The Human Condition

I was recently asked to manage some of the outsourcing for an ecommerce site. I'd been meaning to sign up on a couple of freelance sites anyway to try and fill some open time and what I see on these sites is a real eye opener on the human condition.

Now I fully understand the global economy and I'm not about to start ranting about wage differences but people working for 50 cents an hour? I don't know what a computer and a copy of MS Office, Photoshop or whatever costs in some third world ghetto but I'd be willing to bet 50 cents won't cover it.

Far worse than those who are apparently working with pirateware are the unscrupulous employers on these sites. These are just some of the things I've seen in a couple of days time looking at the other jobs posted:

• Looking for someone to post false reviews
• Looking for someone to modify copywrited material to make it their own
• Looking for someone to copy someone elses web site
• Looking for someone to manage someone who’s not getting the work done on time
• Looking for someone to remove bad publicity on the internet (ripoff report, etc.)
• "I don’t know how to do it but it should only take you a few minutes" (this one's always my favorite)
• "You need to make as many revisions as it takes at no charge until I say it's right"
• Ridiculous time frames

Probably the worst of all are employers trying to get out of paying $2.00 hr when a deadline is missed. I'd be willing to bet the instructions were all of two sentences or the deadline was unrealistic.

All this just goes to show there are untold masses ready and willing to fill Hitlers shoes given the opportunity.

Pushing The Air Plane

A man is driving near Seattle when he comes upon another man who is pushing an air plane down the road.

"What's wrong with the plane?"the man in the car asks. "Nothing" replies the man pushing the plane.

"Where are you pushing the plane to?"

"Montana"

"Why don't you fly it?"

"I don't know how to fly a plane."

"Why don't you learn to fly or hire a pilot?"

"Pilots cost money and I don't have time to learn to fly. Now if you'll excuse me I have to get back to pushing this plane."

How many time have you heard (or said) “We don’t have time to do it right”? Yet it seems there’s always time to take the long road or worse yet, do it twice.

Every company has air plane pushers. In the haste to accomplish some goal, people fail to develop the methods and document the procedures for the task. They concentrate on getting it done rather than how to get it done properly and efficiently. This is the single biggest squandering of company resources there is, replacing efficient methods with more humans and the associated labor costs. That’s great if you're a philanthropist, not so great if you're trying to maximize profits.

Failing to plan causes a hemorrhage of money. Instead of letting out a bit of blood and suturing the wound with nice clean stitches, a dirty band aid is put on the gash and it’s allowed to bleed slightly forever, with all the puss and infection that come with such methods. Eventually this leads to a hospital visit and possibly an amputation.

Technophobia, ego, narrow mindedness, failure to adapt, and simple lack of education or experience all play a part in creating air plane pushers. Often it starts innocently enough. A quick solution is needed for some information requirement, then as the company grows these Git'er Done fixes remain, detaching information from the one version of the truth and causing employees to back-track, re-research, guess and duplicate effort.

How many air planes are being pushed around your company?

Gotta run - I’m off to flight school then my shrink to work on that fear of heights

We've Changed Our Name!

Triage CAD Services is now Triage Information Services.
The new name better represents the full range of business services we offer. Managing information has always been the core of our business and we hope the new name will put further emphasis on that.

What The Hell Happened To Aunt Jemima?

Who's the genius that decided Aunt Jemima needed an upgrade?
I haven't had home made pancakes since I was a kid. Now I have a kid of my own and decided to start making pancakes on occasion for my family. We ran out of the Hungry Jack syrup my wife had originally bought and the store didn't have it so she got Aunt Jemima.

The real Aunt Jemima is fat, and wears an apron and bandanna. She looks like she makes the best pan cakes in the world and makes you feel all warm and at home inside. This new imposter looks like a business woman who's never cooked breakfast in her life. She looks like she's about to run off to work after quickly throwing some cold crap on the table.

This is an outrage. Just looking at that picture made my pancakes taste like they just went from the freezer to the microwave.

I want my fat Aunt Jemima back!

Welcome To The New Triage Blog!

I guess I'll introduce myself. My name is Dave Hoder, here is where I'll be jotting my thoughts on life, business efficiency, and whatever else blows my skirt up. As of this first post, I'm 49 years old and self employed. I was fired from my last real job Nov 8, 2008 and formed Triage CAD Services the following month.

Why was I fired you ask?
Did I perform my job poorly? Did I get cought stealing from the company? Did I punch my boss in the face? Nope. I sent an all-staff email (by all-staff I mean the entire corporation) asking everyone to stop requesting PDF's of CAD drawings (instead of the native documents) from architects and designers and stop duplication of office documents as PDF's.

After 8-1/2 years at my job wearing the hats of Engineer, CAD Manager, PDM Administrator, Database Developer, Webmaster, this is all it took to get fired. I guess the truth about the inefficiency of our process (or lack of process) hit a little too close to home. But I'm not bitter ;)

Anyhoot, that's who I am.

Adios