Facebook has been a part of my vocabulary and my life for just about the past year. I’ve learned so much from it, many things I didn’t know I needed to know. I’ve learned how to ‘friend’. I’ve learned how to ‘ignore’. And I’ve learned what it feels like to be ‘unfriended’. According to my grammar check, I’m not using those words right, but have I got news for my grammar check! Not only am I using them correctly in this blog, I’ve learned how to do them correctly on Facebook! Well, almost . . .
I first heard of Facebook when my brother sent me an email that said, “I found Shelley on Facebook, you should reconnect with her!” I didn’t know what Facebook was but, since he’s my younger brother and technically I should be smarter than him, I pretended to know what he was talking about. So I googled Facebook and checked Snopes.com for the scam-factor, then signed up for it and off I went.
I read up on what you should and should not do on Facebook, especially if you have a public profile. I found webpage after webpage on what you shouldn’t post: underage drinking, where the next party is, inappropriate pictures or anything negative about my job or the people I work with or my in-laws. What I couldn’t find, however, is how you should do things. Had I found that, I might not have made some critical Facebook errors.
One of the first connections/mistakes I made was through a WMU alumni group. I found someone I went to college with and sent him a ‘friend’ request. He accepted, made pleasantries, then weeks went by and I hadn’t heard from him or get any more updates. That is when I learned that I had been ‘unfriended’. Initially, it hurt my feelings, but seriously, we hadn’t communicated in the past 20 years and had one class together in college, so what did I expect? It’s no different than running into someone you haven’t seen awhile and saying, ‘let’s get together soon’ and then he/she doesn’t call. My semi-faux pas? ‘Friending’ someone who I could have just sent a note to. That way, if he had an interest in ‘friending’ me, he could have done so. At least he would have known I was interested, right? Do I even really care? 20 years later? Not really, but I am still talking about it, so maybe?
Another possible faux pas I made on Facebook was deleting a comment that someone had made to my ‘status update’. Well, I didn’t think it was a ‘faux pas’, but apparently I should only delete if it’s offensive or bordering on illegal? I’m not a negative person and the comment was really negative and altered the whole tone of my status update. And since it is MY update, I can make that call, right?
I haven’t figured this one out yet, but do my husband and I have to ‘friend’ all the same people? Just because he is friends with someone we both know, does that mean I have to ‘friend’ them too? If I ‘ignore’ one of his relatives ‘friend’ requests, am I committing a major faux pas? In my world . . . well, I haven’t decided yet.
I’ll just sit on this one and continue to read other blogs until I find out.
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Jumping to Conclusions
Every new job posting brings hundreds of new resumes. Having been the one to send my resume out in to cyberspace, I know how frustrating it can be, so we set up an automated response for every submittal. While we can’t do it personally, we still wanted to let candidates know their resume was received.
More often than not, we get a ‘thank you for the thank you’ type of email from candidates. For some reason, however, some people take offense to this. Last week alone, I received three negative emails in response to this. The opinion, in short, was that getting an automated response was worse than hearing nothing, figuring, apparently, that there is no ‘personal’ attention behind us or our positions. That we are, instead, just a ‘generic’, automated company that churns out one robotic position after another. Wow, at least they got to know us; who we are and what we are all about.
Had they taken the time to investigate our company and our values, they would have seen that our ‘generic’ response is to let people know that their submittal was not in vain and that we do appreciate them. Our goal is to help as many people get back to work as possible and we are firm in our belief that, working together, we can really make a difference and put Detroit back on the map.
Had they taken the time to talk to us, they would have known that we started this business with all the passion and commitment needed to make a difference. They would have understood our matchmaking; finding that strong match between the culture of the company and the personality of the employee. We can teach computer skills but we can’t teach someone to be something they are not.
Had they taken the time to read our blog, they would have learned that we are committed to our clients, our employees and our community. We offer so much of ourselves to help things get back on track that sometimes there isn’t enough left for our families and friends. We encourage, we mentor and we give hope. We offer personal stories of how we are coping in these times, all in effort to say that ‘We get it’. We understand what things are like out there.
We also understand that in order to make things happen, sometimes we need a little extra ‘technical’ help. So, if that automated response, offends you, I am sorry. It is not intended to offend anyone. Instead, it’s an attempt to say that we feel your pain and we are glad you reached out to us. Sometimes you are right in jumping to conclusions and sometimes you aren’t. It’s a shame if you don’t get the chance to find out.
More often than not, we get a ‘thank you for the thank you’ type of email from candidates. For some reason, however, some people take offense to this. Last week alone, I received three negative emails in response to this. The opinion, in short, was that getting an automated response was worse than hearing nothing, figuring, apparently, that there is no ‘personal’ attention behind us or our positions. That we are, instead, just a ‘generic’, automated company that churns out one robotic position after another. Wow, at least they got to know us; who we are and what we are all about.
Had they taken the time to investigate our company and our values, they would have seen that our ‘generic’ response is to let people know that their submittal was not in vain and that we do appreciate them. Our goal is to help as many people get back to work as possible and we are firm in our belief that, working together, we can really make a difference and put Detroit back on the map.
Had they taken the time to talk to us, they would have known that we started this business with all the passion and commitment needed to make a difference. They would have understood our matchmaking; finding that strong match between the culture of the company and the personality of the employee. We can teach computer skills but we can’t teach someone to be something they are not.
Had they taken the time to read our blog, they would have learned that we are committed to our clients, our employees and our community. We offer so much of ourselves to help things get back on track that sometimes there isn’t enough left for our families and friends. We encourage, we mentor and we give hope. We offer personal stories of how we are coping in these times, all in effort to say that ‘We get it’. We understand what things are like out there.
We also understand that in order to make things happen, sometimes we need a little extra ‘technical’ help. So, if that automated response, offends you, I am sorry. It is not intended to offend anyone. Instead, it’s an attempt to say that we feel your pain and we are glad you reached out to us. Sometimes you are right in jumping to conclusions and sometimes you aren’t. It’s a shame if you don’t get the chance to find out.
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Faces Not Numbers
Over the past couple of weeks, WCSXs’ Deminski & Doyle have been putting together a campaign of ‘faces’ of the auto industry here in Detroit. I believe they have over 3000 faces on this 100 foot long banner. Today they are unveiling it at the Chrysler Sterling Heights Assembly plant at 16 Mile and Van Dyke; then Thursday, Washington DC. Deminski & Doyle will be doing their show live from Washington. The theme song for this campaign is, quite appropriately, Bob Segers’ “Feel Like a Number”.
So, those are the facts to the campaign. Behind every great ‘campaign’ there is a great story. The story, in this case, is a story told by many thousands of families in the Metro Detroit area and across the country. Across our region are generations of families involved with the auto industry. Over the years their hard work ‘created’ the middle class, put kids through college that may not have otherwise had the opportunity and generously spent their disposable income in our community.
Fast forward to the present and our situation looks very different. Our middle class is slowly disappearing. We’ve seen housing values drop, and while we’d love to move to that house we’ve had our eye on and now we can ‘afford’, we can’t sell our house and we can’t get financing. We are driving 10 year old cars and have over 130,000 miles because we can’t get financing to buy a new vehicle.
Kids who had dreams of going away to college are now looking, at best, at local community colleges. Not that these colleges aren’t good, but living in a dorm room on a college campus is half of the experience. We learned how to make responsible decisions and live on our own. We learned how to manage our time, make new friends, and become the person we wanted to be. We can still do that, but now we are doing that while living with our parents, having dinner at 5:00, and a curfew of 11:00 (remember “our house, our rules”?).
The disposable income we used to have now goes to paying the rent, mortgage, utility bills and food. No more spending, other than the necessities, which unfortunately takes a toll on the businesses in the area. Eating out has been replaced by more home cooked meals. Nights out have been replaced by movie nights (ON DEMAND is a great option) at home. Popping pop corn is a great treat, but it just doesn’t compare to movie theatre popcorn.
This story, however, has an unknown ending. At this point, it’s up to us to do what we can to make a difference and bring back those ‘luxuries’ we once knew. We can buy America, we can buy local and we can reinvent ourselves to take advantage of the industries that are hiring. If that means going back to school and learning a new trade, then we must do it. We should utilize the programs that are coming available through this new administration to get ourselves, our families and our communities back on track. The warmer weather will allow us to spend less on our heat and more daylight hours will allow us to spend less on our electric bills. Maybe we’ll even do a weekend camping trip up north and enjoy what Michigan has to offer. If we’re feeling real crazy, we may have a 4th of July party and invite our family, friends and neighbors. We may even learn what other people are doing to make a difference during this time and it’ll give us some ideas on what we can do different.
While not an ending, it can be a new chapter in a new direction. Like those ‘create your own’ books from when we were kids, each choice we make opens new doors and new opportunities. The ‘ending’ may be unknown, but we can make choices along the way that can, and will, make a difference.
So, those are the facts to the campaign. Behind every great ‘campaign’ there is a great story. The story, in this case, is a story told by many thousands of families in the Metro Detroit area and across the country. Across our region are generations of families involved with the auto industry. Over the years their hard work ‘created’ the middle class, put kids through college that may not have otherwise had the opportunity and generously spent their disposable income in our community.
Fast forward to the present and our situation looks very different. Our middle class is slowly disappearing. We’ve seen housing values drop, and while we’d love to move to that house we’ve had our eye on and now we can ‘afford’, we can’t sell our house and we can’t get financing. We are driving 10 year old cars and have over 130,000 miles because we can’t get financing to buy a new vehicle.
Kids who had dreams of going away to college are now looking, at best, at local community colleges. Not that these colleges aren’t good, but living in a dorm room on a college campus is half of the experience. We learned how to make responsible decisions and live on our own. We learned how to manage our time, make new friends, and become the person we wanted to be. We can still do that, but now we are doing that while living with our parents, having dinner at 5:00, and a curfew of 11:00 (remember “our house, our rules”?).
The disposable income we used to have now goes to paying the rent, mortgage, utility bills and food. No more spending, other than the necessities, which unfortunately takes a toll on the businesses in the area. Eating out has been replaced by more home cooked meals. Nights out have been replaced by movie nights (ON DEMAND is a great option) at home. Popping pop corn is a great treat, but it just doesn’t compare to movie theatre popcorn.
This story, however, has an unknown ending. At this point, it’s up to us to do what we can to make a difference and bring back those ‘luxuries’ we once knew. We can buy America, we can buy local and we can reinvent ourselves to take advantage of the industries that are hiring. If that means going back to school and learning a new trade, then we must do it. We should utilize the programs that are coming available through this new administration to get ourselves, our families and our communities back on track. The warmer weather will allow us to spend less on our heat and more daylight hours will allow us to spend less on our electric bills. Maybe we’ll even do a weekend camping trip up north and enjoy what Michigan has to offer. If we’re feeling real crazy, we may have a 4th of July party and invite our family, friends and neighbors. We may even learn what other people are doing to make a difference during this time and it’ll give us some ideas on what we can do different.
While not an ending, it can be a new chapter in a new direction. Like those ‘create your own’ books from when we were kids, each choice we make opens new doors and new opportunities. The ‘ending’ may be unknown, but we can make choices along the way that can, and will, make a difference.
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