Posted: Thu 1 October, 2015 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Business, Domestic, Laziness, Own Business, People, Thoughts, Weirdness, Work-related |
As regular readers (what few there are) know by now, this year I’ve been renting a small office in a big building. On each floor there’s ten or so small to medium-sized businesses, so there’s a fair number of things going on at any given time, and deliveries are just par for the course.
What surprises me (still) though is how unaware so many of the people in those companies are. It’s a regular occurrence for delivery people to come up and not find a business, so ask another one where the recipient business is. And it seems like hardly anyone else knows even who’s on this floor, let alone the others in the building.
All of which strikes me as pretty strange. After all, the people at this end of the building walk past all the other businesses/offices on the way here. Yet they obviously haven’t paid attention to the signs outside the other offices, saying who’s in each one.
I know the names of all the companies – not the employees, obviously, that’d be stalkery – and where they are on this floor. Come to that, I’ve a pretty good idea of all the businesses in the building – if not a precise direction then at least to the point of which floor, and which way to go out of the lifts to get to them.
Surely I’m not the only person who does this? It’s only a basic awareness of stuff around me, after all…
Posted: Wed 2 September, 2015 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: 1BEM, Agency Idiocy, Business, Corbett, Customer Services, Geeky, Laziness, Marketing, People, Stupidity, Thoughts |
Yet again, today there’s a story about another place revealing a confidential list of customers in emails – and as usual, in what’s known as a Corbett round here (courtesy of a certain Irish marketing person) it’s looking like the leaker sent the email using CC instead of BCC.
In this case, the information is even more sensitive than usual, as it’s people who’ve used a particular STI clinic in London, and may have also revealed their HIV status. Oh, bloody whoops.
It amazes me how often this seems to happen – and how easy it should be to fix.
The first answer is, obviously, train people.
But after that, it’s about defending against laziness and stupidity. But even that’s pretty easy.
All it really needs is a block on recipients in CC. If you’re sending an email and it’s got more than (say) 10 addresses in the CC field, it simply asks if you’re sure you want to send it with those people in CC rather than BCC. That’s an email-client thing – but is easy to do.
It can’t be that difficult – my own email clients all already ask if I want to send an email with no attachments if the message contains keywords like ‘attached’ or ‘CV’, after all.
A similar thing could be done on the mail-server as well – put in a rule that if there’s more than [defined limit] of addresses in the CC, it doesn’t send without an authorisation, an acknowledgement that this is OK.
There will still be the odd blithering fucktrumpet who manages to send out a whole mailing-list in CC (or even To) – but at least make it harder for them to do so.
Surely that’s not asking too much?
Posted: Tue 18 August, 2015 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Business, Cynicism, Green, Laziness, Own Business, People, Thoughts, Work-related |
In the office building I share with a bundle of other companies, I find I have my irritations. I know, shocking.
One that regularly annoys me is the way people shove on all the lights – even in public spaces where they’re not necessary – and completely fail to then turn them off again.
At the start of the day, people come in and just automatically turn on every sodding light – regardless of the conditions outside, the time of year, or of anyone else in any other offices. In short, the entire place is lit up like fucking fairyland – even in the height of summer, when you don’t need the lights on at all.
The same applies in the toilets – again, an area that at this time of year really doesn’t need any illumination other than daylight. But no, on go the lights, and then no other fucker turns them off again.
Of course, I don’t mind people turning on the lights when they need them. What bugs me is that they then don’t bother to turn them off when they leave the rooms/facilities.
But the thing is, everyone pays a piece of the electricity bill. You’d think that would encourage some responsibility, some desire to only use what’s necessary. But of course that’d require some vague sense of altruism, of being interested in something other than self, of just giving a shit about things. And that’s what’s missing.
Grrrr.
Posted: Fri 31 July, 2015 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Business, Domestic, Milton Keynes, People, Thoughts, Weirdness, Work-related |
This year, I’ve been renting an office in a building in Milton Keynes – it’s been a good deal, and is suiting me pretty well. There’s lots of other small and medium businesses in the building, and my floor contains quite a diverse range.
However, Fridays are invariably odd here.
I don’t know why/how, but a significant number of the companies and businesses here just don’t seem to come in on Fridays. It means my floor of the building is like a ghost-town, and it’s just a bit weird.
I don’t mind, it’s just something I’ve noticed that seems strange.
Posted: Fri 13 February, 2015 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: 2014/15, Bankruptcy, Business, Domestic, Finances, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Getting Organised, Own Business, Thoughts, Work-related |
Among other ongoing things, I finally got confirmation today that I’ve sorted a new account for my limited company, so I can start doing things properly come April.
There’s still a bundle of other things to sort out along the way – but it’s a major step forward.
It’s progress for me personally as well, because this account has needed credit-scoring to get it started, and it’s still been accepted. That’s definitely A Good Thing, and bodes well for the future.
Posted: Mon 9 February, 2015 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Business, Change, Creativity, Domestic, Finances, Getting Organised, Own Business, Work-related |
I don’t know what’s been going on this last week, but I’ve been feeling pretty wiped-out all week. Not health-wise as such, there’s been no illness or anything to speak of – but my mood has just been flat and a bit demotivated. Not depressed – I know that one way too well – but just…. tired. I guess it’s just been one of those weeks.
Despite that, though, there’s been progress with other stuff.
As well as the normal work – which I’ve still been able to get enough done on – I’ve also finally got a business bank account sorted for once this contract comes to an end. Considering everything else that’s gone on, that’s quite something, and I’m really pleased about it.
I’ve also finalised the paperwork for renting the office for the next few months, so that should be a go from next week, with any luck.
So it’s all looking pretty promising. The first month of this year has already been more positive than pretty much all of last year. I’m not counting my chickens just yet, but things so far are looking up.
Now if only I could get back to being a bit more motivated and driven about it all…
Posted: Fri 23 January, 2015 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Bankruptcy, Business, Customer Services, Domestic, Own Business, Work-related |
This week has actually been pretty positive when it comes to sorting out things for my own company again.
As mentioned earlier in the week, I had a look at an office to rent – and signed up for it. Annoyingly, it’s not available until mid-February, but that should still work out fine for what I want/need. It’s only a little place, but it’ll give me the time, space and office I want, and allow me to do a lot of other stuff too.
At the same time, I chased up the farce that has been the application for my company business account. It’s a long story, and one I won’t bother with ’til I know more, but it’s been bloody annoying. Standard bank incompetence, and hardly a great way to get business in, but well, we’ll see.
What with those achievements, plus the car MOT and so on, it all feels pretty positive! Most unnatural and surprising…