Spin-O-Rama » fun

What Was said, What Was heard!

Steve — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 17:31:24 +0000

We all know that communication needs to be two ways. We have the sender that says something (“What was said“) and a receiver that hopefully heard the message (“What was heard“). They do get mixed up from time to time. Over the past, weeks I have been communicating, listening and adding some of my peers to this discussion. Below you will find a list of some of the more humorous “What was said, what was heard”.

What Was Said	What Was Heard
Be More Assertive.	Make them agree with you.
Scope is not clear.	That’s not what I meant.
Your data is misleading.	That data makes everything look bad.
You’re a bit too aggressive.	Being a “B” (male or female version)
Think out of the box.	Heard all your ideas before, get some new material.
Emerging Market Strategy.	Moving jobs offshore.
You always offer ideas on how to improve.	Too opinionated.
Viewed as a SME by peers.	Total Know It All.
Keeping it real for me, thanks.	Better use a “filter” (don’t say that) for others.
You’re doing great!	Probably has no clue how I am doing.
Fly under the radar.	Don’t tell anyone – what they don’t know will not hurt them.
That is not what I meant.	Bring me a rock exercises are fun, not!
Disagree and Commit.	Just agree with me, it is much easier.
You are too valuable to the organization.	No transfer for me.
Need to be more open-minded.	Have to get alone with everyone.
That will not work.	Not invented here, so of course it will not work.
Site strategy.	More compressed office time.
That *should be Zbb*	Nights and weekend work.
Only the best and brightest work here.	Someone is full of themselves.
It’s confidential.	It’s a test… Will I or won’t I tell someone?
Put your corporate hat on.	Suck it up…
Let’s bin that.	Ok, now that one is dead.
Take it off line.	Done listening or Shut the hell up!
That’s Steve being Steve.	Ignore him; he will eventually go away.
Not a good idea in this environment.	Didn’t think of it, so we are not going to do it.
You’re a solid team player.	You are not a leader.
Too foster better work/life balance involve teammates.	You’re too slow at this task.
You take a very direct approach.	You sometimes leave a trail of dead bodies.
You need to find a new outlet to support your career passion.	Your career desires don’t fit within this group.
One-way rotational	What the heck? (Trying to rotate me out?)
Is it done yet?	Moving a bit slow.
Sorry, I was on mute, what you say?	Not paying attention (mute your ears?)
Your Program or project is not strategic.	Time to update the resume.

We all know there are more.. Please share…

Cube Farm Etiquette

Steve — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 20:22:24 +0000

Maybe it is because I just got back from sabbatical or maybe it is just because the office area has more people around me.. But, I feel it is time to bring up a subject near and dear to most of our hearts – cubical etiquette.

Here are my basic simple rules that I would hope that we all can follow:

All cell phones are put on vibrate. There are a number of you all that think those ring tones are special or cute. Well, for many of us – not so much. Please when entering the building – place the cell phone on vibrate. If you can’t feel vibrate, place on the desk next to you. I bet you will see it moving across the desk..
Personal phone calls. Hey, we all have them from time to time. There is nothing wrong with them – just when the subject matter gets a little off base. I really don’t think you want to share some of the topics of you personal life with your cube farm mates. We are in a very open area… the walls have ears (and your voice carries).
Loud talkers (and that goes for me!) we need to remember that there are people in the office area (besides ourselves). If you are going to be the main talker in a meeting or decision – well, try to get a room. If unavailable – well remember your voice carries. Please use you inside voice… For those that forgot or never knew what that is – six inches should be the carry distance. If they can not hear you on the call – more the mic closer to your mouth or change the batteries in the headset.
Music in the office area to keep you focused is awesome, except when…
1. If I can hear you music over the cube wall (and you are using your headset) – you have that volume a bit TOO LOUD. Please take care of your health, turn the volume down and save yourself from some hearing loss later in life.
2. Singing along – please stop!
3. Whistling, humming and drumming in your cube… Maybe it sounds awesome to you, but the rest of us – not so much (again). If you are ready for American Idol – great, but practice at home.
Smells – We are in a confined space… We have to be very mindful of (and it is open to interruption):
1. Food – smelling burnt popcorn and some leftovers are not good.
2. Cologne or perfume – use in moderation.
3. Kickin off the shoes… Please don’t.
If you happen to be off for an extended period of time – SAC your phone, please!
Be professional and remember to be respectful to your neighbors… We all are working!

For the folks in their cubes – that are having problems getting work done or having their frustration level reaching boiling point. You have every right to – politely ask for people to do the right thing. No need to get angry.. We have one person in our area that comes by and reminds us about the cellphone not being on vibrate – she does this politely. Some of us have labelled her the cellphone police… In a nice way. Only takes one ring and watch us all scramble to turn our phones to vibrate… I am loud, I know that and have warned my fellow cube mates. Told them - if I get too loud they can shhhhh me.. or ask me to take it down…. I am quite okay with that.

Remember to just be respectful in letting your fellow cube mates know – they may not realize it!

The 150th Post…

Steve — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 21:35:50 +0000

Would the 150th post be considered a milestone? Who really cares, besides the author? Here it goes… When I started this back about 1 1/2 years ago, I really did not know how far I would go or for how long. I started with an idea that I wanted to write about a couple of my passions – Leading and Ice Hockey. I have added some book review, observation and travel to my personal space.

Leading and managing still have a huge spot in my heart. The other day, I announced (in my internal company blog) that I was going to retire after the first of the year. In that message, I stressed the importance of the people that I have led, worked with or coached over the years – taught me more than I have to them. They truly have challenged and help me grow! I hope to take those learning’s and apply them to the next chapter of my life.

Ice hockey is still of interest for me. Not like it was before the hip replacement surgery. I can not coach on the ice – so, I help out other coaches from a far. I probably will not be writing much about this in the future.

The new adds of Book Review, Observations and Travel will continue. Observations for sure – I am having some enjoyment from that one. With my recent announcement – I should have a little more time on my hands – hoping to add more travel… With travel comes more reading…

Here is to the next 150 posts! Cheers

First Day Back

Steve — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 14:22:02 +0000

As many know, I had been on my sabbatical from Intel for the past 9 weeks. It was a wonderful time. I completed many of the TO DO’s that I set out for myself. All good stuff. What I want to write about is that first 24 hours of getting back in the groove.

Last night, I was busy preparing for the next day drive to the office… Had to set the alarm clock – now that one hurt a bit. Not that I slept in late and did nothing the whole time.. But, I did not have to hear that annoying sound of an alarm. My internal clock told me when to get up. I had to gather up all of my work belongings. You know put the laptop back in the bag, insure that the AC adaptor was in the bag and all of the other office items I brought home (over the 3 other sabbaticals – I have had a few items come up missing from the old desk). Since I had not seen my badge in 9 weeks – it was a bit hard to remember where I last put it (found it in the glove box of the car).

I woke up bright and early – too early! I must have been excited to get back at it. 9 weeks is a long time. I was really looking forward to the drive in, getting to see my cubicle farm mates and get started earning my paycheck. I am so glad that I wrote down my laptop password, because if I had to remember it – I know I would be calling into the help desk for a password reset. Once logged in, I got my usual IT updates from all of the time I was off. After 30 minutes or so and a reboot. I was off to opening up email. I wondered how many I would have. I guess about 5 thousand! Well, I was off by 100%. 10K emails were in the inbox. Spent most of the morning deleting!

From time to time, I had folks stop by and get caught up on the doings of my sabbatical. I got caught up on what I missed while I was out. Office environments are way cool sometimes. For those folks that were not physically in the office – I got some instant messages (just happened to see you logged in – you back? – of course, why else would I be logged in).Got some more emails – just like the IM’s.

What all did I actually get done. Well, the inbox is under 125 unopened. Deleted a bunch, answered some and filed the rest. Should be all back to speed in a couple of days. Had some great discussions with folks. Touched base with many others. Some even told me they read my personal blog to stay up on my happenings. Read plenty of material on the internal professional networking (blogs, forums, wiki) tool to get up to speed on other items that are important to me.

Definitely a long and tiring (but exciting) day!

A New Journey Begins

Steve — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 17:17:50 +0000

Wanted to give everyone an update on a post I made about a month ago, Life Changing Decisions. Short summary, I was at a cross-roads with making a decision on to retire or not. I made a decision – I am going to go ahead and retire from Intel. Timing of when this will completely happen is yet to be finalized, but I have till 1/3/2011.

This was not an easy decision for many reasons. I have been working for Intel for over 28 years. During that time, I have grown up, learned a lot, raised my family, traveled to places I know I would not have traveled to and have met some amazing people. I have put in 28 years at one company. Something that in today’s world, just does not happen that often. I was 22 years old when I started, just out of college and was looking for some stability for me and my new family. I guess I found it.

For entertainment value, I thought I would put in the stuff that I will not miss…

Meetings, Meetings, Meetings and more meetings – I hate to count up the hours that were spent in meetings. Sometimes we had meetings to prep for meetings. Sometimes we had post meetings on the meetings. In order to get work done – you had to schedule a meeting with yourself on your calendar.
Email! I don’t know what has happened over the years, but email had become the number one way to communicate. Yes, it beat out meetings. Why? Because you usually got one to five emails around the meeting. The email’s I will not miss – did you get my voice mail (now our voice mails go to our inbox), those that come from the person that sits in the cube next to me, reply to all blasts – asking to be removed from the distribution list and my all time favorite ones – an email asking if we can talk!
Processes… To say that I have seen an increase in processes over the years – that is an understatement. Some are completely necessary, I get that. Others, well let’s say some people have jobs because of them.

I will miss stuff as well, like:

The people! There are some amazing people that I have met, worked with and helped out over the years. Without them, I know I would not have had as much fun as I had. Would not have gotten much done by myself. Would have hated to sit in my cube – waiting for the next meeting or email.
Experiences and memories that I have. Even those that are not so good. They shape us into who we are.
My usual parking spot… I started in 1982 in the Chandler CH2 building.. Looks like I will end my time in Chandler CH2 building (I have had stops almost in every building in Chandler and some in Oregon). I joked when I came back to CH2 about 5 years ago, I started parking in the same spot in 1982. Well, maybe Intel can put up a marker on my parking spot!

I am excited and nervous about the journey that I am about to take. I am not going to stop working.. I just will be doing it somewhere else.