Working Up

Working Up in Project Management, Systems Engineering, Technology, and Writing

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Labeling People

July 18th, 2013 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips A  practice in government was labeling people. It was a lazy but oft-used practice. Happenstance was the main source of labels. I worked in government 28 years. Managers were often overwhelmed with things to do. Much of the “work” was self-created, but that is another story for another time. Anyways, one result […]

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Tags: Employment · Government · Management · Observation

Government Delay = Wasted Taxes

May 6th, 2013 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips I explain how any government delay leads to wasted taxpayer money. No connection between the two items? Let’s walk through this. Company A contracts with the government. Which government doesn’t matter – national, state, local – as they all exist on taxpayers’ money. Company A has these smart, dedicated employees who work […]

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Tags: Employment · Government

Working Fast

November 19th, 2012 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Embarrassed but harangued, I reveal how I do some things on the computer so darn fast. I am not enjoying writing this post. It is about how I manage to do things quickly on the computer. As odd as it sounds (to me at least), people accuse me of working too quickly […]

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Tags: Employment · Work

Shortage of Engineers (?)

May 14th, 2012 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Why don’t we have more engineers and computer scientists? Maybe, for better or worse, we don’t have enough “tough” people. I have recently read of a shortage of engineers and computer scientists. I have my doubts about this shortage, but enough people are declaring it that there may be some truth to […]

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Tags: Computing · Education · Employment

Difficult Task or Distasteful Task?

November 24th, 2011 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips That’s hard to do. Is it really? How “hard” is it? How much time will it take? How much learning will it take? Often, “difficult” tasks are really “distasteful” tasks, i.e., tasks that I really don’t want to do.

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Tags: Employment

We’re Missing a Few Layers (and Adaptability)

October 13th, 2011 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips We have chased manufacturing out of America. We now have holes in our job structure and have lost the ability to adapt to a changing world. I read a few posts on the “Econolypse” lately. Here is one post, and here is another. We have chased the manufacturing jobs from the U.S. […]

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Tags: Employment · General Systems Thinking · Generation Y · Ideas

Valuable Talents

September 30th, 2010 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Feeling like there is nothing you can do in our current economy to help others? Can you do one of the following? cook a meal listen If you can, you can help someone. If you can do both, you can really help someone. Now for the hard part (at least the hard […]

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Tags: Employment · Health

One Reason for Government Dysfunction

August 12th, 2010 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Most government agencies are dysfunctional. There are simple reasons. One reason is that the path to promotion lies in spending money, not bringing value per cost. Try to understand how people “get ahead” working inside a government agency. To make more money, you are promoted to a higher grade. I worked in […]

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Tags: Culture · Employment · Government · Management

Regulator to the Regulated – the Revolving Door

August 9th, 2010 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Government employees retire and go to work for companies that the government is supposed to regulate and hire and such. This is a revolving door. Is it bad? This story from the past week discusses how Telcos hired retired government employees to help them influence how the FCC (current government employees) regulates […]

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Tags: Employment · Government

The End of Credentials

June 28th, 2010 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips No journalism degree? Not needed to blog and break news. Not a pro photographer? Not needed to publish world-wide on Flickr. No computer science degree? Not needed to learn programming and work. I believe these things to be true. I believe that you don’t have to have a credential from an organization […]

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Tags: Change · Employment · Learning