The Right Path

Just a reminder that I will be closing this blog soon. I will reopen Cubicle Jungle as a page on My new blog "The Right Path", a political blog for Conservative Christian Americans. Follow the links to my other blogs in the sidebar here.

Parking Meters

Years ago, when my Dad first started working in downtown Houston, I remember riding into work with him one day and him handing me a dime to put in the parking meter. "Be sure to turn the knob all the way back". he told me. I believe I was around 6 years old at the time. That was one of my favorite days with my dad, just me and him, my Mom and brothers were off on other errands. I seem to recall he was off from work that day but he needed to pick up some papers from his office to take home and work on. He picked up his papers and then took me to a little diner on main street that served these huge, whatever you want breakfast platters on the cheap. That was a great day out with my Dad and it was my first experience ever with a parking meter. Years later when I started a job in downtown Houston, many of these same parking meters were still in existence. But then, newer parking meters were added and numbers were painted on public parking spaces and now patrons were required to punch in the number of the slot they were parked in. These meters ran on 12 volt batteries that required a manual recharging and were often out of order. Just a couple of years ago Mayor Bill White of Houston made an attempt to recap all of these lost Parking revenues and had solar powered meters installed throughout the city of Houston. These meters are not only solar powered but also take credit cards and are wifi enabled. You simply follow the instructions, pay the money required and then place the receipt on the dashboard of your car. The date and time and amount of parking time purchased is all listed on that receipt.
So, what is the problem with this, you may ask? Oh, there are a lot of problems, the first being that a lot of the solar powered meters end up losing their charges, due to cloudy skies, trees or whatever, and the public does not understand that they can proceed to any working meter nearby and get a receipt to place on the dash of their car. The biggest problem with these style of parking meters though, is the publics refusal to even try to learn how to work them. Day end, and day out, I see people walk up, look at the meter and immediately start looking around for someone to help them work the meter. They never even try to read the instructions , they just float right into helpless mode. The first instruction on these meters are "Press Any Button To Start" Most don't even read that far, they just immediately turn away and search for someone to do it for them. I have done the demographics and the majority of these people are Black or Brown . I am not being racist, just stating the fact that the majority of people who can not follow the directions and want someone else to help them out, are from these groups. These people don't even make an attempt to figure out something as simple as a parking meter, so how can they make an informed opinion or make an informed vote? The state of our Union Right now scares me. We have too many people who would rather choose a color than a principal, It's not about the color, It's about America and Americans. It's about our freedoms and our rights. It's about being an American and supporting our country and the principals our country was founded on. GOD BLESS AMERICA

Tea Party Movement

The Tea Party Movement arose out of opposition to the bailouts and stimulus packages of 2009. Like that long ago Tea Party in Boston, Tea Party activists promote the ideals of no taxation without representation and promote limited government. Tea party activist support our constitution and everything it stands for.

I have posted below the mission statement of Tea Party Patriots

The impetus for the Tea Party movement is excessive government spending and taxation. Our mission is to attract, educate, organize, and mobilize our fellow citizens to secure public policy consistent with our three core values of Fiscal Responsibility, Constitutionally Limited Government and Free Markets.

Tea Party Patriots support the foundation that this great nation was founded upon. Fly your flag proudly, you are an American.

Coffee versus Tea

I saw a news article recently about a new political group that started in response to the Tea Party movement. My first thought was that this would be a bunch of liberals who supported everything Black/ Brown or Obama. Curious about what exactly a Coffee Party is, I visited their face book page. I am still not exactly sure what their political standings are as the postings from different individuals seem to run the gamut from Loving Obama and hating Sarah Palin to Hating Obama and hating Sarah Palin. The Coffee party states their objective as "a discussion of current events of politics from a perspective based on common sense, morals, and a want for real change." Their's is no real platform or party lines, just everyone voicing their own opinions. Everyone exercising their right to free speech as granted to them in the Constitution. It does seems that the only thing everyone agrees on, is their dislike of the Healthcare Reform Bill and their dislike of Sarah Palin. Way to go Sarah, You have your own facebook page. I hope you like coffee.

Layoffs

The management tactics of constantly making your employees fear job loss or reprimand can only cause discourse among your employees. Many will treat these threats with the same regard they give to a speeding tailgater on the freeway. It will only lead to anger and resentment. It will not make the employees work harder or faster. But it may increase employees taking unnecessary sick leave, coming in late, and foster a decrease in their work production and dedication to their job duties.

Desperation

Last friday a man jumped from the 11th floor of a parking garage near my office. It is my understanding that he had his own business as a financial advisor and was 40 years young. He left a note to either a wife or girlfriend to say that he loved her and that he was sorry. No clues as to what motivated him to take such a desperate measure. I can't help but wonder if on the way down, with the ground fast approaching, did he change his mind and wish he had not of jumped? He probably did.

Threats of Layoffs

Since Obama was elected President in November, there has been more and more talk in our office about potential layoffs. This all came to a head last week when a meeting was called at 5 minutes to 5PM to announce that everyone would soon be changing their job duties. The reason given is that with potential layoffs looming on the horizon, management now wants everyone in the office cross trained on the different desk duties. It was said that the company is more likely to keep the workers who can perform different job skills. I have worked every job in the office and have finally returned to the job I like best. Most of my coworkers have worked various job duties also. I don't see this as cross training so much as a way for management to get everyone stirred up. Once or twice a year our second in command gets bored and moves people around the office like pieces on a Chess Board. Now she has a reason to move people around even more often and threaten everyone with layoffs. Every year at our evaluations we are asked how we like our job duty, I am very non committal with my answer. I say," I like it okay", and when I am asked if there is something else I would like to do, I just shrug and tell them it doesn't matter to me, one job is as good as the next. I know that if I admit to liking or desiring a particular job then that job will forever elude me. I will be placed doing the job I like the least. Our second in command is famous for doing this, not to make for a lot of unhappy clerks, but out of her misinterpretation of a long ago management class she took. It is hard on a company and it's employees when someone is put in charge who misunderstands or misinterprets company directives to the detriment of everyone else in the office.