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There are so many articles about the cloud, talking about the long term benefits of cloud adoption and where the future lies with respect to business and government computing. I prefer to think that I am above the cloud, looking down on high through it to the earth, the physical layer at the bottom, where computing currently resides. My observations for the cloud and the physical layer below it are as follows:

1. The cloud will not be a going concern until there is stability in the offerings and connections to it: 

The cloud has an underlying assumption about its availability – if the internet or a VPN connection used to connect to a cloud service fails, there is no cloud access. There is no data, there will be no access and the users will be disadvantaged. Imagine if a Bank had all of its data in the cloud, the network had a problem and failed and it was payday across the country. How would the employees who used the bank’s services get paid? How would an employer be able to transmit information to the bank for processing? Until there is a stable environment for the cloud environment, a bulletproof, fail proof connection, the cloud will not be perceived as a reliable method for any service that is data reliant.

2. The cloud needs to be secured beyond web applications and connections – it needs to be a vault for data:

At the moment, users of cloud services like GMail need to regularly change their credentials – mostly after their passwords are compromised by attack. This is not an acceptable environment for data retention, certainly not for sensitive data like HR files, Identity files, personal banking details and medical records. The cloud needs to be a secure environment, but this creates a paradox – if the cloud is locked down, it must be connected to a regulatory mechanism that is most likely residing “off-cloud”, on a physical server. In order for a cloud environment to be secure, additional methods need to be employed to ensure that the data is safe, otherwise it will never be seen as a viable option.

The weakest point in the chain is the connection to the data from an external source. Imagine that you are a job seeker. The recruiter you have signed up with has put your job profile up into the cloud. Employers can see these profiles through a username and password. What happens if the employer is using GMail as their email and their account is compromised? Does this mean that your profile can also be compromised? could your identity be stolen? Cloud providers need to have specific mechanisms that identify users, be it from IP addresses, or another predefined method that prevents data being compromised. Only when a cloud environment is completely impervious from attack will it be seen as a viable alternative for data storage.

3. Devices to access the cloud still rely on physical connections: 

The cloud is a place where all data can reside. Humanity cannot access it without a device like a tablet, smartphone or computer. Whether or not access is via a physical server, the connection is still governed by the physical devices. With the invention of internet TV’s, fridges and other devices, we have broadened the methods of connection, but the connection still remains. If a change was made to thin clients, where no data resides locally and instead is purely cloud based, they would still need to connect to a provider that allowed access to the cloud, be it a wifi connection, 3G, 4G, ADSL, BDSL or Fibre. There is no escaping this connection requirement, unless there is a new method created in the future.

4. Cloud access still requires local support and management:

Even though you have moved all essential applications and data to the cloud, the requirement for a managed services provider will still remain. Thin clients still need to be repaired. Printers still need to be configured. Network hardware needs to be installed, configured and tested. Services won’t change, there will still be a need for the traditional providers and they won’t be put in a situation of “adopt the cloud or become obsolete”. This is one of the identified perceived fears that a provider has. If their clients move to the cloud, they will lose them as the client doesn’t need them anymore. Providers can survive post-cloud adoption. They just need to change their attitude towards what constitutes support of the client.

5. There are specific instances where a cloud solution will not be able to be adopted:

In an environment where data is sensitive, secret or of a type that cannot be put into a harmful situation, the cloud is not a viable option. The private enterprise cloud is not a true representation of the cloud, as it still resides within a boundary that is controlled, maintained and operated by the organisation who has created it. This situation is more like a common data repository, not a cloud solution. There are key components that have been deployed to ensure that data is not accessible from external sources, all data remains inside the organisation and it can exist in a datacentre that is virtualised or physically provided. I prefer to think of these instances as intranets, not clouds. Granted, the data is available to the entirety of the organisation, but it has no external access, thus is not a cloud concept.

6. Where is the data residing in the cloud:

One of the key concerns that I have heard being raised is where the data resides. Is the data in a cloud service on shore or offshore? is the data available to external users with access to the data via authentication methods? Can an organisation apply in a legal challenge to access another company’s data? With respect to data that is commercial in confidence, personal identity or legally required to be accessible only in the country of origin, Cloud providers need to provide accurate audit and storage facilities that ensure that this is the case. In the event of a failure, does the data still reside in the country of origin, or, based on the concept of the cloud, could it be replicated to another facility off-shore? This is one of the biggest hurdles for cloud takeup. if the data is offshore, can it be accessed by the government of the country the data now resides in? if a legal challenge is made by that foreign government, what safeguards does the cloud provider have to combat data leakage?

7. Physical computing is far safer than the cloud:

One of the current ways that managed providers are keeping their clients out of the cloud is to claim that physical computing is far safer than the cloud. This actually is not correct, if you have a physical environment that is not secure, a wifi connection that isn’t passkey protected, no endpoint management to prevent data loss via email or external device, then you can or will lose data. All data needs to be secured. Regardless of where it is stored, either a physical environment or the cloud, data needs to be accessible only by the owners of the data. Safer is also used for connectivity. If you have a physical server, or the applications installed on your device, you can save locally if the server fails. Cloud cannot do this. Unfortunately, local saves create an unhealthy and unsafe environment. if the notebook all of the data is saved locally to is stolen, your data is compromised, regardless of it being in the cloud or on a server as well.

8. Physical computing is actually cheaper than the cloud:

One of the things that many people are doing is calculating the cost to deploy a cloud solution and then compare it to their current physical environment. Most don’t take into account the original cost for the server, the software and the storage of their data. They take a now approach, which means that the figures are skewed towards physical computing. My advice to organisations looking closely at the viability of the cloud is to engage a consultant to analyze the information and provide a best practice recommendation as to whether the cloud is a viable option. If you feel that the data is not correct, get a second opinion. If the data from the second opinion matches the first results, they are probably correct.

9. The FUD Factor, the cloud and physical computing:

The Fear, Uncertainty & Doubt factor (FUD) is rife with respect to cloud and physical computing. Many companies argue that the cloud is dangerous. Others talk of the waste of money physical computing represents. There are components of truth within the ideals raised by providers. An accurate way to cut through to these truths is to employ an independent consultant, someone with no vested interest in the outcome. The answers you receive can arm you with the right information, allowing you to make informed decisions and gain a better insight into what is best for your organisation now and in the future. Remember, just because you didn’t adopt the cloud idea today, doesn’t mean you will never adopt it.

10. Summary:

Looking down on the cloud and the physical layer below it allows me to see that there are areas for improvement in both segments. The cloud is still in its infancy, whilst the physical computing environment has always been there. Security will play a major role in ensuring both environments are valid for organisations, connectivity will need to be available for the cloud to gain traction and ensure that organisations can use it to the best of its potential. Once the issues that have been touched on are sorted out, there is no reason that a cloud / physical hybrid could be the toe in the water to complete cloud adoption. At least by using a hybrid mix, an organisation can be weaned of the physical server dependence prior to adopting a total cloud solution.

One of the items that I have not really touched on is price, but the cost of cloud will become competitive as more organisations adopt it. There will be a moment in the future where cloud completely replaces the physical environment as the cost effective alternative. Until it does, the physical environment will still be the technology of choice. This does not mean that once the cloud is the new technology solution we will remove our physical environment – as i have already mentioned, there will still be services required for the items that cannot be cloud located and operated like printers, network components and thin clients.

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I read a blog post recently – don’t ask me to remember the author, I read so many different blog posts every day that to pick one out of the pack is a tad hard, but one of the things that resonated in me was the fact that the author got it slightly wrong. The Online world is not the be all and end all of every person, in fact some people have never seen it. The fundamentals of business have not changed, the medium has in some instances.

If you look at census data in Australia, not every household has the internet. There is also a disproportionate number of people who don’t own their own homes and then, there are the off the grid people, who never appear in the stats – who don’t care about what is trending on social media, mainly because they have no concept of it. Many people wake up in the morning, watch a bit of TV, go to work and come home at the end of the day with absolutely no contact whatsoever with computers. They don’t miss the interaction, in fact, they are far better at social engagement than many people who are “connected”. They are the doers, the people who spend their days keeping everything running, so that the others can spend their days online.

If you said that the basic requirements of life should include food, water and a roof over the heads of your children, or yourself, the internet seems less important.

I have tried to see what it would be like without technology and do you know what? I cannot do it. I need to keep in contact with people I will never meet. Sad. I have far more engagement with people on the other side of the world than I do in my own city. I know a few people here, but I rarely see them. Imagine if there was a way where every day had you in contact with your friends and you met with them every single day, but never, ever spoke to them online. Sounds strange, doesn’t it?

Welcome to the world of the common person who really doesn’t watch TV, who couldn’t care less about what was trending online and gets up every morning, goes to work, comes home and raises their kids as best they can.

Then there is the NBN. When it arrives, suddenly every single person will have fast, cheap internet and they will be able to join the online world? right? wrong. Ask yourself how many low income people have a computer. How many save so that their kids can have a computer and be on an equal footing with their peers at school? when did having a computer become a part of being a school child?  why are we educating our kids in year two on how to create a powerpoint presentation?

I was learning to read, do sums and learn social skills in year 2, computers filled rooms, so we weren’t able to have those skills back “when dinosaurs roamed the earth”, as my son seems to think my childhood was. When computers became more accessible, there seems to have been an explosion in their use – the child that doesn’t have a color printer for their assignments seems to be punished if they produce great work on handwritten assignments, as their peers can type it up, set the font and make it very pretty. Whatever happened to the substance and the content being greater than the presentation?

One thing that education seems to produce now is socially inept young adults that have greater connections online, who can be bullied through social media, where the bully can hide behind a username and be disconnected to the impact of their comments and threats because it isn’t real life, that seem to have no remorse or conscience when a person they have bullied leaves the school they are at – in fact, I have heard of instances where the bully still continues even though the person is no longer in their circle, as they can and do reach out to a much wider audience and can torment from afar.

is this what we wanted for our kids? I do not want my children to disconnect with nature, to miss the beauty of a sunset if they can’t see a picture of it online, to miss the smell of rain because they are too busy playing games on a handheld device.

Am I common person? why, yes, yes I am. So are you. we are all the common people in this wonderful world. Being common isn’t being average, rich or poor, it isn’t like that anymore. it is being able to balance your life so that bills are paid, charities can assist those less fortunate and you can at least feel that you have contributed to society. If you have read this in the public library, at your desk at work or at home, wonder if you could disconnect from the internet, experience a sunset first hand, teach your children about a garden, allow the world to pass you by – this is the action of a common person, and it is just wonderful. We can experience so much on the internet, but it will never replace our own experiences. Nor should it.

I have lost wonderful moments in my life being tied to this keyboard and seeing a sunset in its dying stages – realising that if I had stopped typing an hour ago, I could have been watching it in person, not browsing the images others had loaded onto the internet for those of us who missed it.

Should we try and connect every single person to the internet, or should we be looking at ways to leave it and be able to appreciate the moments that the internet cannot give, the tactile connection of holding hands, walking in the twilight glow of the setting sun, climbing mountains and seeing sights that will be far more important to our memories than just seeing someone else’s photos online?

I sometimes wish that I could disconnect and ignore the internet. The people who don’t miss it because they don’t have it are richer in many ways – they see far more life than I, they can connect socially with their peers – who has the better deal?

I am not saying that the internet isn’t important – I use it for work and home, after all, I write blogs on it. I just wonder what my kids will be doing as technology advances, will they be using it in new and far more interesting ways? or will the adults of the future ignore technology and reconnect with nature, becoming balanced and able to see beauty for themselves, teaching their kids that there are far better experiences in real life than you could find in the internet…

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There is a new article today on IT News – it is already attracting comments, in fact I made one but it hasn’t yet showed up, so I thought I would just bring my followers and readers to a couple of interesting things:

1. here is the article, if you haven’t seen it yet:

IT, corruption and ethics

2. Here is my take on the article.

The article talks about ethics in ICT and the apparent lack thereof. I dispute this. There are codes of ethics already established in the ICT sector, both from Industry associations and the Australian Government. The pity is, it seems that many organisations don’t know about either sources. If you are a member of an industry association, you may already have agreed to the by-laws that provide you with a code of conduct. All industry associations have these agreements already in place, so that their members know where they stand when it comes to dealing with all types of clients.

As for Government, Federal Government specifically, regardless of my employer, I have agreed to moral and ethical requirements as a sales person in this industry, I see it as a requirement to be able to deal with all clients and I urge you to read, sign and join the ICT companies who have already signed this particular document – it is an initiative that enables all of us to say to whoever raises the issue, we have agreed to stringent requirements that are an agreement between the ICT industry and Federal Government to treat and be treated with respect. It isn’t a big ask.

The Government and Industry Principles of Engagement on ICT

The reason that you have to agree to industry association codes of conduct and the federal government’s version is that when media outlets run headlines about how all ICT companies are corrupt, some end users are going to believe them. These codes are for your protection, they will ensure that you can dispute any claims that all companies are corrupt – which is a pretty long stretch to reach a conclusion about every single company. By the way, did you know that the APS has a code of conduct? so if the client has one, why is it so surprising to find that the ICT Industry has one too?

One suggestion is that more companies should join the Australian Computer Society. This would be far easier if not for the fact that the perception of the ACS is an elitist, expensive group, that most small businesses cannot afford to join. If they aren’t, maybe they need to advertise that factor a bit better to the industry. If there was an industry association that welcomed members – individuals, companies and all, at a set flat fee, there might be more take-up in membership numbers.

Perhaps the media highlighting this issue will be a driver for change. I personally feel that the issue will have end users thinking that we all are “dodgy”. The damage that this could cause is immense, particularly when the industry is suffering under an economy that is not in any way profitable for anyone right now.

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Another year has nearly ended and the new year is about to bring a new crop of ICT professionals, new, young and probably wet behind the ears into the fold. There seems to be less takers of this industry than prior years showed us – You have to ask why? Why is the ICT industry not seen as a great direction for a career? What is creating a negative aspect for a vibrant, ever changing, innovative, diverse industry?

1. staff layoffs / retrenchments / cutbacks – call it what you will, but any industry that seems to have a large number of these types of events is never going to attract the new blood that the industry needs. Firstly, kids entering university are usually guided by their parent’s advice – if their parents are mixed up in the industry and have seen or been effected by these events, they will be far less willing to allow their children to go through the same pain. They will advise their kids to take safer options, often leading to someone becoming an architect, even though they have exemplary animation skills, can strip a server to nothing and then rebuild it, design and implement a complex solution from a basic drawing. The kids entering university don’t often seem to think about becoming a sysadmin, a developer, designer or system integrator – we have conditioned them into believing that ICT is a very tough gig, one that advancement may take years, and that you may find that you are in the same job for many years until the opportunities improve.

2. Technology adoption – Technology that is being released is cutting edge, potentially prone to bugs in its first release, which means that there are many businesses, departments and schools that notice it, but don’t act on it. If you have adopted the new technology, and it is working fine, great. The FUD factor (Fear Uncertainty & Doubt) seems to be rife – there are many organisations that cannot see the benefits in new technology, ranging from VoIP, through to social media, and they will do their best to discredit these new forms of communication, primarily as they themselves don’t understand it. It is far easier to say that a specific technology is the devil than to invest time and money in coming to grips with it. If you are a new uni degree graduate, entering the current work environment, skilled in new technologies and eager to learn, it may be a huge slap in the face.

3. Landscape change – Back in the olden days, there was a beast that roamed the Australian Government landscape that effectively and efficiently killed off innovation. It was called the Panel Contract, or PExx. These contracts were supported by a piece of innovation that enabled businesses to identify their skills in the ICT environment, called the Endorsed Supplier Agreement (ESA). The ESA wasn’t a case of filling in a form and gaining access to government, it was a semi Tender response that had many people up late at night to ensure that they got in. It enabled the ICT industry to be regulated in a manner that ensured that organisations that had skills or products of value could be approached by departments, for all forms of RFx business. When the ALP lost power, the PE contracts were disbanded. This created a time of plenty, as ESA providers were able to be approached for business, without the restriction of the panel agreements. The ESA became the MUL (multi-use list) under the Liberals, which opened the floodgates to all resellers of ICT (Communications became recognised as a part of the IT landscape) and there still was a land of plenty for opportunities and companies. This ended after the Gershon report was commissioned.  The biggest killer for opportunity occurred when Technology was commoditised. This was directly caused by organisations entering the market that had more or less traditionally worked in the consumable space, not the systems, server, storage or peripheral patch. Where before, margins could be as high as double digits, these new players had lower overheads and could gut their price. Others needed to do the same to retain the business, which led to the paradigm shift from Technology products to Services, and ultimately, solutions.

4.   Women don’t seem to be interested in ICT – This is, in fact, incorrect. Many women are working in the ICT industry, some of which are in high power jobs, in design capacities or solutions providers. They are in the industry, but we seem to throw platitudes at the feet of men, whilst the women seem to be less recognised, even though in some instances they have had to fight much harder to get where they are today.  One of the standout examples of a success story is Diana Ryall. When  I was selling Apple products, she was the Apple Australia Managing Director. She had a reputation of being tough, probably started by people who really did not recognise how hard she had worked to get there. I know of several other women in the ICT industry that have clawed their way through hard work into senior positions, but how many young women know about these shining examples of success? How many young women go to uni for a degree in computing, or project management, in comparison to men?  Why?

5. opportunities in other fields are far more lucrative – as long as retail isn’t a part of that equation, probably true. Retail is the most amazing example of getting it wrong. Retailers are blamed for bad customer service on a regular basis, but who has stopped to see how much the staff actually earn? Would you be interested in giving your all if you were on $30K per year, as a middle manager, who lost weekends to two days off during the week, and maybe 1 weekend a month to spend with your friends and family? Private industry usually pays better. Government roles pay better. Real estate agents receive high commissions and low retainers, but they are geared to being able to be supported by partners. How many roles are advertised for one specified job, yet turn out to be more than was mentioned? At least in the Government, a job description is as it states, not filled with ambiguous terms like “other duties as required”. working in ICT may be lucrative, but there is a lot of sacrifice that goes into the roles, from designers to executives, there are some instances that require extra hours work for no pay,  as the end result is the completion of a project, a job or a response.

in order for the ICT industry to reach a level of Research and Development that was once held in Australia to ensure the rest of the world would watch us closely, we need to change a few mindsets. Embrace diversity. Embrace change and have no truck with the notion that a person’s sex, religion, age or race has anything whatsoever to do with their creativity, their innovative approaches, their ability to get the job done.  We need to see investment in youth, investment in technology ideas and start developing the thinkers and the dreamers to a point that they will be creating the new future for us tomorrow, not next week, not next year. Create a reason for people to join the ICT industry with Passion, drive and commitment, not see it as a male only industry, but one that will accept the ideas of all for the common goal – To increase the  efficiency and usability of the technology that we create, meet the needs of all and have a reason for business to remain in our country towns and cities, creating employment, creating community and creating a future that has ICT firmly in its sights.

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Over the course of my career, my resume has gone through many changes. There was the era of bullet point, clipped style resumes, when I was first looking for a job, in the late ’80s. I remember that, back then, my resume was only a page long. Recruiters told me to flesh it out, as it was too small. I did.

Fast forward to the mid ’90s. Again, my resume had to be changed, it was just too small. I added my expertise, my hobbies, personal goals and a short description of where I had worked and what I had done. My original one page resume was now a five page resume. Better, I was told by the recruiters.

Around 2010, I was informed that my resume needed to be a story that told a prospective employer about who I was and what I could do. The resume shouldn’t mention my earlier roles, I should cut out the older jobs. So I changed my format again, making it a larger document with bullet points, descriptions and a short essay for each employer, with achievements etc. Better, the recruiters told me.

This year, I had to drag out and update my resume. I had just completed the complete overhaul when a trusted friend told me to dump my achievements, skills and plans and expand on each of my roles. The recruiters were strangely silent. I like to think that they were busy reading it.

Recently, a recruiter told me to shorten down my resume.  People don’t want an essay, they prefer bullet point, clipped styles, I was told. This last piece of advice I ignored. I mean, there is only so many things I can do to make myself sound good, and the resume is a track of where I worked and what I did. The interview is the actual mechanism to gain a job.

I asked whether I should mention the retrenchments I have had during my career. No, I was told. We (the recruiters) will explain where you have been and why you had to go.

My first week of unemployment saw every single application knocked back. I mean it, every single one never made it to an interview. I was applying for every single job I could do, even to the point where I was applying for grasscutting jobs, labouring, night fill in supermarkets. All had the same response, “although you have exceptional skills, you just aren’t what we are looking for.” Eventually, I asked one of the agencies what was my failing in the application. The response was that I have had several short term roles. Longevity was not apparent. This is not a positive for a potential employer.

What if I change my resume to include the retrenchments? Well, I could, but it seems that it has no bearing on today’s market. I just have to keep looking, selling myself to a potential employer and eventually, someone will look past my short term roles, see that I can be of benefit to their organisation and I can go back to work, receiving the odd call about a “role that I would be perfect for”. Seems to be that the recruiters remember me when I have a job, but they don’t remember me when I don’t.

Is my resume wrong? have I missed the mark?

I think it is fine. Only time will tell.

 

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There aren’t many mountains around Canberra suburbs that I haven’t hiked to the top of. There are a couple that you can drive up, but I have always planned to hike up two, One being Mount Taylor and the other, although incorrectly named, is Tuggeranong Hill.

Hiking up mountains seems to be like creating a 5-year plan. I have a 5-year plan. it isn’t on my resume, but it is there in my head. It has the usual things in the plan, one day I will write it down, but I like to think that while it is in my head, it is an always changing draft – edited, changed and improved over the years.

Yes, there is a reference to money in my 5-year plan. Yes, there is a new car, a new house, (or improvements to my current one – that changes too) and a steady job that makes me happy to go to work. I have my kids in my plan, working for the day when I spend more time with them, I have more money to buy them things and I am well off, just in case something comes up that they need.

Today, I completed one of my goals. Not a business goal, but a personal one that makes me think I can do anything at all – for today, I hiked up Tuggeranong hill, with a camera, and I took photos. Not bad for someone that was told only a few weeks ago that I am fat. (they also mentioned balding, but what can I do about the unchangeable?) I took the hike at one series of steps at a time. Ten steps up. Ten steps up, again and again until I was standing at the summit, enjoying the view. This is what I mean about my 5-year plan. Today, although I am very unfit, I took a challenge head on and I won. I didn’t get a stitch. I didn’t give up. I just walked and walked till I was where I wanted to be. I was Positive, filled with purpose and determination.  If it wasn’t for the fact that I was positive, I probably would have given up without meeting my objective.

This is how I approach my life. If I get knocked down, I get up and take a ten more steps. What is this just like? Cold Calling. For every ten calls I make, I get one that is a yes, I focus on that yes and I grow from there.

I have been accused recently of not having any direction. I have a direction, but I have set myself boundaries. I have a strategy that I apply. I have procedures that I adhere to. I take ten steps up a mountain and then I take another ten. I apply the same thinking to my work – I make ten calls, I make another ten calls, I don’t think that I will fail, I know that if I remain positive, I will win.

If I am working, I will give ten steps. Then another ten steps. And another. I will give my ten steps till I am standing on the summit, looking down, and then I will find another big mountain, another challenge, and off I go again. I am not saying to anyone that I will set the world on fire overnight. I am saying that if I walk up the mountain, ten steps at a time, I will reach my goals, I will complete my 5-year plan, and then I will make a new one.

 

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One of the things I have noticed in recent years is that a salesperson in a slump is no longer supported by the business they work for. They are an easy target for retrenchment, for firing and the business feels that they can do without that particular person.

When did this change? When did a salesperson become as commoditised as the products that they sell? Don’t get me wrong, there are some people who aren’t suited to the life as a salesperson, but they usually are weeded out early in their careers. There are certain people who, for whatever reason, believe that they can sell, when they are better in a support role, a technical role, a management role.

The best way to find out whether a salesperson is right for the business of selling is to find out why they aren’t selling. What is preventing them from selling? There needs to be in every salesperson’s life a series of structured and rigid procedures and policies. Why? Well, if the salesperson does not know what the company strategy is, they will “Scattergun” opportunities. They need targets, to measure against, territories, to identify key market segments and support, so that they know that there is a company behind them, a team, not a group of individuals.

Every person who has a job knows what they do. Salespeople do not provide technical support. Office administrators do not order products and services. CIOs don’t engage in break / fix of client systems. Each specific role has specific responsibilities, but all must meet a common criteria:

If your company helps customers, everyone in the company is dedicated to excel in customer service.

From the receptionist, the purchasing officer, the accounts person, the salespeople, the support people, the technical people. If you pick up the phone and answer a client phone call, you must treat them with respect. There is no place for joking about your customers, regardless of whether your comments are directed at them or at your colleagues. You must expect the customers to not be subject experts about technology, medical, secretarial, etc, etc. The customer engages a company for the services that they don’t understand or don’t have the time to learn about. They expect that the experience will be great, not good, and that they can rely on the company to support them. Reliance. a small word, a big responsibility.

Who should go in a downturn? keeping every single staff member may result in far reaching ramifications. The company may go under. The company needs to survive, but you work out who is not able to assist in the growth of the company. The people who aren’t prepared to change, that cannot see the big picture and expect that they don’t need to. Who helps a company grow? Salespeople do. Technical staff support existing clients, they cannot grow a business. If they are selling, where are they letting the company down? supporting the number one person that the company has, which is the client. Stick to your jobs. if you are technical, be the best technician. If you are procurement, be the best in that role. If you are sales, and in a bit of a rut, a good manager will find out the why, the how and what needs to be done to fix it.

Don’t throw away salespeople. Fix them.

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One of the things that has crept into the social media universe is the nasty side of human nature – the people who, for whatever reason, can’t just accept another person’s point of view – they have to pursue the poster across the Twitterverse, The Facebook conversations or other types of social media engagement. They gain the name troll, in itself not a nice way to describe a fellow community member in the particular social media environment, but this seems to have stuck as a warning to other members.

Many comments come out along the lines of “don’t “feed” the trolls” – a direct reference to not engaging with the person who is creating a dark aspect to the discussion.

Many years ago, on CB radios, the trolls were “breakers” – in the midst of a conversation, a call of “breaker, breaker” would be heard. “Come in the breaker” was the natural response, and someone else would be in the conversation. We didn’t know who they were, but the discussions were impacted by their presence. sometimes, people would try to ignore the breaker, but if they were particularly persistent, we would switch channels and leave them searching channels till they finally found us. It was annoying, most of the breakers were kids who had received a CB for christmas, and they did not understand the etiquette of the radio. screaming “breeaaker, breeaaker” over and over in a loud voice just got a short, sharp response from someone else. We never swore, there was a rumor that there was an RI (Radio Inspector) listening in to all conversations, so we kept it clean. There probably wasn’t, but parents took a dim view when hearing their little angel on the radio cursing like a trooper. It was safer to keep it clean.

In social media, the best way to deal with a troll, or a person making improper comments or threats is to block, report and move on. Bullies feed on acquiescence – if you listen to them and don’t think that it is a bad thing, they have access to your friends, they can comment on all things and if you are not interested in the vitriol that they are gushing, why let them control you? Every single user on the social media universe has an opinion. Their opinion may differ from yours, but if it bothers you, block them. remember, you are online by choice, but that does not mean you have to follow others blindly and accept every connection request.

This applies to every form of Social media. If you don’t like where someone is going in a conversation on twitter, block them. If the updates someone is posting on facebook are aimed at discrediting you, hurting you, hurting your family, report and block them. If you are receiving invitations on linkedin from people who can’t even be bothered to explain why connecting to them is a great idea, ignore them. You can also advise linkedin that you don’t know them.

Every different type of social media product has a way of protecting you. They don’t want you to suffer when using their products, as you won’t for long and they know it. There are safeguards to ensure that you can be left alone by people you don’t know, who are being rude, abusive or threatening. if all else fails, block and move on. You may end up with a smaller amount of content to read,  but at least it will be quality, not quantity.

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One of the fun things about LinkedIn is that there are a number of serial checkers who notice that I have left the company I was at, but haven’t shown up in the usual places. These checkers can’t dignify me with who they are, so it becomes a guessing game as to who they are. Honestly, it is amusing to see who they might be, but if you can’t be honest and open on LinkedIn, what sort of potential connection are you?

I have had a couple of strange requests recently for connections. If you aren’t in a group that I am in, or don’t know you from another connection, please tell me why it is very important to connect to me. Sending me a connection request that says “I would like to add you to my professional network”, where I have no clue who you are, means that it is unlikely that the connection is accepted.

If you think you know me, tell me where from. If you are trying to grow your network, and you really don’t know me, be honest. I respond well to people who say, after the standard ”I would like to add you to my professional network”, I am interested in connecting to you because I think I worked with you at… or you were my rep at… or maybe there is some synergy between your company and me. Works a lot better.

If you are trying to hammer contacts through connections, be aware that I am not averse to reporting such activity. Many of my contacts are long term friends or family. Some are clients I have worked with over the years. Some remember me from the very old days of my career. My LinkedIn connections are really my contact database, my card file. (It is a lot easier than keeping business cards as the nature of industry in Canberra means we all shuffle around, no pun intended)

There are people who I have known for years who aren’t in my contacts, but they don’t need to be. I can find their details and contact them if I need to, but their details are kept out of LinkedIn for various reasons. Not my place to guess why.

I have not updated my details on LinkedIn. I probably won’t for a while, as this means that my competitors don’t know where I am. (I know they check my profile)

For those of you who know me, you know where I am. If you know me, but you don’t have a clue where I am, call me. you have my number.

 

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“Looking for new challenges and opportunities” seems to be the polite way of saying, “I am unemployed. I need a job” in the digital age. I sometimes think I need a big card that says “Will work for Money” – to be held in the faces of every single person I know in case they a) have a job going, b) are asking where I am working and c) are wondering what I have been up to.

I saw a young man the other day with a card that read “spare change for accommodation” He was looking worn out, sad, sadder than I could ever be and I wondered where were the people that can help somebody like this, where are the charities when a person needs help but is too proud to ask? Why is it that the job search minefield seems to be just as difficult, and could lead to food and bills paid or it could end up with me, holding his sign?

The recent track history in my career hasn’t been that great. I had heard of people when I was younger who had several jobs and several retrenchments, I never thought that it would happen to me – not one redundancy, but, over my career, 4. The saddest thing about a redundancy, the most soul destroying aspect, is that you just cannot go back and try again. The door is bolted shut against a return, some companies allow you back to sell again if the parting was amicable, but a redundancy really tells you that the door is closed and the position you held will never, ever be used again.

In most cases, the job you left or the job that you were retrenched from meant that you never went back. I call the past mistakes and retrenchments in my career the “trail of destruction” and refer to the advice I received from others as I journeyed along as, in some part, defective. If I think back, I realise that some of the decisions were not my own. I was coerced into making decisions that benefited others, but, when you get down to it, damaged me.

I have the occasional “What if” brainstorm – where I look at decisions and their impact and wonder if I had been more forceful, more demanding, would they have ended the same way? What if I had stayed in jobs that I loved when I was told to find a “better one”, with better hours or better pay? What if I had said no when I was told that the decision was “me or the job”? Where would I be now? Would I be happy? Would I have reached a senior role where I had felt happy doing what I was doing and not worrying about what other people said? The answers as always are that I will never know. I can’t rewrite the past, I can only write the future. The chains that bound me to decisions that were manipulated by others have been lifted and I am now standing on the brink of something better.

I am looking for new challenges and opportunities. I am looking for a new job that calls to me and makes me want to be there. I am ready to face my future again – alone, part of a team, doesn’t matter. I am reborn again with the singular purpose of achieving greatness. I am believing in me again, my positive mental attitude is slowly climbing again and when  that battery level is full, look out, world. I want to take every opportunity with both hands and live it. I want to be able to stand amongst my peers and say that I am of importance.

I am looking for new challenges and opportunities. I know who I am again, where I am going and what I want to do with the rest of my life.

My card now reads “Employ Me! You know you want to!”

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The answer is: Never.

Every person you speak to will have a horror story about their bank, their internet provider, the guy who mows their lawns, the trash pack company and, with monotonous regularity, the company who supports their computer systems.

Every IT company has case studies, examples of people who have thought that the service that they have received warrants a “pat on  the back” in print. The bad experiences don’t get a mention, but the great machine of popular discussion, gossip, will take care of telling others how bad it was, how condescending the rep was, how arrogant the tech was, how they just made you feel like an idiot, or a small child.

There is a term used at IT companies, when dealing with someone that isn’t technologically savvy – “dropping down into idiot speak” so that the customers “get” what is being discussed. Bad companies do this, good companies do it as a last resort, great companies don’t do it at all. How do great companies “get away” with not doing it?

They treat their clients with dignity. Without the client, there would be no business. Great companies recognise that we all have strengths and weaknesses, for example, a heart surgeon may know nothing about computers, but can tell you everything about how to fix a heart. Do surgeons treat all people who know nothing about hearts as idiots, or do they raise the education level of the person so that they can understand the topics being discussed? So why do some IT companies think that, because someone doesn’t understand IT, they are idiots?

Because they haven’t encountered the sleeping giant, the IT savvy person who understands exactly what is being discussed, but betrays no hint of understanding. These sleeping giants are often found in retail, often when it is far too late to save your discussion or keep the client. You have made them look and feel like a fool. Now it is your turn to suffer.

Idiots do exist in the world of customer service, unfortunately, they appear to be the ones selling, not the ones being sold to. They are easy to spot. They usually have someone in front of them who has their face contorted into a picture of misery as they explain the speeds and feeds of the product they are trying to sell.

There are many things about a computer. Knowing that it is a core i7 processor, with 8gb of ram and a 500gb hard drive probably doesn’t help when all you want it to do is run the family budget, perhaps type out a few emails and check out the internet pictures that your grandkids have put on their facebook page. But that is retail.

What confronts a small business is far more difficult. In some cases, the small business owner has (not literally) been dragged into the 21st century by demands placed on them by staff, customers and suppliers. They need to get a computer, a website and the internet. They don’t care about the fact that the computer is faster than a blue streak of lightning, processing faster than you can type. The salesperson seems to forget all about what the needs are and has a sort of glazed look – they know the customer is there, but they are so wrapped up in how cool the technology is that they have forgotten what they came to them for.

if they think that the customer isn’t getting it, maybe they will commit the cardinal sin and drop into “idiot speak”.

Imagine if you did this to your mother. She has asked for some help with the computer and you have treated her like an idiot – what happens when she works it out? Let’s just say that the christmas present scene looks pretty bleak.

If you don’t treat your mother like an idiot, when is it OK to do it for anybody else?

Simple answer. It is never OK.