Every June we take the scouts to Southern Utah for three days. We hike Kanarraville Falls outside Kanarraville, UT and The Narrows in Zions National Park. The following pictures were taken with a GoPro Hero3.
We camped in Deer Haven campground outside of Cedar City, UT.
It was a light breakfast. “Hey, it’s either this or powdered oatmeal!
This is a new sign. Yes, the hike is tough. And it’s hot.
The hike is literally in the creek for most of it. This is the entrance, but it gets narrower the further we go into the canyon.
It’s called a “slot” canyon for a reason.
The colors are stunning.
The first waterfall has a sturdy ladder. But, it’s wet.
The boys enjoyed the natural rock water slide.
Kanarraville Falls is a really fun half day hike.
After Kanarraville, we headed back toward our campsite, but made a short detour to Cedar Breaks National Monument.
Cedar Breaks is beautiful, but once you’ve taken the requisite picture, there is actually very little else to do. Fortunately, Brian Head Ski Resort was just up the road.
The view from the top of Brian Head is impressive. You can see parts of Utah, Arizona and Nevada from the peak.
The rock building at the top was build in the 1930’s. From the top we could see the 60,000 acre Brian Head fire. (Not pictured)
The second morning broke bright and clear.
Zions charges $15 per person to get in. . .unless you are a scout troop. $30 for all 12 of us. (Your tax dollars at work. Thank you)
It’s hot, at least until we get to the river.
Travel inside the park is via park busses.
My favorite park sign. Water is life in the desert.
Beautiful scenery, but very dry and very hot.
The temperature dropped 25 degrees in the canyon. Even more in the shade.
The Narrows are named for the slot canyon that the Virgin River has carved out of the Utah sandstone over millenia.
The canyon’s unique geology supports some plants not otherwise suited to the desert.
No matter how many times I take this hike, I’m still struck by the stark beauty of Utah’s mountains, canyons and rivers.
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.
Follow him on
Twitter (@rodneymbliss)
Facebook (www.facebook.com/rbliss)
LinkedIn (www.LinkedIn.com/in/rbliss)
or email him at rbliss at msn dot com(c) 2017 Rodney M Bliss, all rights reserved
Tell your friends about this!
I have a friend who plays the piano really well. He would play for friends and even played in church. People would hear him play and say, "I wish I could play like that."
"No you don't. It costs too much."
My life has turned out differently than I thought it would. Oh sure, everyone's does. Well, just about everyone. I have a daughter that decided when she was twelve years old that she wanted to join the Army and become a veterinarian. She's now 22 and in her second year of grad school at Utah State University studying veterinary science. Oh, and she's a 1st lieutenant in the United States Army Reserves. But, for most people, life takes weird and unexpected turns.
I'm certainly not complaining. I'm not even sure what I wanted to be when I was twelve. But, I'm sure it wasn't a program manager for a large telecommunication company. But, I have a job I like and a family I love. Not the family I expected.
It's probably no surprise to any of my readers that I have a large family. I have thirteen children. Ten of them are adopted from all over the world. The oldest is twenty-seven and the youngest is fourteen. They are good kids and I love them all. Unfortunately, through a series of choices beyond my control, those 13 kids will never all be in the same room together. It's unfortunate, but it is what it is.
I was sitting in the Utah Fourth District Juvenile Court reflecting on the differences between what I thought my family would look like and what it does. I'll admit that I let myself indulge in a rare moment of melancholy. How much easier would it be if I could simply make the unhappy and unpleasant parts of my life go away. It wasn't my choices that put me here. Why do I have to go through these challenges? Why can't I simply have a life free of these complications?
In a moment of clarity I realized my answer. It's the price we pay. It's the price we pay for everything. My life, the life that I appreciate and enjoy was purchased at the cost of my previous experiences. In the Pixar movie Cars 2, the main character is Mater, a battered tow truck. At one point he has the option of having his dents removed. He insists that he wants to keep them.
"They are too valuable. I come by each one of 'em with my best friend. . .I don't fix these. I wanna remember these dents forever."
My current car with its damaged bumper fits that category. I could have fixed it. I chose not to because of cost. But, it's a reminder that the car was nose down in a creek at one point and now it's not. That's something to celebrate.
Do we value the hard experiences? Are we willing to acknowledge that it's the pain and suffering that help shape us? It's what makes me me. If I were to remove the horrific experiences I've had to endure over the past years, how much of me would I remove with it? Am I a better father for having been through that? Am I more thoughtful husband for having suffered anguish?
The Revolutionary War orator Thomas Paine said, "What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly; it is dearness only that gives every thing its value." He was speaking about the cost of revolution, an event that we celebrate with a holiday on July 4th. He goes on to say, "Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strang indeed if so celestial an article as freedom should not be highly rated." Even as a country, we appreciate our freedom more knowing the cost that was paid in blood to bring it about and keep it a free country.
And yet, I can appreciate the rewards without reveling in the costs. No one goes looking for problems so that they can grow from experience of coming through them. That's the irony. We strive for comfort and yet, it's the struggle that lets us appreciate it when we have it.
My friend the paino player would become frustrated with people who claimed they wanted to play as well as he did. "Really? Do you really want to have spent thousands of hours practicing scales? Do you really want to have missed countless baseball games and the opportunity to hang out with friends because you had to practice? Do you really want to have endured dozens of recitals over the years? Is that what you are saying you wish you had? Because if you are saying you want to play as well as I do, that's what you are really saying you wish for."
Everything has a price. And the higher the price, the more valuable the thing.
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.
Follow him on
Twitter (@rodneymbliss)
Facebook (www.facebook.com/rbliss)
LinkedIn (www.LinkedIn.com/in/rbliss)
or email him at rbliss at msn dot com(c) 2017 Rodney M Bliss, all rights reserved
Tell your friends about this!
Did you hear that Carrie got promoted?
Really? Didn’t she used to be an agent? Some people have all the luck.
We’ve all seen it, right? Someone else gets promoted and we think, “I wish I could catch a break like that.” It must be that they know someone. Or maybe they just got lucky. Or maybe. . .The maybes go on forever.
I was once working for a guy at Microsoft that I really didn’t like. I didn’t like him and he didn’t like me. I was very much interested in finding another, ANY other, position. A position with the Training department came open. I applied for it. It helped that I love being a teacher. But, more importantly, it meant a new manager.
Frank also applied for the trainer position. Frank and I had earlier worked together in Microsoft support. In fact, at one point we sat right next to each other. Frank and I were equally good at our jobs. Frank had stayed in support and I had moved to another position writing reports. It was this new position that I wanted out of.
My friend John, was the hiring manager for the trainer position.
I got the job offer and Frank did not.
Sure was lucky that I knew John, huh? At least that’s how Frank saw it. And he wasn’t afraid to tell anyone who would listen. Of course, I got my job because John and I were buddies. Poor Frank never had a chance.
It wasn’t true. But, no amount of explanation would have convinced Frank. How did I get the trainer job? During the interview I brought a copy of a 200 page course I had written at WordPerfect prior to coming to Microsoft. I explained how to we had decided on the objective domain, or what the course would cover. I talked about rough drafts and train the trainer courses. I talked about revising the course when the software changed. In other words, I knew a thing or two about course writing.
Did I get the job because of John? Or was it the fact that I was really good at what I did?
But, what about those times where you don’t already know how to do what the job entails? Carrie really did just get a promotion. She’s now a site director. She started as an agent. From there she became a supervisor. Then, she became an Assistant Contact Center Manager, or ACCM. Then, she was a CCM. And now she’s being asked to be the site director.
Guess what kind of an agent Carrie was? Yup. She wasn’t just good, she was great. Guess how well her team did when she was a supervisor when compared to other teams? They kicked butt. As an ACCM, how well do you think she delivered? Fantastic. As a CCM she’s been consistently overachieving. She couldn’t NOT become the site director.
And that’s the key to getting promoted. It’s not who you know. It’s rarely a matter of luck. To be promoted, you need to show that you are very, very good at what you do.
I knew a manager named Aaron one time. Aaron was friends with the management chain. He convinced them that he would make a great manager. He was lucky. He was also not particularly good at what he did. He lacked the skills to be an effective manager. Rather than being good at his job he focused on showing how his employees were not doing their jobs. Of course, he couldn’t deliver steller results, just look at how bad his team was! Aaron is still in the same position. I’m not sure what is going to happen to him long term. Hopefully, he gets the training and becomes an effective manager. But, I can gaurantee what won’t happen to him. He’s not going to be promoted anytime soon, and probably not ever.
Want to be promoted? Do you current job better than anyone else can do it. Cream rises.
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.
Follow him on
Twitter (@rodneymbliss)
Facebook (www.facebook.com/rbliss)
LinkedIn (www.LinkedIn.com/in/rbliss)
or email him at rbliss at msn dot com(c) 2017 Rodney M Bliss, all rights reserved
Tell your friends about this!
I once went to visit my brother when he lived in San Diego.
I’m glad I came on a day with nice weather.
What was the forecast for today?
68 and sunny.
It’s always 68 and sunny in San Diego.
The latest weather report for Southern Utah says it’s hot. That’s like saying it’s 68 and sunny in San Diego, or maybe that it’s raining in Seattle, or cold in Minneapolis in the winter. But, occasionally it rains in San Diego, and sometimes it’s 68 and sunny in Seattle. The hot in Southern Utah wasn’t average hot.
It was really hot. In fact, it was hot enough that the National Weather Service issued a heat advisory. I’ve lived in Utah a long time. I’ve never heard of a heat advisory. (I grew up in Seattle, where a 50% chance of rain means that half the county is going to get wet.)
This heat advisory would normally not have been an issue for me, but last week we were taking a group of 9 boy scouts to Zions National Park. In case you aren’t familiar with the location of Zions National Park, it’s in Southern Utah. . .right in the middle of the “it’s hot” advisory area.
We were naturally concerned with the weather. People die in Utah every year by something as simple as being outside. We are not only hot, we are literally a desert. My favorite sign in Zions was this one,
It’s not even enough that you need to bring water. You need to bring enough water. The temperatures were expected to be well into the triple digits for our trip to Zions last weekend. But, a funny thing happened. We didn’t really notice the heat. In fact, at one point we were actually kind of cold.
The attraction in Zions National Park that we were visiting was “The Narrows.” The Narrows is a slot canyon with the Virgin River running through it. The hike takes place completely in the water. The water never gets deeper than about 2-3′. Often it’s ankle deep. Just the thing for a 100 degree day, right?
Except that that’s not how canyons and certainly not slot canyons work. We arrived at the park just before noon. The day hadn’t turned excessively hot yet. It was in the low 90’s. And then we walked into the canyon.
The walls provided relief from the blazing heat. In fact, the sunny areas in the canyon were a comfortable 80 degrees. The shady spots dropped to the 70’s. Sitting in the water in the shade quickly brought on a case of the chills. The boys were all well prepared with nylon or wool clothing. Cotton, in that environment would have presented a real possibility to hypothermia.
Was it hot last week? I guess so, but it sure didnt’ feel like it at times.
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.
Follow him on
Twitter (@rodneymbliss)
Facebook (www.facebook.com/rbliss)
LinkedIn (www.LinkedIn.com/in/rbliss)
or email him at rbliss at msn dot com(c) 2017 Rodney M Bliss, all rights reserved
Tell your friends about this!
This is not a political post. I don’t care if your politics are left/right/center/up or down. However, I also understand that it’s impossible to review a book by the man who is now president of the United States without it being perceived as political. Oh well, it’s America’s Independance day. I’m not going to be able to please everyone.
TRUMP The Art of The Deal, like many books written by people who are famous for something other than writing, wasn’t written by the guy whose name appears first. The book was written by Tony Schwartz. And it’s a credit to the publication that Schwartz gets to see his name on the cover. Too often ghost writers go unacknowledged. The stories and the lessons are, of course, from Donald Trump. And while Schwartz does a great job of telling the stories, I want to focus more on the stories themselves rather than the manner in which they were told.
I didn’t have high expectations when I picked up Art of The Deal. I knew it was a former #1 national bestseller, but I’ve read too many national bestsellers to put stock in that accolade. However, I found that I really enjoyed the book. Generally I read a book from front to back. Okay, that sounds sort of obvious, but in this case, I randomly opened to a page toward the back. I read the story of the Wollman Ice Rink in New York City. No matter how you read it, Trump comes out looking particularly good in this story. Even accounting for a favorable telling, the story is pretty amazing.
The Wollman Ice Rink in Central Park was first opened in 1949. It was a feature of Central Park for decades, hosting ice skating in the winter and concerts and other activities in the summer. It closed in 1980 for renovations. The work was scheduled to take two years and cost $9.1 million dollars. Six years and many millions of dollars later, the rink was still closed. Donald Trump eventually convinced Mayor Ed Koch to let him complete the project. Trump proposed a 6 month schedule and a $3,000,000 budget. The work was instead completed in 4 months at a cost of about $2.25 million. Donald Trump did the work for cost. He didn’t turn a profit. The rink is still operating today.
The story of how Trump approached the project is a fascinating study in project management and especially the balance between budget, schedule and features. While not calling out the tradeoffs in the triangle directly, Trump never the less, utilizes the project management tools necessary to bring in a project on time and under budget. Even without reading the chapter, most project managers can tell you that he had to cut features. It’s part of how project management works.
Budget
Schedule
FeaturesPick any two
However, like a good project manager, Trump realized which features were key. He added anything extra that he could manage in the time and budget, but realized the basics had to come first.
Reading through the other case studies, it’s less obvious how Trump used the project manager skills. Much of what he accomplished was due to negotiating skills. He got lucky on the timing of certain purchases. Andrew Carnegie built his railroad and steel industry because in the crash of 1890, Carnegie was buying while everyone else was selling. You get good deals that way. Trump did similar deals throughout his career.
It was impossible to read the book without the backdrop of what’s happened since it’s publication and the campaign over the past two years, plus the election. Trump, for example, raved about the casinos he opened in Atlantic City. After the book was published, several of those casinos declared bankruptcy.
Trump’s personality which wins him both fans and critics is on full display in the book. He certainly does not lack for an ego. At the same time, he accomplished some pretty amazing things in business. I’m not sure he would have if he hadn’t had the ego to just assume that he was going to win.
Overall, The Art of The Deal, while not a blueprint for how to be a project manager, is still an entertaining read.
What I Liked
The style of the writing was wonderful. I give Tony Schwartz full credit for this. The second half of the book is divided into self contained chapters that describe each project separate from any other parts of the book. That’s why I was able to jump straight to the Wollman Rink story without feeling lost. If you already know project management, you will see many of the lessons brought out in the stories. Plus, it was enjoyable to fill in some of the backstory of how the man now sitting at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue arrived at this point in his life.
What I Didn’t
It was obvious from the beginning of the book that this is a vanity project for Mr. Trump. You don’t have to think he’s wonderful, smart, and good looking, he’ll tell you that. And he’ll tell you over and over again. It was almost as if he was afraid if he didn’t point out how brilliant a particular deal was, we might fail to recognize it. Also, because the book was aimed at a mass audience, it’s long on narrative and often short on particulars. Even in describing his failures, Trump makes them sound like successes. And as I mentioned about the casinos later failing, we know much of the after story and to the extent it doesn’t match the hype, it’s hard to take the contents of the book at face value.
What It Means To You
If you are a Trump fan, you are going to like this book. In fact, you’ll love it. He comes out looking really good in it. If you can’t stand Trump, you’ll hate this book. You will find yourself screaming at each page, “THAT’S NOT TRUE!! THAT’S NOT HOW IT WORKS!” Save yourself the trouble. Don’t read it. For the rest of you, if you are interested in how the 45th president of the United States thinks he made his fortune, it’s an easy to read story told from a Donald-centric point of view.
My Rating
Two out of four stars
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.
Follow him on
Twitter (@rodneymbliss)
Facebook (www.facebook.com/rbliss)
LinkedIn (www.LinkedIn.com/in/rbliss)
or email him at rbliss at msn dot com(c) 2017 Rodney M Bliss, all rights reserved
Tell your friends about this!
I walked these halls before. And everytime I am reminded that despite it’s breathtaking beauty, it’s like a walk in the mall. I spent last weekend in and around Zion’s National Park. The geology of Southern Utah is largly sandstone. Utah used to be under water and over millenia, the rivers and the sea laid down layer after layer of sedimentary deposits. That silt and sand eventually turned into sandstone. Sandstone is realatively soft. Rivers cut right through it. Well, over thousands of years, they do. Today some of the canyons are a hundred feet deep or more.
No picture can do justice to the spectacular views. I am constantly amazed everytime I walk into those natural cathederals. I vowed to only take pictures of truely inspiring portions. I couldn’t do it. Every step is an amazing experience. One that few get to enjoy.
Well, maybe more than a few.
A lot, in fact.
The Narrows, the most popular attraction at Zions, is wall to wall people on a Saturday in July. The Narrows is a section of the Virgin River that is marked by towering cliffs on both sides. Thousands of people flock here every year.
We went with a group of boy scouts. We challenged them to keep their ears open and listen for different languages. We heard Japanese, French, German, Spanish and several more that I couldn’t place. People come from all over the world to experience our beautiful National Parks. It’s a short 3 hour drive for us from our homes in Pleasant Grove, UT.
I’ve heard that most New Yorkers never go to the Statue of Liberty unless they are hosting someone from out of town. Why is it that we don’t appreciate the things closest to us. I long ago gave up trying to figure out if “The World According To Rodney Bliss” was normal or not. In fact, I have pretty good evidence to the contrary.
Anyone who imagines that bliss is normal is going to waste a lot time running around shouting thathe’s been robbed.
– Jenken Lloyd Jones
My family and I try to take good advantage of the wonders around is when it comes time to vacation. We went to Yellowstone last summer, we’ve been to Zions. We load the kids on the train every year to go see the Christmas lights at Temple Square in downtown Salt Lake City.
Given the choice of having the beauty all to ourselves, or enduring the crowds, I think I’ll take the crowds.
What natural or man made beauties do you have in your area? Do you go see them?
You should.
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.
Follow him on
Twitter (@rodneymbliss)
Facebook (www.facebook.com/rbliss)
LinkedIn (www.LinkedIn.com/in/rbliss)
or email him at rbliss at msn dot com(c) 2017 Rodney M Bliss, all rights reserved
Tell your friends about this!
Last night I slept on the ground. Well, technically, I slept on a 4″ thick sleeping pad in side my tent. We are in Southern Utah, getting ready to visit Zion’s National Park and Kannaraville. We’ll be walking through water up slot canyons, some of which are only a few feet wide and a hundred feet high or more.
But, that sleeping pad and the accompanying sleeping bag were wonderful. Much better than the Marriott Residence Inn in Port St Lucie. In fact, it was even better than my king sized bed at home. That’s because I can finally get some sleep.
This week has been crazy busy at work. Monday morning I got a 1:00am flight to Florida. Then, it was client meetings or travel during the day and 5 hour maintenance windows at night. If I slept at all it was a short nap. Last week wasn’t any better. Between my daily work, the scheduled maintenance work, and dealing with outages, sleep seems to be the thing that got pushed aside. Every night this week I’ve been working late, with the exception of last night.
There’s no cell coverage where I’m at. Work cannot call me. My call centers could burn down and I won’t know it until we get back into cell phone range Saturday night. When I went to bed last night, it was with the knowledge that I would get to sleep uninterrupted. It’s amazing how much being on-call affects your sleep.
Last week, as we investigated an outage call, I texted my network engineer. She had done a lot of the work, and I wanted her to be aware of a potential issue. She called me a few minutes later.
Sorry, Jackie. I didn’t think a text would wake you.
I’m a very light sleeper. Now what do you need?
If you need me, don’t text me. My phone is near enough to my bed to wake me if something breaks in the middle of the night I will hear someone calling. But, I won’t hear the text messages. At least not loud enough to wake me. The phone, though. Yeah, I hear it.
But, not last night. Last night was the sound of boys in nearby tents being too loud. And there’s the never ending car traffic for any camp we drive to. But, no phone. Not even the threat of one. After the last two weeks, it practically feels like going to vacation to be able to sleep all night uninterupted.
On second thought, I guess a trip to Zions National Park should feel like a vacation.
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.
Follow him on
Twitter (@rodneymbliss)
Facebook (www.facebook.com/rbliss)
LinkedIn (www.LinkedIn.com/in/rbliss)
or email him at rbliss at msn dot com(c) 2017 Rodney M Bliss, all rights reserved
Tell your friends about this!
My call centers all have hours of operations. The number one goal of my job is to keep the call centers running as efficiently as possible. That means when I need to work with our engineering team to make changes, we typically schedule those changes for the middle of the night. We have to make sure we finish the maintenance before the call center is scheduled to come on line in the morning.
Last week we had maintenance scheduled in our Raliegh location. The center took calls until 1:00AM Eastern Time. We scheduled our maintenance window to start at 2:00AM just to make sure the agents were completely off the phones. The changes ran for several hours. We have engineers on site in Raliegh. I was dialed in and I had an engineer dialed in from California. By the time we had validated our changes it was close to 5:30AM. Calls would start coming in at 7:00AM. If anything went wrong, we’d need an engineer on site to fix it. The same engineer who was currently making changes on the floor.
What do you do? I felt like a jerk to tell someone who had just worked all night that he needed to be back in a couple of hours. Chances are that there would be no need for him in the morning. It was simply an extra level of support in case we missed something in the validation. But, if I sent him home and we did need him, I’d be done for another 30 minutes or so waiting for him to come back into center.
John, nice job tonight. I’m going to set up a phone bridge with Mission Control and operations first thing in the morning in case the agents have issues when they come in.
Yeah, that’s probably a good idea.
I hate to ask this, but I need you to be available during that bridge in case they find something wrong.
No problem. I’ll be here.
Yes, there was a problem. John might not have had one, but I did. I had just asked him to pretty much work around the clock. I felt like a jerk. Unlike me, John gets paid hourly, so at least he’s getting compensated for those extra hours. But, I still felt bad asking him to give even more than I already asked him.
My engineer from California was our network resource. She had been putting in long hours on the project, just as I had. I didn’t think I would need her in the morning.
Jackie, I’m going to invite you to the meeting request, but don’t feel obligated to join. I just want you to have the meeting information in case we need you.
Sure.
But, I’m going to work very hard to not call you. You’ve done a great job. I’m hoping we can just let you sleep.
Well, call me if you need me and I’ll jump on the bridge.
I have a great team. I sometimes wonder what my real role on the team is. I guess I’m the leader. No one specifically works for me, but I own the project. I have to coordinate the resources and schedules from multiple departments. I then get to mold them into my team. And, I demand a lot from them.
So, why is the team so willing to work crazy hours? For one thing, they all have a great work ethic and they see value to our client in what we are doing. But, there’s more than that. Last week as we wrapped up the validation for our change, I was on the call. A couple of hours later, I was on the call again when our call floor opened for business. I’ve worked the clock around more than once on this project. Typically while on a call with our engineers. If something goes wrong, I’m on the call until we get it right.
There is something to be said for simply showing up. A leader needs to lead. You need to put in the time. You need to do the little things. I realized as I looked at our schedules, while I couldn’t do the work the engineers were doing, as far as timing, I wasn’t asking them to do anything I wasn’t willing to do myself.
First one in, last one out, is a strategy that will earn you the respect of the people you work with.
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.
Follow him on
Twitter (@rodneymbliss)
Facebook (www.facebook.com/rbliss)
LinkedIn (www.LinkedIn.com/in/rbliss)
or email him at rbliss at msn dot com(c) 2017 Rodney M Bliss, all rights reserved
Tell your friends about this!
We don’t have a comp-time policy.
I’ve heard it often. It’s a perfectly safe corporate policy. Most importantly, it’s a legally defensible corporate policy.
WordPerfect hired a lot of call center agents. We were mostly just out of college and we were all hourly. I remember getting the insane wage of $12.50 per hour in 1988. It was great. As an hourly employee, we got paid for the hours we worked, of course. Each agent had a scheduled shift and the call center had set hours of operation. Our jobs were to be on the phones, so other than a couple breaks and a lunch, we were talking to users.
And since these were technical support calls, we occasionally got stuck on a long call. If it went past the end of our shift, we checked with our manager and just came in later the next day. If that call happened to be on a Friday? We’d just keep track for the following Sunday.
It was about as simple a comp-time policy as you could find. And apparently it was illegal.
We had two week pay periods. And if the pay period ended on a Friday, it was against the law to not pay us for that extra time, even if it was 5 minutes.
No one cared. Well, that’s not true. The people who sued WordPerfect for their missing 5 minutes cared. And they won. It’s not like WordPerfect was abusing the system. In fact, they were trying to accomodate their employees. Most comp-time policies do. But, after a lawsuit, there was a new corporate policy. Comp-time within the same time period was still okay, but any time over 40 hours in the last week of the pay period had to be paid at time and a half.
This new policy was legal, but it really stunk for everyone involved. If you were on a call and went 5 minutes over, you had to get your supervisor involved. There was paperwork to fill out. You got a tiny amount more in your check. The supervisors also started pushing agents to cut that last call of the day short. It was a worse experience for people calling us.
But, it was legal.
I work a lot. Last week, I put in about 65 hours. This week with travel is on the same pace. I’ve long since moved to a salaried role. I get paid the same whether I work 40 hours per week or 65 hours. (I rarely work just 40.) I have some vacation coming up. This weekend I’ll be in Southern Utah in the beautiful Zions National Park. We will hike what’s called the Narrows. It’s a slot canyon with a river running down the middle. Unlike most of our monthly outings, this one is three days. It will start Thursday afternoon and end Saturday evening.
I’ll work on Thursday, but what about Friday? Should I put in for a personal day off? Should I be able to take comp-time since I’ve put in more than 40 hours this week?
My company, like most, doesn’t have a comp-time policy. There is literally no way for me to say, “Hey, I worked a lot over the past two weeks (actually, it’s been months.) I’ve worked weekends, nights, and worked the clock around occasionally. Can I get a little love?
Yes and no. I cannot ask for comp-time and my boss cannot offer it. But, as a salaried employee, I fall under the 5 minute rule. If a salaried employee works for more than 5 minutes, he or she gets paid for that day. Eat some bad sushi at lunch? Take the afternoon off. Kid fell off the swing at school during first recess? Get paid for the rest of the day. Of course, you need to coordinate with your manager, but legally, your company has to pay you. It’s not really a limit of 5 minutes. It’s the other side of the “no comp-time” policy.
Most of my work is done over the phone. I do a fair amount via email and instant messaging, of course, but I live and breath my phone. The benefit of a phone is that I can take calls anywhere I can get coverage. Last month I went to visit our client in person. I met the people that up until that point I’d only talked to over the phone.
I typically work from home one day per week. Can any of y’all tell me what day that is?
Ah. . .Wednesday?
No, and I’m glad you don’t know.
Apparently, I was able to interact with them seamlessly whether I was in the office or not.
I just spent three days with my boss at our new site. During that time I was on phone calls for about 15 hours. I was often on two calls at once. I wasn’t on three calls at once because my phone will only allow two at a time. He gives me great latitude to run my postion the way I need to. But, I think he was surprised at just how much time I spend on the phone.
As we considered this coming long weekend, he reminded me of the 5 minute rule. I’ll take a personal day, but if I have to take a phone call, then it’s a work day and we have to go back and adjust the records. He’s not talking about a five minute phone call, of course. I took a 6 hour call from when we arrived at the airport in Florida well into the evening.
I’ll have a backup designated for this weekend, but everyone calls me first. That’s our protocol. If I don’t answer it’s because I can’t. At that point they move on to my backup. So, there is a possibility that I’ll be working on my vacation day again.
As much as I appreciate it, I really wish the lawyers would have never killed corporations’ comp-time policy. I don’t get to choose, but when I did, as a small business owner, I opted for more legal risk, but a policy that allowed people to balance work and life more.
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.
Follow him on
Twitter (@rodneymbliss)
Facebook (www.facebook.com/rbliss)
LinkedIn (www.LinkedIn.com/in/rbliss)
or email him at rbliss at msn dot com(c) 2017 Rodney M Bliss, all rights reserved
Tell your friends about this!
I never thought Michael Keaton would make a good Batman. I’d seen him in Mr Mom and Gung Ho and thought of him as a quicky comic actor, lacking the gravitas to play the Dark Night. I was wrong.
Mark was an employee on my new team working for a large non profit corporation in Utah. Matt wanted to move up. He was good at his job, but was frustrated at not getting a promotion. He said something telling that I hear at many organizaations,
It seems like you have to leave to get promoted.
No one thought of him as anything other than what he’d been hired as, an entry-level engineer. Mark and I worked together to change not just his, but other people’s opinion of him. Mark didn’t turn into a different employee, but he learned to let others see him in a different way. A year later, Mark went from being an engineer to a Senior Engineer. Today, he’s the vice president of technology for a large bank.
My friend Howard talks about Imposter Syndrome. The fear that I’m not really as good as people think I am. I’m not as good at my job as I imagine I am. In fact, I’m a fake, an imposter. Howard is an award winning cartoonist. He’s more open about his insecurities than many of us are.
Because, even though we may have Imposter Syndrome, even though we might fear we just aren’t good enough, we don’t speak our fear. Like the kid hiding under his blanket to avoid the monsters, we think if we just keep quiet, no one else will know. . .except they already know. It’s an odd sensation. Every successful person I’ve ever met has it.
To combat Imposter Syndrome, we build our self esteem. We look for validation. We work even harder to make up for a perceived weakness. We “fake it till we make it.”
Michael Keaton did a fantastic job as Batman. He starred opposite Jack Nicholson as the Joker. Keaton had his share of Imposter Syndrome as well. He said he was unsure how to act in the Bat-suit. He asked Nicholson how he managed to capture the essense of his character.
Sometimes you just have to sit back and let the makeup do the acting.
The key is to not be afraid of your potential.
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.
Follow him on
Twitter (@rodneymbliss)
Facebook (www.facebook.com/rbliss)
LinkedIn (www.LinkedIn.com/in/rbliss)
or email him at rbliss at msn dot com(c) 2017 Rodney M Bliss, all rights reserved