Bad News Delivery

“You are a department manager in a mid-sized company that provides technology support services.  You have ten employees who are required to maintain a high level of technical expertise and deliver excellent customer service.  One of your employees, who have been with the company for two years, is performing at a substandard level and you have received numerous complaints from customers and coworkers.  In addition, this employee has displayed confrontational behavior, which has created a hostile environment.  You must now meet with this employee and deliver an ultimatum regarding the need for immediate improvement or dismissal.”

            When I first approach the employee will be in a place that may feel non-threatening to the employee. A conference room behind closed doors. I would first discuss the importance of the mission of our business and the services to our customers. Then I would explain the role of team players within a team.  After I set the stage I would systematically cover where their job performance is, the complaints from customers and coworkers, and then their behavior with coworkers.

            I then would advise them what the standard was for their job performance and work behavior. I would ask them why have been performing substandard and behaving the way they have. I will attempt to cover any issues they have and perhaps give recommendations to correct them. The employee will be given reasonable goals to help them change their performance and behavior with gauged evaluations perhaps every 30 days. They will be advised what will or could happen if they fail to make any change. I will then provide them a written copy of a letter of counseling and request that they sign one copy. At the end I will let them know that they are a need part of the team and that I have high expectations for change for the better with my help.

            The employee at first will feel threatened and backed into a corner. They may even feel resentful. After I ask if there are any reason for their actions and offer recommendations to correct them or solutions for their problems, the employee may see the light and a little less in trouble. The employee may feel better when I tell them that they are needed and that I want to help them improve.

            If the employee become hostile and fails to listen during the meeting I will document the situation and recommend that they take the rest of the off to think about what path they wish to follow, one that will take them to being a highly productive member of the team and one their coworkers will respect. The other path will be one that will be unacceptable and not needed in our business or workplace and that they will pay consequences. If the employee continues to be uncooperative and hostile towards me then I will take what ever action is acceptable by Human Resources, to correct the behavior, for example sending them home on leave for the rest for the day to think about their choices.

            I have no problem with conflict; I’m not the kind of guy to back down from the good fight.  I prefer though not to let it get to the fight. I preach the use of active listening. In active listening, with the minimum of two people involved in the conflict, one person starts as the listener. The listener lets the other person talk about their concerns. Then the listener only repeats back walk the other person said to ensure that their message was received correctly. The person talking will begin to feel like their concerns are important and that the other person has actually heard what they said. Then the listener may have to listen to several concerns before they can talk back. First they will address the issues with possible solutions or recommendations. After a while the roles are switched. This is a give and take method with all parties involved taking turns and all will have their issues addressed and understood.

Why not speak French?

I’m once again going to use real life experience to reply to this discussion. I was lucky to be deployed and assigned to the NATO mission of Operation Joint Forge in Bosnia N Herzegovina. I worked with nationals from all over Europe. I had British and Canadian communications people. There was a funny Scotsman public affairs officer. The operations commander was Spanish. On many of my missions we had Italian or Bulgarian security. The first thing we are told is that we are American Ambassadors and not to make the US look bad. I love learning new things and I immersed myself in many cultures.  Each nation had a brake room that anyone could visit and learn about them. I would introduce myself at each one, inform them I was there to learn about them and answer questions about Americans if they had any.

The Germans were very welcoming, very friendly and a lot of there off time has beer involved. Lets just say never play the game of Nails, drunk with Germans, you will just lose badly. 

The Canadians are very much like us, but unless you can hold your own, don’t tell them that Hockey is an American sport.

The French are very quiet and reserved, and either they didn’t like Americans or just me.

The Italians had their own camp, and I would go to dinner with them a lot. I made friends with several of the Carabinieri, the countries police, who didn’t speak any English and I don’t speak Italian. Even through the language barrier we became great friends and they educated me on their food and wine, which is a big part of their culture.

When it came to the Bosnian’s and the Serb’s I took a different approach. Most of the time I played the role of silent observer and watched what they did, what they ate, how they went through life. If I could ever get an interpreter with me I would try and communicate with them. I tried to learn the language and even had a misunderstanding. I thought the word ‘dobra” was hello. The local women who cleaned my building heard me great her with “dobra” she looked at me and said “good?”

She then went on to explain to me that dobra would be added to morning, day, night.  Boy was I embarrassed.

One more story, to show the problems with language in the NATO environment.

I was once in this big meeting with several countries. This French officer stood up and said,

“Why are we not speaking in French, since French is the language of diplomacy?”

Across the room I watched this senior British NCO chuckle and then responded;

“Because mate if it wasn’t for us and the Americans, you would be speaking German”

Which the German officer sitting next to me busted out laughing and the French officer sat down.

What is new with media tech for geeks

According to the wiseGEEK.com, media technology is any technology used to transfer information. Media technologies can come in different shapes and forms

The first one I looked at is Print, is not a live source, no sound available, no video, and is not interactive. Print is in a text format with pictures. Print is a dying format, with subscriptions dropping with a strong shift to electronic media like television.

Print is in a death spiral into the media formats museum of history. According to Barthelemy, Bethell, Christiansen, Jarsvall, and Koinis (2011) print media in the United States has seen a drop of 8.7% between March and October of 2010. With revenues disappearing from the decline of circulation and advertising revenue and the free online content available to everyone. They describe in their capstone paper at Columbia, the internet is changing the behaviors of the print media consumers, while what was available in print is now widely available online for free. Applications are available to download to make reading periodicals right on wireless tablets.  Advertisers looking to modernize and enhance their reach to customers have moved their budget to online sources. If less people are reading a newspaper or an actual printed magazine, then it is only the smart answer to pull or change how much is being spent to advertise their or it is a total waste of money. As sad as it is, this has affected the print media with job losses, which creates a decline in quality and owners looking to cut losses in these troubled economic times. These changes are only pushing and motivating new ways to transfer written information to the masses.

Radio is a live format with sound. Radio is not readable; there are no pictures, no video and very little interactivity. With these limitations, radio is fighting for an audience in today’s market. Still popular for those in long commutes or while at work. Satellite radio provides more variety for people to listen to from, talk radio with anything from politics to entertainment to sports. Then many different genres of music to be listened to.

With the new technology and the tech savay young audiences have moved from the old AM and FM radio I grew up with. According to Albarran,Anderson, Bejar, Bussart, Daggett, Gibson, Gorman, Greer, Guo, Horst, Khalaf, Lay, McCracken, Mott, and Way (2007) that young adults between the ages of 18-24 have been migrating to the new technologies like MP3 players, internet radio, and satellite radio. One fifth of todays Americans 12 and older say they have an MP3 music player, 21% say they listen or listened to music streamed over the internet, and another 28% listen to podcasts, which is recorded audio found on the internet.

The automobiles makers have seen this change, and have moved from the standard radio, which has been in cars since the 1950’s. Today you can find satellite radios installed as standard equipment, the Chevrolet Cruze comes with a satellite radio with a 90 day free membership to satellite radio programing, a small connection in the center council and a MP3 can be plugged in and accessed through the radio controls.

Television can be live, with sound, pictures and video. Television is still entertaining the masses with its programing. With cable and satellite large varieties of programing can be provided finding a large audience of different backgrounds.

The television industry has met the changing times challenge and has excelled. An article in the SFGate gives great examples of the next leap after televisions moved into High Definition. 3D is coming to everyone’s homes. Viewers will get pairs of 3D glasses and can watch 3D programing in their own living rooms. LG, Samsung, Sony and Philips will be the main manufacturers. These televisions will also still be able to show non-3D programming without any problems. 

New televisions are being equipped and prepared to receive Wi-Fi. Internet surfing is available and access to great sources like Netflix and Hulu, giving viewers the ability to view movies from thousands of available material from online streaming videos.

The next big change, coming from the availability of Wi-Fi is the ability to download applications. You will be able to check weather, news, social media right on the TV. Sport Scores at the touch of a button or check what your friends are watching through Twitter or Facebook.

SFGate talks about the rumors that Ultra-Definition televisions are right around the corner, boosting the already available HD TV 1920 x 1080 pixels to a breath taking 3840 x 2160 resolution.

The Internet, the newest of the media technologies is also the fastest growing. The Internet is live, it has text, sound, pictures, video, and is very interactive. The Internet can find something for almost everyone in the World Wide Web.

The Internet has been changing the world from its creation. Brining information rapidly to anyone has brought about the decline of print media. Streaming music on internet radio stations, has brought about changes in music and putting pressure on radio to change. Television has changed with the gift of streaming video web sites.

The internet has been changing the way we shop now for years. Anything is available online with a simple search even the strangest items can be found.

Amazon is now offering a new service through it’s prime service. According to DVICE.com, Amazon will be offering same day delivery.

Even though there is the possibility that sales tax may now be charged, something that has kept the prices of merchandise bought online lower than retail, maybe the most important move made by Amazon. DVICE believes this will bring about the end of many brick and mortar retailers, as people who don’t want to waste time and gas money will make the move to buying online.

Meanwhile, back on planet Earth....

Thats me next to Batman.  These are friends of mine who dress up not only because they are fellow geeks but to help out children in need.

I am a geek and I am proud of it.  According to Dictionary.com (2012), is a noun and slang and is described as;

1. a computer expert or enthusiast (a term of pride as self-reference, but often considered offensive when used by outsiders.)

2. a peculiar or otherwise dislikable person, especially one who is perceived to be overly intellectual.

3. a carnival performer who performs sensationally morbid or disgusting acts, as biting off the head of a live chicken.

I think of myself as person who is not ashamed to not be in the mainstream. I like to follow my own interests, be it media, literature, or technology.  

I know Star Trek isn’t real and that Lord of the Rings is tale of fantasy. I enjoy these things for an escape from reality. A reality filled with horror, sad stories, real evil. Escaping into these stories are only temporary but they help make my rough days easier to handle.

I grew up in a time without technology. Born in a time where space exploration has just begun. I grew up where I spent most of my day outside in the woods, making up adventures and the highest bit of tech I was using was my bicycle.

Star Wars brought around a change in my perspective of the world, and a revolution in entertainment fro everyone.

I owned one of the first Apple computers in my neighborhood, with a n Apple IIe when it first came out in the mid 1980’s.

I read a ton of comic books and attended comic book conventions when they were considered part of an underworld of comic book fans.

I will discuss this world and research other associated topics in the realm of ….A Geeks Life.

Geek, recovered on 9 August 2012 from http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/geek