Thinking to make life simpler this summer, I tried changing my Denver Post subscription to Sundays only. When I found out it would be more expensive, I elected to keep having it delivered seven days a week. I'm glad I did because I would have missed out several terrific articles including:
Giving our kids the freedom to grow up by Kiesa Kay - I too have a daughter who is a "me do it" kid too. I appreciate Kiesa's heads up on schooling, fashion sense, and self-piercing. Any child who pierced her own tongue and bellybutton is a force to be reckoned with. She's to be admired for surviving the teen years and keeping the relationship with her daughter intact and healthy.
Then I read, Struggling district may close the book on library branch by Monte Whaley - It's sad to see any library close due to district budget woes. Americans don't realize how wonderful it is to have a public library system. We take it for granted that there's even a small library nearby, even in the most rural areas. I remember talking with my sister in Switzerland, and made the mistake of asking her, "Can't you get that book at the library?" She laughed. There aren't public libraries there.
Finally I came across Al Lewis's column, Slackers bring down all at work, in the business section. Al wrote about a recent survey done by Leadership I.Q., a Washington, D.C. based training and research company:
Those surveyed were asked to list five characteristics of a low performer. The top five responses were: negative attitude, stirs up trouble, blames others, lacks initiative, and incompetence.
Low performers are often skilled in the art of work avoidance. They spend more time arguing their way out of tasks than it would take to complete them. They are good at identifying problems but not so good at finding solutions. They have well-crafted excuses for not getting anything done. And their sloth is often at the expense of more conscientious co-workers who must pick up their slack.
Many slackers, however, do not see themselves as slackers, preferring to blame others.
You can apply this outside the workplace as well - friends, people you volunteer with, neighbors, and so on. Al's description brought back memories of college for me. There was always a fellow student who spent more time giving the professor excuses than they would have doing the actual assignment. I could never figure out why they bothered to be in school if they didn't want to do the work.
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