Tuesday, May 28, 2013

The Panda Bear on Memorial Day and the Irrationality of Modern Management

The Panda Bear has been very tired.  Mother Panda has been sick so the Panda Bear has been going to help her(as well as the Panda Bear working her full-time job).   However, the Panda Bear Blog is about not being ashamed of saying you are tired.    At work some people were embarrassed to say they were tired and did not do much.  Why should hard working Americans be ashamed of being tired?  Don't we all deserve some rest?

The Panda Bear does plan to give her readers an update on her bathroom repair.    However, the Panda Bear feels what would really make her happy is a month vacation which she does not thing she will ever get under the US vacation system.   Maybe a yearly monthly vacation would be too much for employers to provide but to give a worker every five years a month off-would that really wreck the US economy?

The Panda Bear has a low opinion of the modern management.   She things there is a lot of meanness in the modern work culture that has nothing to do with producing the best product or servicing the organization. 

Many people have noticed the decline in working environment in the United States.   The Panda Bear finds it hard to believe that in the nineteen eighties the Panda Bear worked for a large US corporation and most of the managers were seen as being nice.  From 1990-1992 she worked in a section of the company known has "the country club" because of the nice way they treated people.   People worked hard in that section and they were not the highest paid workers but it was a happy work environment.

The Panda Bear wishes to share a  thoughtful video made by the Online MBA on why the government should not be run like a business.    The Panda Bear has always thought that it was unfair to compare the US Postal service to private companies such as UPS or Federal Express.    The US postal service has to serve all areas the the country regardless of financial incentives while private mail companies don't service areas that aren't profitable for the company.

In addition to the reasons provided in the above video,  the Panda Bear things many private large companies and organizations aren't well run-not just government agencies.   In every type of large organizations one hears employees whom their coworkers see a terribly incompetent but the managers just seem to adore them.   Sometimes these workers do get fired but it can take years of bad behavior on the part of these employees.   The Panda Bear wishes she could be a fly on the wall when these employees meet with their bosses;  the Panda Bear feels these employees must have tremendous political skills that the Panda Bear lacks because its seems that all the Panda Bear's bosses seem to expect her to be ultra competent and work very hard.

Monday, May 6, 2013

The Panda Bear on Daily to Do Lists, Happiness, and Bathroom Repair Update

The Panda Bear has been very busy and thus has only time from a short blog post.   The Panda Bear's eighty-five year old mother, Mother Panda has broken her right wrist and was in rehab.   The Panda Bear has been going after work to visit and help Mother Panda.   The Panda Bear loves Mother Panda and does not wish to complain but the Panda Bear is exhausted.    Both the Panda Bear and Mother Panda Bear feel the loss of Father Panda who died in June 2012 so is no longer able to help Mother Panda.

During these busy times the Panda Bear has been neglecting her daily to do list.   She has not been exercising properly or writing down everything she eats.   The kitchen sink has been filled with dishes   She has not been decluttering her apartment.   Some blogging and writing sites, say people who blog should be blogging every day.   Readers of the Panda Bear Blog know that the Panda Bear has not been blogging every day.

It seems that to the Panda Bear that people are being told to well over a week's worth of (short) chores every day which probably should be done.   However, there are not enough hours in the day to do them all.   Also the Panda Bear does not always have the energy to do them all.    She feels guilty about not being able to do everything and overwhelmed.

Seriously, one way the Panda Bear manages her daily to do list is by rotating things she needs to do on a daily basis.   The Panda Bear thinks perfect is the enemy of the good.   If she does some of the things on her daily to do list once or twice a month the Panda Bear is happy.   The Panda Bear views her daily to do list as some abstract ideal which will never be obtained in reality but a cherished goal.

The Panda Bear knows that her readers or curious about the status of her bathroom repair.   Well, the reader of the Panda Bear Blog will be surprised to know that it is being scheduled to start tomorrow.    The Panda Bear has told her contractor that because of illness in the family, she has not had time to prepare her apartment the way she would like to but the contractor has assured the Panda Bear that this will not be a problem.

Many of the Panda Bear's friends think the Panda Bear will experience a sense of deep happiness and joy at having a new bathroom.   The Panda Bear suspects that this is propaganda from various business interests that want us to consume.   At most she expects she will feel some sense of accomplishment and relief at removing something from her to-do list.

Keep on reading The Panda Bear Blog to see if an updated bathroom makes the Panda Bear happy.