Category: For a lot of us ‘mushrooms’ in the ‘cube farm’, Dilbert is the cartoon that gets passed around, almost on a daily basis. Nothing makes the workday go faster (or, at least a little less stressful) than reading an interaction such as this one between Dilbert and the Garbage Man:
Garbage Man: Decisions are made by people who have time, not by people who have talent.
Dilbert: Why are talented people so busy?
Garbage Man: They’re fixing the problems made by people who have time.
But whereas Dilbert covers one topic very closely (management culture), I prefer Calvin and Hobbes for my life guidance due to its more philosophical nature overall. I put my favorite strip above, which is titled “A Swift Kick in the Butt.” Going into the end of another calendar year, I’ve really been feeling this strip lately!
I can’t quite put my finger on what the problem is, but lately I’ve been really apathetic about school and work. Not that I haven’t gotten the required work done for either, just that I don’t have the zest that I had earlier in the year. Certainly, the chaos in the financial services industry (and credit cards specifically) doesn’t help, but it’s not just my work life that’s been affected. School has been the area where I’ve really been slacking off.
For example, after returning from Dubai, I took a 10 day break before returning to my studies. Heck, I still haven’t unpacked one of my suitcases fully! Part of me thinks that the format of the Cross Continent program is causing this behavior…going into each residency, there’s this huge excitement and anticipation. You arrive in another country, the class has a really intense 10 days of learning, networking, and culture, then you return home. After that, the only thing to look forward to for the rest of the semester is schoolwork. Yay? And I say that as a decision science modeler/economist…I actually LIKE this semester’s material!
I got back into working Thursday by reading the entire Decision Models textbook. Friday night, I spent 6 hours on my airline crash model, did my decision tree after class Saturday and turned it in late (Oops! Thanks for the understanding, Professor), and spent a few hours yesterday on the Managerial Economics exam. So I’m back where I need to be at this point, and have a team meeting tonight. Hopefully the team meeting will keep me going on the right path. If not, I’m sure writing that $40k check for the next two semester’s tuition will remind me to take better advantage of this opportunity!
In the meantime, for those of you in the Philadelphia area, there’s a new business opportunity available. People generally will only pay for what they want, but not what they need, but I’m bucking the trend. For anyone who can catch me slacking off, in person, I’ll pay you $1 per kick in the butt. Just don’t wear steel-toed shoes. No payment for “virtual kicks” over the Internet, although those are appreciated as well. Thanks!
