These last few months have obviously changed everyone’s lives in a significant way. From what I can tell people are either doing substantially better or substantially worse. I’m luckily counting myself part of the former group! I’m doing so well I’m even posting to my blog! Regular readers know how rare this has become lately. This has been such an…
It’s been waaay too long since I’ve posted anything, so I thought I’d ease back into it with a brief reflection. I remember back in 2006 when I was fresh out of college and scrambling to find a job before my 6 month grace period for student loans ended. I had started out working at Scotts Lawn Care, which I…
My last two posts about commuting exclusively by bike were written at certain milestones, I wrote the first one when I listed my car for sale, and the second one on the one year anniversary of selling my car. It’s now January of 2019 and I’m about a year and a half in on this adventure with 4000 miles logged.…
About a year ago, I was listening to one of my favorite e-commerce podcasts and heard them briefly mention that Amazon has released call center software in passing. I was driving at the time but remember putting the name Amazon Connect into my phone for later research. Regular readers of this blog probably realize that I have a sadistic habit…
Before joining my current company I had never even heard of a PEO (Professional Employer Organization). I’ve now come to work closely with Insperity for years and thought I’d share what I’ve learned. The basic premise of a PEO is that you can be a small business, but by leveraging a PEO you can get benefits that rival those of…
It’s been roughly a year since I made the seemingly crazy decision to commute exclusively by bike and sell my car here in Dallas, so I thought this was the perfect time to review what I’ve learned in a blog post. First of all, I will say that it was easily the best decision I’ve made in the last year,…
Often, though not always, whenever I participate in small talk with folks at work, it turns into a discussion about favorite tv shows, movies, or sports. At that point, I fall silent and become an observer, because my extent of tv is watching The Grand Tour and Silicon Valley, and if the Cowboys are winning I might get myself to…
Last week I went to a Cake show here in Dallas. It was as awesome as I expected, but hilariously, and somewhat pathetically, the lead singer threatened to cancel the second half of the show when he was experiencing some pretty menial difficulties. It got me thinking of all the characters I’ve encountered in music. I’ve played in several hobby…
I was once criticized by an employee that was quitting for running the customer service department meetings like a focus group. I had never thought of it like that, but it ultimately was a good comparison and one that I now use as guidance for my meetings. The reason behind this is that customer-facing employees are the best resource a…
Firing people sucks terribly. It’s a sign that you screwed up and the other person screwed up as well. Even worse is laying someone off, where they are not at fault at all, and sometimes it’s entirely because of you. I’ve frequently thought it would be useful to write a post on firing people, but I’ve always kicked the can…
