Archive for the 'Business' Category

Recently on HR Morning, there was a post regarding what should be mentioned in employee handbooks. It was in response to a question regarding whether or not specific disciplinary measures should be included. They responded no, specific measures should not be included, but there should be mention that violations of employee policy would be met [...]

No Comments Khalil on Apr 24th 2010

Following the link from one of the brilliant folk I follow on twitter (@JoeGerstandt), I found myself digging into a website on employee engagement. I downloaded a powerpoint from a recent webinar that outlined some of their research. Among some key points they offered are that: 1/5 employees are highly disengaged; 60% of employees are [...]

1 Comment Khalil on Feb 23rd 2010

Ok, I complained about Other World Computing last weekend after getting a bum Newer Technology Voyager. As I mentioned Monday, Newer Technology stepped up to the plate, contacted me, told me what had gone wrong, was apologetic, and really left me with a positive feeling. Tuesday, Other World Computing followed suit. They ended up sending [...]

No Comments Khalil on Sep 4th 2009

So I just got off the phone with the marketing director of Newer Technology, makers of the Voyager drive dock I mentioned in my last real post. Grant, the marketing director, was awesome. He asked a few clarifying questions, corrected my memory – Newer Technology did respond via email within 24 hours of my initial [...]

No Comments Khalil on Aug 31st 2009

So I’ve been eyeballing advertisements for items from Other World Computing for a while in MacWorld. They seem to have good products and reasonable prices. But like all things, there is a catch. When it comes to service, they fail. Looking for something different than my current backup system, I bought the Newer Technology Voyager. [...]

No Comments Khalil on Aug 29th 2009

In some places, the four day work week works. It does good things and has good results. For the company, primarily, and perhaps there are some environmental benefits. While it initially sounded good, after giving critical thought to an opportunity I had to take on such a schedule, it really didn’t make much sense. When [...]

No Comments Khalil on Aug 9th 2009

It goes without saying that I am interested in how organizations respond to the extracurricular activities of their members. Be it employees or volunteers, there is often a vested interest in controlling, or at least attempting to control, what employees do and say in their lives outside the organization. The Chronicle (yes, it’s mediocre academic [...]

No Comments Khalil on Feb 28th 2009

I was recently copied on a journal that seems to be taking a new approach towards academic publishing. On first glance, I was excited. It seems interesting – it’s an open source journal. As I read through the introductory letter, which was inviting a colleague to be on the editorial board, I went from being [...]

No Comments Khalil on Feb 14th 2009

I will be the first to admit that since having Baby #2, I’ve gotten behind on thank you notes. There was a time when I tried to send at least 3 thank you notes out a week. That said, I found this blog entry via lifehacker and thought it was worthy of posting, as sometimes [...]

No Comments Khalil on Jul 19th 2008

Someone in my office printed this out the other day. Thus far, nobody is taking responsibility for it, but I found it both funny and extremely insightful and had to transcribe it. Start with a cage containing five apes. In the cage, hang a banana on a string and put stairs under it. Before long, [...]

No Comments Khalil on Jul 14th 2008