Weightism and Fat Taxes

On December 15, the city council of Binghamton, New York--every member a proud progressive--unanimously passed an ordinance making it a crime to discriminate against fat people. The next day, David Paterson, the famously progressive governor of New York, proposed a special "fat tax" on soda pop because soda pop makes people fat.

When it comes to obesity, the authorities in New York have put their citizens on notice: We will get you coming and going.

Read the rest of Andrew Ferguson on the politics of fat.

Internet Privacy

Alone with just your computer screen, these searches can feel very private. But Google & Co. gather a lot of information about you as you surf, including the date and time for your search, your search terms, and your IP address, which is an 11-digit number that identifies your computer and, more important as far as advertisers are concerned, your location.



Read the rest of Jia Lynn Yang, writing in Fortune, here.

Hot and Cold Times

Some jobs, such as those of assembly-line workers, have mandated periods of productivity. For many of us, however, there is a great deal of discretion as to when we'll be most productive. We tend to work in bursts and my question is this:

At what time of the day are you most productive?

My own times of highest productivity are early morning, late morning, and early to mid-evening.

Music List

Cultural Offering provides a list of music for a deserted island.

The Sinatra choice is truly great although it might not be a morale-builder if one were stranded on an island.

Arendt and Rights

No one has argued more forcefully than Arendt that to deprive human beings of their public, political identity is to deprive them of their humanity—and not just metaphorically. In “The Origins of Totalitarianism,” she points out that the first step in the Nazis’ destruction of the Jews was to make them stateless, in the knowledge that people with no stake in a political community have no claim on the protection of its laws.



Read the rest of Adam Kirsch on Hannah Arendt.

Book Review: Instant MBA

My fellow blogger-in-arms as well as consultant, author, and professor Nicholas Bate has a flair for pithy and practical advice.

His latest book - and I write that with some hesitation because he turns out one every other week - is Instant MBA and it is in Nicholas's "right to the jugular" mode. Not only does it contain good ideas, it sparks them. I've had to read the book in staccato fashion because I kept jotting down notes for my business. It gave me one major product idea but Nicholas will get no royalties.

The lessons are broken up with summaries of various "thought leaders." Even if you disagree with some of his selections - I was able to read his section on Tom Peters without yelling - you'll find them to be thought-provoking.

Decision-making, pricing, research, execution, sales, networking, motivation, leadership, change, and branding are just some of the book's topics. These are not Druckeresque expositions. This is Bate, so you can expect the informal, condensed version of management wisdom that you so long for at most conferences when the speakers are piling on the PowerPoint slides. [He has a great section on PowerPoint.] In fact, the book resembles a seminar and each chapter is followed by what could have been audience questions.

I thoroughly enjoyed Instant MBA. It contains what you need to know after you've forgotten the theories. Check it out.

Quote of the Day

I have seen many Soviet frontiers, with barbed-wire, and land-mines, and dogs; with armed sentries in watch-towers ready to shoot in sight, like prison guards. All designed, not so much to bar people from coming in, as to prevent those inside from getting out. How strange, I have often reflected, that a regime which needs thus to pen up its citizens should nonetheless be able to make itself seem desirable to admirers outside. As though the purpose in taking the Bastille should have been to gain admission there and do a stretch.

- Malcolm Muggeridge

"Don't Get Influenced or Contaminated."

Rob Long, upon arriving in Shanghai via container ship, found this professional code of ethics for the Chinese customs officers.

A tad Big Brotherish, of course, but many of the points could apply in any organization. In fact, some organizations might like the Big Brother lines.

Working Amid Chaos

Seth Godin's observation about the practice of working hard to make everything okay reminds me of one historian's observation that world history is better understood as a prolonged period of conflict in which peace occasionally breaks out.

Oops: Gullibility and Madoff

Writing in The Wall Street Journal, a psychologist who specializes in gullibility discusses why we are fooled by financial scams and how he was taken in by Bernard Madoff. An excerpt:

The real mystery in the Madoff story is not how naïve individual investors such as myself would think the investment safe, but how the risks and warning signs could have been ignored by so many financially knowledgeable people, including the highly compensated executives who ran the various feeder funds that kept the Madoff ship afloat. The partial answer is that Madoff's investment algorithm (along with other aspects of his organization) was a closely guarded secret that was difficult to penetrate, and it's also likely (as in all cases of gullibility) that strong affective and self-deception processes were at work. In other words, they had too good a thing going to entertain the idea that it might all be about to crumble.

Assorted Questions for Human Resources Professionals

• Isn't it hypocritical that the vacancy most likely to be filled by considering race, sex, or national origin is the job of Equal Employment Opportunity Officer?
• Why is more scrutiny frequently given to the process through which a secretary is selected than to the manner in which a corporate vice president is chosen?
• Why is the position of receptionist - one that requires extraordinary customer relations and people skills - usually one of the lowest paid jobs in the organization?
• Outside of highly specialized and licensed positions, does it make any sense to have a rigid requirement of a college degree?
• Why are X number of years of experience required for low paying, entry-level positions?
• Why do so many employees find that the bulk of their job responsibilities fall under "other duties as assigned?"
• Why do so many Human Resources departments regard employees as adversaries or nuisances?

Quote of the Day

[T]here is some deep connection between planning and sneering that psychologists should explore.

- E.M. Forster

"Impostors"

My post on "impostors" in the workplace is up at U.S. News & World Report.

Questioning Beneath the Surface

In my early years as a discrimination investigator, I learned that a seemingly direct answer can be highly misleading. It was possible to see this exchange:

"Did Mary Doe discriminate against anyone on the basis of race?"

"Absolutely not."

"Did Mary Doe ever treat the black employees differently than she did the white ones?"

"Oh, yes. I'd say she treated them differently."

"Can you describe an incident in which she treated them differently?"

"Well, she never gave them the better assignments. They always got the worst ones."

That's one reason why I am very suspicious of surveys. A general survey question on whether a person supports a particular program, for example, might get a negative response while failing to ascertain whether the person believes there is any alternative to the current policy or whether the person favors an increase in the program's funding or resources. Asking a general question is inadequate. The details flesh out the real position.

If a person denies supporting Position A, but favors the combination of all of the ingredients of Position A, then we can conclude that the person favors Position A. In order to sort that out, we need to go into the details.

Consider that the next time you read an employee attitude survey that appears to indicate that all is well or terrible. Far too many surveys ask broad questions that fail to go beneath the surface.

Quote of the Day

It is in the ability to deceive oneself that one shows the greatest talent.

- Anatole France

Westlake R.I.P.

Sad news: Mystery writer Donald E. Westlake died. Michael at 2Blowhards discusses Westlake's work.

An excerpt from his novel, High Adventure:

Innocent had been graced by God with 57 years of this nice life so far, and no immediate end in sight. A man who loved food and drink, adored women, wallowed in ease and luxury, he was barrel-bodied but in wonderful physical condition, with a heart that could have powered a steamship. The efforts of assorted Mayan Indians, Spanish conquistadores, African ex-slaves, and shipwrecked Irish sailors had been combined in his creation, and most of them might have been pleased at the result of their labors. His hair was African, his mocha skin Mayan, his courage Irish, and the deviousness of his brain was all Spanish. He was also - and this is far from insignificant - both Deputy Director of Land Allocation in the Belizean government and an active real estate agent. Very nice.

Cars That Lost Customers for Detroit

Hitchhike your way down memory lane with Rick Newman's list of the cars that drove Detroit's customers away. The comments are also worth reading.

My own unscientific experience with car ownership shows both the Japanese and the Americans can make good and bad cars. The Germans and the Swedes had the best overall record.

VW Beetle: Great car.
Datsun 610: Not good; grossly underpowered.
Buick Regal: Functional but not Detroit at its finest.
VW Beetle: Rolled by the prior owner but it was reliable.
Ford Escort: Very good and fun to drive.
Datsun 300ZX: Why did I sell it?
Ford Explorer: Quite good.
Volvo station wagon: Great car, driven into the ground.
Ancient Volvo sedan: Great and pushing 200,000 miles.
Toyota Camry: Possibly the best car ever.
Honda Element: A fun car although it has its quirks.
Mercury Grand Marquis: All geezer jokes aside, a very good car.

Professor X

Professor X, writing in The Atlantic, on teaching English at a community college:

One of the things I try to do on the first night of English 102 is relate the literary techniques we will study to novels that the students have already read. I try to find books familiar to everyone. This has so far proven impossible. My students don’t read much, as a rule, and though I think of them monolithically, they don’t really share a culture. To Kill a Mockingbird? Nope. (And I thought everyone had read that!) Animal Farm? No. If they have read it, they don’t remember it. The Outsiders? The Chocolate War? No and no. Charlotte’s Web? You’d think so, but no. So then I expand the exercise to general works of narrative art, meaning movies, but that doesn’t work much better. Oddly, there are no movies that they all have seen—well, except for one. They’ve all seen The Wizard of Oz.

Beyond 2009

Time for something that is Thomas Friedmanesque.

Employment attorney John Phillips points us to a fast-paced You Tube video that examines jobs, training, globalization, and technology. Check it out.

[In the time it took to read this message, two million people became consultants. Just kidding!]

CAFE Burden?

Holman W. Jenkins Jr. says Corporate Average Fuel Economy rules have an unequal effect on Detroit versis foreign automakers. An excerpt:

The fuel-economy rules apply equally to foreign brands, of course, some of which also specialize in big, powerful vehicles. But they afford themselves an out. BMW paid $230 million in CAFE fines from 1983 to 2007 to avoid building small cars at a loss to please Washington. Volvo paid $56 million. Daimler paid $55 million.

Why don't the Big Three take this out? Explains the Government Accountability Office, because they fear the political repercussions of being tagged with "unlawful conduct."

Quote of the Day

Society is indeed a contract ...it becomes a partnership not only between those who are living, but between those who are living, those who are dead, and those who are to be born.

- Edmund Burke

Arthur Godfrey's Termination Decision

How not to fire someone: When Arthur Godfrey fired Julius La Rosa on-air.

Surviving 2009

In an unusual article, The Wall Street Journal provides solutions to an eclectic group of problems, ranging from job searches and retirement accounts to saving produce and shortening heels.

The Exchange

"Jack told me that he'd handle it."

"I understand."

"He does a terrible job. How can I get things done if he is unreliable?"

"But I relied upon you to get it done and now you are blaming Jack."

"It's his fault."

"I'm not interested in fault at this point. I'm interested in results. We can deal with Jack later. You need to figure out how to get the job done now. I don't care if Jack stands on his head for three hours a day so long as the job gets done."

"I'm going to tell Jack what I think of him."

"That may feel good, but for now there's only one question: Will the way you deal with Jack get the job done on time or will it hinder it?"

Of Politics & Art

For a New Year's Day treat, take some time to read Norman Dubie's poem, Of Politics & Art.

The Language Police

From Diane Ravitch's fascinating, and chilling, book, The Language Police: How Pressure Groups Restrict What Students Learn:

Sometimes publishers make revisions to forestall problems, knowing that states like California and Texas won't tolerate certain words. For example, a story titled "A Perfect Day for Ice Cream" by Patricia Zettner was selected by two textbook publishers for inclusion in junior high school literature anthologies after it had appeared in Seventeen magazine. To comply with California's ban on junk foods, the publishers removed references to chili burgers, pizza, and ice cream and changed the title of the story to "A Perfect Day." The story's allusions to "kamikaze ball" and Gloria Steinem were edited out to avoid likely complaints in California about ethnic stereotyping and likely objections in Texas to feminist references.

Quote of the Day

The fox knows many things . . . the hedgehog one big one.

- Archilochus

Must Reading: Barry on 2008

Dave Barry reviews the key events of 2008. An excerpt:

The Iowa caucuses produce two surprises:

• On the Republican side, the winner is Mike Huckabee, folksy former governor of Arkansas or possibly Oklahoma, who vows to remain in the race until he gets a commentator gig with Fox. His win deals a severe blow to Mitt Romney and his bid to become the first president of the android persuasion. Not competing in Iowa are Rudy Giuliani, whose strategy is to stay out of the race until he is mathematically eliminated, and John McCain, who entered the caucus date incorrectly into his 1996 Palm Pilot.

• On the Democratic side, the surprise winner is Barack Obama, who is running for president on a long and impressive record of running for president. A mesmerizing speaker, Obama electrifies voters with his exciting new ideas for change, although people have trouble remembering exactly what these ideas were because they were so darned mesmerized. Some people become so excited that they actually pass out. These are members of the press corps.

Caught Napping

This falls in the "news you can truly use" category.

[HT: 2Blowhards ]

CEO Crystal Balls

Chief Executive has a collection of comments from CEOs about the upcoming year.

All bright people but . . . .

Bah, Humbug!

Is there a more worthless holiday than New Year's?

It has to be right up there with Groundhog Day.

Back to the Melting Pot

Critics who branded the book as a work of undisguised nativism missed an essential point. Huntington observed that his was an "argument for the importance of Anglo-Protestant culture, not for the importance of Anglo-Protestant people." The success of this great republic, he said, had hitherto depended on the willingness of generations of Americans to honor the creed of the founding settlers and to shed their old affinities. But that willingness was being battered by globalization and multiculturalism, and by new waves of immigrants with no deep attachments to America's national identity. "The Stars and Stripes were at half-mast," he wrote in "Who Are We?", "and other flags flew higher on the flagpole of American identities."



Read all of Fouad Ajami's essay on the views of Samuel Huntington.

Quote of the Day

Tomorrow to fresh woods, and pastures new.

- John Milton

Preaching or Greeting?

Noted employment attorney John Phillips gives his analysis of an interesting case involving "Merry Christmas" versus "Happy Holidays." An excerpt:

The employee insists that her religious beliefs prevented her from contributing to the secularization of Christmas, so she asked for an accommodation, something she’s entitled to as long as her belief is sincerely held and the accommodation doesn’t cause the employer an undue hardship. Some employment lawyers/bloggers are siding with the employer. For example, see here and here, because saying “Merry Christmas” isn’t a tenet of religious faith, or the employee wanted to use her employer’s telephones to push her own faith.

I’m hesitant to take sides in The Christmas Wars, but I’m also hesitant to blow off the employee’s complaint. An employee doesn’t have to show that what she believes is a tenet of her church but of her own personal faith. Moreover, the employee’s willingness to continue the regular greeting seems to thwart the argument that she wanted to use the phones to preach rather than greet.

Learning from Criticism

One of the most important questions for any individual or organization is "Where might the critics - or potential critics - be right?"

The question does not automatically assume that any criticism is valid. Analysis may reveal no basis at all. Some critics seek only to wound, not to heal. Often, motives are elusive.

But the willingness to consider just where the criticism might be correct is crucial if serious improvement is to be made. The smartest organizations don't call on their lawyers and consultants after disaster has arrived; they check with them earlier and ask them to identify soft spots. They do the same with their employees and periodically review policies and procedures in order to catch areas that, although once safe, have become risky.

Is this practice common? Not in my experience. Far too many executives and managers fear such introspection, thinking that identifying a potential problem area is a confession of bad management. Organizations that encourage such fears are following a recipe for future disaster.

Human resources departments are not exempt from this cuisine. They may have found that once a major problem arises, upper management - which has a short attention span on personnel issues - is more interested in its prompt solution than in eventually learning how and why the problem was created.

Blame can be placed somewhere out there, on an individual or an external agency, rather than on the professionals who should have caught the trouble in its infancy. I suspect that the total annual cost of this failure to practice early detection runs into billions of dollars.

And yet this negligence is accepted as the natural course of business. That is both sad and unnecessary.

21 Dumbest Moments in Business in 2008

Fortune picks the dumbest moments.

[I still think the criticism of the auto execs for their infamous private jet flights was a cheap shot.]

Quote of the Day

[He] is the Vladimir Lenin, the Mao Tse-tung, and the Ernesto "Che" Guevara of business.

- Tom Peters, mistakenly thinking that he has praised a Home Depot executive.