“Don’t believe your friends when they ask you to be honest with them. All they really want is to be maintained in the good opinion they have of themselves.”

Albert Camus

Suffocating policy manual found in trash.

Karl Edwards

Forget about notching up workplace conversions or beating yourself up for stealing pencils.

We are going to discuss work and faith from the perspective of the workplace. Job performance, career development, and team dynamics to mention just a few vital topics.

Don’t miss out!

Tomorrow, Tuesday (1/31/12), is the deadline for registering for Saturday’s Bridging the Work-Faith Divide Workshop. (Not that we’ll be turning anyone away at the door, but it would sure help for planning!)

We would love to have you there. It promises to be an engaging and interactive day.

Click here for the details.

“There is no medicine like hope, no incentive so great, and no tonic so powerful as expectation of something tomorrow.”

Orison Swett Marden

Hiring real people, not slick resumés.

Karl Edwards

There seems to be a new race afoot. A new competition. A new business strategy by which great careers will be made and lost.

It is the race to offer the most insubstantial napkin.

Only a few months ago it seemed the napkin dispenser norm was a semi-absorbent sheet of paper folded once in half in one direction and then again in thirds in the other.

The first feature to get left behind was absorbency. In fact, absorbency is but a distant memory, isn’t it?! But that loss was easy to cover up under the guise of protecting the environment. That it now takes five napkins to wipe up what one used to suffice for is conveniently not mentioned.

Next to go was the full sheet folded in half. Clearly we had been over-cleaning ourselves after our burger and fries. Some executive most certainly gave themself a big salary increase for finding such a clever way to cut their paper costs in half.

More recently it seems the tri-fold is increasingly being ditched in favor of a single fold. (And a fold that isn’t even a full half fold at that.)

It’s amazing how little paper these executives feel is more than adequate to deal with grease, coffee, ketchup, or whatever else one might want to wipe off one’s hands.

Who do you feel is winning the race to offer the most insubstantial napkin? Leave a comment with your example. Let’s compare notes. 

More significantly, where are your cost-cutting efforts inadvertently resulting in something like the need to use five insubstantial napkins instead of just one nice absorbent one?

“Excellence is not an act but a habit. The things you do the most are the things you will do the best.”

Marva Collins

Puzzled why mandating positive morale failed.

Karl Edwards

My reading list just gets longer and longer.

800-CEO-Read announced their 2011 awards for best business books.

You can read the entire book summaries on their blog post here.

The winners are:

Head over to 800-CEO-Read’s website and check out the many resources they make available.

Enjoy!

“He who sees a need and waits to be asked for help is as unkind as if he had refused it.”

Dante Alighieri