, wanted to have a better life than their parents did.  They bettered themselves, or worked hard to make a better life for themselves.  But as corporate greed started to increase, their own wealth and lives started to erode.  We didn't stop working as hard.  We didn't start working less.  So what caused this change?  It was the old bait and switch.

The age old tom foolery of pointing towards others to take the focus off of the true problem.  We did it as little kids.  We get caught taking a cookie from the cookie jar, and we point a finger and Johnny and say he did it too.  It's no different with the rich and the big corporations.  During the late 70's and early 80's, the middle-class were starting to see that shift in wealth taking place, and we just kept thinking if we worked harder, and worked more we could get that wealth too.  Then came the cost of health care.  Businesses started to require employees to start sharing some of the cost of the increases.  We were upset by it, and we were told from insurers that it was the doctors and pharmaceutical companies that were to blame.  And the insurance companies told us that it was because of all those people who run to the doctor for every little ache and pain.

In the meantime, wages started to freeze.  Companies were more concerned about stock values than they were about reciprocal loyalty to their employees.  Then came the first wave of the rich stealing from others.  There was the S & L bailouts, and then Black Tuesday.  The average American who was lead to believe the stock market was a great investment opportunity, and those employees who were fooled by their corporate employers that investing in stock was a great idea.  These people lost their asses.  Myself included.  Yet somehow, very few corporations folded, and very few on Wall Street lost their ass.

Next came the corporate takeovers.  Our wages and benefits were either froze or reduced to help the company "recover" from the investment in our future.  Meanwhile, those at the top were raking in huge profits.  But, we were told they couldn't give us raises, and we had to pay more for insurance.  When asked why, corporations started to point the finger at the government.  It was those high taxes they had to pay, and those people receiving government aid and assistance who were the real culprits.  So, some people started to fall for the bullshit. Hell, even I did for a while.  

So now, we've got a demographic of people, the baby boomers, who early in life were led to believe that hard work and sacrifice were the way to do better in life.  They were shown too how those with more wealth were treated better by the powers that be.  This became the goal for many of us.  We were then told that even though we were working hard and sacrificing, that we needed to work harder still and sacrifice even more to help the "company" because we were all one big team.  So we did.  And our reward?  We were told that despite all that hard work and effort, it was those government moochers who were causing these corporations to have to make cuts, that had to move jobs overseas, and had to reduce wages and benefits for those still working.  It was a concerted campaign by many corporations to make them still appear to be the good guy in all this, and that it was government and those with less than who were to blame, and that if we didn't all pull together and work even harder, we could lose our jobs too.

And as unions started to wake up and realize what was taking place, corporations were starting to blame the high labor costs for their problems, and switching the focus towards the unions.  All the while, the executives at the top kept making more and more money.  So now we've got unions, and those receiving government subsidies made to look like the biggest reason why the middle class was losing their fight to better themselves.

Enter the anti-union movement.  Corporations, not wanting everyone to see how those at the top were seeing their wages increase, started to ostracize unions and paint them as the main reason why products were costing so much to produce.  People start seeing their wages and benefits cut, but bigger unions were still able to maintain some of the pay and benefits that many had lost.  The propaganda started to emerge to make those who won the battle with corporations to appear as the bad guy.  And once again, many were fooled into believing that it was the unions who were being greedy, when all along it's been the executives at the top.

So now, they've cut or frozen our wages.  Reduced benefits.  Conned us into investing in 401k's instead of providing pensions like they used to.  (and we all know what's happened to a lot of that 401k money don't we?).  But wait, there's more.  After reducing the wages and benefits of their lower level employees by blaming unions for all their problems.  And after getting everyone to think that it was also those who were mooching off the system.  They ran out of things to blame their greed on.

Until now.  Now, it's the government employee who is to blame.  It is those highly paid employees and all their benefits that are costing these big corporations all kinds of money in tax dollars.  Never mind the fact that they are paying less in taxes than they've ever paid before.  It's all those non-legislative government workers who are draining the system and causing these corporations to not pay their workers.  I finally get it.  The wealthy have not only been given the gift of privilege, they've also been given the gift of deception, for they've pulled off one of the greatest scams of all time.