Soup Is Not A Finger Food

We've come a long way, baby - or not

BY NOW, YOU'VE PROBABLY HEARD THE BUZZ over Yahoo!'s recent edict concerning telecommuting. CEO Marissa Mayer decreed, through HR (of course), that "Beginning in June, we’re asking all employees with work-from-home arrangements to work in Yahoo! offices." This is, they rationalize, an attempt to foster "communication and collaboration... [and] insights [that can only] come from hallway and cafeteria discussions, meeting new people, and impromptu team meetings." Furthermore, they generalize that "Speed and quality are often sacrificed when we work from home."

The backlash has been strong. Lisa Belkin wrote on Huffington Post that being "one Yahoo!" does NOT necessarily mean that all teams must physically work together in the same space. "It did 40 years ago, when work and home were separate realms and workers had the luxury of taking care of one at a time. ...It did 20 years ago, when the tools of work were all in the office -- all the files and paperwork; the office phone, with the office number, and the cord that didn't reach beyond the cubicle wall....It did before there were studies showing that flexibility improves worker productivity, and morale and health." (Links to studies in Belkin's post.)

The link to this post was flying around Facebook yesterday, so I shared it. In response, a friend shared a link to a piece on SFGate, which claims an insider view. Apparently Yahoo!'s structure is bloated and there are employees who "hide" behind telecommuting. It is believed that some of them are not productive. 

It goes on to note that "Mayer saw another side-benefit to making this move... some remote workers won't want to start coming into the office and so they will quit. That helps Yahoo, which needs to cut costs. It's a layoff that's not a layoff... Bigger picture: This is about Mayer 'carefully getting to problems created by Yahoo's huge, bloated infrastructure.' The company got fat and lazy over the past 15 years, and this is Mayer getting it into fighting shape."

Well.

If this is indeed a back-door layoff, I have a problem with that. If performance and productivity are truly the problems, then management could and should address that with a scalpel, through the company's performance management system, instead of wielding an axe. If collaboration is the primary concern, then I say, use videoconferencing and conference calls and fly your remote staff in to the office on a regular basis. But If a layoff is truly needed in order to address bloat and cut costs, then have the guts to execute a real, honest-to-goodness layoff.

I think it's an insult to Yahoo! employees to hide behind the "one Yahoo!" rallying cry.

I don't doubt there are those who take advantage of the conveniences that telecommuting affords. But don't we all know office-based folks who are pros at looking busy when they aren't? Conversely, there are some talented employees who are truly productive and make valuable contributions while working some sort of alternative work schedule, be it telecommuting or flex time or some combination thereof. Perhaps some of them even outproduce their office-based peers.

Unfortunately for Yahoo!, the collateral damage in this case - besides the bad PR - will be the loss of some truly talented and productive folks along with the so-called slackers. 

I believe that within 10 years, plenty of us will look back at the 90s and the 00s and think how quaint it was that we all had to schlep to a central office. With modern technological tools such as videoconferencing, mobile phones, cloud computing and high-speed internet connections now commonplace in most of our homes, many of us are well-equipped to function effectively and productively from a home office.

Like Belkin, I don't believe it makes sense anymore to confine work to a one-size-fits-all work schedule at one specific location. Telecommuting isn't for every employee, nor is it suitable for every job. But where it does make sense, I believe employers would do well to consider alternative schedules on a case-by-case basis. To me, it seems foolish to preclude attracting and retaining top talent by enacting such Draconian measures. What if I'm a top-performer in my company and my spouse gets a dream-job offer in a whole other time zone. Wouldn't my employer be crazy not to consider the possibility of a telecommuting arrangement in order to keep me in my job?

And here's the kicker. By and large, it is WOMEN who have benefited in large numbers by many employers' willingness to extend flexibility to them. So for a female CEO to do this feels, to me, like the proverbial rug has been pulled out from under me and my sisters by one of our own.

I agree that there is something to be gained though in-person teamwork, but I also think Yahoo! is going to regret this approach for many reasons. I'll be watching with interest as events unfold.

 

More breakage

IN JANUARY, I wrote a post about broken things... specifically, my car, my DSL connection, and Seth's foot. It was just one of those "bad things come in threes" times, where it just seemed everyting was breaking at once.

Well here we are again, friends, it's the sequel, and it's bigger and badder than the original! The biggest issue right now is our roof. You know, the one on the house that keeps the rain out. It was aging when we bought the house and we've been talking about how one of these days we'll have to replace it. We even joked a little bit after last year's fire about how if only the firemen hadn't been so prompt, we might have gotten a new kitchen roof. But we didn't really mean it.

Apparently we have a big bullseye hovering over our property that says MOTHER NATURE AIM HERE!, because there a rare derecho muscled through our area on June 29, and it sent one of our neighbor's fire-weakened trees right into our roof:

...and it punched a small-ish hole right through. A nice man with a chainsaw happened by, took some of our cash and removed the thing from the roof, then Curt went up into the attic and ghetto-patched it while I started calling roofing contractors. Please know that in a couple of weeks we will be inviting everyone to a party here, where we will make everyone scale a ladder to admire our new car kitchen  major dental work roof. We will serve drinks up there - Solo cups only! - and we will be expecting you to shower us with compliments on shingle color selection, the new skylight, and in particular, the jammin' new roof vents. Bonus points if you also compliment us on our new gutters and downspouts. 

That's the biggie. But at the same time, there was a series of smaller malfunctions: Our high-end Simple Human trash can's lid stopped working. (Don't judge; how many times do you go into your trash can each day? It's worth spending money on a good one.) One bolt that secured the toilet seat in the main bathroom broke clean off, and the plastic nut on the other bolt is stripped and we can't remove it. That was enough to send Curt outside to grill dinner, only the gas line seems to have stopped working. The grill's old anyway; we can try cleaning the line, but it needs new burners again and till you buy four new cast-iron burners you may as well buy a new grill. After that frustration, he decided to mow, only he ran the push mower over a small stump and it... broke. The mower repair guy flipped it over, took one look, and said, "You know, we sell mowers here, too..."

So there you have it. Things breaking left and right. But things can be replaced. When the CHILDREN start breaking, it's a whole new ballgame:

 

Peezer fell off the monkey bars at camp last Thursday. He cried, but "hockeyed up" and hardly complained. He went to camp Friday, then we dragged him up to PA for a family weekend. Saturday afternoon, I noticed he was still holding his arm still and it was still swollen. So yesterday, Curt ran him to the doctor, then for X-rays, then back to the doctor, then over to the orthopedist, and now Peezer has a full arm cast to protect the aligned distal ulnar fracture. And of course, I'm feeling like Mother of the Year for telling him to take a Tufferin and quit complaining. 

And that's the second broken bone in our family this year. But at least it wasn't a BAD break! And now Peezer has a cast - he chose red, for the Washington Capitals and Nationals - and he thinks he's pretty cool. Of course, this puts the kibash on swimming for a few weeks, and also puts taekwondo on hold for a while. 

I don't like to wallow in self-pity or bitch and moan too much, because when it comes down to it, we really do have it much better than so many people. Things could have been so much worse! That said, we've had more than our share this year. I'm done with breakage. OVER. IT.

 

Miscellany

A FEW RANDOM UPDATES from my little corner of the universe:

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SETH IS LEARNING TO DRIVE and I have to say, riding shotgun with him is completely surreal. Even if it's only in an empty parking lot. I gave birth to what is now a young man, who possesses a learner's permit, and now he is learning to drive. A vehicle. Pray for me.

The good news is, I can tell he has inherited the Good Driver Gene from both of his parents. Or maybe it's just the hours and hours he's spent honing his driving skillz on his xBox. Either way; I'm pretty sure it'll be fine. Probably.

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WE SAW A MOUSE last Saturday. We've had 'em before, but it'd been a while. Of course if you see a mouse, it means you have MICE. These seem to be a particularly stupid breed, peeking out in daring fashion from the safety of the gaping hole in the baseboard next to the oven. So, we set a trap and he was all mmmmm, peanut butter and SNAP! Squished mouse-head.

So when that dummy failed to report for Mouse Roll Call on Sunday morning, they drew straws and sent the loser in to investigate. Except this one was even dumber than the last one: He sauntered right into the family room as we were all gathered 'round the tube, eating dinner and watching hockey. We knew there was nowhere for him to go; so Seth used a crutch (don't ask) to goad him out of his corner and I stood on the sofa because eeeeeek! Curt grabbed a Spongebob tennis racket and WHAM! dead mouse. In my family room. During dinner.

I cleaned out all the drawers where they have left evidence of their presence (those aren't blackened sesame seeds, y'all) and placed peppermint oil-soaked cotton pads in the drawers and in the aforementioned gaping hole and now my kitchen smells minty fresh and I think the mice may have finally gotten the hint.

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REJOICE, FOR THE BOSS IS BLOND AGAIN! Those of you who know him will recall that last Halloween, he wanted to go sort of "Goth", so I said sure, why not, and helped him apply a semi-permanent black dye to his medium-blond hair. Only when you put black onto blond, it doesn't fade in 28 washes (as opposed to when you apply it to the wiry grays of someone who was born in the 1960s, in which case it lasts for a week or two, tops).  He liked it, though - it was a change for him. I privately wept at his new look but figured eventually he would outgrow it... which he finally did, yesterday. He ASKED ME to cut his hair all the way down to the blond. So now it's short and you can see his beautiful blue eyes again and he posted it on Facebook and his friends were all THANK YOU! and What took so long? and Yaaaay, your hair's back!. 

# # #

SPRING IS NIGH. We survived February with its insulting extra day, and now the daffodils are blooming and forsythia is coming out and choruses of birds are chirping in tight harmony and this weekend we lose an hour but who cares, because we get extra daylight in the evening and the sun will set here on Sunday just after 7:00 p.m. and friends, if that isn't something to celebrate then I don't know what is.

 

Thirteen

YESTERDAY WAS The Boss's thirteenth birthday and WHAM, just like that, now I have TWO TEENAGERS living in my house. And yet, even though he's got a peach-fuzz mustache and his voice is deepening, I can't help but remember him when he was all

and all

And then a few years later, he was all

The Boss was born just three days after my birthday, which means that in 1998, I kinda stopped having birthdays. Which is cool, because I was 31 on the day he was born and I'd be okay if I could just continue to celebrate the anniversaries of the day I turned 31 instead of the day I was born, back in the Gay Nineties  heyday of the rotary dial telephone  the Sixties.

But the darndest thing with kids - they grow up. You can cuddle and coddle and try to squoosh them down and keep them from growing, but soon they're looking you square in the eye and articulating keen observations and you can start to see the grown-up they'll soon be.

...but at thirteen, they're still young enough to be a kid.

Even though they all look like me (Curt has been known to refer to them as "Meg, Megger and Meggest"), each of my boys has a unique personality. It's fun to observe them as they mature. Sometimes I wish for the days when they were cuddly babies or chubby toddlers. Things were easier then. But The Boss has been such a joy to parent.

Recently, he and I found ourselves alone at the house on a lazy Sunday. I tried to interest him in getting out of the house. "Let's go buy you that new pair of sneakers you need," I prodded. "Or how about we go see a movie? Just us two!" He hemmed and hawed and hesitated. "Oh, c'mon," I urged. "Let's!!"

"Uh, it would be kinda embarassing if my friends saw me at a movie with my mom, Mom."

He didn't mean to crush my maternal heart or to drop-kick my spirit, but that comment was such a kick in the gut. And despite my futile protests ("It isn't unusual for a kid your age to be seen in public with your parent from time to time"), I totally understood where he was coming from. My boys don't believe it, but I DO remember what it was like to be thirteen. It wasn't all that long ago, really. I know what it feels like to wrestle with your feelings for your parents, to try and achieve independence. 

We celebrated his big day in the way that has become our tradition: Dinner out at Sakura, a Japanese steak house. We love the hibachi, the goofy show the chef provides as he whips up fried rice and sears steak and seafood and veggies. And he's my kid, too, in that he could take or leave cake. It was a good night.

Boss, we love you so much and are so proud of the young man you've become. I'm so glad I get to be your mom!

Take your shoes off!

I FELL ASLEEP LAST EVENING ON THE SOFA WHILE WATCHING TV. Before you judge, remember that I was born in the '60s haven't been able to do that since before the NFL strike mid-February. But earlier this week, 81 days since the fire, we were finally able to put our family room back together, converting it from a dance floor place to cross through from the kitchen to get to the carport back into actual living space.  

Now, don't you feel bad for assuming that I'm beyond hope totally lame for giving in to the path of least resistance on a Friday night? That crash was a long time coming!

Anyway, the family room. It's almost done.  The workers will replace the windows next week and hopefully reattach the screen doors on the outside of the French doors. The only other big thing left on the list is to replace the shed outside. Oh, and we still have to file a claim for the trees that died (all the little ones are cooked and a few of the big old ones look sketchy too).  But meanwhile, we have a comfy, cozy place to crash:

 
That's the new sofa, whth the dreaful old coffee table. Must replace it soon!

 
(Sorry about the colors; I tinkered with the exposure setting and can see now I missed the mark on this photo. The first one is a better representation of the colors.)

Oh, and you see that teeny-tiny TV way over there in the corner? I don't have space here to tell you how annoyed I am at the company that I was assured would "take care of everything" concerning our audio-visual system. I mean, if your company's name is a blend of "Restore" and "Electronics" and you send guys out to disconnect an entire system for the purpose of cleaning and restoring and, if necessary, replacing its components, wouldn't it logically follow that Said Company would replace and reconnect Said Components? Apparently, it does not (silly me!), and that's why now I myself am TAKING CARE OF EVERYTHING. *fumes*

 
(Ugh, the colors again! Sorry!) That's the armoire that used to hold my friends' TV and VCR but has been repurposed to conceal an unsightly stack of board games that pretty much only get played whenever we lose power... which is not necessarily a rare occurrence in these parts. Thanks, Suz!

 
Much better colors here. This is the corner where the fire came into the house. That wall on the left was a hole until last month, and I can't even begin to tell you how truly fabulous the hardwood floors look. I had no idea how bad they'd become until the whole room was redone. So this must be what they mean by "gleaming hardwood floors" in the real estate ads!

 
When you have a weakness, it's good to surround yourself with people who can compensate for your deficiency, and that's why I'm happy my neighbor is blessed with a great sense of space and design. She uses her talents to sell new homes, and when the staff from the model home in her community was going to put this rug out on the curb with a "free" sign on it, she guessed it would work with our room, so she lugged all 700 pounds 130 square feet of it home, knowing that if we didn't want it, someone else would. IT'S PERFECT! - the taupe and sage pulls in the colors of the new sofa, and the blues and pinks coordinate with the brick on the fireplace, which means we're not going to paint the bricks, at least not yet. And she did all this without even having seen the swatch of fabric for the new sofa. Thanks, Carrie!

One last thing: I owe a sincere apology to anyone who was offended when I suggested in this post that those who maintain a "no shoes" rule in their homes might have shades of OCD. Now that I have gleaming hardwood floors, a jammin' new area rug, new laminate in the kitchen and new carpet in the hallway and the entire basement, I TOTALLY GET IT. You were right, I was wrong. Now do me a favor and TAKE OFF YOUR SHOES!