Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips The title is the hallmark of a person in a bureaucracy. Do less; just get by. I have worked in and around government agencies for four decades or more. Gosh, that’s a lot. The title of this little post summarizes the mean of the bell curve in these places. Let’s expand a […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Sometimes you just lower your head against a wall and push as hard as you can. Let’s begin this little blog post by noting that I attended LSU—not MIT, Carnegie Mellon, Stanford or any of those places known for producing really smart people. At LSU, we may not be able to spell […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Everyone claims agreement. Great. Let’s just test that statement with a blank sheet of paper. The beginning of this post is copied from a post a couple years back. Then we pick up with a different test. “We all agree on what we are to do!” claimed a person full of hope […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Americans are coming out of isolation from our reaction to the virus. One result is a growing trend to form unions. There is a growing trend in America to form unions for workers in coffee shops, restaurants, warehouses, etc. The obvious explanation is that these places have become rich and have not […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Win-win situations mean that both parties win. Great! There are, however, losers as well. We love win-win situations. Both parties in the situation leave better than they were before. Who wouldn’t like that? The loser wouldn’t. But both parties are better. What loser? Of course there is a “loser.” Of course there […]

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by Dwayne Phillips If you want something in return for something, state that contract first. Person A: Guess what? blah blah blah. Person B: Oh my goodness. Person A: You can’t tell anyone what I just told you. Person B: Why not? Person A: Because. Person B: You should have stated the non-disclosure agreement before […]

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by Dwayne Phillips People can learn. A little basic vocabulary plus the desire to work hard means they are qualified to move into something new. Years ago, a young woman told me about how she wanted to move into a Spanish linguist job. She had an English-Spanish dictionary and some books written in Spanish. She […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Fatigue still wins. Every endeavor requires energy to the end. Every step receives the same resources. In any endeavor, we must exert the same energy to every step. Starting fast and waning with fatigue will not suffice. For example, in writing, I should apply the same full energy to… every page every […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Our backgrounds don’t often determine our present. I took one English class in high school. I took one English class in college. Not much of a background in writing, huh? I have written half a dozen books (published) and over a hundred articles (published) as well as a hundred short stories (self-published) […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Nothing new here. Lack of planning still brings emergency responses and all sort of bad reactions. I suppose we have to be reminded of this from time to time. There are various ways to say it like: Lack of planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part or […]

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