Are you happy?

Do HR surveys, feedback forms, or whatever, ever ask you (an employee) this question:

Are you happy?

I know it sounds simplistic, but just hang on.

Don't employers invest in you? They spend money on training, on the infrastructure, your salary, the perks, all the other stuff. You are an investment. Wouldn't you find out if your investment was doing well or not?

Plus, aren't happier employees more productive and just better workers? And, won't they be with the company that makes them happy rather than miserable?

I guess it's a tough question because the answers can be scary. And, ignorance is bliss anyway.

All in the family

I seem to be hearing a lot of family-speak lately.

We're one big family.
We're part of a family.
And so on...

I'm okay with family-speak as long as it's really families that are talking about it. I'm hearing and reading a lot of this family-speak stuff in companies. People at work talking about their co-workers as family members, when they're not really related.

Plus, I'm fine with my family; I don't need any more family members. And, if people in companies are your family members, I feel like asking them questions like, "How are you related to me?", "Are you my third cousin?" And, it opens up this whole other thing if you're dating people at the office. Don't even want to go there.

So, please, stop the "we're all part of a family" stuff. Unless you're in a family-owned business of course.

Angela Booth's Writing Blog

I don't know why I didn't mention Angela Booth before, but here goes. Angela writes a fantastic blog for writers that you can find here.

Angela's a copy writer but don't let that fool you. If you're interested in writing, especially any kind of creative writing, her blog is pure gold. She also has a website where she's written a ton of articles.

She posts really often, so get her on your RSS feed, if you're into that. Otherwise, check out her blog every day.

Answers.com

I'm probably the last blogger in the universe (that's a cool blog name) to link to this site, but what the heck--if you've not heard of it, it's new to you.

Answers.com is a great site if you're looking for specific information on a particular topic, person, etc. Instead of pointing you to a bunch of links and making you sift through 321929 links (number made up) like search engines do, it takes you to a web page with information about what you're looking for. And, there are links to some sites as well.

It'll never replace a search engine, but it's great if you want to refer to something and want the information real quick. Here's what reason #3 of the 5 Great Reasons to Use Answers.com says:

Even a simple question can get you complex answers from a search engine. Nobody – but nobody – needs 8,630,400 pages that mention DNA. We save you time by providing a topic-based snapshot answer rather than thousands of pages that contain your word in some context.

I've been using it when I want specific information about something and it's been good to me so far. Try it and see if it fits your needs.