Are you a master prankster or are you the frequent victim of an Ashton Kutcher wanna-be?
Either way you could win a fun prize from the YDR.
The business staff wants to know about your April Fool's Day shenanigans. Leave a comment telling us about your best workplace prank or your most embarrassing moment of gullibility. The more details the better.
Picture this:
Joey and Susy are sitting in the living room talking about baseball players who have been inducted into the Hall of Fame trying to remember who the inductees were a few years back. Susy is positive it was one player, while Joey swears it was someone different. Joey says hold on, runs out of the room and Googles the information. Susy sits in the living room awkwardly because the conversation has died.
Now change the scenario and instead of Joey leaving the room to look up the information, he pulls out his iPhone to look it up. That still leaves Susy sitting awkwardly on the sofa because the conversation is still dead because Joey is focused on the phone.
In the world we live today, we are used to having instant access to information. While people may think twice about actually abandoning a conversation to leave the room to look something up, most think nothing of pulling out their smart phone to do the same thing.
I don't work at one of those offices that have a gym inside them for employees to use and I've always been kind of happy about that fact.
I like working out in private (or as private as a regular gym can be). I don't like people seeing me sweat while I'm running or chug water while I'm cycling -- especially if they are the same people I work with on a daily basis. I like to keep up some level of professionalism around them, and somehow being seen all sweaty doesn't scream professional.
I was mortified the other day at the gym when someone recognized me after I spent an hour in spin class. I wished I had magical powers to mind erase and make her think she saw me dressed in my work clothes, not my sweat-laden Under Armour.
Earlier this week, I attended a seminar for parents on how to teach children to be financially responsible. And even though it was geared toward kids' saving and spending habits, I found that I was learning quite a bit.
For example, did you know the best age to start an IRA (individual retirement account) is at 15? I sure didn't.
As I've mentioned in many previous posts, I am a huge sports fan. So it should come as no surprise to anyone that I was fairly excited about the start of the NCAA basketball tournament.
I wrote a story for Friday's paper about how March Madness affects workplace productivity. Every year all these studies are published saying companies lose millions because workers aren't doing their jobs.
But what I found was totally different. Turns out people do take their jobs seriously and instead of dedicating the whole day to watching the game, many people will head to a sports bar during their lunch hour or take a half day or use their multitasking skills to check scores and do their work.
Last month I wrote about how excited I was that Maryland was banning smoking in all bars, restaurants, etc. and how I was hoping Pennsylvania would follow suit.
In order for that to happen the House and the Senate need to decide on a bill both will agree to sign. Right now they both have passed separate bans, but aren't seeing eye-to-eye on some details. For more information on the specifics you can check out the article in today's YDR.
The next big step in the process is April 1, when a committee made up of members from both the House and the Senate will meet to try to work out the differences. Right now the big points of contention are whether to include bars, taverns and casinos in the ban.
I'm all for an all-out ban on smoking in public places. Part of it is absolutely for selfish reasons. I don't want to be breathing that crap. The other part is because I have had friends who work in these places and I don't think they should be forced to breathe second-hand smoke whenever they are working. Why should some servers, hosts, etc., be protected by this law, but not others?
It doesn't seem to make a whole bunch of logical sense.
Do you have stuff you wish you would have known about the workplace before you got there?
We want to hear about it.
Tell us, in 100 words or less, what you wish someone had told you about bosses, resumes, sick days -- whatever workplace wit or wisdom you have to share. Send your response to mburke@ydr.com. Include your name, age, where you work, the municipality where you live, and a daytime phone number.
Quick look around your office.
Is everyone wearing green? Are you wearing green?
I think it's great how when there is a holiday that is associated with a color that lots of people in the office wear that color to be festive at work. I know that's why I pulled on my green sweater this morning. (And because I got laughed at for not wearing green to the St. Patrick's Day parade this weekend.)
There aren't a ton of people in my department in green, but looking across other departments, people are wearing green beads or shamrock pins and other quirky Irish accessories.
What's the most festive outfit that you've seen at work today? Leave a comment and let me know.
St. Patrick’s Day is tomorrow, and you’d have to be living under a rock not to know it, what with all the festivities surrounding the parade and bar specials that have been advertised.
You wouldn’t know by my last name, but I am in fact Irish — thanks Mom — and I love getting my Irish on as much as the next person.
However, I’ve always been a little bit curious about the symbolic, maybe a little over the top, green beer.
Yes, green is associated with the holiday, but unless I’m eating veggies, I don’t really think green food or drinks are the way to go.
But still, I was a little bit curious about where green beer comes from.
About 50 percent of teenagers didn't buy a single CD in 2007.
This fact didn't surprise me in the least, but it surprised my editor, who in absolutely no way could be considered old and out-of-touch with technology.
So when she saw the above statistic in a wire story and asked me if I could believe it, I said yes because I don't know a single person (well except my editor, who picked up Thriller 25 last month for her husband for Valentine's Day, and my college roommate, who has insane artist loyalty) who still buys CDs.
To me CDs are a thing of the past, replaced with downloaded MP3s.
The new $5 bill is being released today, and Lincoln's getting a splash of color.
And for comparison sake here's the bill we're all used to seeing:
Let's face it. Everyone hates dragging themselves to work on Monday morning. And come Friday, most employees have their minds set on pushing through to the weekend.
But what about they days in between?
According to a survey by Accountemps, Tuesdays are the most productive day of the workweek.
It's been some strange coincidence that every time I've gone to get an oil change I've always had a male in the car with me. Once it was my dad, who had offered to pick up the cost because I was home visiting my parents. Once I had my friend in the car because we were preparing for a road trip to North Carolina. Needless to say, I never had any problems with people trying to sell me more than I needed.
Yesterday, I went to get my very first oil change by myself. I was feeling a little bit proud of myself when I told the guy I only wanted an oil change. Nothing else.
It turns out that along with the oil change, I also needed a new windshield wiper and a fresh air filter. Yes extra costs, but things I legitimately needed.
What happened to the green movement? When did it transform from being all about conservation to being all about consumerism?
Going green is about cutting back --spending less money and wasting fewer resources and in the process leaving less of a carbon footprint.
Today's green movement doesn't conserve at all. It throws away and buys more.
Now that it's hip, trendy and mainstream to be "green," the grassroots movement is getting farther and farther away from it's original cause.
This article in the Washington Post says it best.
With everyone having trouble getting through to Comcast customer service, this article in Sunday's Baltimore Sun seems especially timely.
One of the reporters ran a test with several companies, including Comcast, Verizon and Verizon Wireless. She called in to their customer service lines and timed how long and how many automated messages she had to wade through before she got through to a real person.
Verizon Wireless scored well, but both Verizon landline service and Comcast score poorly.
