Posted by Dan Caruso
July 28, 2009
I was in New York City last week, walking to a meeting in midtown. A store across the street caught my attention. The address was 2 West 46th Street. The name of the store was:
99 Cents Dreams
A sign underneath offered a clarification:
Everything 1 Dollar and Up.
That right. Everything was more expensive than 99 cents at the store which was named 99 Cents Dreams. How does it feel to satisify a 99 Cent Dream for, say, $1.25?
Posted by Dan Caruso
July 27, 2009
A couple weeks ago, I posted De-Inviting Zayo Colleagues. I reacted to a reader’s comment about how he felt pressured to accept a friend request from a co-worker. It would have been awkward to ignore, but then he regretted giving a peephole into his personal life. In a moment of uncharacteristic weakness, I reacted by de-inviting those Zayo employees that I don’t know very well. I figured those who discovered that I de-invited them would re-invite me if they so desired.
A reader named Mark posted the following comment:
Why de-invite all the Zayo ites? Certainly, if they aren’t comfortable with this level of interaction; it will abate. I remember your early exuberance with Facebook. You became a social Prometheus and that is you. You’re not the Bear because you deplore gregarious behavior. Facebook association is not friendship. It is a network of friends and folks intent on networking distant Kevin Bacon alliances. Hold your ground Bear. Keep your Facebook contacts intact.
If anyone knows what a social Prometheus is, please let me know if I was insulted or complimented.
I guess I feel better for having de-invited. I also get friends-suggestions of other Zayo employees and I mostly ignore. But here is the problem. What if all Zayo employees react likewise? That is, what if they follow my example and don’t invite other Zayo-ites? After all, the original reader’s comment was about a co-worker, not someone who worked for him. Doesn’t the hesitation to extend the network offset the advantage of Facebook? I think so.
So Zayo-ites–in this regard, don’t follow my lead!!! It takes two to tango. If someone doesn’t want to be a friend, that is easy–they just shouldn’t accept an invite.
Posted by Dan Caruso
July 24, 2009
Are you a superstar product manager with a strong software and SaaS background?
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Envysion has a tremendous opportunity for the right person to step into the best product management opportunity in Colorado. We have an incredibly talented team that is without peer in the video and security markets. We’ve got a proven, scalable service that has a material and demonstrated ROI for an increasing number of very happy and large national customers in a big and expanding market. Our near term funnel is growing exponentially through both direct sales and channels. Our award-winning service is truly differentiated and is disrupting a traditional old-school technology market. Our SaaS and agile development model enables us to continually improve and enhance the service to meet our customers’ growing needs (we have releases every two weeks!). We’ve never had a dedicated product manager, instead sharing the responsibility across the executive team, so there is huge potential to come in and help shape our service and the company. We’ve got strong financial backing and are about to launch a major growth initiative. What more could you want as a product manager?
What you would get to do:
What we need from you:
Details, details:
If you are interested, AND YOU ARE A SUPERSTAR, shoot Matt Steinfort a note at msteinfort@envysion.com
Posted by Dan Caruso
July 23, 2009
By John Real
Believe it or not school starts for students at Denver Public Schools in less than a month.
Zayo Enterprise Networks of Colorado is partnering with Colorado Uplift to help make sure that kids have the necessary school supplies and celebrate the beginning of a new school year. 79% of UpLift students in Denver Public Schools are on the free and reduced lunch program, which likely means that these families will struggle to get the necessary supplies.
Zayo is pleased to announce the first annual Baseball for Backpacks back to school fundraiser and social event. Please join us in raising funds to provide needed school supplies for students in Denver Public Schools and participants of Colorado UpLift. For 27 years of operation, UpLift has remained focused on its mission empowering urban youth to lead successful lives emphasizing character, education, and attitude.
Learn more about UpLift; http://coloradouplift.org
This event will raise money for school supplies plus provide for a special social event for kids involved with Colorado Uplift and an opportunity for sponsors to interact with local youth. Approximately 100 kids from Colorado UpLift’s middle and high school programs will be joining us as a special back to school celebration.
For a $29 donation you will receive:
Zayo’s Baseball for Backpacks event will be on August 21, 2009. The game starts at 7:10 p.m. and all participants and sponsors will be sitting together in the Rock Pile. We are currently organizing a pre-game picnic and are looking for sponsors and volunteers. Please let us know if you can help. We will keep the site updated with details.
We hope you will join us with your family, friends and co-workers!
If you can’t make the game, please purchase your tickets and select “donate” ticket option and we will make sure your ticket is put to good use.
To make a donation please go to http://baseballforbackpacks.blogspot.com/
Posted by Dan Caruso
July 22, 2009
[Continuation of yesterday’s And Then There was Jane. ]
Ron Watkins, a Bell System reincarnation of Mickey Goldmill (Rocky Balboa’s trainer), was my reluctant mentor in my first post college job. Ron assigned me three of his least desirable technicians. One of these was “Jane”, whose storied history was not shared with me. Two months after Jane began “working” for me, Jane decided she needed a break.
In most professions, that would equate to resigning or taking an unpaid leave. But the Bell system union world was not like most professions. Instead, Jane decided she had a sore back. Or maybe it was a strained ankle. This was a recurrence of a medical problems she had a couple of times earlier in her Illinois Bell career—a part of her background that everyone knew about except me. Like with her earlier problems, her doctor prescribed extended bed rest. Yep, that’s right—even an inside job answering phones was beyond what the doctor ordered. So Jane would need to take the entire Christmas, New Years, Martin Luther King, President’s Day, and probably Easter stretch off. 100% pay. What’s a few months in a career dedicated to Illinois Bell?
About half way through it, Mickey—urg I mean Watkins—decided it was time to mentor me.
“Did you go see her?”, he asked.
“Huh? Why would I do that?”, I stammered.
Sarcastically, he prodded “To see if she is really bed-ridden.”
So I trekked to her house, which was about 30 minutes outside our territory. I knocked on the door, no answer. So I came back again in the afternoon. Knock. No answer. Next day. Knock. No Answer. Following day. Knock. Answer. I told her I came by to check how she was doing. She said fine-and until she saw it was me, she looked remarkably healed.
I told her I had come by a few times previously but she didn’t answer. “That’s because I was bedridden,” she calmly explained.
I wrote her up. The union backed her and nothing ever came of my complaint. A few months later, I was off to my next assignment—a little less naïve and already a bit jaded.
Posted by Dan Caruso
July 21, 2009
I am several posts into what is turning out to be a fun (though time consuming) series to write. It started as a simple list of the jobs I had prior to beginning my post college career. Then, memories started coming back to me. Yesterday’s The First Assignment (Pre-Jane) told of my first assignment at Illinois Bell. I was part of the “Class of 1986” Management Development Program. In the fun summer of 1986, we were exposed to the entirety of the telecom business. I became good friends with a guy by the name of Mike Foley—Mike, where are you now?
After the summer, each of the 20 participants assumed a job that, all-in-all, we were completely unqualified to perform. Mine was as supervisor of a Installation and Maintenance crew in Naperville, Illinois. Ron Watkins, a 93-year veteran of the Bell system, was my reluctant mentor. He was a bit like the character Mickey Goldmill. Mickey, played marvelously by Burgess Meredith, was Rocky Balboa’s trainer. Watkins had about as much time for me as Mickey did for Rocky prior to Rocky getting the big fight.
Anyway, it took several months before Ron would let me actually supervise one of his beloved union technicians. When he finally did, he gave me 3 misfits from his over sized team of 12. How much harm could I possibly do? I told you about the first two yesterday. The first was a nice guy but one that was bullied around by the rest of the crew, in part because he was slow. The second was the pot-smoking inner city guy named Mark. Finally there was this lady, whose name I didn’t recall, but herein will be referred to as “Jane”.
Jane was a big boned lady whose biggest bone was her “sit bone” (“Sit Bone” is a Pilates term). Jane maybe was once attractive but she wasn’t clued in that her better days were behind her. She also had an incredible reputation for doing nothing. Jane was a recent transferee to the Naperville garage and, I found out much later, was feared by her fellow employees—whether union or management. The word was that you didn’t want to get caught alone with her because she’d “flirt” with you and then complain to others that you were coming on to her. No one shared this word with me.
At Christmas, I took all three of my technicians to breakfast. Jane called in sick that day. Then she showed up the next day and claimed I owed her breakfast. So just the two of us went out to an I-Hop. The jostling I took would have been bothersome except for the fact that I didn’t even understand what others were ribbing me about. That’s when I found out about not getting caught alone with Jane.
Eventually, Jane decided she didn’t want to come to work anymore. (Continued tomorrow…)
Posted by Dan Caruso
July 20, 2009
Illinois Bell’s Class of ‘86 is how I began my post college career. “Class of 1986” was a Management Development Program that included about 20 recent graduates. For the first three months, we spent 2-3 day stints with veterans across the company. We gained exposure to all facets of operating a telecom company. After the summer, the 20 participants would take assignments all across the company. It was expected that the assignment would last about a year and would be followed by two additional one year assignments. What was to happen afterwards was vague. Many would get promoted from a 1st level manager to a 2nd level manager. This was considered a big deal. Others, it was thought, would not make the grade and be asked to pack up the bags. Regulated telecom was never good at weeding out the bad apples and, as far as I know, no one from a “Class of” program was ever pressured to leave. But maybe I’d be the first!
My first assignment was to be a supervisor of a Installation and Maintenance crew in the rapidly growing suburb of Naperville, Illinois. I would learn from one of the best—a supervisor by the name of Ron Watkins. Ron had been doing the job for something like 93 years. He had as much time for a recent college grad as Harry Potter has for Professor Snape. At first he resisted the idea of even breaking up his 12 guy crew. He’d let me ride along, but that was about it. I think he found it nice to have a companion though, and he certainly told me a lot of stories about telecom. Most of them were from the 1950s.
It turns out supervisors didn’t have much to do. The inside dispatch center assigned work and it was waiting for them on a printer in the morning. Wait—we did have an important role in the morning. We ripped the roll of printed work assignments off the printer. Then we tore off each technicians’ assignments and stuffed them in an envelope. Ron would scan through the assignments “to make sure dispatch didn’t screw anything up” but I don’t think he ever changed anything. If he were to, I learned, the dispatch center would jump all over you. My guess is I learned this when I changed something around just for kicks—what I learned was to never do that again.
The average technician had 25 years experience. They were hard core about two things. One was the union and two was their resentment of college kids who became their supervisors despite having no job qualifications whatsoever. I didn’t fully get the union thing—I thought those who work hard should get ahead and those who didn’t should move aside. It was more like those who work hard got tremendous pressure to slow down. And those who didn’t knew exactly how little they could do and get away with it.
Once I had an idea of keeping efficiency stats on our 12 technicians. I assembled the data and showed it to Ron. He glared at me and never mentioned it again. So then I showed it to Joel Mosley, the manager of our garage. He went on and on about what a great piece of work it was and how he love supporting recent college grads who are in the “‘Class of” program. He told me he couldn’t wait to show it to his boss—the fearsome District Manager named Mitchell. That was the last I heard about it, especially when Ron made it clear that if I ever brought this up in front of his guys, he’d kill me. That scared me even though he was born before World War I.
Eventually Ron let me “supervise” 3 technicians. He thought me having 3 and him having 9 was about right. I wondered how long this first assignment would really last. As I said, supervisors don’t do anything. Certainly we couldn’t tell our technicians what to do, for the union would be all over us. Ron handpicked the ones to give me. One was a very nice guy who everyone else had picked on for years. I think he was a bit slow and struggled with the basics of life. He’d always tell me that it would be a “Honey-do” weekend. I thought only of the fruit and knew not what he was talking about.
Another was this guy named Mark who was a recent transfer from the city. Mark was usually all smiles around me—I learned later it was because he was usually high. I sort of caught him once smoking pot in his van. He thought I snuck up on him but I was just stopping by to say hi. When he opened his van window, with a stunned look on his face, the smell of marijuana knocked me over. I didn’t know what to do so I ignored it.
Finally, there was this lady whose name I don’t recall—Jane is what I’ll call her and tomorrow I’ll tell you about Jane.
Posted by Dan Caruso
July 17, 2009
The past two posts listed the jobs I had prior to and during college. As I reflect back, I had a whole lot of jobs. It is amazing I didn’t get a reputation as a job hopper. Regardless, the many jobs I held had to help me as I began my post-college career.
I hit the jackpot when I received a job offer from Illinois Bell. Part of the jackpot was the fact that I got an offer in the first place, as it was the only offer I received. The other part of the jackpot was that it was a Management Development Program. The “Class of 1986” included about 20 recent graduates. For the first three months, we didn’t work. We spent 2-3 day stints with veterans across the company. We rode with outside plant techs; we observed engineers doing their engineering; we attended training classes on how fiber optics worked; we listened in on operator services conversations; executives hosted us in lunches and told us how exciting telecom was going to be (and they were more right than they ever imagined). We learned to climb telephone poles. The regulatory group tried to explain rate of return economics. Marketing tried to explain how peculiar the job of marketing was when you worked in a monopoly.
That’s right. We spent three months drinking from the telecom fire hose. What a gift this proved to be. Though much of it didn’t make sense at the time, the exposure helped figure out the business at an accelerated pace.
And it got better. The next step of the “Class of” program was three 9 – 12 month assignments in different corners of the company. I will pick up on these in the subsequent post.
Posted by Dan Caruso
July 16, 2009
Yesterday’s post listed the jobs I had prior to college. The variety of jobs I had helped propel my career.
During my first two years at college, I didn’t work—except for summers. I didn’t have the high school grades to make it into University of Illinois’ Engineering Program, so my first two years were focused on getting a 4.6 or better, as that was needed to transfer into Engineering. However, during the summer and after year two, I began to work.
Next up will be the many jobs I had in the first few years of my career.
Posted by Dan Caruso
July 15, 2009
I have been successful in business. When I reflect on why, I attribute the success in large part to having a good business sense. To some extent, I was born with this. However, to a large degree, I probably learned it—starting at a young age. Let me start by listing the jobs I had prior to college:
Tomorrow I will list the jobs I had during college.
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