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CSI Bemidji

Under the best of circumstances I would probably be considered a "domestic disaster." I let the dishes pile up in the sink, the clothes pile up in the laundry basket, and the dirt pile up on the carpet. It's not so bad that I'd be embarrassed if someone dropped by (not that they ever would), but it could be a little less messy and a little more tidy.

But today was going to be my day. By the time 10:30am had rolled around, I had:
1. Fought off the urge to unpack the golf clubs and go to the driving range,
2. Fixed the crank handle on the bedroom window
3. Gotten one load of laundry in the wash machine and one in the dryer,
4. Polished both pairs of dress shoes,
5. Taken out the trash & recycling,
6. Loaded up the dishwasher to run after the laundry was complete.

With about 45-minutes until the clothes in the dryer would be ready, I got out the vacuum cleaner to hit the living and dining rooms. I made my way around the dining table and near the kitchen without trouble and as was moving onto the living room when this occurred:

CSI: Coffee Stain Incident

As I was maneuvering between the coffee table and sofa, the cord for the vacuum cleaner hooked around my half-full coffee mug and yanked it off the table and onto the carpet. It was just like every episode of CSI that you've ever seen. The coffee splattered everywhere. In addition to the big pool on the off-white carpet, it was on the sofa, on the lamp shade, on the wall behind the sofa, on the wall across the hallway, on the closet door, under the end table... you get the idea. It looked like one of those crime scenes that Marg Helgenberger and the crew from CSI Las Vegas would roll up to and start taking photos, fingerprints, swabs, and analyzing the blood spatter pattern.

No Marg never did show up,
but a guy can fantasize can't he?

Well, vacuuming ended prematurely and the race to clean up the mess began. A half-roll of paper towels and a half-bottle of Resolve later, I think I've got things under some semblance of control. The splatter marks are gone, but it's going to take a couple more treatments on the big spill before that is back to looking semi-normal. I guess that teaches me not to fight the golfing urge on an unseasonably warm Sunday morning/afternoon. Maybe Marg is at the golf course... I better go investigate.

Stuck between a rock...

... and a hard place. The world is consumed with ego sometimes. Now granted, everyone needs to have some ego and self-esteem in their personal and professional lives to exist and thrive. You need to be proud of who you are and what you do, and be able to humbly express that to the rest of the world. You'd never be able to successfully get through a job interview or a first date without it.

But there comes a time when people need to put aside some of that ego for the good of the cause. Sometimes (ok, a lot of times) my boss is not very good at that. Quite incidentally, I'm beginning to learn architects in general are not good at this at all. Hence we come to that precarious place between the proverbial rock and the proverbial hard place. The architects refuse to copy my boss on any correspondence, whether he needs to know the information or not. So, he refuses to go to them for any information and skirts the established protocol to get what he needs. Since he skirts the protocol, they won't work with him. I think you can see the self defeating circle they've created for themselves.

Now drop the people, myself included, who are actually on the ground and trying to get things done into the middle of that circle. I need my boss to keep moving on the items he's working on to keep the project on schedule. I need the architect to keep the flow of information moving smoothly so both the Construction Manager and I can keep doing what we need to do in keeping the project on schedule. At this point it has become a pissing contest to see who's ego is bigger than the others and who gives in first. We're not quite at an impasse yet, but it is just a few blocks down the road on the right hand side of the street.

In some aspects it is just childish. When egos get in the way, things deteriorate. It happens with sports teams all the time. Just look at how many good teams Terrell Owens has ruined in his career (49ers, Eagles, Cowboys) with his enormous ego. We'll hold it together here in Bemidji and get things done right. We'll play schoolyard monitor, counselor, babysitter and mediator to the bulging egos in Houston and Iowa. I only wish that some people could be a little more flexible in their thinking and a little less driven by their egos.

Lesson time?

I'm currently advertising to hire two more employees for my management team. In all of the ads placed, it clearly states: "Phone Calls and in-person visits will not be accepted." This is Bemidji... it's a small enough town that people think they can just drop by, sit on down, and chat a while. That may work in some instances (Good afternoon Mr. Mayor), but not 10 people a day looking for jobs and an on-the-spot impromptu interview. That may seem a little harsh, but it has worked so far.

Until yesterday. I was out of the office for a portion of the morning/afternoon doing "Listening Lunches" for the Bemidji Youth Advisory Commission at the local High School. I enjoy talking about the Event Center and they were a willing audience so I did three sessions for about a total of 60 students. While I was gone, an enthusiastic job applicant, let's call him Little Caesar, stopped by to drop off his resume. If he had left it up stairs with the receptionist I would have been totally cool with that.

But no... in addition to the resume he brought two medium sized pizzas and used my post it notes (which he would have had to pick up off my desk) to leave the message: "Enjoy the Pizza, Little Caesar". Obviously this was a bribe to win my favor. If the way to a man's heart is through his stomach, it is not the way to get a job on so many different levels.

1. He did not follow directions by showing up. What does that say about what kind of employee he would be if he's already blown the first directive for the position?
2. He brought two pizzas. Does he think I eat two medium pizzas in one sitting, especially for lunch? Is he saying I'm fat and need two pizzas to satiate my cravings?
3. He brought cheap, crappy pizza. If Little Caesar had brought Dave's or Keith's pizza, it would not have been any more acceptable but at least it would have shown he has good taste.

Well, at least the guys next door at the Fire Department enjoyed the surprise for lunch. But here's the question.... Do I let the kid know he royally screwed up by not following directions or do I let it slide and let him get the standard "Thanks for applying" form letter as everyone else at the end of the job search? This could be a good learning opportunity for the college-aged young man. But do I have the time or motivation to be a personal life coach for this lad?

Any thoughts???