I gave several months notice and phased out of a sales position working for a company who specializes in kitchen and bath remodeling. It was a problematic position and the company understaffed. That forced the salesmen to do jobs (like project manage) that cut into time needed to sell. There were other reasons, but I wanted out and agreed to finish the contracts underway and not accept any new work.
Something else (more to my liking) came along and I started working for a high-end custom manufacturer. It was agreed that I would often be called away (from time-to-time) to finish obligations of the other job.
They are using a design program that's considerably more difficult that other industry software but I'm being paid to learn it and make drawings for my boss along with some of the other sales staff. I'm assigned to follow up on sales leads as they come in.
One of the designers (fancy name for a sales person as we all are called designers) has some personal issues and decided to leave the company. I noticed some of her work is/was problematic that requires meetings with the owner and factory manager to resolve manufacturing errors in her designs. She's had issues with clients who also complained about not getting things in her designs. I don't know her track record but after she left they passed 17 leads to me she wasn't following up on. We subscribe to a client monitoring system from Google we use that keeps track of leads, notes and client correspondence. It gives reminders so if you forget for follow up on a lead it will appear on a list and how many days it's been since you contacted the client. It took 3 days to go through the list (while doing other things) and 4 of the leads are still alive.
She didn't answer email to a client who bought a condo in Florida and will visit from their New York residence. I read some email complaints from the customer who didn't get a reply, met with her this week and received a deposit to start shop drawings.
The designer who was leaving had a meeting with the owners to pass her projects to them and they would decide who to divide her projects to. We are a team and often help the other coworkers when something needs to be done. I'm made drawings and gone on field measuring trips to help the other sales staff. It's fine with me as I'm learning their procedure. While I have 30 years experience in this business and handle a wide range of situations, my forte as sales manager was fixing the mistakes from other designers/salemen.
A call came through yesterday from a client who paid a deposit and wasn't getting service to finalize the shop drawings so we could start manufacturing. Some miscommunication happened and he got bounced around. One of the staff who is assigned to write up orders is somewhat familiar the job was too busy to take it and suggested giving it to me. With several people in the room, the senior designer also stated it should have come to me. The designer who was leaving wanted one of the other designers to take it. When my name was mentioned she said "He's too Old School" and that she wanted someone else to take the project.
I laughed and said "I'll take that as a compliment, at least I don't have a history of pissing off clients."
She's gone, it's not her decision who should handle the project. I have the time and experience to deal with it. I went over this event with my boss who admitted he was overloaded (didn't followup) and so was the senior designer (who came in Saturday to take on the project) and agreed they didn't make the correct decision.
Sadly, the senior designer looked at the shop drawings and found some critical design mistakes that have to be resolved with the client because they need to be aware of the necessary changes.
So much for New School designers...
If I win the lottery I'll buy this place and make membership free!
Back from late night grocery shopping and reading some Yahoo! news while dinner is being prepared.
(almost) Top story: An elderly woman's decomposing body was eaten by her pet cats.
She died alone in her Madrid apartment and reported her 79-year old body had been eaten from the waist up. A Colombian national who had lived by herself since 1996, was discovered by Spain's National Police Corps last week.
A police officer visited the apartment after neighbors said they had not seen the woman for a month and reported a stench coming from her home.
It is believed she had been dead for at least three months and tests are being performed to see whether she died from COVID-19 complications.
Five of her cats had died from starvation. Two were alive but were in very poor condition and were sent to a local animal protection center.
The apartment was in a state of squalor, filled with animal excrement and garbage.
Personally, I cannot blame the cats for the garbage.
One of the police officers said it was the "worst thing" thing they had ever seen in their career.
Dinner is ready and I lost my appetite...
I lost a long-time friend last year. His death was was a result of pancreatic cancer. While he sought many painful treatments including chemotherapy with chemicals being pumped through his veins, none worked. He withered away and died. I saw a photo of him shortly before his death and it's 180 degrees from a year or two earlier.
For some unknown reason, in my dream I was visualizing this agonizing death and the suffering he went through.
Living through pancreatic cancer has a very low success rate, less than 7%
Typically, a heckler is a person who harasses and tries to disconcert others with questions or challenges. In a public setting they are often known to shout disparaging comments at a performance or event, or to interrupt set-piece speeches, with the intent of disturbing performers and/or participants.
I first learned about hecklers when I saw comedian Don Rickles doing stand-up comedy. Don used to perform in supper clubs around upstate New York... the Catskills.
If someone from the audience became vocal, he was quick with the one-line comebacks to the point of insulting hecklers literally driving them out of the venue.
I've seen some videos where he egged them on as it was possibly a part of his routine!
In the virtual world things are a lot quieter. People blog and hecklers who are often referred to as trolls go from blog to blog (or forum thread) leaving comments to 'show themselves' with other members of the blogging community.
The psychology of it all... well, I believe something is bothering them in their personal life so they seek enjoyment attempting to disrupt the lives of others. Sometimes, it's a group and sometimes they single out a member or two.
I heard of one heckler who was bounced from a comedy club a few times so he decided to stand out front complaining to the patrons about one comedian "Don't waste your money, this guy tells the same jokes every night!"
Ya think?
I always thought Vince Neil who's fame comes from being the front man for Mötley Crüe was a marginal singer. They were a raunchy band so he fit in.
After the 'Crüe' broke up, Vince went solo. I believe his career faded and years later he was on a realty show documenting his comeback complete with plastic surgery. Serious reconstruction and not just a nip & tuck.
As the pandemic subsides lots of touring bands are booking gigs and heading out on the road.
This past weekend, Vince and his band headlined the Boone River Valley Festival in Iowa. Reports were he went there unprepared and his voice 'gave out' to the point where he announced to the crowd "My f---ing voice is gone"
Yeah Neil, we knew that years ago!
Overweight, out of tune and forgetting the lyrics.
I don't blame him as much as I blame his management allowing him to make a career killing performance like he did.
My brother has a degree in engineering. Stacks of books and years of study. He tutored his oldest son in calculus and remembers how to use a slide ruler. He's designer and built bridges... even wrote a book on the subject.
One of his college buddies often talked about the story of the constipated mathematician.
They say he worked out with a pencil!
While on the topic of pencils, I found a really interesting video on the making of Faber-Castell pencils. The video claims they produce 2.3 billion pencils a year.
With the exception of fish skin and chicken feet, I eat all the Chinese dishes put in front of me. I do have my limits. I'll tolerate bitter melon if it's cooked with something else. Chinese vegetables are fine, including bok choy and some decedents of spinach and broccoli.
Unless tofu gets diced and cooked with meat, it's on my 'do not eat' list.
I didn't complain (too much) at dinner tonight as tofu was in a sauteed vegetable salad and repeated a line from the movie The Three Faces Of EVE... Mommy, don't make me kiss a dead person!
I see lots of profiles where members give out their first and last names along with contact information like a phone number or email address. To my thinking, it's either a scammer or stupidity. Can people be so naive in this day of scams to divulge so much personal information?
A new profile this week has a woman in my state who says she's a widow with one daughter making over $150,000 a year and will treat her man like a king.
I'm inclined to believe it's a scammer and all (the goodies) mentioned in the profile is the calling card to catch a guy looking for an easy ride. That's the bait!
I could be right.
I could be wrong.
Yeah, I always wanted a pair of Beatle Boots. The closest I came to that fashion was a shoe with stitched on spats. They didn't look anything like Beatle boots at all.
Doing some Beatle research today, the Beatles really weren't the ones to start that fad. It was a long time fashion across Europe and America long before the Beatles became famous.
One site called them a Cuban heeled boot and others call it a Chelsea boot.
From the look of things, they aren't cheap!
I got a call this afternoon informing me there was an attack on a gas pipeline creating a shortage. My response was: "I didn't know we were pumping gasoline through pipelines"
Checking online there is conflicting information but Florida Governor Ron DeSantis declared a state of emergence following a temporary shutdown of the Colonial Pipeline - a major US fuel pipeline operator.
One news story stated it was a cyber attack that forced Colonial to shut down operations.
It also reports this is affecting the Northern part of Florida... 8 hours drive from here.
Gas is available in South Florida but panic buying has already this area and people are hoarding gasoline creating a shortage. Some stations being reported for gouging where average prices were $2.85 now jumping over $4 a gallon.
I'm headed to Miami on appointment Wednesday morning and filled my tank before sundown Tuesday. That should get me nearly 300 miles and get me into the weekend.
Cyber attack? Obviously, Colonial got short-changed on internet security.
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