Make new mistakes

An article on mismatch between job skills needed and applicants prompted a response…

Mismatched background and experience is a misnomer.

As a manager, you need to manage.

It is always the same eternal triangle irrespective of industry. You need to balance time, people and money. Any shortage in one area can be made up by increasing use of the other two legs of that triangle.

The “issue” that your experience or background may not be in something like “left handed widget whittling” does not mean that you would not be capable or successful.

In fact the ability to adapt to a different industry would be a benefit to both the employer AND the employee. This is something that automated screeners and the like overlook. The result of trying to fill openings exclusively with “perfect matches” is the very mediocrity and repetition of patterns that got the country into the economic tailspin in the first place.

Recall that the Wright Brothers were pioneers in aviation. Their experience: hobbyists and bicycle mechanics.

Similarly the automobile industry was created by those with no background related to it.

Funny fact is most hires that worked to grow industries and create new jobs were exactly the people a mature industry would never hire because they weren’t qualified.

Dream. Take a Chance. GROW!

Everything about this screams insanity, heartbreak, delusion.

I want to kiss him so badly it hurts.

Rejected once. Do I really want to burn again?

Yes. Yes, oh yes.

Bring on the flames, baby.

I was bumbling through this morning, walking puppy, switching out the dishes and tending laundry when I heard a loud crash.

My first thought was the puppy, untended while I moved dishes.

The puppy was contentedly chewing on her toy, sprouting a halo from her head like an umbrella on automatic, just waiting for someone to notice.

I work my way back.

Dining room?

Only three cats, with halos of their own sprouting as I pass.

Front Room?

One cat. Equally full fledged halo in place.

Bedroom?

There I see a beloved sitting on her bed, trembling.

I see a dog, just trying to stay out of the way.

I see a kitten, inspecting the damage of a shattered valentine, a vase of silk flowers that could not make my loved one sneeze.

I tell her what has transpired, that it is not the window she fears.

And try to clean up the glass while extracting a kitten (sans halo) and another cat (halo in full) inspecting the scene.

I rush to get a vacuum cleaner to get the shards that I cannot collect with my fingers.

Mindful that what I am cleaning is the loss of a lasting symbol of something held very dear… and mindful that my carelessness in keeping track of a stray kitten has been the cause of this needless angst.

The thing can be easily replaced.

What it represented has been lost.

And worry no one needs…

is increased.

I am to be a guest author to work on a collaboration of business survival skills developed from the inside.

It will be some work.

It will be credit and a byline.

The mistake?

It will be pro bono

Sometimes a mistake may not be as it seems.

If the work sells, I have a basis for what I really seek…

More work

my Significant Other in fact…

You see there is a systemic itch.

And it is very bad.

And it is very annoying.

And I wish I could itch for the other.

But I cannot.

Therefore I will pass the ointment, fetch pills, and smile.

For it is what I CAN do….

_{I think tree stumps are great. Don’t you?}

This stands for Burned Beyond Recognition.

This is what happened to a poor serving of bacon that resided innocently in a frying pan….

It was protected from a marauding pride of cats…

By means of a sliding pocket door.

Meanwhile, in a room far far away…

I was applying for a job or two (well three actually).

These were involved applications, and I admit, that after I had started the luncheon cooking and protected the food from the aforementioned pride of cats….

I lost track of time.

I had intended to leave the cooking go for ten minutes.

It ended up being 18 minutes.

This was about three minutes TOO LONG.

I smelled the bacon.

It smelled WRONG.

I shoot out of the room and into the dining room.

I smell burning bacon.

I open the pocket doors and am greeted by a haze of white smoke…

All that remains of the horribly overdone bacon.

I close the doors.

Toss the pan into the sink.

And open the windows and door, rushing to add fans to the window to aid in the venting.

I pray that the rush of smoke (gone in about 5 minutes) doesn’t alert a neighbor to call for the fire department on a decidedly NON ISSUE.

That was the first mistake

Then I told my partner in crime what had happened.

At work.

By text.

That was the second mistake.

She was NOT HAPPY.

So I am attoning.

I have been chastised.

I have been made a cause celeb at work Let me tell you the horrible thing he did!

I have provided a peace offering of Seatle’s Best Coffee…

And tipped heavily to have the order announced as being For the Kitchen Burner...

I am very, very sorry.

I am also greatful that the only thing that has been damaged in the process is a half pound of bacon.

And my sweetie’s secure feelings regarding her home…

The animals are fine.

The house is fine.

And eventually, I will be fine.

The bacon unfortunately will have to remain as I left it…

B.B.R.

The word regarding the Garden of Eden is that everything was sweetness and light until Eve ate from the Tree of Knowledge and shared with her companion Adam. at that point he KNEW and voilla, thorns and nettles and weeds sprout.

i have been guilty of selfishness and not hearing all that was said, together with what was implied.

with that i brought in the weeds, nettles and thorns ...

in honesty, this is not a new mistake, but a repetition similar in effect despite differing cause.

i am truly sorry .

(reaching for the thorn pliers..)

The trick here is to be helpful, yet not to create the impression that it is mindless assitance, nor to insult the beneficiary by allowing even the chance that the help will be construed as being a statement that they receipient is incapable or inept in performing what you are doing to help.

In this I failed.

Make new mistakes.

Reassure the recipient that nothing is being done that they cannot do themselves, just simply that the help is provided to make their lives just a tiny bit easier while THEY do what I cannot…

I think this sign got the idea right…

Off limits to authorized personnel

Its not that trying is a BAD thing… it is justthat when you react by stressing more than you should aboutstupid things like USB connections that do not work the way they should, or operating systems hat defy logic, or the simple matters of applying for jobs and encountering an array of parsing erors from the well meaning software that eats resume’s and spits out anything BUT what you actually had in the curiculam vitae.

And then you add a lack of seating…

a mad dash to get a free one that was left out on the curb…

avoiding a rainstorm…

and you get exhaustion…

nerves…

and the realization that in spite of everything we throw at things…

its really gonna be ok.

Life in real time…

Is

a

Trip!

This was a new mistake, have no doubts on that score…

The thing is, the more I reflect, the greater the question of who made it.

Was it me who failed to adapt better to the circumstances I found myself in…

My management for ignoring my pleas and making the situation worse until they had no choice but to rearrage the deck…

Or worse…

A cover up at my expense to trade one anticipated law suit for another…

Either way.

This has produced NEW MISTAKES GALORE!