Hey Rodney, can you get me a copy of Office?
Sure. Standard or Professional?
What’s the difference in price?
Standard is $50 and Pro is $60.
Yes, they are real copies. No, I’m not pirating Microsoft software. I’m simply enjoying one of the company benefits that are so good they keep giving even after you are no longer an employee.
After leaving I Microsoft I went to work for a large non-profit in Utah. After I had been working there for a few years I, along with 8% of the IT department was laid off. They offered a very generous severance package. I was somewhat disappointed at the timing of the layoff. I’d worked there for 4 and a half years when the layoffs were announced. Naturally, I was disappointed to be out of work, but this employer offered a pension. One and a half percent of your salary for every year you had worked. The problem was that the vesting didn’t kick in until you’d been there five years. I was going to miss the pension by six months. I brought that up during the exit interview.
I understand you don’t have any obligation to help me, but if there was anyway we arrange things so that I qualified for the pension, obviously that would be great.
Well, I can’t promise anything, but let me see what I can do.
What she could do was furlough me for six months.
We can’t give you the severance package until you are officially laid off, but if you can survive for the next six months without it, we can leave you on the books at no pay until you hit the five year mark.
I’m still a few years away from retirement, but it’s nice to know that when I hit that age, I’ll have a few extra bucks each month because an HR rep “saw what she could do.” If I ever get a chance to go back to work for that company, I wouldn’t hesitate. There was one other benefit associated with that layoff that I didn’t recognize at first.
They offered up to $4000 for “job search” expenses. The employee found some training or resume help services or something and filled out the paper with the service and how much it cost.
Rodney, I noticed you didn’t fill out the Job Search Resources sheet.
Yeah, I’m not going to go to some job training class.
Well, it’s available for other things too.
Like what?
Do you need a laptop to do your job hunt?
Oh. . .
I didn’t buy a laptop, but I did buy the nicest iPad that Apple sold. I also found some peripherals to go along with that iPad. It’s the same iPad that I’ve used to write all 680 blog entries. It’s the technology tool I use the most, even more than my phone.
First, the company didn’t have to offer $4K as a nice parting gift and second, the HR rep didn’t have to prod me to use it.
Some benefits are so good, they keep on giving.
And the copies of Microsoft office?
There’s a Microsoft Alumni association. If you’ve worked for Microsot as a W2 employee, you are eligable to join the Alumni Association. There are many benefits to membership, but the most popular one is the ability to buy $600 per year worth of Microsoft Software for employee prices. I haven’t worked for Microsoft for more than a decade. And yet, there are some benefits that just keep on giving.
I don’t remember how much I earned at those two companies, but I remember the benefits. Your benefits package leaves a more lasting impression than your salary.
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday at 7:00 AM Mountain Time. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.
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or email him at rbliss at msn dot com(c) 2015 Rodney M Bliss, all rights reserved
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“Primum Non Nocere” is a latin phrase. It means “First, do no harm.”
If nothing else, your company benefits should not make people’s lives worse.
Generally, people are going to join your company for the benefits. Sure, salary is a big part of that. But, benefits include a lot more than just the money you hand your employees at the end of the month. Some of the types of things that can be included in your benefits are:
- Vacation Days
- Sick Leave
- Bereavement Leave
- Free Soda
- Free Food
- Free Sports Tickets
- Free Company Stuff
- Company Parties
- Friday Afternoon Beer Parties (Microsoft was famous for these)
- Game Rooms
- Work From Home Days
- Cell Phone Reimbursement
- Company Car (Does anyone still give this?)
- Preferred Parking Spot
- Awards
- Trophies
- Bonuses (More Money)
and of course,
- Health Insurance
Make no mistake, benefits are a part of why your employees work for you. So, when you are deciding on a benefits package it’s really important to “primum non nocere.” If a benefit costs your employees money, it’s not really a benefit. It’s a cost.
I once hurt my hand while working for a computer company. What do they always tell you to do if you get injured on the job? You are supposed to fill out some sort of injury report and report it as a Workman’s Comp issue. So, I did that.
My injury was to my wrist. Computer workers are susceptible to Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. It can be pretty devastating. I’ve seen it ruin people’s careers. So, when I started getting excruiating shooting pains in my right wrist, I was a little worried. In addition to reporting it, I also went to the doctor. Not the emergency room, but just to my regular doctor.
Here’s where my benefits bit me in the . . .ah. . .wrist.
How would you like to pay for this Mr. Bliss?
Well, it was a work related injury, so I think we need to classify it as a workman’s comp issue.
No problem. We’ll fill out that paperwork and bill your insurance.
There is a big difference between “billing your insurance” and “getting your insurance to pay for it.” Eventually, I started getting notices from my doctor’s office. Insurance was balking at paying for my office visit.
That’s not a worry. I worked for a BIG company; literally hundreds of thousands of employees. Our HR department should have a lot of pull with the insurance company. I reported it to my local HR rep. I gave him copies of the bill, and the injury report that I filled out when it happened. No worries. They’ll take care of it.
What I didn’t realize was that my company was so large that HR was fragmented. My HR rep had no idea who in the vast HR department handled workman’s comp disputes. Every time I got a (now overdue) notice, I’d send him email. He would then send another email into the void. Meanwhile my wrist was improving
Eventually, my doctor’s office got tired of waiting for their money. You know that you are ultimately responsible even if your insurance won’t pay, right? So, I paid the bill of $235.70 (including $1.57 of past finance charges.) My HR rep sent me an an email with the name of a person at the insurance company that I could petition directly.
We can’t get the insurance company to pay this, but feel free to try it yourself.
Here’s the crazy part. If I’d treated that original doctor visit as a normal office visit, I’d have had to pay a $25 copay and that would have been it. Even if I’d have gone to the emergency room, it would have only been a $75 copay. But, by calling it a workman’s comp issue, I got stuck with a $235 bill.
Primum non nocere
Is workman’s comp a benefit that my company offers?
Apparently not.
My wrist is fully recovered. I’m still waiting on that workman’s comp claim. The next time I get hurt at work, I’m gonna lie and tell them I fell off a ladder. . . at home. . . while juggling a cat. Anything except an injury at work.
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday at 7:00 AM Mountain Time. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.
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or email him at rbliss at msn dot com(c) 2015 Rodney M Bliss, all rights reserved
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It was not my fault. I did everything right. And now, because I followed the right steps I was out $8,000. And worse, it was my church that was taking my money. Not my fault!
In 2003 I left Microsoft and tried to decide what was next. Did I want to stay in the software field? Did I want to try something new? Did I want to stay in Washington? Move back to Utah? Somewhere else?
My uncle lives in Northern Idaho. I remember sitting on his deck watching the sun come up over Lake Coeur d’Alene. I was on a “brothers trip.” My two brothers and I had loaded up my minivan, hooked up my tent trailer and I drove us from Olympia, WA through eastern Washington and Northern Idaho; places we had known growing up. (Yeah, I’m not sure why it was all my gear either.)
We’d come to visit my uncle and his house on the lake. It was peaceful here. He is a very easy guy to be around. We fished. We water skied. And we sat around talking. But, this morning I was up before anyone else. Just watching the sun chase the shadows off the lake.
Teach.
I love to teach. Maybe I could teach at college? I’d need more education. Okay. That’s the plan. I’ll go back to BYU and try to get enough education to become a college professor. (I never made it to the tweed jacket, but that’s another story.)
I had some money from Microsoft and selling our house. My wife and I figured it was enough to get me through a couple years of school. Enough to get started down the road. There was just one problem: health coverage.
How many decisions do we make based on our health care options? Too many. Anyway, one of my kids had a surgery scheduled. It was one of those schedule months in advance. We were able to find a surgeon in Utah that wouldn’t affect our schedule too much. But, how to pay for it. The surgery was covered by our current insurance. We were paying COBRA. We had to decide if we wanted to stay on COBRA until the surgery was done, or switch to BYU student health insurance immediately.
What would YOU do? Well, we called the BYU healthcare provider and asked them about the surgery.
Yeah, my child has this surgery scheduled and we don’t want to mess that up. We can wait to switch insurance until after it’s done if we need to.
Is it covered by your current insurance?
Yes, it’s covered 100%.
Then, there is no problem. If it’s covered by your current insurance, we will also cover it.
I’m not sure how else we could have asked that question. It was absolutely clear. Well, we moved, we switched insurance and soon the day of the surgery arrived. I got a very scary phone call right before the surgery was scheduled to start.
Mr. Bliss, this is the surgery office. We generally make a final check of the insurance right before the surgery. And your provider tells us that this surgery is deemed elective and therefore not covered.
Ah. . .
If you will pay for the surgery up front we can proceed.
Ah. . .
Eight thousand dollars later my child was on their way into surgery and I was starting on a quest through the amazing world of insurance.
Did I mention that we called and checked if the surgery was covered before switching insurance companies? I’m pretty sure I mentioned that.
Nope. Didn’t make a bit of difference. The company even acknowledged that MAYBE their representative MIGHT have said it was approved. Unfortunately that employee was no longer with the company. We appealed to the higest levels of the insurance company. And here’s where the curch tie-in happened. BYU, of course is owned by the Mormon church. Well their health insurance is also owned by the church.
So, the final appeal was a quasi-religious group of senior managers. Our advocate went in and made our pitch:
- Students
- Adoptive family
- Made switch in good faith
- Other insurance didn’t think surgery was elective
- THEY CALLED FIRST!
The advocate said that she thought she had convinced the board to grant us an exception. . .until. . .the attorney started talking about precedents, contracts, liability, etc.
Short story version? We were out $8K that we could have saved if we had simly waited to switch insurance until after the surgery.
The lesson from this? Don’t let the attorney talk.
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday at 7:00 AM Mountain Time. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.
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or email him at rbliss at msn dot com(c) 2015 Rodney M Bliss, all rights reserved
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I love babies. Not surprising for a man with 13 children. Although, building our family through adoption, many of those children came to us as little people, not necessarily as babies. I have to admit I’m happy that my lovely wife and I have moved past the “having babies” to “having grandbabies” stage. However, while we were still building our family I had the opportunity to work for two different companies. We had a baby with company #1 and then a couple of years later had a baby with company #2. These two companies were rivals. Very intense rivals, often competing for the same employees. Do benefits make a difference?
You decide
Company #1 was a company started by a couple of guys at Brigham Young University. One was a professor, the other one of his students. The company was based not just in Utah, but in Utah county; the heart of “Mormon country.” Most of us were newly married with young families.
Company #2 was a multi-national company headquartered in Washington. It was started by a guy who was single and had dropped out of school. It was headquartered near Seattle. While a wonderful city, not considered nearly as “family oriented” as Utah with it’s strong family culture. In fact, this company was often described as “evil” by its detractors.
While at one of these companies, my lovely wife had a baby. She, of course took time off. Having a baby is hard work. But, about three weeks after the baby was born, her supervisor called.
Hey, I know you just had a baby, but we are getting killed by the support queue. Is there any chance you can come back a week early? We could really use you on the phones.
While working for the second company we also had a baby. This company had a different policy, though.
Rodney, we know your wife just had a baby. Feel free to use your vacation time, but in addition we are going to give you 4 weeks of paid leave. Go be with your son. Oh, and don’t even think about coming back early. We are turning off your login and card key access for the next month.
In addition the second company sent us a baby blanket, company branded baby toys, and a solid silver picture frame inscribed with my son’s name, birthdate and birth weight.
Which company do you think supported families and family values better?
What if I told you the two company’s were Microsoft and WordPerfect?
And despite the founding, the location and the culture of the surrounding community, WordPerfect was much less family-friendly than the evil empire in Redmond. I’ve reflected on this contrast a lot over the years. There are many practical reasons for their different policies. For one, WordPerfect employees had a lot more babies than Microsoft employees. A new baby was an event at Microsoft. It was fairly routine at WordPerfect. We tend to celebrate events.
Also, Microsoft was a much stronger company than WordPerfect. They had a more diversified product line. And while WordPerfect owned the word processor market at the time, Microsoft owned Windows, and programmaning languages and DOS and a bunch more.
But, more than the economics I was struck by the values that each company supported. A WordPerfect supervisor called my wife three weeks after having a baby and asked her to come back to work. My Microsoft supervisor basically kicked me out of the building for at least a month and said, “Don’t come back for the next four weeks.”
Now, twenty years later, I couldn’t tell you what version of WordPerfect Office my wife was taking calls on in support. I couldn’t tell you what team I was on at Microsoft when we had a baby. The details of the jobs have been lost to my own personal history. But, even now, after WordPerfect has ceased to be a company and I haven’t worked for Microsoft for over a decade, I still remember how the two companies treated me. And while I enjoyed working for both, that memory clouds my opinion probably more than any other event.
You have the opportunity to showcase your company values through your benefits program. It’s less about the features and more about what you show your employees is important to you as an employer.
Make sure you are sending the right message.
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday at 7:00 AM Mountain Time. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.
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or email him at rbliss at msn dot com(c) 2015 Rodney M Bliss, all rights reserved
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Eric, I thought you were moving to Arizona?
I was going to, but when it came down to it, my family didn’t want to leave Utah. So now I’m looking for a job back up here. That’s rough, being out of work.
Oh, I’m still working down there. I just fly back and forth on the weekends. I’ll tell you, maintaining two households is killing me.
Well, why. . .?
Can’t give up the health insurance.
My friend Eric is not unique. I know several people who are in jobs they don’t like. They could forgo the salary, but health benefits are keeping them tied to their current employer.
I worked for Microsoft during the glory years. The stock price was climbing 20-40% per year. We all had unvested stock options. That means we had tens of thousands of dollars that we could only collect if we stayed long enough for the stock options to vest. However, we got new options every year with a new vesting schedule. So, while the old grants would vest, there were always new ones with their untapped value. Within the company they were called “golden handcuffs.” Many people who might have otherwise retired or left for other companies could bear to walk away from their options.
The heady days of Microsoft’s soaring stock price are gone. Sure, Google or Apple have taken Microsoft’s place as the high flying tech stock darlings. But, stock options are no longer the handcuffs they once were. Gone are the days where we made decisions based on what we would get. Today our choices are based on what we would lose.
As the major breadwinner for a large family, I have a responsibility to not only feed and clothe my brood, but to make sure they can go to the doctor when needed. Two years ago my health care choices were pretty simple. I chose from three or four options that my employer offered. They took the money out of my paycheck and that was it. Last year that all changed. Because of new health care requirements, my employer options were no longer simple. In fact, during the open enrollment period, my wife and I spent weeks evaluating the different options. All of them were more expensive than previous years with less coverage. Finally, we ended up on three separate plans; one for me, one for my lovely wife and a separate one for our kids.
We now have three times the paperwork to keep track of. We get three times the mail from our insurance providers. We’ve had at least one long term health care provider inform us that he will no longer be working with one of our insurance providers. Managing our health care paperwork has become a second job for my lovely wife. Didn’t they tell us this was going to get easier?
Like many people, I’ve considered other employment options. I’ve asked myself, is this the right company for me? Should I look at a different company? But, now, rather than salary the major consideration is “What are their health benefits like?”
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday at 7:00 AM Mountain Time. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.
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He was a on the fast track at Microsoft. On track to be promoted to a Unit Manager. There was just one problem. The amount of PTO his team took was way off and he needed to fix it if he wanted to move up in the company.
Microsoft used to be the place to work. All the cool kids worked there. Even getting an interview was a big deal. They year they hired me, I was one of about 500 new hires. . .at a company that employed 50,000. Like many compnaies, Microsoft liked to promote from within. There were many criteria that Microsoft used to gause who should move up; programs shipped, team morale, projects completed, and team vacation time.
Vacation time, or PTO (Personal Time Off) as any three-letter-acronym loving person calls it, it pretty simple. You get a certain number of days each month or each year. Typically unused vacation days will accrue until you reach a certain point. (At Microsoft it was 1.5 times your annual allotment.) At that point you do not accrue any additional vacation days.
It’s a sad fact of project management that you cannot ship your product whil you are away from the office on PTO. The same goes for your teams. You need the people actually there working. It’s tempting to attempt to maximize your team’s time in the office. After all, if your team is off on vacation, they aren’t putting out product, or delivering new programs.
Of course, the downside is the ris that you’ll burn out your team. How do you balance the two? At Microsoft they balanced them by tying the manager’s review to how much PTO their employees took. In other words if your team didn’t take ENOUGH time off, you got a bad reveiw.
And it work. Managers would send people off on vacation and insist that they not log into email. Not only was it good for the employees, but it made the project team stronger as well. Team members learned to stretch beyond their own area of expertise to sometimes cover for team members who were out.
There is a business maxim that says, “What gets measured, improves.” In this case, they wanted to improve employee work/life blance. The key is finding the right measurement.
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday at 7:00 AM Mountain Time. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.
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or email him at rbliss at msn dot com(c) 2015 Rodney M Bliss, all rights reserved
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Trying something a little different today.
I commute 40 miles each direction to work. One option has four stoplights. The other options has 33 stoplights. Whenever possible, I take the 33 stoplight route. I’ll leave it to you to identify which is which.
Going TO Work
Going Home
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday at 7:00 AM Mountain Time. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.
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or email him at rbliss at msn dot com(c) 2015 Rodney M Bliss, all rights reserved
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What is he doing?
There is tons of room. Why doesn’t he go around?
Doesn’t he realize the headlights from his lifted truck are shining right in my eyes?
Tailgaters. Everyone hates them, including the offenders themselves if they happen to end up on the frontend rather than the backend of the exchange. What do you do? Speed up? Change lanes? Slam on your brakes? Give them a one finger salute?
Or just don’t get mad and get them to go around you?
First, let’s dispense with the fiction that speeding helps you get to your destination faster. If you drive on America’s freeways, it doesn’t. Not unless you want to get totally crazy.
I live about 40 miles from my office. About 35 miles of that commute is freeways. I get on I15 in Pleasant Grove, UT, take it north for about 20 miles. Then, switch to the westbound I215 freeway. I take that about 10 miles northwest to the 201 freeway. I follow that for a few miles west and it drops me right at my office. The speed limit on those freeways is between 65 and 70 mph. (Yeah, Utah has some of the highest speeds in the nation, there’s even an 80 mph freeway in Southern Utah.)
At 70 mph, it takes me 30 minutes to cover that 35 miles of freeway driving. But, who goes the speed limit? Not a lot of people in Utah. Like most people, I’ll tack on that extra 5 mph. How much sooner does that faster speed get me to my office? Two minutes. That’s it. If I drive 5 miles over the speed limit, I save a whopping 2 minutes off my commute time. No one is going to notice that extra 2 minutes in my day. And I have a long commute. If yours is shorter, it’s going to save you even less time.
So, speeding doesn’t really save you much time.
Now, let’s talk about tailgating. I’m driving along at 75 mph and that guy behind me wants to go 80. I know it isn’t really saving him any time, but I have no way of telling him that. And even if I did, he wouldn’t want to listen or believe me.
Those crazy people who try to whip through traffic by cutting back and forth across multiple lanes, speeding and tailgating? They are gaining MAYBE 5-10 seconds on you. Try this experiment the next time you are driving on the freeway. Watch for one of those speed demons. When he (and it’s almost always a he, sorry guys) goes past you, keep an eye on his car. After 5 or 10 minutes look for a road sign or an exit sign. When Speedy Gonzalez goes past it start counting. When you reach the sign, stop counting. Chances are you counted less than 10 seconds.
I mentioned that my commute is 35 miles of freeway driving. However, it’s not all 70 mph. I commute past a landmark known as Point Of The Mountain. It’s a section of the mountains that sticks out and forces the freeway to veer to the west and go up and over it. Utah Department of Transportation is widening the freeway at Point of the Mountain. They are half way through a 2 year construction project. Part of the reason I leave for work so early, is that traffic at the Point is pretty bad. They take away the carpool lane, and drop the speed limit from 70 mph to 55 mph. I’m willing to drive 75 in a 70 mph zone, but 75 in a 55 is a little too much for me. Besides, there are construction workers all over the sides of the road. I slow down to, you guessed it, 60 mph. And that’s when the tailgaters start.
Not everyone wants to drive 60 through the construction zone. In fact, lots of people want to continue driving 75 or 80. The lanes are narrow and the shoulders non-existent. I think that’s why the Highway Patrol doesn’t give a lot of tickets through there. But, there are lots of people who think I’m going too slow at 60. Of course, I stay out of the left lane. That’s just rude to drive slow in the inside lane. But, parked in the lane second from the left, every day I tool along for the 10 miles of construction at my safe(r) 60. And every day I get tailgaters. The ones that want to go 70, just whip around me and keep going. It’s the ones that want to go 63 that end up behind me; as if they can push me with their headlights to bump it up a few miles per hour.
Here’s the secret to getting them to stop tailgating you: slow down. Not aggressively. Not by slamming on your brakes and making them fear for their safety. That’s not only dangerous driving, it’s going to make the other driver angry. While that might be momentarily satisfying, it’s potentially dangerous. And it’s just not a nice thing to do. No, instead, just take your foot off the accelerator and decrease your speed by a couple of miles per hour. The guy behind you won’t even notice that you are consciously doing it. All he knows is that it’s now worth it for him to go around. People who will tailgate you when you are going 60 mph will go around you when you are going 55 mph. And we’ve already established that you really don’t lose any commute time by dropping your speed slightly. If you try to outrun the tailgater by speeding up? They’ll match pace with you. If you change lanes, you’ll pick up a tailgater in the other lanes as well. Instead, just take a slight break and you’ll be amazed at how quickly the tailgaters go around AND as an added bonus, your own stress level will decrease.
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday at 7:00 AM Mountain Time. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.
Follow him on
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or email him at rbliss at msn dot com(c) 2015 Rodney M Bliss, all rights reserved
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Mom, can I have some candy?
Sure, Rodney. You can have a couple.
I was four years old. It’s one of my earliest memories, and has been reinforced by countless retellings from my mother. Someone had come to the door and she was distracted. This was the perfect opportunity for an opportunistic little kid to get some treats. Mom is more likely to say yes when someone else is in the room.
We do the same things in business. There are good times and bad times to ask for additional resources. Now, I would recommend you not be as calculating as I was, because your managers, like my mother are not stupid.
I would also recommend you not follow up your request with my four year old response.
As my mother turned back to the person at the door, I started suffing my pockets with candy from the bowl on the table. Mom turned back around just as I was grabbing the last pieces. I realized I’d been caught.
Rodney, what are you doing?
Mom, how many is a couple?
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday at 7:00 AM Mountain Time. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.
Follow him on
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or email him at rbliss at msn dot com(c) 2015 Rodney M Bliss, all rights reserved
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We have both kinds of music here, Country and Western.
Country music fans are the most broadminded music lovers in the world. Think about it. How many people do you know who say, “I love all types of music. . .except Country.” Country music lovers include teh genres that other people love and more.
I love country music. While I have a large music collection. Country is what I listen to when I want to relax. When I travel, I spend the first few minutes in the rental car getting accustomed to the car; check the mirrors, figure out where the lights are and spend some time finding a country music station on the radio.
Recently I found myself travelling to Richmond, VA for several weeks in a row. I made sure to keep track of the local Country music station. It’s Hank 93.1 FM. They play a lot of Classic Country. Even among Country Music fans, Classic Country turns some people off. You know that “twang” that you hate when listening to your grandparents’ radio stations? It’s called an steel guitar and it’s all over Classic Country.
I love it.
But, I have a problem when I travel to Richmond. Hank 93.1 FM is not a very powerful radio station. It works in Henrico county, where our office is located, but if you get too far from there it starts to fade. Or, if you listen late at night when the FCC broadcast power requirements change, it fades, or if it’s a particularly rainy day, it fades.
And often, as it fades, the radio station from a neighboring county bleeds through. I think that other station is also a country station, but I can’t really tell. It’s too garbled. In a sense, I should be happy, right? Not just one Country radio station, but TWO stations! In reality, it destroyes the ability to listen to either one.
I don’t drink Slurpee’s much since I quit drinking soda. However, this summer has been exceptionally warm and my drive home goes right past a 7-11. Have you ever noticed the Slurpee machine? There are almost always multiple flavors. Like everyone, I find myself mixing flavors. Cherry-Lime with a dash of Lemonade. Or Pina Colada with some banana.
Compare that to taking my kids to a self-serve fountain drink location. The younger they are the more they want to mix things up.
- 7-Up
- Lemonade
- Rootbeer
- Red Creme Soda
- Orange
By the time they get done, they have a concoction that tastes like nothing recognizable.
Choices are fine, choosing ALL the choices is not.
My office wants to protect our computers. We have multiple layers of defense. We have email spam filters and network perimeter defenses. We have anti-virus software installed on our desktop. Occasionally someone will download and install a second anti-virus package. Invariably they have to remove it.
Anit-virus software wants to monitor who is looking at files, especially system files to determine if some program might be a threat. You know what programs look most like a threat? Anti-virus software. If you install two packages, they will each accuse the other of being a virus.
Too much ofa good thing is often a bad thing. Better to have nothing than try to listen to two different radio stations at the same time.
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday at 7:00 AM Mountain Time. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.
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