Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips All things don’t happen automatically by automaton. Some special person does the work. Someone has to type the words Someone has to stand in front of the classroom Someone has to carry champagne to the table Someone has to crack the eggs As much as we wish it to be different in […]

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by Dwayne Phillips I read that some “young people” don’t stay in their jobs long. They don’t want to waste their life in something they dislike. Enjoyment often requires time. No job is enjoyable the first month. Or day or week or six months. When in a new job, I don’t understand what is really […]

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by Dwayne Phillips We make mistakes. We make mistakes at a given rate of X mistakes per unit of work. Look at all the work, find all the mistakes, learn, and change direction. We make mistakes. We make X mistakes per page. The more pages the more mistakes. In a bad situation? Sit and read […]

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by Dwayne Phillips You can work productively all day given a few restarts or what we used to call “breaks.” Working long hours for many days in a row isn’t a good idea. Fatigue wins—every time. There are, however, ways to beat fatigue. We used to call these breaks, but I am sure someone has […]

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by Dwayne Phillips “I always seem to break the machine.” I hear students say this…frequently. Reframe: I am earnestly doing my job. I try harder than most other persons. I am not sleep-walking through the day. I push the performance of my tools. I want to work with these persons, the ones who always seem […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Simple desires for the workplace. Years ago, a wise old man once told me, “The workplace should be pleasant and profitable.” He worked in a commercial business. No profits, no business, no jobs. Profits were necessary. Also necessary, in his experience, was that the workplace be pleasant. If it wasn’t pleasant, people […]

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by Dwayne Phillips In the age of the temporary job, the portfolio becomes important to us all. For most of my life, I heard of the artist’s portfolio—the collected works of an artist. Well, welcome to the age of everyone-is-an-artist. Everyone needs a portfolio to show potential employers. Wikipedia has a few definitions of portfolio […]

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by Dwayne Phillips I contemplate a simple yet still effective management tool—the humble calendar. What will I do tomorrow? What about the day after? What about next month. Oh, wait, is next week in next month or this month? How can I keep track of time? We revisit the humble calendar. If this is insulting […]

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by Dwayne Phillips I review yet another fundamental of accomplishing work that seems to have been forgotten. In order for us to accomplish our work and our mission, we need you to do something. Here is the work. Here is the schedule. Here are the resources. Please. I suppose we leave off most of those […]

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by Dwayne Phillips We work in the real world; not in one where what we wish is true. Sometimes we simply need to teach a little. A: I told these people what to do…and AARGH (pained expression interrupts speech). B: How did you teach them how to do that? A: What? What do you mean? […]

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