Weblog » IBM

At work, keeping the “young kids” around is a really big problem.

You see, I work for a division that has been around for 40 years in a company that is over 120 years old. My division had its heyday in 1980 and most of its employees are aged to match. They are all creeping nearer and nearer retirement and my employer is having difficulty solving the need for new blood in preparation for the soon-to-be boomer exodus.

In the time I’ve been employed there, almost all of the people with whom I started have left and been replaced with fewer, younger employees. Management has only recently grasped the enormity of the problem, and is still treating it with the backroom secrecy that was popular before the dot-com bubble.

They are of the same mind and opinion as the people who researched and wrote this article:
http://www.networkworld.com/news/2008/011008-young-workers-hard-to-retain.html

Lets talk about why this article is so completely out of touch with reality, shall we?
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I never thought I’d say it (and I fear I might be responsible for other people reading it by linking to it) but Collin’s blog has given me a delightful little tidbit that I have to share with my crazy friends at IBM.

You do not have to drink 8 glasses of water a day! It is a myth, and a potentially dangerous one.

Thats right, this post is directed at you maniacs who carry a 64oz bottle of water around with you at work and check in with each other throughout the day to see how well you are drinking. There is no original scientific basis for the 64oz measurement; you do acquire hydration from caffeinated beverages; even dry items like bread contain water; and drinking too much water is dangerous (hyponatremia).

Even Snopes addressed this issue after the crazies spread spam encouraging overhydration. 

To end this post, unlike the maniacal myth propogators, I will be providing some legitimate sources to back up my claims. Oh… and "I told you so".

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BeepetyBeepety…BeepetyBeepety

Hello, Mike Young.

Hi Mike. This is Anna.

(Searching for customers with the name of "Anna" to bring up the proper record.) Hi Anna, what can I do for you?

You are a Software Engineer, right?

(Pausing my search in confusion.) Umm. Yes.

Well I am a recruiter with Microsoft and we have some job openings that we think you might be suited for. When would  be a good time to discuss them with you?

(Looking around to see if my co-workers are playing a joke on me.)  Do you realize that you are calling me at work? (Sudden feeling of derision and disgust) And I don’t ever think I would work at Microsoft in my entire life!

Oh… well I—

Click! 

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Are you still reading my weblog? Have you been waiting for me to make my pictures more accessible? Do you want a Travelogue that both has content, and can be viewed (somewhat) properly in Internet Explorer?

Well, I’m getting there. I’ve just started my job at IBM in Poughkeepsie, NY and now that most of the moving is finished and I can settle down into a routine, I’ve been working on getting this site “optimized”.

Firstly, the images are now all shrunk to a decent “Internet-friendly” size. The important and relevant ones will soon have names that make sense (no more IMGP0951.jpg). I’m still working on getting galleries up so that people can see a slideshow and thumbnails, but most of the systems designed for that purpose seem fairly unpleasant.

Secondly, You may have noticed a few site-wide design changes. I’m working on making this site appear a little better to users of IE, and I’m adding more pages to the Travelogue section so you can all “hear the story straight from my mouth”.

I’ve also upgraded the weblog software so that I can clear out some of that online-poker spam that has been creeping into the comments. The Archives are pretty much up and running now too, so you can look back at my previous posts. The main page will only display the last 10 posts, so if you haven’t been keeping up, you better check out the archives. The archives themselves display 10 posts at a time, and you can click the little “previous posts” link at the bottom to see more. And, as always, they all run in reverse chronological order, so the most recent update is right at the top for you to view.

Give me a little more time, and I’ll have this place running great. If you have any ideas or comments, feel free to leave them below.