Skipping Days... Literally

During my years at University I used to spend my summer working in a medical supply warehouse. The job wasn’t the greatest, but I needed to make money to go to school and there weren’t many other options. I loved Fridays at the warehouse. People who were regularly introverted and doldrum came alive at the end of the week. I will never forget the day when I approached one of my fellow employees and after I had shared about how happy I was to know it was the end of the week he replied with, “Friday is the saddest day for me.”

I was surprised and slightly taken back. I did the next logical thing and decided to ask him why Friday made him so upset, to which he replied, “Because a whole weekend has to go by before I get to see all your faces again.” We shared a Friday laugh and went back to finishing our work.

To this day, the question, “What’s your favourite day of the week?” is a popular way to start a conversation with all different sorts of people. I usually respond with either Friday or Saturday. I mean, what isn’t there to like about these days? On a Friday, you still have to go to work, but everyone is happy and chipper. Most times a Friday is over and done with before you know it. When work is done you’re free to make whatever plans you like because everyone knows they get to sleep in. The more I think about it I wonder - what isn’t there to like about Saturday? You get to sleep in, you get to make your own schedule for the day and if you don’t want to do anything – you don’t have to. Saturday is for sitting and relaxing – hence the “Sat” in Saturday.

You can imagine my surprise the other day when one of my students told me Monday was his favourite day of the week. “Monday!?” I replied, “Are you crazy?” The more we talked about it – the more it made sense to me. What’s really the difference between Saturday and Tuesday? On Tuesdays, we wake up, go to work, come home, spend time with our family/friends and head to bed so we can do it again tomorrow. On Saturdays, we wake up, (if we aren’t lazy) we do the work at home we weren’t able to do during the week, spend time at home, visit friends/family and head to bed. After hearing his thoughts the only difference I could find between the two days was that we get paid for weekday work.


It was an interesting argument, to say the least. I am not sure if I would trade my Friday or Saturday for a Monday, but I think his thoughts about life never stopping for a weekend was well put.
It reminded me of another conversation I had several weeks earlier. A friend and I were talking about the winter and how many people often wish they could fast-forwarded the months and enjoy the spring/summer months forever. What we found interesting was that these were also the people who would frequently talk about how the days and months seem to fly by and wished they had more time.

Life is about enjoying each day for what it is. May it be a mundane Monday or a fantastic Friday – they all serve a purpose in our life. Whatever that purpose may be – it won’t be found in fast-forward - remember to press play.

Hard Lessons: A Writer's Reality

Being a graduate of a media studies program I always thought I knew a lot about the field. I like to read non-fiction books from the media studies section, I follow media/tech blogs, I study up on media education teaching strategies and dabble at writing my own media/new media/media education blog articles.

Somewhere inside me I can hear the old saying, “Those who think they know everything, really know nothing.” I wouldn’t say that I know a lot about the media or new media (especially since it is always changing). But, I would like to think that I would hold my own in a general conversation about the topic. Of course, like any good story, life has an interesting way of bringing things into perspective.

A couple of months back I spent some time volunteering at a local elementary school. The teacher of the class is an old teacher of mine and she will often give me the opportunity to gather some experience in her classroom. On this particular day, I had the chance to talk with the class about “Online Safety” and the dangers of social networks. Without getting too much into detail the moral of my lesson was, while social networks are great for keeping in touch with family and friends they are also equally dangerous due to fake accounts/cyber bullying/etc. (For each good there is an exact opposite bad)

I remember the scared looks on their little faces. Perhaps I should have practiced my speech on another audience to censor my material? At the end of the day, I think the talk was good for them and a lot of the students were able to come up with some really good questions about the topic. If only I could have heeded my own warning.

I alluded to new media article writing earlier in this post (If you haven’t checked it yet - The New Media) and a few weeks ago I wrote an article titled “The Modern Panopticon.” I was really excited about this post and spent a lot of time trying to fit my argument together. Without going into too much detail, I was trying to establish our modern day online/tech savvy society as a mix of Orwell’s 1984, Huxley’s Brave New World, with a twist of Bentham’s Panopticon prison model and Facebook’s self-monitoring themes. In my opinion, the article came out really well and I was anxious to post it.

For those of you who have followed this blog for sometime know how much I appreciate all your comments and support. It is your comments that keep me motivated to keep writing. The same goes for my new media blog and within a couple of days I had received a comment from a user. The comment said, “Glib.”

Glib? What’s a glib? Is glib a noun? An acronym? I was lost. I decided to turn to the dictionary and this is what I found, “Lacking purpose or foresight.”

I was a little taken back – to say the least. I have never had anyone comment negatively on a blog article before. My mind began tracking back to the lecture I carried out with the grade school children, “for each good there is an exact opposite bad.” I have since called this my first case of “writer’s reality.” I have come to understand that not everyone is going to like what I write and may also feel comfortable expressing how he or she feel about it.

Since the comment I have heard back from the same user and learned a great deal. I realize that sometimes the negative comments serve just as important a purpose in writing as the positive comments do. This one user wasn’t afraid to tell me that they felt my thoughts lacked purpose and for that I am grateful. He or she reminded me that the public is a living/thinking audience that wants to be stimulated and isn’t afraid to be critical of the writer.

Writing, along with many other facets of life, is an ongoing learning process.

Insiders who are Willing

There was a time, a few months back, when I was ready to give up on the whole customer service industry. I was starting to loose faith in the ability of the Customer Service Representative (CSR) to actually help the customers. I was tired of CSRs telling me they didn’t have stock (when they didn’t check), talking on their phone (instead of helping the next person in line) and never being around when you need them.

I started to think, as we move forward into the 21st century, companies (in the sales industry) are working toward becoming more efficient about how they run their business. The first place management often looks to improve is their front lines. These are the people who orchestrate their sales and often spend most of the time doing nothing.

Therefore, to achieve the highest possible number of sales, why not eliminate the CSR altogether? Turn the whole CSR industry into something that no longer requires a middleman – get rid of the people.

The way I see it, I know exactly what I am looking for. The real question I need to ask myself is, “Where is it?” For example, last week I went shopping for a book at my local bookstore. Of course, since it was the week before Christmas, the whole store was filled with people. I began looking for an available kiosk to search for my book, and to my dismay they were all full. I walked back and forth waiting for one of the three I was hovering around to open up when a young CSR asked if she could help me out.

Something inside of me wanted to tell her no, but I was in no mood to refuse a helping hand. I didn’t think she would know what book I was looking for (she didn’t), but what she did know was invaluable – she knew where the unused computers were. I followed her through the twists and turns of the aisles and eventually we came to a quiet little corner where an open kiosk awaited our arrival. It didn’t take her long to type in the book I was looking for, and before I knew it I was out the door with book in-hand.

As I left the store I thought – I could have done that. There isn’t any special mystery behind finding where a book is on a computer. What I realized was, this young CSR, who was willing to help, had something I didn’t, the added knowledge about the store.

I overlooked the fact that not everyone is capable of guiding him or herself through a retail outlet. There is a whole set of people who require the “expertise” of a CSR to purchase what they are looking for. I love to use the Apple Store as a perfect example. This is a store that truly understands the power of good customer service. You walk in and the number of employees is almost equal to that of the number of customers. Someone is always available to help you. When you purchase something, all they do is bring up the items online and scroll you through their stock. Is this something you could do on your own? Of course. Is everyone capable of ordering stock online? Of course not. With a ratio of almost 1:1 customers are in and out in record time – completely satisfied.

For the time being, I suppose CSRs still serve a purpose. The next question is, how do we keep them performing at a high level to ensure customer satisfaction? When customers can’t help themselves, they need to be willing to go to the next level to ensure satisfaction. Whether or not this is possible, is a whole other post altogether.

Boxing Day Knock Outs

It’s December 22 and I can’t stop worrying about the things I still need to pick up before Christmas. Interestingly enough, at work today I was asked if I knew what I was going to buy on Boxing Day. “Boxing Day!” I replied, “I hardly know what I am going to bring to the Pot Luck tomorrow.” As we began talking about possible ideas I asked why Boxing Day was on his mind. “It’s my six year old,” he said, “She knows about the deals and she has been asking me about what we are going to buy.”

I can hardly imagine what I would do if I had kids. Six years old and she already knows the day after Christmas is associated with lower prices – a young consumer.

The more I thought about it, the more I realized his six-year-old daughter wasn’t the only one thinking about Boxing Day deals. A few nights ago I went to visit some friends and one of them was on their laptop looking at flyers for electronic stores. I won’t go into any details as to what companies he was interested in, but as the conversation continued I realized that “deal hunting” was a real skill. “The fliers are in the store, but customers can’t get a hold of them yet. So, I decided to search for them online,” he told me with a growing enthusiasm, “See, this company hasn’t updated their flyer, but this other one has and I like what I see.”

All this talk got me thinking about what types of industry would issue discounts on Boxing Day. First and foremost, there is electronics. Everyone wants them and with the product turnover rate it just makes sense to sell something at a “cheaper” price before the actual price of the product drops one month after Boxing Day. Grocery stores might also have some really good options on Boxing Day. Think about it, they bought a large variety of stock to supply the needs of Christmas and one day later they have an abundance of items that didn’t sell. What do you do? Lets have a sale. I was asked, “Why don’t car dealerships ever offer sales?” If you think about it, people will still want to buy cars even after Christmas and Boxing Day have come and gone. The car market is structured differently and new models aren’t made available on January 1st they have different release dates.

At the end of the day, listening to my friend with the six-year-old daughter made me feel like a juror hearing the final testimony from the defendant, “Boxing Day is a fun day where people rush around looking for deals – it’s contagious.”

When you wake up the morning of December 26th I want you to turn on your TV and find your local News channel and tell me if they are covering a story about people lining up in front of a store to get an awesome deal. You’ll probably even see an on the scene reporter who stops people on their way out to ask if they can check out what people purchased. It creates a spending frenzy. If this person on the news is getting a “great deal” why aren’t I? Before you know it you’ve hopped in your car and started making your way to the closest shopping centre.

At the end of the day, you really need to ask yourself, “Is there really a deal?” I remember when I used to work in retail. Boxing day was one of the busiest days of the year. We would often have people lining up out the store, but why? There wasn’t a deal – customers just assumed there was. Maybe there is a deal for the first 50 purchases or while quantity lasts, but at the end of the day – prices stay the same.

Who Eats Chicken Wings?

It’s cold; you’re hungry and looking for a place to go eat. You drum through the list of regular places: Italian? Pizza? Asian? None of these options are very appeasing. But, then it hits you! You remember a tip your best friend shared with you earlier in the week, “If you’re hungry, you should check out _____________ they have the best chicken wings in town.” You’ve made up your mind – you want wings.

Am I right when I say that the best places to eat are often hidden in the smallest of corners? You pull up to where you have been told to go and in a small corner of a small plaza you see a small sign that reads, “Best Wings in town! Don’t forget to try our Fat Girl sauce.” You sit down and a waitress brings you a menu. You don’t need to look at it because you already know exactly what you’re going to have.

As you sit there waiting you begin to wonder… What kind of person goes to a restaurant to eat chicken wings?

You start to look around and begin to notice details you hadn’t before. There are an assortment of TVs scattered throughout the room that are all tuned in to the same sporting event. The tables are all filled with a collection of people who all appear to be good friends. You begin to wonder would this be a good place for a first date? You look around and spot a few couples sitting at different tables and you begin to assess how long they have been dating for. The male is in track pants, a hooded sweater and is wearing a toque. His female counterpart has her hair tied back, is wearing glasses and a pair of old worn out jeans. Nothing about this couple says “first-date.”

As you look around, you notice that no one else is looking around. No one is hiding the mountain of napkins on their table or is embarrassed about the number of times they need to ask for a refill on their water because of their hot sauce. You don’t need to look too closely to realize eating chicken wings is not for the self-conscious.

Would we eat more chicken wings if we weren’t worried about how they made us look when we eat them? A large majority of us really enjoy eating wings, but they can be awkward to hold onto and make us look really messy.

At the end of the day, like any good thing in life, the timing has to be just right. It makes it easier to go and grab wings when we know the game is on, all our trusted friends will be there and the napkins are in ample supply.

Who eats chicken wings at a restaurant? We all do.