(no subject)

Good morning all, and welcome to A Not So Brief Lesson In Holiday Giving.

I received an email this morning -- and I'm not angry at the person who sent it, honestly kiddo, you know I like you -- about how to choose where your philanthropic dollars go. The email did make me really angry, on a number of levels, because it was so very wrong, and because I can see it going viral and screwing up a lot of good campaigns with misinformation.

( Why we pay CEOs so much, and how to be a critical reader. )

To sum up: when people ask you for money, be critical. Know who's getting your money, know what they believe, and if you can't get hard facts, be suspicious. Most charities are listed on charitynavigator.org and have a website; they will have mission statements and should have financial information.

It's your money and your choice. You are free to support who you wish. But I hope when and if you do, you do it with intelligence and open eyes. Don't give money to people who won't make public where it goes, and don't let uncited meme emails tell you how to give.

(no subject)

Today was so surreal. I keep trying to write a coherent post about it and being all "Wait, should I talk about my train getting diverted this morning, or about the breakfast pastry war that happened in the kitchen, or about BossBoss questioning me about the book I loaned him..."

Let's go with that. BossBoss is reading Made To Stick, but he's reading the copy I loaned him, which has all my underlining and margin notes in it. I did not realise this would be a little bit like him reading my brain.

He regularly sends me policy documents and responses to "challenging" emails, so that I can look them over, fix any spelling problems, and make recommendations for clarity and tact. This afternoon he sent me an email SO PROUD because he'd used the "inverted pyramid" from the book to make his point. It was very well done, too! Now I'm worried my usefulness as an editor may be coming to a close. Fortunately he's putting me in charge of building access --

Oh wait, yeah, let's talk about this: I'm now in charge of building access. Remember how we were revamping our security? Turns out, it's now my job to make sure everyone's access cards work when they're trying to get into our offices. With a few clicks on a website, I can totally revoke someone's access to our office, OR I can give them supreme unlimited 24/7 access to everything. I can lock every door leading into our offices, on every floor we occupy, without leaving my desk.

The potential for shenanigans is very high. I would never abuse this kind of power, but a man can dream.

In the end it's a good thing. For one, it means if we get news that an insane client is on his way to our offices to wreak havoc, I can put our office into lockdown in about thirty seconds. Not that this happens a great deal, but in the coming-on-three-years I've been with the company, we've had two insane clients and one enraged ex-staff-member, and I have a vested interest in crazy people not being able to get into our office.

Mind you, given the debate that broke out this morning over banana nut muffins, the crazy people might be in the office already...