Friday, May 21, 2010

FRIDAY FAST ONES


1.) A general observation I have for businesses: You need to hire more people. The amount of bad will and negativity that is building up in your customer base is becoming insurmountable. Loosen up those payrolls and put enough people out there to reduce waiting times in line, on hold and for returned calls and paperwork.


It was really ridiculous to see one agent at the Delta counter trying to juggle seat assignments for a dozen standby passengers, announcements, scanning boarding passes for passengers being loaded onto the plane by zones while determining if their luggage would fit the extra small overhead compartments and tagging the over sized ones to be checked. She was frazzled, the customers were irritated and the whole boarding process took over 45 minutes for a small plane.


IT'S TIME TO START HIRING! The financial problems do not lie in the number of employees you have actually serving your customers.


2.) Speaking of jobs. All 3 of my children have become employed. My 16 year old will be earning $10.00 an hour which is what many of the jobs I have been applying for are offering - it is so sad. I am still buying lottery tickets.


3.) We hired a pet sitter for our 13 year old, somewhat blind and deaf, 7 pound mini-dachshund, Hilda, during our recent 4 day trip. We told the neighbors. Apparently, one of them called the police to complain that the dog was barking, in the house, at 11 pm on Monday night. We came home to a citation. Fortunately a "Courtesy Citation."


4.) We have discovered that our youngest daughter (a high school junior) is a lot more up in the air about her college preferences than we thought. She has been firm in her desire to attend a small to medium school in a moderately sized town. She wants a relationship with her professors and the feel of a campus community. However, she, fell in love with Philadelphia this week.


Penn is out of the question..but what about Drexel? Maggie's boyfriend just graduated from there and took her on a tour, she liked the campus, she has the admission requirements...and her big sister will be living in Philly for the time being...but once we were home we took the time to look at the Drexel website, and it is not a good fit academically. Ally doesn't really know what she wants to study and Drexel is designed for kids who are very focused going in.


So, how do we go about continuing to expose Ally to a variety of colleges that will keep her excited and help her find her direction? Any suggestions?


5.) We are a family of bike riders. My husband and two older kids ride a great deal, including on city streets. We frequently debate on the ins and outs of safe riding. Maggie rides her bike down the middle of the street to avoid car doors being opened. After reading about this fatal accident, I think she has the right idea.


On a city street in Oakland, a bike rider was knocked into/under a city bus when a woman opened her car door into him. He was killed. She continued on to her hair appointment. Yes, it was an "accident." It aways seems that the victims in these accidents are the dead and maimed bike riders who are following the rules and the people who cause the accidents are the hurried, careless ones wielding tons of steel.


As the weather improves and schools let out, please take the extra moment of time too look around you, check your mirrors and make sure that there is not a person on a bike in your path.

3 comments:

mkosboth said...

Being a college enrollment management professional, I know the dilemma you face pretty well. I don't know exactly where your daughter is in the college search process - is she supposed to go in September or are you a year away from this decision? If you still have a year, or more, you need to just keep looking and visiting. She will know it when she finds it. And I have doored a bicyclist. It was a very startling experience. He was partially at fault, as he was riding between cars and not where he should have been, and was exactly in my blind spot when I opened my door, but no one got hurt other than my car door.

Jennifer (Jen on the Edge) said...

Regarding your daughter, have you talked with the guidance counselor at her school about college options?

Regarding the horrible bike accident, we've had two here in my town in the past month and it's made me very wary about biking with my children or even alone. For now, we're sticking mostly to residential streets in our neighborhood.

Jenn @ Juggling Life said...

It seems like there is so much hostility toward bicyclists. I can't figure it out.

My son knows he wants to play water polo, but has no idea what he wants to study. I think he'll end up fairly local. My older son picked his school on location and then found his major. My oldest daughter knew she wanted small and diverse. My youngest daughter is just a sophomore, but she wants a specific location and program--I'm not sure we'll find it.