I read a book

So, last night, I went over to Betsy's, sat in a hammock for 2.5 hours, and read an entire book...250 pages.

It was awesome.

There's something so good about shutting off all the "noisemakers" and just sitting and reading. I don't know why I don't do it more often.

Anyways, the book I was reading is called "Three Signs to a Miserable Job." It's basically a story of how this dude, Brian Bailey, formulated this method of becoming a better manager in order to improve job performance, improve company performance, but most importantly of all, how to get employees to like their job. And the most interesting part of it all is that it doesn't matter whether you're working at a fast food restaurant washing dishes or if you're a professional athlete, it doesn't matter whether you make $6 an hour or $50 million a year, and it doesn't matter if you're young, old, pretty, ugly, big, small...blah blah blah....the truths in this book are awesome.

The three signs are:

Anonymity: Employees feel anonymous when their manager has little interest in them as people with unique lives, aspirations, and interests.

Irrelevance: This condition occurs when workers cannot see how their job makes a difference. "Every employee needs to know that the work they do impacts someones life -- a customer, a coworker, even a supervisor -- in one way or another."

Immeasurement: This term describes the inability of employees to assess for themselves their contributions or success. As a result they often rely on the opinions of others -- usually the manager -- to measure their success.

(http://hotjobs.yahoo.com/career-articles-three_signs_of_a_miserable_job-277)

So simple, but overlooked all the time. It's funny to me that these are things I desire, not only at work...but in every area of my life. I want to be known, I want to know that I'm making a difference in somebodies life, and I want to know that I'm doing a good job.

Anyways, I think it's a great thing, and very true. Pick up the book, especially if you are interested in, or are presently, managing people.

Aside from that...I just bought a plane ticket to Bermuda, where I will then jump on a sailboat, and sail across the Atlantic Ocean...and no, I have never sailed before. I leave June 10th. How's that for a footnote?