Surviving the Workday

create your own visited states map
or check out these Google Hacks.

Via Ms. Kitty

I’m feeling fairly smug that I’m roughly three months ahead of the mainstream news cycle on the No China Diet. We saw a story on not buying from China on NBC news this week (the online version), and GhostGirl just sent me this link to an AP story, Is Made In China avoidable?

Both of these stories start at the point I was at a couple of months ago. This is the moment in which you understand some of China’s violations. You go to Target or Ann Taylor or Trader Joe’s and wonder what the hell can you buy that’s not made in China. It’s all made in China. So you feel like giving up entirely.

Unfortunately both news stories stopped there.

There are a lot of good reasons to avoid products from China, but the reason that gets the most attention recently is that some of the products contain poison. But China has an absolutely egregious record on human rights (like forced abortions at nine months), workers’ rights, environmental issues, and intellectual property theft. This is the result of completely unchecked capitalism. It hasn’t led to democracy; it’s led to a very crazy place in which the only thing that matters is how cheaply you can produce a good. You torture and imprison the people who object, you violate your own regulations for safety of workers and the products they produce, and you dump the pollutants into the water supply.

But if we in the United States go to Target or Footlocker and just start picking up items and checking where they’re made, you’re going to find that most they are made in China. You have to begin with the manufacturer rather than the store. Scott at Boy in the Bands is particularly good at this.

My dollars should support my values. If my values do not agree with Chinese official and unofficial policies, I’m not going to buy their goods. And, yes, I’m one person (in a two-family + one dog household). But I’m not going to do it.

The No China Diet restricts my buying somewhat, but there are many alternatives to buying products from China that we don’t hear about daily in the news. For example, here is a list of places to buy clothes that are sweatshop-free and here are some tips on buying pre-owned clothing. You can buy your produce locally. You can grow produce.

For more information, you might want to read my posts on overcoming objections to the No China Diet and my motivations. There are alternatives to buying items made in sweatshops.

So that they may be mocked. God bless Disney.

Amy Tan posts her rejection letters from Joy Luck Club every year at Squaw. I think it’s not a bad idea to save these puppies.

and I totally forgot about the quiz. Totally commercial. Sorta funny.

Does everyone end up in Human Resources? How did you score?

The New York Times has a good question and answer session today in Shifting Careers.

Here’s the question:

The people you write about seem to build satisfying careers because they have many passions. What if I’ve been working for a while and have never found anything you can call “work” that I’m passionate about?

Read the answers.

Reliable estimates are that more than 60 percent of the seafood that is rejected at the U.S. border by the F.D.A. comes from China. For what reason? Filth. Yes, filth followed by salmonella.

Wait, there’s more.

Yes, friends, filth and salmonella are not the only reasons to avoid Chinese seafood. The F.D.A raised a particular alert for shrimp, eel, basa, which is related to catfish, and dace, which is related to carp, because of routine contamination with carcinogens and antibiotics.

Mmmm…

If your toothpaste looks like this, don’t use it:

Roughly 900,000 tubes containing a poison used in some antifreeze products have turned up in hospitals for the mentally ill, prisons, juvenile detention centers and even some hospitals serving the general population.

Do you pray or meditate at your desk in order to manage your day better?

Do you study of a religious text to guide important decisions at work?

Do you use images or scents to inspire your work at a deadly dull job?

I’m seeking dramatic stories about how real people use spirituality in their day-to-day work.

I’m hoping that some readers of this blog (or friends of readers) will consent to be interviewed for an article I’m writing about spirituality and the workplace.

If you’re interested, leave a comment here or email me at ms dot theologian at gmail dot com. We can talk on the phone about your spirituality and the workplace experience.

Please forward this post to people who might be interested. Thank you!

By reframing the job interview as both an interview of you and an interview of an employer, you can gain valuable information. Here are four questions that I always explore with potential employers and clients:

1. What do you think good work looks like? By asking to see examples of their product (or discussing examples you’ve already seen), or asking what a “good sale” looks like, you get an idea about the values of the company.

Very often companies have “public values” that you can find on their web site (or in the mission statement) that conflict with the “private values” of how the company is run. For example, if a “good sale” involves someone screwing someone else, you don’t have to believe the mission statement about honesty in sales on the wall.

I’ve also had people show me examples of their best work that appalled me from an editorial point of view. If they’re proud of something that leaves you queasy, this is not a good sign.

2. What are your expectations for the person in this position? It’s quite possible to ask this question flat out, and get a recitation of the job description as the answer. It’s also possible to ask this question, and have a very confused potential employer. Both responses give you information.

3. How do you deal with questions? If you ask how a procedure or policy was developed, and you get a serious answer, this is a good sign. This means that someone has been paying attention. But often questions make employers uncomfortable or they are simply not knowledgable. Better to know this at the interview.

4. How much money are we talking about? You should never ask this flat out. But I think you can tell a lot about income by the clothing people wear, by the cars in the parking lot, by the sort of building that is rented, by the area of town, even by the vacation photos on someone’s desk. You can also tell something about how well people pay (and what the benefits package is like) by asking about how long people stay.

In China Mine Boss Jailed Over Death, we learn a couple interesting facts about China:

• With enough uproar inside and outside of China over the death of an investigative journalist at a mine, President Hu Jintao was forced to act;

• Accusations of “false journalism” (a variety of extortion) are not uncommon;

• Mine owners are frequently accused of ignoring government regulations in order to increase their profits; and

• 5,000 people a year die in China’s mines, which are consider some of the most dangerous in the world.

I’m not sure I’ve gone on and on about how much I love Tikkun recently. I should add that hearing Cornel West and Michael Lerner speak at the University of Chicago was one of the best intellectual experiences of my life. Lerner is the founder of Tikkun.

An excerpt from Richard Rohr’s My Problem with Religion from Tikkun:

I believe there is a deep dilemma and contradiction at the heart of institutional Christianity. Maybe it is even a necessary one. All I know is that it can only be resolved by authentic inner experience, “prayer,” mysticism, or dare I call it, “spirituality.” I am convinced that religion, in its common cultural and external forms, largely protects the ego, especially the group ego, instead of transforming it. If people do not go beyond first level metaphors, rituals, and comprehension, most religions seem to end up with a God who is often angry, petulant, needy, jealous, and who will love us only if we are “worthy” and belonging to the correct group. We end up with the impossible scenario of a God who is “small,” and often less loving than the best people we know!

I’ve read the essay three times. You might want to read it.

I think a little scent in the office is okay. Really. I don’t think it’s okay if other people smell it, but if it’s between you and a lemon, a snip of sage, or a bottle of essential oil, you’re fine in my book.

I’ve been growing a basil plant at my window.* I started the seeds in a pot, covered with plastic wrap, and now I have quite the little seedling. I used the leaves for cooking recently, so it’s a bit defoliated. But several times a day, I’ll touch one of the leaves, which brings out the scent of basil.

Basil is supposedly a good smell for intellectual fatigue, which I suffer from. Daily. Here are some more essential oils and their uses. I don’t think you need to go whole hog with the essential oil, though that’s often convenient. A little herb snip or lemon on your desk is often enough to conjure a nice smell and not annoy your cube mates. Herb tea can also serve the same purpose.

Any favorite scents that you use during the workday?

*Binoculars are for birding since my window overlooks our garden. Not necessarily watching the neighbors. That would be creepy.

Please read this editorial in the New York Times on the Home Depot amendment:

The amendment would prohibit state and local laws that required big home-improvement stores to provide rudimentary shelter for day laborers.

You can hire day laborers to build your house, but why give them some shade and a toilet while they wait for work? That’s the city’s problem. Nice.

I can see that I’m becoming more interested in this topic of how businesses and non-profits treat their customers and clients. Two more stories:

College of the Canyons Jim and I would like to take Italian at our local community college, which opened a new branch literally down the road. We took Italian last summer at UCLA extension, which was excellent, but a bit of a haul twice a week, and sort of expensive. The community college is far cheaper, but, according to the registration guide I received in the mail, in order to take a class, we have to:

fill out an application on-line (all right)
send our high school and all college transcripts (this is where my problem starts)
take assessment tests in writing, reading, and math (and here is where my problem continues)
take an online orientation and quiz (at this point, I’ve already given up).

This has been enough for us not to register at College of the Canyons in the past. But my neighbor, a faculty member, insists that we do not have to. So I poked around on-line and guess what? I see that on-line where the policies are explained in more detail that I don’t have to send transcripts or take assessment tests because I have a degree. Thank you.

College of the Canyons? For those people who do not live across the street from faculty members, you might provide more clarity in your schedule of classes. Most people will not do the amount of work I did in order to take a class. And I want to give you money. Please.

Carolina Quarterly I submitted a personal essay to them in the fall of 2004. The essay has since been published in the Concho River Review in Fall 2005. But I just received notice in the mail from the Carolina Quarterly that they had a backlog of submissions, could not read my submission, and that I should resubmit in September. So what they are saying is that in almost 3 years, they haven’t read my submission or the letter withdrawing it from consideration since it was published elsewhere, and that I should completely resubmit. Lovely.

Carolina Quarterly? Now I’ve worked on a small literary journal and know that it is hard unpaid work, but I find this sort of relationship with writers totally unacceptable. I’m not submitting anything in September. Why should I? It’s not like you’re going to read it!

So, lest I’m too hypocritical, how I relate to clients as a small business owner? Am I making it confusing for them to use my services? Do they know what to do in order to use my services? Do they know how to pay me? And am I responding to them in a timely matter? Good questions for me to think about.

If you’ve had any experience in meditation (or ministry), you know how important it is to be present in the moment, and with others. Being present at work is also important. Not just physically present, but emotionally and spiritually present. From Work as a Spiritual Practice:

To be truly present, it is not enough to drop ourselves into a chair like a sack of potatoes. Being present in a generous sense means to be fully present, with all our faculties, attention, and care.

Today, see what being present at work means for you.

We’ve talked a little bit about building a small altar of things that are important to you at or near your desk. I shared my altar to style and debt, which is sort of unintentionally embarrassing, and Colleen shared her workplace altar photographs on flickr.

Maintaining your altar is an important spiritual practice that Lewis Richmond discusses in Work as a Spiritual Practice in the chapter on failure. Why failure? Because the shrine contains energy, the energy of things and people that make you feel good. The shrine can be used for rejuvenation and to remind ourselves of our own successes.

How do maintain it? You dust. You clean. You add new objects and photographs. You don’t let the plants die. Richmond recommends changing something in the altar or shrine at least once a week.

Now, you don’t need to tell people about your altar. Do you see mine in the photo? It’s on the shelf above the laptop. You can barely see it. But I know it’s there.

Altars and shrines are not just for desk workers. If you have a job that involves travel, you can set up an altar or shrine in your car. You can even set one up in the inside of your lunchbox.

From Treehugger:

I’m looking for Prius owners who first and foremost are looking to make an environmental statement with their vehicle, who specifically bought the car because they want their Prius to say “hey, I care about the environment.” This is part of a New York Times article that I’m assisting with. Please contact Mary at mmchap622@aol.com, or phone 313-963-9863.

Read David Barboza’s piece on My Time as a Hostage, and I’m a Business Reporter, which describes how he is held hostage at the Thomas & Friends toy factory in China:

“You’ve intruded on our property,” one factory boss shouted at me. “Tell me, what exactly is the purpose of this visit?” When I answered that I had come to meet the maker of a toy that had recently been recalled in the United States because it contained lead paint, he suggested I was really a commercial spy intent on stealing the secrets to the factory’s toy manufacturing process.

“How do I know you’re really from The New York Times?” he said. “Anyone can fake a name card.”

Thus began our interrogation, which was followed by hours of negotiations, the partial closing of the factory complex and the arrival of several police cars, a handful of helmet-wearing security officers and some government officials, all trying to free an American journalist and his colleagues from a toy factory.

I was reading through my information packet for my brave summer poetry vacation in July at the community of writers at Squaw Valley, and came across this phrase:

Wednesday we will go to Lake Tahoe for an afternoon picnic and softball game.

Picnic? Yes. Softball game? Fuck no. I can only hope that there are other poets that like ball-handling because I’m not playing. I’m not even going near a field.

Let me briefly explain. I have several talents, but none of them involves balls of any sort. In fact, this was noted each year in elementary school on my report card with this box checked, “Poor Ball Handling Skills.”

I can’t catch, I can’t throw, and I’m not interested in learning. It’s not a class thing, it’s not a race thing, it’s the fact that every time I’m around a ball, it seems forcibly drawn to my body. In fact, I’ve been hit on the head by a softball, spiked in the eye socket by a volleyball, and smacked in the chest with a basketball so hard I fell over. I don’t like balls. I’m not even going to comment on bowling.

But one of the reasons I don’t go to Wesleyan alum events in Los Angeles is because they often involved balls of the softball variety. As if I went to Wesleyan in order to play on an intramural softball team against Amherst or Williams after graduation. Woohoo! A Little Three tournament!

I probably have some stereotypes about poets, but for some reason softball at Squaw is totally unexpected. The horror! The horror!

I’m just about done reading Lewis Richmond’s Work as a Spiritual Practice. Richmond has a number of excellent exercises that you can do in your head at work. One of the most interesting (to me) exercises, involves these four steps:

1. Raise the Question.

2. Repeat the Question.

3. Follow the Question.

4. Settle the Question.

By raising the question, you ask yourself what the question is (1. Raise the Question). Perhaps you did not know that you have a question. Oh, but you probably do. It’s probably something you worry about at work, but haven’t necessarily verbalized. Ask yourself what that is.

Once you have your question, you repeat it to yourself throughout the workday (2. Repeat the Question). The question may modify itself. Richmond describes the question taking on a life of its own, and that was certainly the case for me (3. Follow the Question). Finally, the question will either resolve itself or die (4. Settle the Question).

Give it a shot.