Random 5 for March 18 – Mating season, repairs, WordPress, search engines, business

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Is it mating season? – Why yes it is. The birds are doing their courting songs and looking for nesting material. I love this time of year. Such sweet singing.

The last repair – There was a problem with our four-year-old range. The oven light wouldn’t go off unless we turned off the circuit breaker. We had four service trips. The first two guys were clueless. They were looking for computer panel issues. The third guy came in, opened the door, and flicked the button sensor a few times. It took him less than two minutes to find the mechanical issue. A sticking button sensor. No fancy panel problem. He came back this week to install a new sensor button. Between both trips, he didn’t spend more than ten minutes here. It took four trips to fix a simple mechanical problem. Good thing it was under warranty.

Muscle memory (for bloggers) – Maybe it’s just me but when I use the reader to comment in WordPress I’ve noticed they have switched the buttons around. The spam button is where the like button used to be. I have to be very careful because my finger wants to spam everything!

Speaking of all things computer – I’ve been doing ancestry research using several websites. Back in the old days (not all that long ago) I used one search engine – Internet Explorer – for everything. Then I had some issues and had to use Chrome for my banking website. Microsoft pushed Edge so I tried that. Now when I pull up a site I get a message that it’s not compatible with this one or that one. I have the three search engines bookmarked so I can easily switch. I plan on downloading Firefox which many people rave about. When did it happen that you had to use different search engines for different websites? Each one is a little different so there is stuff to learn and your history isn’t always available. Bleah!

For egalitarians! – When I started work with my last company, it was definitely an “old boys’ club.” Every meeting was started with a wasted 30 minute discussion of last night’s game du jour. I called it the cocktail hour (no real cocktails were served). I tried to get out of it as often as possible. I had real work to do. Tuesday afternoons were dedicated to golfing (for execs only) without using vacation time. Perks like Super Bowl and World Series tickets abounded (for the execs). The company tanked. In fairness, the industry tanked but the exec team wasn’t nimble enough to adjust to a different business environment. They didn’t have a vision for anything except what was. They all read “Who Moved My Cheese” (or said they did) but didn’t really get the concept. During a takeover the exec team was ousted and the secondary team composed of mostly women took over. They changed the business plan and created a fair working environment. No free vacations or golf days. This past week for the third (or maybe fourth) year in a row, the company was awarded top place to work in the area. I wonder if the old execs saw it and what they thought. It’s a different world today.

So how was your week?

 

74 thoughts on “Random 5 for March 18 – Mating season, repairs, WordPress, search engines, business”

  3. So, did you still work there when the women took over? Go Girls!

    Oh boy, I understand the repair issues. Did you know that washing machines are computers now? We’ve been having intermittent issues with ours. Some days I push the start button, and it doesn’t start. Push, push, push it again, and nothing. Other days, I push the start button and off it twirls. So of course, when the repair guy came, it didn’t happen. Thankfully, I took a video of when it actually DID happen. He put some computer-testing device on it and viola, he found two errors. We’ve been waiting for the parts to come in, so in the mean time, sometimes we have a washing machine and sometimes we don’t. Good news is, it’s a new machine and under warranty.

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    • Our dishwasher was like that but they were able to find that in one visit! Well, two since they have to order parts. Yes, I worked there during the change. I was one of the women. It was refreshing. I retired two years later and wished it would have happened 15 years earlier.

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  7. I’m glad to hear that spring has made an appearance, Kate! It must be very welcome. I haven’t had an occasion where I’ve needed to be as flexible with my browsers, but you have me wondering. Maybe I should be more experimental!

    I love your story about the changes at your previous company! I have always worked in the teaching field which was predominantly female. There were its own cultural pitfalls, but we never got lost in sports stories. LOL!

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    • I’m sure they blamed some outside conditions because they couldn’t imagine anything other than what was. We all have to take a lesson from businesses that have come and gone because of innovation. There are no CD rental places. Manufacturing went overseas along with garment making. There are opportunities but you can’t cling to the past.

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  9. You got me with “… or said they did.” I remember how upper management used to mention those books — What Color is Your Parachute? included — to the rank and file as a carrot and stick to move upwards. But I too always wondered if they actually read them. Your words are sage, Kate: there are backwards steps before we go forward again. Well said. – Marty

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  10. So frustrating when the repair folks show up and don’t know what a problem is, but so wonderful when they can just fix it! Glad they got your oven going OK again 🙂
    So many places used to be old boy’s clubs… I think things are changing to an extent, but you still run into it some place!

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  11. Just after I read this post, my husband used our microwave to heat up something for his breakfast. When he was done, we noticed a burning smell… Yikes! Now our microwave is sitting outside on the patio and we are testing it for further problems. Meanwhile, we have a big empty hole in the cabinet above our oven. Does your guy make across-the-country housecalls?

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  13. So many people like to read business books or attend leadership seminars and seem to think that action or reading or attending is all this required of them. The actual IMPLEMENTATION of the idea is never considered.

    That was a big problem in one of my jobs. Once a quarter I was REQUIRED to attend an inhouse leadership seminar. They would bring in a speaker who would weave an elaborate analogy about leadership from some famous person’s life or some well known event. And then we would all nod and go back to work.

    No one EVER asked us how we implemented the ideas that were presented. No one ever followed up to see if goals created in these seminars were met. It was all a gratuitous waste of time and money. But it LOOKED like innovative leadership.

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    • As the HR head, I tried to bring in leadership training for the execs (what was I thinking?). I knew an excellent instructor but after meeting the group he refused to do it. He said unless they wove the components into the evaluation system and used that for compensation it wouldn’t stick. He was right. We never did any training for them.

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  17. If those execs saw the results of the positive change I doubt they would give the women the credit they deserve. Their inflated egos wouldn’t entertain such a thought.
    The mechanical thing is frustrating. It makes you wonder how much money we may have spent in our lives on poor or unnecessary work/repairs.

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    • You are right. They would pass if off as being in the right place at the right time rather than initiating change. The range was particularly frustrating. By the time the buy got here the oven light was working so he refused to check it out. He said his boss would get mad if he wasted time when there wasn’t a problem. Ha! He just created more return trips. The whole episode took well over a month to resolve and it was as simple as putting in a new plug.

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  18. I use Chrome and occasionally Safari (mostly just for the mail for one particular client). I have not noticed the switching of the buttons on WP but thanks for the heads up. LOL about the old boy’s club. I know a golfer I’d like to have replaced by a female!

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  19. You kinda made my week with this… “During a takeover the exec team was ousted and the secondary team composed of mostly women took over. They changed the business plan and created a fair working environment. No free vacations or golf days. This past week for the third (or maybe fourth) year in a row, the company was awarded top place to work in the area. I wonder if the old execs saw it and what they thought. It’s a different world today.”

    I am still loyal to Chrome… it behaves, I get it, and it works for what I do. But what the H E double L with the new editor on WordPress and picture placement and loading pictures from files from the computer. I have not switched from the old editor to the new and the other day I did a quick edit on a post and the new editor popped up. I edited, updated and was happy. So, i started a trial post in the new editor and when it was time for pictures it was crazy making. I am back to the old editor but I liked the bells ans whistles of the new editor but picture stuff drove me to distraction.

    Good Morning, Kate!

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    • I’ve heard this. I don’t use the new editor except for maybe a quick spelling edit. Sometimes I don’t think they do enough beta testing before making changes. Somethings are better but you always pay a price for that.

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  20. I’d noticed the switcheroo with the buttons too, and got caught a couple of times. Wish they’d leave well alone.
    Computers baffle me, and we’re using Duck Duck Go as our search engine via Opera having had problems with Firefox. Works for me, but I don’t do any indepth research so can’t really comment.
    We had a rayburn in the cottage, which was supposed to be man enough to run our central heating (replacing bottled gas and extremely expensive) which was why we had one. After two winters of freezing our asses off (and visitors not taking off their coats) we discovered that the output was 5 kwh when we needed at least 15kwh for our set up. It came out and had oil installed instead. Never looked back. We lost over £3500 and the company who installed it, surprise surprise, went belly up. Turned out this wasn’t the first time and the people who had recommended were equally unreliable. Still, at least we managed to sell the damn thing to someone for five hundred quid before we moved!
    Now we’re on gas, and it’s working out surprisingly OK.
    Our week has been cold, blowy, sunny, pleasant, raining, snow and now more snow and heavy winds. Maggie’s on her cushion by the radiator. Bless her, she got chilled this morning.

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      • A Rayburn is akin to an Aga range cooker. It was suggested we had one to go in keeping with the age of the cottage and we (foolishly) agreed. I balked at the price, but taking into account it was technically going to be our boiler, I though it evened itself out. We had to load it with wood and/or smokeless fuel, and in order to keep the heat up, you had to have the furnace side going 24/7. In the Summer, we didn’t run it as it had no on/off switch and ran up our electricity bill heating our water on the immersion. At Christmas I ended up unintentionally cooking my pigs in blankets in the warming oven, and any cakes I made nearly always sank in the middle from opening the door and instantly losing heat. Roasts were good though, and in the time we had it, it did dry out the cottage completely, even with its 12 inch solid walls. These days they are more civilised and controllable, but I’d never have one like it again by choice.

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        • Hi Kate – Allow me to assist (or complicate!)

          Cooker = Stove
          Immersion heater = electric heater inside hot water tank.
          In some houses, the hot water tank was behind the coal/coke fire place so you heated the house and the hot water at the same time. That had an inherent flaw in Summer and, in our house (3 kids), the fire was only lit prior to bath time as a full tank was needed. How to wash dishes? Water was boiled in pots and poured into the sink.
          An alternative to the fire + H/W tank scenario was to forget the fire and simply get an immersion heater….. which cost a fortune i hydro to operate! I loved coming to Canada! 🙂

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          • Thanks Colin!
            Our rayburn turned out to be a waste of valuable money, and our oil boiler (furnace?) was a godsend and extremely economical to run. We could have just hot water, just central heating, or both at the touch of a switch, all to come on at varying times, and the hot water was stored in a tank in a cupboard in the kitchen. We don’t have a hot water tank here as we have a combi boiler, one that heats the water as it’s run, similar in principle to the old fashioned gas water heaters that used to sit on the side in kitchens years ago.
            We weren’t too keen not having a hot water tank, but it would have been more costly to have one put in as all the pipework and everything was setup for a combi. It is working out remarkably well though, and later we will be able to turn off the heating and just run hot water, but should we want to take the chill off the house, it’s still the flick of a switch. I so like mod cons! The boat water system was efficient too, but manually operated and run off the diesel engine when we were under power or electricity when we were moored up on the marina.

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  22. I noticed that button change on WP, too. My TweetDeck buttons have changed, too. As have some buttons on a phone game that I play. Maybe March is the official month for these companies to annoy their subscribers by tweaking things, for the heck of it. There can be no other reason I can think of for these changes.

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  23. I’ll say it’s mating season. I half expect Patrick the cat next door to be goin at it with Mable on 4, not to mention the park resembling an orgy. The good news? Spring is on the way, Nature her best PR person.

    Memory…I didn’t notice the button change, but that doesn’t mean much. The reason I recite the presidents every day is to keep my memory taut, at least that’s what I tell myself. They say, reading, crosswords stave off memory loss along with pomegranate juice. If they said, bungee jumping would help, I’d be out there rigged in a
    parachute..wonder if Gucci makes one…:)

    Funny you should mention Chrome. Been hearing it lately as a good server. I use Safari mostly. Cyber life…it gets to me to be quite frank. Oh well…and so it goes.

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  24. Re your search engine experiences. I dropped I.E. a long time ago due to apparent security issues, and moved to Firefox. Firefox was very versatile, but did slow down and/or stall periodically, so I also moved the Microsoft Edge. Edge lasted about 15 minutes and was “killed” because it was so NOT versatile. I tried Google Chrome and that bombed for me (cannot remember why). I tried Opera …. and now I am back to Firefox … and plan on staying there. It’s not perfect (what software is?), but I can do everything I want to do with it!

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    • I resent the time I have to spend to stay on top of anything computer. This search engine thing is crazy. I was stunned when one of my sites didn’t like Chrome. (Who doesn’t like Google?) I will try Firefox and see what headaches that one gives. For user friendly (tools, favorites bar, etc.) you can’t beat IE but my computer guy told me those are the things that create problems.

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  25. Sorry to hear your range was acting up after only four years, but I’m glad you got it fixed, and yay that it was under warranty. I don’t get spam comments on my blog. I guess it’s too small (only 75 subscribers), or maybe spammers target WordPress more than Blogger?? Dear Husband and I had a wonderful week. He had an extra day off from work, so we went on a long walk together.:-)

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