Office Christmas Party Stories – Share Yours

Our office Christmas party is coming up and I am really looking forward to it.  We’re a small team — normal size guys, just not very many of us — so it will be cocktails and a very nice dinner at a very nice steakhouse.  I’m gonna scout the menu today so that I am well prepared when it’s go time.

The upcoming party reminds me of many office parties past.  Some great ones, some not so great, each producing their own stories.  I recall one that got me to thinking, I bet there are some great stories out there and I think we should share them with each other.  Best story wins a White Christmas.  As long as snows on Christmas.  I’ll go first .

So one year, with a previous company, we were having the ‘nice steakhouse’ party, just a few folks and their spouses.  We were having a great time, telling stories about the ups, downs and fun  moments shared over the last twelve months.  The evening begins to take a turn when one guy had a little too much wine, cocktails and samples from his gift, which was a nice bottle of fine spirits (remember this bottle, it will be important later).
[Now let me state here - I loved working with him.  He's a great guy and this was  not his normal behavior.  If he reads this, I hope he laughs and knows that his good stories far outnumber this one, which even he laughs at now.]  He starts telling stories, which are quite funny, then starts repeating them.  Starting all over from the beginning like he just remembered them.  Now it’s not so funny and it gets worse.  We’re at the end of the night and my wife and I get to drive him home.  Following a stop at a bookstore – after all, he wasn’t quite finished Christmas shopping yet – I drove him home as my wife followed us.  Of course he’s pissed that someone is driving him home, insists that he is fine, and tells me all sorts of stuff about his family that I still have in my back pocket.  We get to his home and I hand him his bottle/gift and he goes inside.  The next work day was full of jokes and repeating everything we all said to him the entire day.  The worst part?  We all received similar bottles of fine spirits as a gift and the one I gave him at the end of his night turned out to be mine.  A full one.  I accidentally swapped them and ended up with half a bottle.

Use the comments area to share your stories.  I bet we come up with some good ones. The more the, well, merrier. 

Merry Christmas from Hullabalog.

Snow in Houston = Early Dismissal for Nearly Everyone

Today marks the 34rd time it has snowed in Houston since 1895, prompting one local weatherman to warn, ”It’s going to be cold.” Really?  And we’ve been doubting these guys for so long…

If the previous 33 are anything like today, which I can confirm a few are, Houstonians have been going home early on account of some wintry weather for well over 100 years.  After all, does anybody in the city remember who has the keys to the road sanding truck?  Does anybody know if we have a road sanding truck?  At the first sign of cold temps and precipitation you can bank on the schools closing and folks heading home from the office early.  Frankly, I left early but not because I am scared of the weather, but because I am scared of other Houston drivers and don’t want

this

to turn into this:

 After all, most of us have no clue what to do in these conditions and some people don’t seem to do anything different.  So, we create a little traffic heading home early to beat the traffic because everyone knows it will be a mess.  In fact, I’ll put the over/under on accidents on Houston’s freeways today at 491.  Anybody want the under?  I didn’t think so.

See you back in the office Monday…

Social Networking – Success Means Revenue

Hullabalog is pleased to welcome Eric Standlee ‘94.  Eric lives out “servant leadership” and “pay-it-forward” with a personal motto of “blessed to be a blessing.” His family owned commercial B2B funding firm strives to bless many by funding startups, emerging and burgeoning companies nation-wide in the B2B space.  He started InHouston, a local social network at inhouston.ning.com, so that he could give back into the business community.  InHouston now has over 10,000 members on three networking sites and mixers all over Houston with attendance at some reaching 400+.  The InHouston idea has taken wings and spread to Austin, Dallas, Atlanta, and Washington D.C. ♦

Enjoy his post.

Most people don’t know a serious business use for Social Networking sites like Facebook, LinkedIn,Twitter and Ning. Ask anyone if they’ve generated serious revenue using social networking and the answer shouldn’t surprise you. Recruiters stand out as the exception. They can make a good living specializing in LinkedIn for instance.

Mindset: In order to realize revenue generation from social networking, the right mindset is required when considering the reason you use these sites.
In order to generate revenue for your company, you need a professional netweaving mindset. Networking isn’t enough. You can collect millions of connections, but if you never do anything with them they lie dead and dormant. The professional netweaving mindset takes networking beyond that. Netweaving describes a give-it-first mindset that seeks to give to the people you meet or their network without any thought for what you will receive in return. Professional netweavers who have taken this leap know the ancient saying to be true “give and it will be given unto you.” Newbie networkers think it’s only about what they can get: “Gimme, gimme.” Netweavers “Give, give, give”. The simple Success formula for social networking is S = G x N2 and breaks out to Success in social networking or networking in general Equals Giving Times your Network’s size Squared.

To Grow Your Network: Let’s focus on LinkedIn as it’s the site mostly used for professional networking.
Modify your profile to attract a large number of connections so that you present value to your network. Here are some secrets to maximizing the number of people you meet and therefore add value to your network. Find a place in your profile to put a sentence that you are an open networker or LION (LinkedIn Open Networker) and add your email address that’s on your profile to your last name field. This makes it so that anyone who finds you because the keywords on your profile, can easily connect with you. Also search for other LION’s, they’ll gladly connect with you. Make sure that you complete your profile. Fill out every possible blank. Add every job possible even if you have to put “confidential company”. Add a picture. Ensure your public profile exposes all of the information you can and has an easy to remember URL like mine: www.linkedin.com/in/ericstandlee. Then finally, if you have a generic job title like CEO, CFO, CIO, Accountant, programmer, or lawyer – break down exactly what you do into “functional positions”.

Centers of Influence are Super Nodes: You need to become a Center of Influence or a SuperNode.
First, you should connect with Super Nodes. On-line the task has become very easy. You find lists of highly connected members of LinkedIn (ie. www.TopLinked.com) and invite them to connect. If you stop there, you gain nothing. 95% of all members of social networking sites pass up the simplest way to start a conversation with these highly connected individuals. That is the “thanks for connecting” email. You should at the very least thank every Super Node you have for connecting with you and ask them how you can help them. Off-line and On-line your greatest return will come from asking centers of influence how you can help them, what they are looking for, and who they want to meet. Eventually, keeping up the thank you emails and connecting with Super Nodes, you will become a center of influence and have 5 to 20 people inviting you to connect daily. Success on social networking sites means giving to your network as it grows and becoming a center of influence. Increasing the number of people you meet and talk with, will help you find success in social networking whether that’s revenue for your company, raising funds for your favorite charity, finding a job, starting a new company, or meeting that special someone. I’ve gained a certain level of success through social networking but more importantly, I have met quality people and become a resource in their lives and they in mine.

Now, what will your story be?

Post your thoughts or experience with Social Networking as a comment (below post title).

College Rivalry in the Workplace: What would you do? Part II

Hullabalog is pleased to welcome back  Megan Lapham ‘07.  Megan’s personal statement is “Live with passion, inspire through innovation, and educate others”; and she does this everyday by helping heal people with visual stimulation at Healthcare Art Consulting. She wears many hats as Chief Operations Officer including researcher, webmaster, bookkeeper, trainer, recruiter, marketer, and the list goes on. In Megan’s spare time she enjoys visiting family and friends in her home city (College Station), traveling to foreign countries to visit friends, and playing with her three cats – Shiraz, Soleil and Little One. ♦

Enjoy the solution to Part I.
On Monday after a conversation with my Sales Team Member, I called Suzy Jones in order to get the credit card information necessary to process payment for the project invoice. Here is the conversation:

College Rivalry in the Workplace: What would you do? Part I

Hullabalog is pleased to welcome Megan Lapham ‘07.  Megan’s personal statement is “Live with passion, inspire through innovation, and educate others”; and she does this everyday by helping heal people with visual stimulation at Healthcare Art Consulting. She wears many hats as Chief Operations Officer including researcher, webmaster, bookkeeper, trainer, recruiter, marketer, and the list goes on. In Megan’s spare time she enjoys visiting family and friends in her home city (College Station), traveling to foreign countries to visit friends, and playing with her three cats – Shiraz, Soleil and Little One. ♦

Enjoy her post.

I’ve only been out of Aggieland for a little over two years now and experienced my first encounter with the Aggie Longhorn rivalry. I never thought it would happen like this, but it did. What would you do if this happened to you? 

Monday – I receive notice from one of my sales people that a client provided credit card information in order to pay an invoice. After review of the credit card information, it is missing two important pieces of information – the billing address and the security pin code. Since I oversee accounting as part of my many hats I wear, I call the client contact (“Suzy Jones at Smith Company” for confidentiality) to request the additional information. (Note: The credit card is not in Suzy’s name. It is in a colleague’s name that works in a different department.) Suzy does not answer so I leave a friendly voicemail and request she call me back. Then, I follow-up with an email and state I will be in the office until 6pm. 

Tuesday – Unfortunately, I am in bed sick with the stomach flu (round two for me). I’m sick of being sick at this point. During one of my long sleeping sessions I receive a return phone call from the client and subsequently a voicemail. Here is how it goes: 

“Hook’em horns Megan. This is Suzy Jones with Smith Company. And if you want this credit card information, I’m going to have to hear a hook’em horns out of you. Call me back.” 

Seriously, WHY do I owe this person a “hook’em horns”? I didn’t say “Gig’em Aggies” in my voicemail; I didn’t say “Burn BEVO”; I didn’t say “Longhorns SUCKS; Aggies ROCK.” Since I’m sick in bed, I let it be and fall back to sleep.

Why Your Laptop Can Catch On Fire

Hullabalog is pleased to welcome Dr. Sanjeev Saraf.  Dr. Saraf holds a Ph.D. in Chemical engineering from Texas A&M University, where he worked at the Mary Kay O’Connor Process Safety Center (MKOPSC). He currently works in Exponent’s (Failure Analysis Associate) Engineering Management practice.   Dr. Saraf authors a blog on Risk and Safety –  the objective of the blog is to provide readers with risk analysis insights in various industrial sectors such as  consumer products, health sciences, financial, medical devices, chemical processing, energy. ♦

Enjoy his post.

Because of their dependability and long effective lifespan, lithium ion rechargeable batteries are used in almost all modern electronic gadgets – cell phones, laptops, digital cameras, power tools, video games, PDA, household devices, e-bikes, security lighting, iPods, and automobiles. As the electronic market grows, it is evident that the lithium battery market will grow exponentially!

In rare cases (roughly 1-10 lithium batteries per million battery population based on my survey), lithium batteries can catch fire – often in dramatic ways.

Why Does a Lithium Battery Burn?