I have to be honest, I spend way too much time at work worrying about whose name comes first when I send any type of correspondence out. Is it the Executive Director then the Manager of the department? What if more than one department is getting the email? And why is it that the admins always get put on the CC line? How come they are never directly addressed?
I’m talking about the chain of command and my department deals with a multitude of demands across the board. I don’t just have to worry about one executive, I have to worry about them all. And their assistants. And THEIR assistants.
Don’t get me wrong, I want to be respectful. But is it really worth my time (and the company’s money) when I have to recheck my email send list 5 times before I send the email/memo/letter/fax out?
I thought I was being paranoid at first. But I have received a reply with a friendly reminder of who is to come first and who is to be included. That was a mistake I only made once.
I even saw an email where one of the chefs actually signed it “Chef”. Y’know, like the guy from South Park. I suppose if you work that hard to get somewhere in life you want to make sure people know it. That sort of prestige isn’t just held for doctors.
I started to make an organizational flow chart to help…it kind of reminds me of the game Snakes and Ladders. It also makes me wonder if I’ll ever get offended if someone on the bottom of the chart misses me on an email. When I reach the top of course
Okay, so maybe she is just Joni Mitchell but she’s about as big as a Canadian celebrity can be (that was supposed to sound like a compliment). Her endorsement counts for something, especially when its about smoking.
“‘To me, tobacco is a grounding herb,’ she explains, as smoke
swirls like a ghostly halo around blond wisps of hair twisted on
the top of her head.”
In a day an age where information is bought and sold like gold, and thoughts and ideas can be patented, it is amazing that alcohol is the one product that is breaking through these barriers. Here is a short explanation from the FREE BEER blog:
FREE BEER is based on classic ale brewing traditions, but with addded [sic] Guaraná for a natural energy boost. The recipe and branding elements of FREE BEER is published under a Creative Commons (Attribution-ShareAlike 2.5) license, which means that anyone can use the recipe to brew their own FREE BEER or create a derivative of the recipe. Anyone is free to earn money from FREE BEER, but they must publish the recipe under the same license and credit our work. All design and branding elements are available to beer brewers, and can be modified to suit, provided changes are published under the same license (”Attribution & Share Alike”)
We keep and hoard our ideas to the extent that they sometimes don’t even get used. Where does that get us? In order to become a sustainable species, we need to learn to work together to make things better.
Just think about it; if they can successfully have FREE BEER, why not FREE music, FREE art, FREE technology.
