Although companies have focused greater attention on the need for ethical practices over the past few decades, male business professionals who self-report high ethical character earn, on average, 3.4% less than their peers who don’t report having such standards, according to an analysis of data on thousands of students by Andrew Hussey of the University of Memphis. Moreover, men who reported that their MBA programs enhanced their ethical standards received 6.5% lower wages than men who reported no such gain. For women, the situation is different: Female professionals who self-report high ethical standards receive no pay penalty, and women who said that their schooling had raised their standards received a premium averaging5.5%.Source: The effect of ethics on labor market success: Evidence from MBAs

“From the beginning of recorded time until 2003, humans created five billion gigabytes of information (five exabytes). Last year, the same amount of information was created every two days. By next year, IBM and others expect that interval to shrink to every 10 minutes.  It is clear that to deal with all that data, we need new computing designs that solve the density dilemma.” 

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-05-02/the-case-against-digital-sprawl

Don’t wait until your health fails before living the life you want to live

by: Bronnie Ware | from: AARP | February 1, 2012

For many years I worked in palliative care. My patients were those who had gone home to die. Some incredibly special times were shared. I was with them for the last three to 12 weeks of their lives.

People grow a lot when they are faced with their own mortality. I learned never to underestimate someone’s capacity for growth. Some changes were phenomenal. Each experienced a variety of emotions, as expected: denial, fear, anger, remorse, more denial and eventually acceptance. Yet every single patient found peace before departing. Every one of them.

When questioned about any regrets they had or anything they would do differently, common themes surfaced. Here are the most common five:

1. I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.

This was the most common regret of all. When people realize that their life is almost over and look back clearly on it, it is easy to see how many dreams have gone unfulfilled. Most people have not honored even half of their dreams and had to die knowing that it was due to choices they’d made, or not made. It’s important to try to honor at least some of your dreams along the way. It’s too late once you lose your health. Health brings a freedom very few realize, until they no longer have it.

2. I wish I didn’t work so hard. This came from every male patient I nursed. They missed their children’s youth and their partner’s companionship. Women also spoke of this regret. But as most were from an older generation, many of the female patients had not been breadwinners. All of the men I nursed deeply regretted spending so much of their lives on the treadmill of a work existence. By simplifying your lifestyle and making conscious choices along the way, it is possible to not need the income that you think you do. And by creating more space in your life, you become happier and more open to new opportunities, ones more suited to your new lifestyle.

3. I wish I’d had the courage to express my feelings. Many people suppressed their feelings in order to keep peace with others. As a result, they settled for a mediocre existence and never became who they were truly capable of becoming. Many developed illnesses relating to the bitterness and resentment they carried as a result.We cannot control the reactions of others. However, although people may initially react when you change the way you are by speaking honestly, in the end it raises the relationship to a whole new and healthier level. Either that or it releases the unhealthy relationship from your life. Either way, you win.

4. I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends.

Often they would not truly realize the full benefits of old friends until their dying weeks, and it was not always possible to track them down. Many had become so caught up in their own lives that they had let golden friendships slip by over the years. There were many deep regrets about not giving friendships the time and effort they deserved. Everyone misses their friends when they are dying.

It is common for anyone in a busy lifestyle to let friendships slip. But when you are faced with your approaching death, the physical details of life fall away. People do want to get their financial affairs in order if possible. But it is not money or status that holds the true importance for them. They want to get things in order more for the benefit of those they love. Usually though, they are too ill and weary to ever manage this task. It all comes down to love and relationships in the end. That is all that remains in the final weeks: love and relationships.

5. I wish that I had let myself be happier. This is a surprisingly common one. Many did not realize until the end that happiness is a choice. They had stayed stuck in old patterns and habits. The so-called “comfort” of familiarity overflowed into their emotions, as well as their physical lives. Fear of change had them pretending to others, and to themselves, that they were content. When deep within, they longed to laugh properly and have silliness in their life again.

When you are on your deathbed, what others think of you is a long way from your mind. How wonderful to be able to let go and smile again, long before you are dying.

Life is a choice. It is your life. Choose consciously, choose wisely and choose honestly. Choose happiness.

Dow Chemical is preparing a new GMO crop which will lead to widespread use of the toxic chemical, 2,4-D — one half of Agent Orange — on our crops.  has been linked to higher rates of non-Hodgkins lymphoma, birth defects, fertility problems and Parkinson’s.

I signed on to tell the USDA not to approve Dow’s new GMO corn and to keep 2,4-D out of our food supply. You can join me at:

http://sumofus.org/campaigns/24-d/?sub=taf

Thank you.

Letter to the Brownie’s Executive:

After many years as a Brownies’ customer, without issue ever, we had a most unpleasant experience with your residential drain field team. Here is the whole long story; we hope you take the time to read it through.

After snaking the lines did not clear our issue, Neville from Brownies Wastewater solutions declared our drain field dead. Neville had also said that if what he did was not a solution any charges would be applied to the ultimate fix.

Sales was called to come out. On 2/15 the salesman showed up but two days later another salesman called to make an appointment unaware that we had already signed a contract. Estimate and deposit were negotiated with Pete who could not commit to area of dig, best location, or any work detail.  He said that soil samples and data from the engineer would determine a number of factors like if we needed a pump or a second tank or a mound etc. He committed be here with engineer the next day or day after. None of this ever happened. 

The engineer was here the following week without the salesman and did not provide us any data.

Salesman committed to follow up with details of requirements for size and mark area for excavation so we could remove plants. Also said he would follow up when soils came back to let us know results and would call when permit was issued so we could finalize schedule and take out landscaping we wanted to save. Nothing! Unless we tracked down Judy, Pete, or Pepper there was no proactive communication.

When we were told the Permit was issued, the copy of the permit was signed more than a week earlier.  We were told it called for a 2nd tank & a pump and that would require electricity and it was our responsibility to get the electrician and have that done. When? Where? How? Many questions with vague answers… later Pete came out with Ryan, who said we needed 36 tubes and no pump or tank were needed. Therefore no electricity was needed. A frantic hour making phone calls wasted! Again asked about marking excavation area and access. Did not happen only pointed to area and said from here to here take out everything. Also said they would need to redirect main water line from the street because they needed a 2 ’ clearance.  Planned a pump out on 3-16 to make it easier for the house sitter as we were leaving for vacation on from 3/18 to 3/25. This is noted on the Proposal.  Work was to start 3-26 at the earliest.

A few days later Judy called to say work will start 3-22. I questioned what was happening - site prep, rerouting of water line, what work was scheduled? Since the install was scheduled to be no earlier than 3/26, we thought this was just site preparation and we wanted to be there. Judy told me it was not necessary for us to be present. I said I need to know what was scheduled and a time because we definitely wanted to be here. We expected work to start 3/26. Judy committed to call to confirm. Never happened!  

Since this had become a complete debacle and we still had no definitive data, we opted to cancel our vacation. Cost to us $86.00 in cancellation fee thanks to travel insurance.

Pump out happened 3-21 after we called Pete that day to find out what they were doing on 3-22 and to once again try to confirm start time.

When the installation crew showed up that morning (3/22), they were unaware they needed to redirect the main water line. We called Pete. Pete said he told them but the crew has no materials and Pete had to go to the store to buy pipe - 2 hour delay to start time. The equipment could not use the agreed upon access because of the trees so they had to dig outside the agreed upon area where (1) landscaping was not removed and (2) the result was a smaller field because they had a dozer that required a ramp instead of an excavator.  Install crew indicated they get very little advance info on a site and that they have about 15 minutes to figure the job. Really??? Advance site information (digital camera) and proper equipment (pipes, excavator, fiberglass/plastic  shovel for hardscape, plywood for dozer tracks, agreed upon dirt staging areas) would have gone a long way to making this a more professional installation.

Called Pepper midday to say this job was not going well. Process, Planning, Communication and delivering on promise is the responsibility of the project manager. As such I expected that he be responsible for getting everyone on the same page and getting this job on track.

The crew was very helpful in moving 2 boulders and 3 large plants that were not possible to be moved without equipment and that did save 3 smaller trees. Then at the end of the day they told us they did not expect the system to pass because they could not install the required number of tubes per the permit and the there would need to be a variance requested.

No inspection by late afternoon the next day so we called Pepper to get status of inspection given the fact that they laid only 2/3 of the tubes. He was unconcerned and said that was all there was space for. When I said that my system had operated perfectly for 29 years and I would not be a happy woman if the lesser number of tubes would amount to a suboptimal system he said that I have had a “sucky” attitude from the beginning even given all the communication issues and that whatever the Dept of Health inspector says is what it will be and if don’t like it I can take it up with the State of FL. Thank you! As I was listening to this tirade I was looking at piles of dirt left suffocating the trees in the easement, an open ditch left without being roped off, and piles of dirt spilling into the roadway. All of which sat for 4 days waiting for inspection.  Pepper was not concerned about any of this. I told Pepper that I had put a call into you, Mike, and that I would wait for your call. Actually we put three calls in to you. You either never got any one of our three messages or also failed to respond. Pepper yelled that he would be happy to give me any info on you I needed…he sounded pretty confident no one was interested in his customer satisfaction rating!

I am enclosing pictures of the damage (not all included on blog) your CAT driver did to my driveway pavers, not with the CAT but with a metal shovel he used to get the sand off the pavers, speaks to the PM not scoping job and providing direction like use of a fiberglass or plastic shovel on pavers.  The easement trees were damaged unnecessarily; if you couldn’t use that path to take out the dirt without damaging the trees why would use it to fill the dig and damage the trees? Again the crew was very helpful in moving 2 boulders and 3 large plants that could not possibly be moved without equipment which we appreciated very much. This extra effort was the highlight of the experience.

So after all is said and done I cannot look at my yard and not hold you responsible for wreaking havoc with my trees and hardscape, never doing what you said you would do when you said you would do it, creating weeks of stress with unresolved issues, rudeness because I held you to your commitments, ignoring our messages to speak to management, and then presenting us with a bill for $6270.  And to add insult to injury, the $165 credit that Neville promised was never applied.

The best news was the system passed inspection and hopefully will perform for a respectable period without issue.

As a management consultant, I feel compelled to address these failures. There was no job planning, no delivery process, no site prep, no install process, no communication process (internal or external) and no project management in evidence.  Pete seemed unsure and unwilling to make any commitments.  Pepper is a glorified scheduler who never gets into the field with poor communication skills and no PM or management acumen.  Everything seems to be purposefully kept as vague as possible. Pete, Ryan, and the install crew are running to keep up due to the failures in process, training, and equipment. And they are working without a qualified PM, who given all the difficulties, made no final site inspection. Nor any attempt at follow up.

Although Brownies installed and maintained this system since ‘81, we wish we had contracted with anyone else. This project was hell!

I sincerely hope that you have gotten this far in the story and that this is the first you are hearing any of this! We are left with paying for an arborist to save our trees or we have to pay to take them down and replace them. We have to pay to fix the damaged pavers somehow because they look unsightly. We have lost landscaping due to last minute changes in access that will require hundreds of dollars of plants and years to re-grow.  We lost our long planned vacation with cancellation penalty. And we lost our loyalty and commitment to Brownies.

We are also salespeople from Philadelphia with many years of experience in fixing businesses & customer service and will certainly use this experience as a teaching tool and hope that this letter affords you the same opportunity and that you will institute a process that is less costly and stressful to your future customers.  

Postscript: Doing research to discover the names of the Brownies executives brought to light that company was sold last year to Freedom Environmental Services. They obviously don’t appreciate the good will that they paid for as part of that purchase transaction. 

Update: Two weeks have passed and Senior Manager at Brownies has not responded to three phone calls and the above post sent by email. I would warn all customers looking for drain field replacements to use another company. FES, the current owner of Brownies, has NO interest in customer satisfaction!