My blog has been overhauled. This time I have gone for a WordPress back end and a brand new theme, albeit still headed by that beautiful Aston Martin. Let me know what you think! I am still loading content into the new site, so please be patient (there are 4 years worth of blogging articles).
Year: 2008
Ok I don’t want to sound like an MS Fanboi, but there are actually a few cool things Microsoft related happening with me at the moment.
Skydrive
Skydrive is a very cool new file storage service from Microsoft. Really simple, you get 5GB of storage space and can upload any file smaller than 50MB. Sounds perfect for a “My Docs” backup system? The only catch is that there is no shell extension or decent folder upload tool yet. They do however have a nice drag+drop multi-file upload tool, which I guess will do for now. I would love to see a more integrated tool that actually backed your “My Docs” up for you, but my guess that is hidden somewhere in the greater Windows Live skunkworks for now.
Windows Server 2008 + Exchange 2007
Yes, I am migrating my servers at home to the latest and greatest MS enterprise offerings. This also means going to Windows 2008 x64, which is fine since I have been an AMD fanboi for some time, but it would have been nice of them to make the migration a little easier! I know hardware is cheaper than software these days, but it would be nice to be able to easily upgrade Exchange from 2003 to 2007 without having to have a spare x64 machine lying around. Anyway it is all underway, so keep an eye on my Netcraft page.
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Although this topic has been troubling me for some time, I wasn’t going to blog it until I was prompted by an article on my favourite (and only) management blog. It references a another very interesting article regarding predatory employees. Basically these are the toxic employees in your workplace; the ones who portray themselves as highly competent, yet this perception is the result of fear and intimidation rather than any genuine ‘respect’. The article also provides a list of bullet points which help you to identify these people. I would like to reaffirm some of them and add a few of my own: |
- Seriously and personally insulted if their competency was ever questioned
- The creation of friendships in order to gain information and ‘votes’
- An expectation that supervisors and co-workers understand and tolerate performance
lapses, combined with an inability to give others the benefit of the doubt - Regular threats against other employees to prevent them speaking out, combined with
an aggressive fear campaign if performance complaints ever reach management
There are plenty of explanations for this kind of behaviour in my opinion, for example:
- A highly insecure personality
- Poisoned from previous company culture experiences, especially where the companies
were declining into liquidation/annihilation - Personal social issues, a fear and aggressive dismissal of rejection
Should other employees be exposed to this kind of poisoned attitude? No. What are the results if it is allowed to continue:
- Other staff will be poisoned, no matter how thick skinned they are
- Managers fear that action will generate larger consequences and are afraid of looking
unsympathetic - Employers overlook misconduct and keep people on the job who are highly destructive
to efficiency and morale, undermining their authority and effectiveness
So what are the solutions? Well I will again combine their points with some of my own:
- Get them and the office to read a book like this one on Fish! It
sounds stupid, but my employer got everyone to read it when the company attitude was terrible and it worked a treat - The problem needs to be SURFACED and DISCUSSED as early as possible with all parties
- Team values need to be set forth and reinforced
Any comments would be great. I suspect that there are a lot of people out there with similar problem people.