An Ode to the End (Or the Beginning)

While learning from books
Is all well and fine
Learning through rhyme
Is a favourite of mine

Perhaps you learn visually
Or perhaps auditory
Kinesthetic, tactile,
Or reading a story

Research is done
To find the ways how
Children learn best
And make them say “Wow!”

Hands-on learning
Is considered the best
But others are needed
To excel at life’s quest

Kindergarten classes
Spend much time in song
To make their vocabulary
Varied and strong

But as we get older
Songs cease to be sung
As we climb corporate ladders
One rung by rung

I’ve always liked
To learn by a rhyme –
Songs from my childhood
Locked in my mind

I can’t say a speech
I’ve rehearsed for an hour
But a radio jingle
Has real lasting power

Dr. Seuss has helped children
And some grown-ups too
With interesting stories
Both heartfelt and true

We can learn from this man
And his hat-wearing cat
To make our work fun
Not boring or flat

To placement we’ll go
With our rich creativity
And make our first marks
On each and ev’ry activity

Armed with our schooling
And full of high hopes
We’re headed to greatness
Just show us the ropes

As you go please remember:
Be true to yourself
And don’t let great ideas
Waste on a shelf

Be confident friends!
In all you’ve aspired
Cause the next words you hear
Just could be “You’re Hired!”

Survivor Style Corporate Culture

When Tribal Council has spoken and the torch is extinguished, reality stars of the hit TV show, Survivor, head back to real life and their 15 minutes of fame.

But what happens when your job represents a real-life Survivor?

The part-time job I've been working at for the past seven months has taken a turn for the worse in recent weeks. Every time I go in for my shift, I hear about the latest firings and I must admit, the work culture is really suffering.

I like everyone I work with and try not to get involved in the office gossip. I know this is a job to pay the rent, but it's frustrating to see what could be a well-run establishment being slowly eroded by poor management and bad hiring/firing practices.

Last weekend we had a staff meeting (since there are so many new staff members) and went over the proper protocol for firing someone. During the first 90 days of employment, either party can terminate employment at any time with no repercussions.

However, after 90 days, there are certain steps that must be followed.
1. Verbal warning
2. Written warning
3. You're gone

Like baseball, employers are expected to follow a "three-strikes-you're-out" approach when dealing with issues. Obviously some infractions (stealing, abusing staff/customers, etc) can result in immediate dismissal.

I completely agree with the steps laid out, and would expect them to be the same in all work environments, but when I got a message on Sunday night from a co-worker saying she'd been fired I was very surprised.

She was a great person to work with, always helpful and willing to take other people's shifts. She had loads of previous experience, and was great with customers.

So what happened? Apparently it's a mystery, even to her. When she asked why she had been fired, the young manager replied that he didn't have to tell her. ??? How does that work? Don't we have labour laws in place to prevent this sort of thing?

At least on Survivor it goes to a vote - this is just a cowardly dictator on a firing spree with little thought about the big picture.

Like the cartoon, it's depressing to go into work and feel undervalued and unappreciated. The stock answer at my job when you make suggestions on ways to improve everyday tasks is: "We all have a choice. If you don't like it here, you have the choice to leave."

Well, duh. But if everyone left every time they experienced a set back we'd still be living in caves, eating raw or charred meat and sporting animal furs.

Things get better because change happens.Change happens because people question. People question because they want things to get better.

It's a cycle. I wish my boss would realize that.

Two bags of chips announced my arrival

Reading Week marked the beginning of a much needed break from classes. A classmate, her boyfriend and I decided to take a road trip to Boston and New York City to see some friends and get out of Toronto.

The friend we visited in Boston is a childhood friend of mine. We went to church together and when her father’s company transferred him to the States in grade six, our families stayed in touch. We usually see each other once or twice a year at my parent’s house in Newmarket, and it’s always nice to catch up.

Now she’s married to a nice American guy and they have a house and a dog, but I had never been down to visit them there. Since there are certain snack foods we enjoy in Canada that are unavailable in the U.S., I made sure to bring along a couple bags of chips, specifically ketchup and dill pickle flavoured – Yum!
Now, I may have been farther from school than usual, but social media is never out of mind these days.

This became really apparent when I called my sister to tell her I had arrived safely, and she said, “Well, I figured you had. Laura already posted pictures on Facebook of the chips you brought her.”

I had only been there about two hours! I jokingly teased Laura about her speedy posting and then she also admitted to tweeting out a similar message.

It’s pretty incredible that other people can keep track of my movements through the postings of others. The same thing happened in New York. We visited my former roommate and saw some city sights including a carriage ride around Central Park, and before the end of the day she had already posted the pictures! I’ve been home for over a week now and still haven’t found the time to post pictures.

Friends called and left me messages saying, “I didn’t even know you were away, but I saw the pictures!”

It seems that despite best efforts it’s nearly impossible to be “off the grid” these days. I routinely go through my tagged photos and un-tag myself. There are just some memories that shouldn’t be public knowledge – like the night I decided to drink the hotel dry on vacation and was sick all over myself. Do I really want a potential employer seeing those pics? Do I really want anyone seeing those pics? Not really. It wasn’t my finest few hours.

It’s a different world we’re living in and every moment can be captured and saved for posterity (or blackmail!), so make sure you’re aware of the image you, and others on your behalf, are projecting.

What happens when viral starts the downhill spiral?

Since you can clearly see from my lack of blog posts how un-savvy I am when it come to social media, I thought I’d try to up your opinion of me by sharing my new knowledge of “viral videos.” Ooooo very impressive, eh?

So I learned about viral videos in my Online PR class (the same class I write this blog for) and a couple weeks ago we watched some of the more popular ones.
For those not in the know, Wikipedia describes a viral video as “a video that becomes popular through the process of Internet sharing, typically through internet media sharing websites.” Videos can include televised comedy sketches, but with the abundance of personal video cameras and camera phones, more and more videos are posted online daily.

One video, done by T-Mobile in Trafalgar Square, featured a spontaneous sing-a-long to the popular Beatles song, “Hey Jude,” sung by 13,000 people as part of T-Mobile’s Life’s for Sharing Campaign.

Here’s the link, I can’t figure out how to make it clickable though! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=orukqxeWmM0

The event seemed really cool and such a special thing to be a part of, but I couldn’t help but notice that so many people were talking on their phones, texting, or tweeting. Yes, the campaign is about sharing, but at the expense of living in the moment?

By being tied to our Smart Phones and posting every single detail of our lives, I feel like you’re letting life pass you by. You should be creating memories for yourself, not trying to remind everyone else how in the loop you are. Put down the phone silly people, and just sing your heart out!

Canada vs. U.S.

As the top athletes from around the globe gathered in Vancouver to compete in their respective sports, Olympic fans everywhere tuned in to every televised moment.

For two weeks the world united through the tragic death of Georgian luger, Nodar Kumaritashvili, touching stories like Alexandre Bilodeau’s inspirational brother, and Joannie Rochette’s pain of losing her mother suddenly.

Canada was setting records in medal earnings and our Own the Podium campaign was proving to be a valuable investment. We were proud to be Canadian.

But then, like any Olympics in my memory, the men’s final hockey game seemed to be the culmination of our efforts. Canada versus the United States always seems to be much more intense than when we’re competing against any other country. We seem to feel that beating the States is the only time it really matters. More times than I care to remember I heard people saying, “I don’t care how many medals we get, I just hope we get more than the U.S.”

Is that really what it comes down to? Are we only proving our value by beating the U.S. in the gold medal count? It certainly seemed that way on Sunday while watching the men’s hockey final. Huge cheers erupted when the Canadian team came on the ice – and rightly so, we have a lot to be proud of – but the boos in Shoeless Joe’s that followed the U.S. team taking the ice were just as loud. I found myself embarrassed to be sitting in the same bar as those people and wondered why it gets so personal only when we are up against the States.

Perhaps it’s because Canadians feel that hockey is our game and our honour needs to be defended, or maybe we feel that the U.S. has laid claim to every major sport. But whatever the reason, I don’t think it’s an excuse to boo another team, especially at an event that is supposed to showcase good sportsmanship and world unity.

Of course I’m glad the Canadian team won, but it could have gone the other way just as easily, as demonstrated in the previous game they played. Maybe the reason the men’s game can be so intensely competitive is because most of the players play together during the NHL season and can laugh about it afterwards.

We send our players out as an extension of ourselves: we cheer them to victory and feel saddened with losses. There is a special bond with hockey that most Canadians share: even those who couldn’t care less during the regular season tune in to the Games. Let’s just try to keep our sportsmanship in check and remember the true spirit of the Olympics.

Social Media to the Rescue for Haiti

On Tuesday Jan. 12 I was sitting on a barstool in Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic when it started rocking gently back and forth. A sign above the bar started swinging so I turned to my friends and said, “Do you feel that? I think it’s an earthquake!”

Obviously I was right, but at the time I had no idea of the devastation that had been caused in Haiti. It wasn’t until the following day that heart-wrenching photos started filling the pages of newspapers across the world, and donations started pouring in.

I’ve always known that you can send money by mail and over the Internet, but I had no idea what a huge role social media is now playing in all aspects of our lives: my cell phone provider, Rogers, sent me a text message saying to reply HELP and $5 would be donated to support victims. The Mobile Giving Foundation site provides a list of 17 charitable organizations that you can text a donation to. Within 36 hours of the disaster, mobile donations to relief efforts for Haiti topped $7 million.

It’s pretty amazing how people pull together in a disaster situation. Here’s an article about people who have nothing themselves are still trying to help those in Haiti.

http://www.cbc.ca/marketplace/blog/2010/01/canadians-open-their-hearts-and-wallets-for-haiti.html