Drunk Dialing

Mobile phone + C2H5OH = Dead Career!

tough day at work...just closed a deal...end of the week

Have a few drinks last night?

Check your mobile: who did you call???

In the past five years I've worked with a surprising number of talented professionals who've blown their careers by dialing drunk: drinking socially or to unwind, then hitting their mobile, deliberately or accidentally, to vent or boast to staff, colleagues - even bosses!

Invective and self-promotion are rarely (if ever!) great ways to build or engage in working relationships... but when you add alcohol to the mix, you reveal more about yourself than you realise: and none of what they see, does you, or the relationship, any good.

If you have a propensity to fuel your mobile with dutch courage, the short-term fix is to give your phone to a trustworthy friend and get them to lock it away until you're stone cold sober. Another option is to switch to a phone provider who allows you to bar calls to specified numbers for fixed periods - before you have a drink, call the provider and bar all work numbers until 6 the next morning. It might be a bit of a hassle, but it can save your career!

The long-term fix is to deal with your alcohol problem, because yes, you DO have one!

Drink & Dial? Save it 'til you're sober!

Who Learns More When A Fool & Wise Person Meet?

Are you still using Winndoze 95? or OhEss8? 

Do you still use a computer with a 2 Gig hard drive and 128K ram...Are you working with EmEsWurd2000 without virus protection?

No? 

Really!?  Why not?

Ahhh....Because you can't run 21st century programs on outdated platforms...?

Uhhuhhh...

And because there's so many nasty viruses around these days

Uhhuhh... I see... makes sense really...

So...may I ask... 

• how often do you upgrade your mental operating system to prevent the human equivalents of freezing (paralysis by analysis), crashing (dummy-spits, freak-outs) or start-up problems?
• how up-to-date do you keep your anit-virus thinking to protect against nasty workplace viruses like Hubris, Arrogance, Know-It-Allism, Negativity, Cynicism, Apathy, Complacency, High Anxiety, Doom & Gloom? 
• what new software have you 'installed' (by reading, studying, listening, researching, travelling, mixing with new people) to handle the complexity & dynamics of 21st century work?
  

If you're still doing things the way you've always done them, if you're still doing what you've always done... sorry, but your pyramid's going down... because on this planet (as far as I know) there are only two options: decay or growth.

Am I Teachable?

I know, I know...

It's not my fault...

Yeah, I know...

But...

Yes but....

That's because...

What you don't understand is...

It takes too much time...

I don't see that as a problem...

I disagree...

You don't understand...

But that wouldn't make any difference...

What's the point?

I can't do anything about that...

It's just the way I am...

It wouldn't feel natural...

No, no, no....

That won't work...

We've tried it before..

Too risky...

It wouldn't make any difference...

That's too hard...

You're making it sound too simple...it's really complicated...

No point in me doing anything different...THEY won't change...

THEY need to be here... not me...

.........................................................................sigh...