SueWorks

Employment Testing

Since the early 1970's employment testing has been shied away from, especially by large companies afraid of lawsuits.  There's a very famous Supreme Court case that every Human Resources student needs to learn, Griggs v Duke.  You can't get a "C" without at least knowing that it is important.  Basically Duke said that you have to "smart" as defined by this test to be promoted in their power plant.  Well, the test had nothing to do with actually being able to do the job but was an attempt by the company keep blacks from getting ahead.  Prior to Civil Rights legislation, Duke had actively and probbably very proudly discriminated. 

Flash forward 35 years and big companies and small companies want to test.  Hiring and promotion decisions are made every day that turn out to be very bad, for the company, the employee and the other employees.  it costs a lot to get rid of the wrong hire and they tend to make mistakes that cost too.  But what is the right test?

If you have to type it's obvious that you should be able to demonstrate that you can.  If you have to solder part A to knob B, you should be able to show that you can.  How do you test if you'll be a good leader?  Well, any number of consultatns can answer that question.  Just looking on Wikipedia, there's an article on it.  The tests or inventories (the consultants like to call them inventories because they had the same HR profs that I did -- we're still afraid of Griggs v Duke) measure aptitude (whatever that might be), socialness, craziness (MMPI,) and more.  My new personal fav is Raven's Progressive Matrics which measures abstract reasoning.  I had to look it up and there's no definition on the Wiki, but there is "thinking about and cognitively manipulating events, things or concepts that are not in one's immediate presence of environment."  I wonder if have this ability.

Just Because, or 500 Years of Evangelization

Why the Spaniards revere Columbus and why the natives (that is if any were still alive, you know, small pox and venereal disease aside) don't:

Topics for Today

There is a choice of topics for today.  The current leader is "the futility of committee" or "some people's co-workers just s&ck."  Another possible choice is "boobs, not just for milk anymore."

After a bothersome work day I had the pleasure of visiting a Breast Health Center.  All the accents were in pink.  The machine manufacturer even incorporated the pink ribbon into the product logo.  The little pink caplet that covered nothing set off the whole experience.

I guess I'm over the bothersome work day, but if you want to think about and/or get some help if you have a day like that, read Alexander's tale.

"Our State Fair is the Best State Fair in the State"

If I had the time I'd find the movie to find out what is its actual title.  I think it's State Fair. 

The reason I thought of the movie and the song is that we went to our county fair and it was INTERESTING.  Some things were good like the plastic chip bag clip made of recycled products that is wrapped in plastic that is not biodegradable nor made from recycled products.  The smokers just sucked.  The a$$hole who decided to get out of their car with the full force of a bull elephant and ding the heck out of my door was not a good thing.  Apparently a$$holes like that leave choice parking spaces rather than apologize or pay for damages to people like me.  I wonder if it was Britney!?!  TMZ, was she in Pomona this weekend?

On the good side I saw pictures of baby pigs, perhaps Boo will share her cell phone pics with us when she's back from Yosemite.  We didn't eat too much.  I'm sure it was about 3000 calories but when you're surrounded by deep-fried Twinkies and Snickers bars, a Hot Dog on a Stick and lemonade is virtually an Atkins meal. 

The LA County Fair likes to survey visitors.  There are electronic kiosks at all the entrances.  One year they were surveying you at almost every turn but they'd give you tickets, like at the arcade, that you could collect and redeem for things like exorbitantly priced Fair sodas.  That was a good year!

The fair is just an excuse to spend money.  This year I bought a handy go-kart.  It's a wheeled milk carton with a cover.  I'm looking at it now.  It will come in very handy, especially when I outfit it with bungee cords.  I'm not sure how many I need or the sizes that would work best.  It will be trial and error for a while.  As I glance at my old, trusty steel tube luggage carrier from the 80's I see the bungee it has.  The call of my ancestors is welling in my ears.  If I do a little Dr. Frankenstein job I could recycle that bungee to the new use.  I will have to check it out. 

CDs

There was a big brouhaha about water bottles destroying the environment and I'm sure contributing to global warming.  I see three beverage bottles on my desktop, as I type.  When they are empty I will put them in my desk drawer, no, stuff them in actually with the intention of bringing them home at some date in the future when it makes sense.  Pkin recycles them and lets me buy milk with the grocery store voucher.  It's a great system.

But what about old CDs!?!  I need to find my flash drive, I think I have two but neither one is in a place that I would like it to be.  That place would be my hand right now.  I put a file on a CD-R this morning and now the disk is useless.  How do you recycle them without compromising information?  I have smashed up a good number of 3.5 disks in my life and even a few 5 1/4 ones too.  The pieces ended up in the trash.  I'm hesitant to toss a CD.

The Big Boss, aka the Big Kahuna

There are various levels of boss.  I'm pre-boss, then there is boss, next there is boss's boss.  Sometimes you get to see the Big Boss, note the capitalization.  In a short while, I and my colleagues will be in the presence of a big boss.  See the The Big Kahuna or the Big Kahuna.

There is much sleep being lost and many eye drops being used.  Wish us all luck!

The Hungry Thing

This was one of my sister's favorite books; along with the Empty Pants, that's what we called it.  My sister was and still is rather odd.

Buster is our new hungry thing.

You can see a slight, light spot on Buster's back.  It is not fur, rather it's a small piece of partially chewed doggie food fresh out of Rosey's mouth.  Bob is in the background, minding his own kitty business it seems.  He's really waiting for everyone to get tired of the dog food so he can step in and eat it all.

Peaches and Buster

At long last .... HHHHHEEEEERRRRREEEE'SSSSS BUSTER!

Buster eats everything and anything.  Cat fanciers please let me know if all this extra food is really bad or only a little bad.

Buster eats canned mandarin oranges and peaches in medium syrup.  Bob decided that he (or she if you believe Pkin) will eat everything as well.  Since Rosey doesn't want to be left behind, she's eating too.  PS:  Gramma provided the peaches.

 

Buster the Bear and Bob-Cat Kitty Adventures

Buster is the replacement for Tallulah.  It's almost like parents who lose a child and then name the next kid the same or a similar name, only not as weird.  Maybe.

Mom is a replacement kid.  And so is Buster.

Of Tallulah and Bob, Bob was the extrovert.  Compared to Buster, Bob's the wallflower, scaredy cat.  I think Bob needs some "Bob-time" so he can feel the love and not develop a complex or anything like that.  I'd hate to have to add kitty-psychotherapy to my daily routine.  As it is about once a week there is a turned over, fallen over houseplant gracing the kitchen floor.  I think it's Buster's work.  We need a kitty-cam to get to the bottom on it all.  In the meantime, I placed the plant on a higher shelf this morning.  It will be safe for another week.  Kitties grow fast and jump higher each and every day.

Keep on Truckin'

My last blog really took it out of me -- the expression of negativity just sucked the life force out of me.  Now I'm back; still overwhelmed, overworked on the wrong things and undervalued in the right things but moving forward.

The new life eating proposal (aka DIE-t) is going well; don't want to scare of the momentum so I will be hushed mouthed overall except to note that Pkin is down a belt notch and my pants today are looser than last month.

Keep on truckin' !