Wow. Lots of comapnies talk about how their employees are their “most valuable assets.” And every so often, you hear about companies demonstrating how they really feel about them.
Radio Shack has taken the idea of treating their staff with respect to new lows. (I’ll bet they also jumped on the bandwagon a while back and started referring to people as “resources”.) For crying out loud, does anyone – except Radio Shack’s senior management – actually think firing people via email shows the least bit of compassion?
That sure doesn’t give me the warm fuzzies about doing business with that company.
Category Archives: Rants
Not merely ramblings, these are flat-out rants.
Fairly Insane
Laura and I headed over to the Montgomery County Fair on Saturday. It was pretty much everything I’ve come to expect from a fair – a midway filled with carnival rides and games, tents with local merchants selling their goods and services, and a variety of farm animals raised by members of the local 4H club.
This fair also included an exhibit which demonstrates that the world has gone stark, raving bonkers! I’m not speaking of the various “freak show” entries they included (Even the five-legged sheep was understandable, though animals with that sort of birth defect are usually culled early on). No, for me, the proof that the fair’s organizers are insane was their decision to include – and there’s no way I could ever make up something like this – restroom attendants.
Yes, that’s right, the Montgomery County Fair has restroom attendants. Complete with professionally made signs (not hand-lettered, somebody actually planned this out) asking for tips.
Perhaps I’m old-fashioned. I’ve always felt that what goes on in the bathroom is strictly between you and the plumbing fixtures, no need for any third party involvement. Definitely have someone check now and again to make sure everything is clean and in order, but do you really need to have someone hanging out there the whole day?
I’ve occasionally run across stories that this sort of thing is all the rage at upscale nightclubs and bars, but nobody’s ever explained why they think this is a good idea. Several years ago, I encountered a restroom attendant on one of my rare nightclub outings. This fellow was holding court at the sink and had an assortment of colognes, hand lotions, breath mints and other items covering every square inch of counter space and approaching the sink felt like a pricey toll road.
I can’t imagine why the county fair would want to recreate that environment. Nobody I’ve spoken to understands it either.
By comparison, the trees scattered around the fairgrounds seem quite inviting.
Congressional (knee) jerks, pt 2
This was so predictable….
The FTC investigation has concluded that incidents of post-Katrina gasoline price-gouging were few and isolated. There was no widespread conspiracy by the oil companies, just the laws of supply and demand. Several members of Congress immediately declared the investigation flawed and denounced the FTC as a stooge to the oil companies and an enemy of consumers.
So, who do you believe? On the one hand, you have an FTC which is part of an administration which arguably favors business over consumers. On the other hand, you have members of Congress who want you believe supply and demand somehow doesn’t apply to gasoline and want to be able to blame someone for high gas prices so they can use it for their re-election campaigns.
My prediction: Both sides will continue to flap their gums about it until they find something else to grandstand about at which point this will all be forgotten.
Congressional (knee) jerks
Z. has an interesting commentary about a recent proposal in Congress to give every taxpayer a check for $100 to help cope with the upswing in gas prices. The $100 rebate sounds like a typical Washington knee-jerk. Maybe they figure it’ll buy a few votes?
Another bit of knee-jerking is the congressional complaints about the oil industry’s "record profits." It’s somehow suddenly become evil for companies to make money selling something that people want. (Is it OK to make money selling something people don’t want? How do you do that? Aside, that is, from being elected to public office and making it illegal to not buy it.) The problem is, the "Record Profits" number is completely meaningless without a context.
One of my correspondents recently pointed out the difference between a profit and a profit margin. Simply put, a profit margin is profit expressed as a percentage of revenue.
So suppose you sell widgets for $100 apiece and it costs you $90 to make them. That means you have a profit of $10, which means you have a 10% profit margin.
Now suppose your costs double. It now costs you $180 to make your widgets, so you have to raise the price. To keep the math simple, you double the price you sell the widgets for to $200. You’ve now doubled your profit to $20, but that’s still only a 10% profit margin.
In either case, you make $10 for every $100 of income. Why is the second scenario "bad"?
So Congress is debating whether to penalize companies that make more money than they think is fair. The problem is, Government has a pretty dismal track record for legislating morality. (Does anyone still think Prohibition was a wild success?)
Penalizing corporations for conspiring to keep prices artificially high is the kind of thing a government can and should do. But deciding whether a company is making too much money? That’s the sort of thing government should leave to competition and markets to handle.
One final bit of knee-jerking. Did you notice how Congress wants to fix the "problem"? They want to tax it. How original.
Duh!
I spotted this gem on Wednesday and all I can say is Wow! This is a fantastic idea! We’ve all had the experience with the older style cell phones where the wires have a tendency to get tangled. And if you go more than a few hundred feet from the tower, even if the cord doesn’t get tangled in a tree, there’s still a good chance it’ll come unplugged.
Yep, making wireless cell phones was a brilliant idea!
With bold new innovations like that, flashlights that don’t plug into the wall can’t be far behind.
Sheesh!