Managing Through Good Times and Bad
Sometimes it sucks to be in middle management, other times it seems great because things are going your way and your staff are in the groove. Today was an in the groove kind of day for me on most fronts but on the people front I see myself getting frustrated with a member of my staff and I'm not sure what to do about it.
How do you motivate someone to work harder when they only want to do the minimum to get by? How do you motivate someone in a very technical computer field when they don't have any curiosity or drive to solve a problem? How do you get someone to believe that making the client happy is the goal of our business?
These are the questions I find myself asking about this person over and over again, yet I am still stuck on the fact that I have never had to deal with a programmer that did not have a natural curiosity and drive to solve tough problems. I find that in general, programmers like to be presented with a challenge that they have not seen before, but not this person. Unless you spoon feed them the logic and the information about where they can find information in a database (which they are supposed to be an expert with to begin with) then they sit in their chair waiting for someone to give them the answers. This really bugs me, I am someone who thrives on the challenge of someone saying "prove me wrong" or "how can I make this work?" and I will never understand why people would rather whine about how they don't have enough training to solve a problem when they have all of the learning materials they need sitting on their desk.
I can tell you already that this programmer does not want me to pick up a book and teach myself how to do what they swear is impossible without attending training for weeks. They don't want me to do this because then I will really not put up with the whining and the "no" answers any longer which will lead to one of three things: They will leave the company on their own, they will wise up to reality and begin making the effort or they will leave the company involuntarily. Obviously I would like the middle option to be selected here but I have a feeling it would not be so. The other reason why I don't want to pick this book up and teach myself what they swear is impossible is because if I do then I become the baby sitter for this programmer, checking up on them, making sure they are doing their work and actually not telling people no at the same time. If I stay away from the programming then I also don't get sucked into the trap of me being the only one in the company that can perform a task efficiently and then get stuck always doing it. I have enough going on currently managing the business of the department and not actually doing the technical work for everyone. I've ben there and done that for a long time it feels like so I do not want to let myself go down that road.
I guess when it comes down to it, the problem I face is all about how you get a person who doesn't want to do anything and turn them into someone who will make it happen. So the question I leave for you is, how do you execute this maneuver without causing the staff member to call it quits rather than turning themselves around.
Letters to the Editor: Why Do We Publish These in the Herald Mail?
National parks are in danger
To the editor:
Do we want to see "Keep Out - Contamination" signs when we visit Grand Canyon National Park?
The Forest Service is being allowed to gamble with this national treasure, and future generations stand to lose. Americans must understand that Vane Minerals' plan to drill for uranium three miles outside the park is just the beginning.
In the past five years, more than 800 claims for uranium, gold and other minerals have been staked within five miles of Grand Canyon National Park. Now that the British- owned company has started to move on their claims, other companies will follow.
Grand Canyon National Park must remain open and protected for all Americans, not sacrificed to profit foreign companies. The House of Representatives passed the Hardrock Mining and Reclamation Act of 2007 (H.R. 2262), which will protect all our national parks from toxic mining. Bottom line, the Senate must do the same, because too much is at stake!
Tommy Landers
Environment Maryland
Field Organizer
Baltimore, Md.
I'm sorry Herald Mail, but this letter to the editor has absolutely nothing to do with anything that has been reported on in the community or even located near this area. Now don't get me wrong, I am for keeping the Grand Canyon preserved for everyone, but why do we need to turn the letters to the editor section of the paper into a place where environmental lobbyists can post their material free of charge? The letters to the editor section should be used for relative commentary about what people see going on in the Hagerstown and Washington county community not for publicizing special interest groups agendas. If you want to save the Grand Canyon then that is fine, but either hold an event in Washington County that the Herald Mail can report on or take out an ad in the paper to push this kind of information, don't abuse this section of the paper.
Hagerstown City Council Boosts Incentives for Living Downtown but not the Ones That Matter
The council’s decision will increase incentives from $100 to $150 per month for people who rent downtown properties.
For home buyers, the city will increase the amount of loans that it offers from $1,500 to $2,500 for homes selling at $150,000 or less. Loans will increase from $1,500 to $5,000 on homes selling from $150,001 to $250,000.
This article appeared in the Herald Mail today and it strikes me as odd that these types of incentives are viewed as helpful for revitalizing downtown Hagerstown. As much as I like Hagerstown, what really needs to happen is to have some real business money injected into the commercial spaces that will force the continuing cleanup of streets like Potomac and Franklin. We need to see more commercial services firms move in and setup shop in the town before it can hope to expect to attract residents with the money to put into home improvements, especially with the way the economy is going. The other issue is the incredibly high property tax rate within the city itself which needs to be lowered to encourage growth.
Until the city center is cleaned up a bit and the population starts to shift towards a more middle-income demographic I don't think you are going to see much change in downtown. I would love to see more high-tech firms come to Hagerstown that don't really need to be based in a major city since much of their business is conducted over the Internet. Not only is the commercial office space cheaper but their is a workforce that is begging for these types of jobs to come to the area. Otherwise you have people like myself who are commuting 100 miles a day because finding a Manager of Information Technology job in Hagerstown is impossible. If Hagerstown can attract these firms based on the lower operating costs in the area, then we will see real growth and improvement downtown.
Con Artist Doesn’t Get Any Help From Dr. Phil in Hagerstown
HAGERSTOWN — A Hagerstown woman who confessed on national television in January to being a con artist pleaded guilty Monday morning in Washington County Circuit Court to felony theft scheme and driving while suspended.
Michelle Pheabus, 33, must serve 18 months in jail for the felony theft scheme charge, the judge ordered.
Washington County Circuit Judge M. Kenneth Long Jr. imposed the sentence a month after Pheabus told "Dr. Phil" McGraw she could get away with anything and that she didn't think she was "jail material."
"I've always thought I could talk my way out of anything, until about now," Pheabus told McGraw during a pretaped show that aired Jan. 23. "It's starting to hit me that I'm not going to be able to talk my way out of anything anymore."
Pheabus called McGraw because she thought he was going to help her, defense attorney Martin Palmer Jr. said Monday.
"Dr. Phil" talked to Pheabus for only a few minutes, Palmer said.
"Dr. Phil only made matters worse and exploited her and her children and her family," Palmer said.
It is good to know that Dr. Phil not only screws up with Brittany Spears but also with small time con artists as well in small cities. Not that this is really his fault, but it does show that just because someone calls himself a doctor does not mean they can help. As a matter of fact if you really need help don't turn to a nut TV doctor, get real professional help.
Maryland Railroads: Hagerstown Roundhouse Museum
This is going to be the first in what I hope to be a running series of posts about the history of railroads in Hagerstown, Maryland. The best way to start learning about the lines running through the area is by stopping in at the Hagerstown Roundhouse Museum on Burhan's Boulevard.
Once there you will not find a more knowledgable volunteer staff of people then those running the model layouts. Whether you want to know the time tables of CSX trains coming through or if you want to learn about the various systems that have run through Hagerstown they can tell you. As a boy I had the fascination with trains that so many do and I was lucky enough to have an HO model set that I could run on my own. While I never got my dream O scale set, I still had the experience of trying to learn more about the rich railroading heritage of this country. The Roundhouse Museum is in a unique position to teach people about this history that we all share since they are right at the heart of the East Coast rail system. After all, they don't call Hagerstown the "Hub City" for nothing. All you need to do is look alongside the roads that you travel each day to see the rail lines crossing your paths.
If you get excited about watching the intermodal transports go across the railroad bridges on route 40 or just want to learn what the phrase intermodal transport means, I suggest you stop by the Roundhouse Museum today.
S.M.U. Makes It Official: Bush Library Is Coming – New York Times
DALLAS — A center devoted to the life, works, papers and policies of President George W. Bush will be built at Southern Methodist University, officials announced Friday, despite faculty members’ lingering concerns and opposition from some Methodists.
In addition to a library of presidential papers, the center here will include a museum and a public policy institute that will generally be independent of the university, though it will appoint at least one board member.
Money for the center, which is expected to cost more than $200 million, is to be raised from donors.
S.M.U. Makes It Official: Bush Library Is Coming - New York Times
I am so glad I did not go to SMU, if I had, I probably would hand my degree back right about now. Why would anyone want to put up a library dedicated to one of the worst rated presidents of all time? I guess you could store all of his documents in there so future generations could see what happens when people continue to make bad decisions both in elections and in the white house.
Thank you SMU, for never letting us forget the some of the worst times it has been to be an American when we have been universally laughed at by the world community, had terrible domestic policies and had such a divided country that nothing got done to make things any better.
Ubuntu 7.10: Frustration Killer
So apparently Fedora Core 8 simply sucks (as most of their releases have for some time) and Ubuntu seems to still reign supreme for ease of use. Out of the box Ubuntu supports WPA2 which is awesome. On Fedora 8 I would have had to try and configure the WPA Supplicant daemon which seemed to be much more hassle than it was worth. As a matter of fact, I am using Firefox on my new Ubuntu install to write this post only about 45minutes after I installed the system. Score one for Ubuntu.
Linux: WPA2 and Frustration
So recently I have been trying to get my old (2 Ghz Centrino) laptop to work on my wireless network with Linux and it is causing major headaches as I use a router with WPA2. I'm not really willing to go back to WEP or WPA1 because I want my home network to be as secure as possible so I am stuck trying to find a way to get this laptop up and running. I was able to find a nice tutorial here http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=202834 and it gives a really nice walthrough of using some nifty tools to get WPA2 working.
I haven't done this yet (to use the apt installer you need to have a connection) but I will post my experience here when I am done since I'm sure this is a pretty common need with newer routers.
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