The Wheel and Axle

On this day in 2008, Barack Obama made history by being the first black person to be elected as the President of the United States of America. This was most certainly quite a victory, given the long history of racial tensions in the USA that stretches back to the days of slavery.

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It’s the start of a four-day weekend (for the Philippines, anyway), so here’s to the coming holiday full of remembering our dearly departed and, of course, some halloween fun!

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Continued From:

Stupid? No, you’re just self-entitled. (Part 2)

7. “Stupid Rules For Performance Reviews.” First off, let me just say that many companies are now doing away with the bell curve. The remaining ones, however, usually have controls to ensure a fair assessment.

There’s a financial component to a stack rank: a company cannot give 100% of its employees a 20% annual raise. It needs to bucketize. Top performers get higher raises, those who meet goals get basic raises, and those who under-perform… well, why reward a lazy freeloader?

Top performers also get to be considered for promotions more often.

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Continued From:

Stupid? No, you’re just self-entitled. (Part 1)

4. “Stupid Internet Restrictions.” No matter how diligent you yourself are, there will always be that person – or several persons – who will abuse privileges.

You might not be an abuser, but if you belong in a company of 1,000, I guarantee you there will be many who would be. Multiply that by individual lost productivity as well as strain to network bandwidth, and you should have an idea why such restrictions exist.

However, the more important reason for such restrictions is risk management, especially for companies that deal with financial and personal information.

There have been cases of fraud where credit card data weee stolen and sent out via social media or personal email, costing some companies millions of dollars in penalties, loss of business, and damage to reputation.

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I recently came across this article that complains about “stupid” policies that basically ruin office life and chase employees away. Supposedly.

The author of this stupid article has obviously never been in a leadership role that requires one to manage productivity, quality, risk, and profitability, among other things.

And when I did some research and found her LinkedIn profile based on information on her profile on the website she posted on, yes, it’s true. She is an R&D employee who doesn’t seem to have any legitimate qualifications to discuss how a company should be run. Now, I do not think all millennials are self-entitled, but this one certainly fits the stereotype.

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Today is Wonder Woman Day.

And it’s not just any Wonder Woman Day.

It’s a United Nations-declared Wonder Woman Day!

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Accurate. Here’s to a happy and fruitful week ahead, everyone!

I still remember learning about King Bhumibol Adultadej (Rama IX) back in high school circa 1992 during Ma’am Stella’s Asian History class. I became fascinated by Thailand’s monarchy afterwards.

The King was one of the most beloved monarchs in the world. Aside from their law that disallows the defamation or insults of their king, queen, and heir (in place even before he was crowned), he comes from a line that ensured that Siam would never be colonized. Moreover, he himself has been seem as a calming and unifying force in Thai politics; although he has limited powers (being a constitutional monarch), he has used his influence to ease high tension periods of the country.

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If you want to be a propaganda machine pretending to be knowledgeable about things that you have no idea about, I suggest you either do your research to get your facts right or else just stick to what you know (which is obviously minimal).

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Last weekend, my lady Kate McKinnon as well Alec Baldwin did an awesome and hilarious parody on SNL of the first 2016 US Presidential Debate (which happened just the Monday prior). It is so spot-on that we all should be frightened – simply because this impersonation is exactly what Donald Trump truly is, and perhaps Alec’s portrayal is even tamer than the real thing. Trump’s this close not only to becoming president of his own country but also the most powerful man in the world.

And that is a frightening thought indeed.

Do the right thing, American brothers and sisters!