Project 4 – Meditation for Everyone

http://www.wix.com/spoothed/meditationforeveryone

street art not vandalism

Research

I research online.  I didn’t know how to research online properly until this class.  I have learned to really appreciate our library access from home to thousands of journals and other articles via JSTOR and Academic One File.  I have relied so much on these two resources over the semester; never again will I aimlessly wander the internet via Google.  The searches can be so much more targeted and useful by using one of these databases.  I’m not the kind of person to pour over stacks of books in a library.  These databases meet my needs perfectly while providing equally reputable sources for research.

Written Off (Week 3 Question)

In my last store as a manager, I went through the most difficult time in my career.  Our company reorganized, in this case meaning that they were eliminating half of the roles at my level.  Emotions and anxiety were high throughout the experience for everyone.  Fortunately I was kept at a management level, but my team grew from 12 to 36 employees.  I was overwhelmed, and there was no guidance from my superiors because the “playbook” hadn’t been written yet.  We were the experiment, we were the guinea pigs.  I was forced to step down six months later based on my performance.  The higher management tried to spin it as my choice for political purposes, but I was essentially offered termination or a lower position.  I had given my best efforts, and it wasn’t enough.  Soon after, statistics were posted that over 70% of individuals given this role “failed” and were terminated voluntarily or involuntarily.  They added another position for stores of my size six months after I was demoted.

Naturally, the entire process was traumatic for me.  I wasn’t pleased with how things went.  I was very vocal about my disagreement with the way the situation was handled, but the quality of my work wasn’t affected and I was sure to limit discussion with my peers.  My General Manager targeted me.  He started seeking out (i.e. inventing) reasons to document me.  He wanted me out, and badly.  He badmouthed me to all of the other managers.  Peers that I thought I was close with no longer approached me even to say hello, walked by without acknowledging me.  After all the investment I had made in that store, I was not even treated like a person.  Politically, at some point, I had to let go of the entire situation.  I had to just accept it for what it was.  I started to look for further extracurricular work that I could gain something from.  I eventually, after posting some serious results, was starting to make traction with my reputation.

My career was essentially destroyed by this General Manager and his dramatization of my behavior.  I was unable to get positions as a manager elsewhere as I applied.  Finally, he moved to a new store to grand open it, and I decided to apply with him.  I felt that he owed me, and surely must have seen that the person he replaced me with had yielded significantly worse results.  Fortunately, when I described what I had learned through my previous experience, the other managers on my interview panel fought for me.  I got the position, and went on to open my new store.  My departments are top rated in the district, and I am regarded as the best manager in the store.

I have, since moving to this store, watched the same man destroy three different people.  Three different people whose failure was that of a General Manager’s poor choices and the failure of the rest of the management team who should have supported them when they saw a peer struggling.  I know now that it is about this man, not me, and I will never let him break  me again.  I am better than that, I am better than him.  I will go on to show this company how to manage people correctly, how to develop them and guide them, and how to persist when obstacles seem insurmountable.

What the world needs now…

This won’t be the most popular opinion I share, but I believe it necessary to ensure our continued survival as a species on this planet.  I think population control needs to be expanded worldwide, and not only executed in countries like China (although perhaps in a different way).  I value all life as equal.  When I think about the insurmountable damage we have caused to the ecosystem that supported so much life, the species that have blinked out of existence at our hand for various reasons, I think humans are terribly detrimental to this planet.  To the chagrin of our ancestors and our future descendants, I often muse that this planet would have been better off without homo sapiens. I don’t wish suffering on any of us – the people, the mosquitoes, the rabbits, the trees.  I do see limiting reproduction as the most humane means of controlling human population growth.  When a hunter feels justified in killing deer to maintain their population because they have become a nuisance, I can’t help but think what it would be like if the roles were reversed.  I am not suggesting that we start killing off populations of people; can’t you imagine, though,  that if the rest of earth’s fauna were carrying guns and human intelligence, they would pick us off for all the nuisance we’ve been to them?  Surely, they wouldn’t allow us to pave the entire planet.  I think limiting households to a certain number of children is a proactive and fair way of mitigating the exponential negative effects of human population growth.

My Final Project!

My prezi !

http://prezi.com/xj_qzimjgn_e/being-gay-hurts/

Just copy and paste. =)

Middle Aged…

One thing I think everyone should learn by the time they are middle aged is personal finances.  Honestly, they should learn it earlier than that.  My personal experience, however,  is that finances are something most people will screw up a few times before they get the hang of it.  By the time one reaches my age (late twenties), they will likely be in the process of settling down.  Settling down, to many, equates to marriage, children, homeownership, and good old American debt.  Better financial planning at an earlier age can mean the prospect of actually retiring at a reasonable age.  Moreover, a middle aged individual should know better than to overextend themselves with revolving credit.  Sadly, some people just don’t learn (my father, for example).  It’s one thing to disadvantage yourself because of poor decisions, but it’s quite another to affect your spouse or child’s quality of life because you don’t know how to manage your funds.  I fully believe that these lessons can be taught by parents or consultants, but the learning happens by getting burned once…twice…thrice…

Final Project

here is the link to my final project 🙂

https://sites.google.com/site/ethanolisevil/

Final Project: My Prezi.

Here’s the link:

https://prezi.com/secure/5212d548bb053a5cf8c33bd102b8d6eac38c47ce/

My Prezi!!!!

Link:

http://prezi.com/jltvvzp7bbdr/copy-of-let-us-dance/

Copy and paste link into address bar! =))