Entries from November 2008 ↓

“I don’t have time to read blogs, never mind write one.”

Tell me you haven’t heard that one in the hallways.  It’s right up there with “If my boss caught me doing that kind of stuff, I’d get in trouble.”  Hey, I work for a place that’s pretty enlightened about this kind of thing and I still hear it.
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When I launched the blog, I tried to post on every working day.  After having the baby, I tried to post 2-3 times a week.  But even that hasn’t always been easy.

And now, I’m getting busier.  This week starts the pilot of the EMC ControlCenter Online User Community I mentioned earlier this year.  I’m going to be heavily involved in trying to keep it thriving.  There’s also the fact that we’re all trying to do more with less.  As I find myself taking work home, I find myself having less time (and inclination) to fine tune a blog post at 10 PM.  And as much as I love my readers, you don’t pay my salary :).

Finally, of course, we’re heading into the holiday season.  It’s a time when I try to spend my spare hours with my family, and not in front of the computer.

So I’m slowing down a bit.  I’ll make an effort to post weekly, and I’ll occasionally drop in with a mid-week post when something interests me.  Heck, you’ll probably find a Casual Friday post or two showing up.  But I’m not looking for rigid scheduled posting, right now.

If you absolutely need your Dave Talks Shop fix, follow me on twitter.  You’ll learn all my secrets….

Work life and personal life aren’t always “two great tastes that taste great together.”  But in today’s workplace, it is inevitable that they will mix.  A recent post on Management Issues asked how much personal time was allowable during the workday, as many workers confessed to spending up to two hours a day on maintaining their personal lives.

The gut reaction you seem to get from that is surprise at people spending 25% of their work day on personal distractions.  But I think it’s important to challenge that reaction, for a number of reasons.

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I know what you’re thinking.  I’ve created a provocative headline to lure you in, and the actual post that follows is going to be nowhere near as interesting as the title.  Maybe you’re right, in which case I apologize.  But this post came about as an extension to some conversation I’ve had recently with people at EMC, on the subject of change, turmoil, and heightened expectations.  And when I put it like that, maybe there are some comparisons I can draw between Barack Obama and my work environment.
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By now, you’ve seen the press releases and read the entries on my colleagues’ blogs.  EMC Atmos is officially a product, and now all the speculation about Cloud Optimized Storage can end, and the arguing about what the product can and should do can begin.

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If you’re active in social media, blogging, twittering, meeting and connecting with people across the world and across your workplace in new and exciting ways, you’re probably used to making your voice heard.  You’re probably getting used to the fact that real work gets done in these back channels.  But tomorrow in the US is about the front channels.

I’m not here to endorse a candidate.  I’m here to endorse the process of voting.  Regardless of how you feel about the presidential race, there are real issues being decided in hundreds of local elections across the country tomorrow.  Sometimes issues like these are decided by a handful of votes.  Staying home because you’re apathetic about the president, or because you know your vote won’t change your state’s “color” on the CNN map Tuesday night is a mistake.

Even if “your” candidate or cause loses tomorrow, you’ve taken a step to being more involved.  You’re not just watching from the sidelines, you’re participating.  There’s a reason we’re all active here online — and those reasons apply just as much in person as they do here with the ones and zeroes.

So come in to work an hour late, leave an hour early, whatever, and get to the polls.