Work

How I lost my cherry at 33k feet

6 February, 2013
By
Take 2 and please don't call me in the morning.

Recently I had the pleasure of traveling cross country for business. It’d been a very long week. I was tired and anxious to go home and see the family, sleep in my own bed and hopefully get a little nookie from Mrs CV. But, like most business trips, I had to put in a full day at our east coast facility prior to boarding that big old jet plane making a long day even longer. The work day had ended, well at least for my local colleagues who would head home to their families and a date with their significant…

Read more »

It’s not a purse, it’s a satchel…umm briefcase?

1 February, 2013
By
satchel

I’ve got a lot of stuff. When I go to and from work on a daily basis I tend to haul around the essentials like my laptop and iPhone along with their required spaghetti bundle of cables and cords. I also tend to carry quite a few non-essentials: left over medicine from that business trip when I got the flu (no that’s not code for a hangover), receipts that I still need to submit expense reports for and $6.89 in miscellaneous coins that I refuse to carry in my pockets. When I travel it gets worse. I have all kinds…

Read more »

Running In A Circle

24 January, 2013
By
Running In A Circle

      I fidget. I don’t mean physically. Well, actually I do. But that is not what I a mean here. I mean I fidget, as in I am restless. I don’t know how to do nothing. I have to stay busy. This has been a recurring theme for me for as long as I can remember. I have always kept busy. When there was nothing to do, I would find something. I would create something. When I was in college, the first time around, I always had two or three jobs. Then I graduated, and still had two…

Read more »

The Work Voice

19 December, 2012
By
The Work Voice

    At dinner on Saturday, Tanya (who works with me), was trying to explain to our other friend, Cam, about my work persona. I have always known I am different at work, but until hearing Tanya say it, I never realized to what extent. Several people at work have known me for almost a decade, and have on several occasions seen me outside of work, but no one has ever made the comparison this way. I tend to behave more professional at the office. This just seems like a good idea. Sometimes I have to turn off certain emotions…

Read more »

America’s biggest threat to productivity

26 November, 2012
By
America’s biggest threat to productivity

On one hand businesses exist to provide goods and services to their customers. On the other hand, with the exception of non-profits, the real goal of a business is to make money. And, hopefully lots of it. At the 30,000 foot level, which coincidentally is where I’m writing this from (plus or minus a few thousand feet), it’s really straight forward: sell goods or services for more than it costs you to make them. That is profit. Of course reality (sea level?) is much more complicated. There are a million factors that go into the equation. One said factor is…

Read more »

Expense reports, passwords and the threat of an angry wife

30 October, 2012
By
picmonkey-collage

A few weeks ago, I was blessed (rolling my eyes) with the opportunity to represent my company on a business trip. I’ve talked previously about the joys of business travel… Exhibit A - Booking Travel Exhibit B - The Trade Show Exhibit C - Stomach Turmoil This time, pretty much everything was uneventful. That doesn’t mean it was great. I just means the plane had equal scheduled take offs and landings, I did my dog and pony show, and got out without getting yelled at by someone. All in all, reasonably successful. Time to bust it to the airport and get home to…

Read more »

You can lead a horse to water…

11 September, 2012
By
201

…But, you can’t make them click on a website. When you are part of a team you all need to be on the same page. Sharing of information is key. As a result, much of the world today involves collaboration. There’s those big old video conferencing systems which allow you to not only be (electronically) in the same room, but also allow you to share and edit documents, presentations, even funny cat videos from YouTube with people from all over the world. Even Microsoft has gotten into the game with their typically hard to use, way over featured SharePoint application designed…

Read more »

Diners, Drive-ins, and Disgusting Business Meals

29 August, 2012
By
Diners, Drive-ins, and Disgusting Business Meals

I recently had the opportunity, misfortune of going on a business trip. And, while I’ve talked before about the joy of booking business travel, what I haven’t really discussed is eating while on the business trip. While traveling for business, it is expected that your meals will be reimbursed by the company. Typically, this means expensing of meals via the post-trip expense report. Sometimes, however, this means having your superior take you out to a meal where he or she puts it on their expense report. Pro-Tip: Whenever possible, go to meals with someone higher up the company ladder than you, because per most company…

Read more »