Employee

–noun

a person working for another person or a business firm for pay. Wow. Is that austere or what? Here are some other great synonyms for employee: cog -noun a person who plays a minor part in a large organization, activity, etc.: He's just a small cog in the financial department. hire⋅ling a person who works only for pay, esp. in a menial or boring job, with little or no concern for the value of the work. Wow. That'll really motivate you to work. I propose that there needs to be a new word for employee. john.

Prayer

Today, before stepping into work, I decided I'd pray for my day. You know, just the usual, just to ask God for grace to make a difference today.

And it's wild, I came into work with just a really different mindset and a different attitude. Real subtle, but it made a huge difference. Before I even started I stopped by two of our residents' rooms (something I usually don't do) and just chatted with them for a while. I feel like my perspective is better now and I know why I'm doing what I'm doing. It's good.

Luke 11:2-4

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke%2011:2-4;&version=9;

john.

Time Management

Sweet, I was just thinking about this today. I've wanted to get my time management skills at work down pat a little better.

I especially like #5.

Actually both of these articles hit home. One's about managing stuff off-site and one's about time management. Have a look at check out the 'way of the future'...

Virtual Office

http://www.openforum.com/idea-hub/topics/lifestyle/article/the-beauty-of-the-virtual-office-jill-fehrenbacher

Time Management

https://www.openforum.com/idea-hub/topics/lifestyle/article?postguid=d2b323cc-201b-4aa3-b0ad-0a73d2ed4e41

john.

The Human Element

The other day I talked to a friend of mine who's basically a business/entrepreneur guru. Really, he's more of a friend of a friend, I guess. Anways...

So I'm talking to him about business because we're discussing how to figure out how to grow our business. One of the things we end up discussing as a requirement before learning the future of the business is to discover the personal future of each person involved with the business. As in, our personal stake. So what I thought would be a completely clinical conversation of charts and facts and figures turned into an introspective and very personal inner conversation.

I began to really think of my life and where I want to be in 3, 5, and 10 years. And the truth is, I'd love to still be connected with the business, but I want to be in school, and then performing eventually at some point. A performer needs a side job though, so is it feasible for me to still be involved in the business while performing. Or is it too big of a job? And if so, how much should I be doing for the company now? What about later?

All this to say, I have a number of questions and ideas to bounce off my friend the next time we meet. And it seems to have divulged completely from the original topic. Really, I just need someone to talk to about my plans, my future, and my dreams, and see if all of this will work together with the future of the business. It's funny then, that my business consultant has somehow turned into what I wish would be a counselor of sorts.

You see, I don't think we really ask for people's services just because they do their service efficiently, although that is certainly key to the situation. I think we do things, especially in today's day and age out of relationship. There's a human element that has to be factored into people choosing to work with one service company vs. the next.

That's one reason that I love Abba Care. We recognize this truth and know our clients don't choose us just because we're efficient or even because of our home atmosphere and cooking that we're really proud of. I think they also choose us and stay with us, partially, because we build relationships. When a resident or a client leaves, my heart definitely aches a little bit because we've built relationship with that client.

And that's an interesting thing that no marketing survey can really “tally” for you.

left brain vs. right brain

I've been really intrigued lately by the concept that our brains are divided by hemisphere and that most of us lean towards using one or the other.

I took a test the other day that said i lean about 60/40--right/left.  

I'm not really surprised, but to a certain extent it always makes me wonder why I'm involved in business at all!  

I mean, business seems like something dominated by left brainers.  "Gimme the cold hard facts, bottom lines, profit margins, quotas, etc."

And I just don't really function that way.  I feel like I've been reading a lot lately about right brainers and creative minds being essential to business.  Especially in our economic times.  Steve jobs, for example, apple's ceo, is a strong visual person, right brained I think.

Right brain is what makes me think of weird things like, why not start a blog, or why don't we invest in customer service and employee development?  What if we improve the atmosphere of the home?  Left brainers, who deal with number crunching and facts, don't really roll with that.

On the other hand, I have just enough left brain to keep me in order--unlike a lot of right brainers I know who are weird emotional slinkies who are impossible to understand by the normal individual.  Friends of mine, definitely, but definitely an odd bunch.

To be fair though, I am definitely 60/40, meaning, I drop a lot of the details and the pieces here and there, and someone definitely has to pick up those pieces for me.

Good thing I have a mom.  

john.

touch screen vs. the mole rat

For those of you who don't know, I'm actually a dance major.  So... business man by day, performer by night.

Well so, last night, I tried out for West Side Story.  I was changing into my dance clothing for the dance audition and I had just stepped out of the restroom and walked around the corner to stretch and warm up when someone started yelling, "Hey you needa get in there right now!  They called all the guys back in!"

Trouble.

Of course, I'm the one who's running late.

So I throw down everything, my bag of clothes, my water bottle, my cell phone, i think, and rush into the room and have a great dance audition.

Where's the conflict?

"I throw down everything... my cell phone."

So the night goes great, I'm pretty happy with my audition and in the chaos of it all, I lose my cell phone.  I'm standing outside the audition room, it's 9:30.  All the other auditionees have gone home.  And here I am.  Sulking and freaking out because my cell phone has gone AWOL.

Mind you, this cell phone has been pestering me for all its lifetime under my possession.

I'm a text fiend.  And touch screen phones make it impossible to text quickly.

Needless to say, my phone and I fought.  A lot.

Anyways, for the next 15 hours or so I'm missing my cell phone and freaking out.  Happy with my audition but too freaked out to really relish the moment because what I feel is my connection to the outside world is gone.  

Thankfully, Cingular has a wonderful system of restoring your number to you, quite easily, too.  I really have to put a plug for them.  Their connection lady was American and very easy to work with and incredibly patient.  

What have I learned through this?  

Man, we really depend on cell phones.  

I mean I'm sure back then a college student could be just fine without one.  Unable to talk to his parents until he got home, or on his phone in the dorm room.  Communicating with old friends meant letters, not facebook, texting, and email.  

Oh but now.  

We lose our phone for a day.  We lose the internet for a day.  We do whatever it takes to get that sucker back in working order.  It's crazy.  

All that to say, I think we should examine our dependance on technology, and try to remember that it serves us.  We are not a slave to it.

On the plus, I lost that janky touch screen and regained my good ol' sturdy black flip phone that's as large as baby mole rat and as resilient as titanium.

john.

Bedtime Blues OR Juvenille John

I am presently at a Starbucks in Rowlett.  I woke up at 4:30 AM this morning, woke up in Tyler and drove 2 hours to get back to Garland.  30 minutes of those 2 hours being lost and going back and forth between 3 sets of streets.  

Now, I am snotty nosed, sitting at Starbucks, running off of 3 hours of sleep drinking my cup of awake tea, which is running out (which means "I" am running out) prepping for the work day.  A blog might as well have been to do today so here we are!  And I thought to myself, how much sleep am I getting?  How much sleep do I REALLY need?  Because if I could, I'd run off less, but I feel that I can't.  Let's find out:

Here's a pretty good link actually.  The first one I found on Google after searching "How Much adults sleep" (Just as a testament to my tiredness, I was about to type the word "searching" phonetically instead of 'correctly'--"surching").

http://www.sleepfoundation.org/site/c.huIXKjM0IxF/b.2419131/k.6C23/How_Much_Sleep_is_Enough.htm

Looks like I should be getting about 7-9,which on average is what I get.  But sometimes it feels like too much, and other times like too little.  Like, I never want to get up.  I wonder if that just stays with you the rest of your life though.

I thought it was interesting that it suggests sleeping after a regular "relaxing bedtime routine".  Interesting.

It's interesting to me because I felt out of whack the past few weeks because I bought a new video game--World of Warcraft (WoW).  I know, I know.  It's juvenille.  But I'm a boy.  Well.  A man-boy.  And boys will be boys.  Right?  I think all the gentlemen out there (and their ladies as well) can testify that we just like toys.  

Well anyways, this past week or so, my pre-bed routine changed.  I usually read my Bible and sit on my bed and read my "Dance Bible" and just contemplate things before I turn out the lights.  Well, lately, it's been "Video Game Fest 2009" in the living room.  I'll sit in the living room and play WoW until late in the night.  And maybe that's why I feel a little bit funny and just ... unbalanced.  

And I don't like imbalance.  If there's one thing I've learned is a key value of mine, it's balance.  Strange, I know.  

Well.  Time to go back to the usual "pre-bed" routine.  Maybe I'll feel better.  Well, and maybe after I get the remaing 4 hours of sleep I'm missing today.

john.