Work-Life, Bloomberg Style

So, a few days ago Mike Bloomberg made the news about his graduation speech at CUNY Staten Island.  The jist of his speech was basically, work long hours, never take sick days, and you will succeed.  Brian Reid, Rebeldad, and frequent contributor to the Washington Post’s On Balance blog, discusses it in his post today.  Here is my two cents, for what it is worth.  I think there is a lot of merit to what Bloomberg says.  Extreme?  Perhaps.  However, I think that a lot of people assume they can get ahead by sliding by, a somewhat new phenonmenon that has been occuring recently.  Whatever happened to working hard?  And yes, getting in early never killed anyone.  And neither did staying late.  I think Bloomberg’s view is a bit extreme, but I think it’s not a bad place to start.

Disclaimer: my family does ALWAYS come first.  I just don’t think that working hard is jeopardized by that.  I think that both can be accomplished, and frankly should.

Family Structure

On Deloitte’s Women’s Initiative blog, Cathy has a good post about the traditional family and the nation’s reaction to the changing structure.  So very true.  There are a variety of products and other things that accomdate the change, but have businesses?

Event Processing Solution?

Are you serious?  Really.  Come  on.  I read this earlier this morning on the Bad Pitch Blog.    We have all had those clients who think that they have the best of whatever it is they are offering.  We have all been there.  However, has the common sense been lost here?  Who would really think, like really think, that someone of Saul Hansell’s caliber would be interested in this?  No wonder we (PR people) get a bad rap.

Trick of the Trade

In reading a recent Information Week blog posting, I found myself feeling at ease.  Someone else does what I do!  Every weekend, for the most part, my cell phone is off.  If someone needs to get a hold of me they can call the house or track me down.  All week I am connected every which way, so the weekends are mine.  I wish I could shut off at 5pm during the week, but due to the nature of the PR business, I do keep my phone on later some nights, depending on what is going on.  I think more people should do this.  Focus on where you are.  At work, focus on work.  At home, focus on home.  And in the car, well, you get to make whatever decision you want.

Contemplating

Readers – I am seriously contemplating ending this blog, unfortunately.  I am still thinking about it and will let you all know.

Consistency

Seth – I stole your title, but this post was great.  Once in awhile you need a reality check and a wake up call of sorts and this is a good one.  I needed a good laugh this morning!

Even Google Understands Privacy

Good article in the New York Times today by Thomas Crampton on Google saving people’s search history for only 18 months, not the original 24.  Is this good or bad?  I don’t know.  This information can be valuable in legal cases, etc.  Again, as I have said before, pretty soon everything is going to be public, nothing will be private.  I can see the positives and negatives here, just not sure which way to swing – or maybe I will just take a seat on the pendulum and go for a ride.

Posting

All,

I apologize for not posting today.  It has been a busy day and I have done a lot of thinking about blogging.  It is a very sad thing when a blogger needs to double think about the content of the postings because people are reading your blog for the wrong reasons.  I will continue to ponder this thought over-night.  It’s quite disturbing.  I found out that someone with ill intent has been reading everyday and I am deeply disturbed by it.  But, alas, it’s part of user-generated content.

Anyway, have a good night.

More Good News!

I just heard from another colleague – another team won – YEAH!   I am lucky to be on two winning teams . 

Good news!

I just found out that one of my teams won a Bell Ringer tonight!  YAY!  Will update in the morning.