The Real Stephen Booth
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Fake e-mail messages from HM Revenues and Customs
This was circulated at work
This was circulated at work
Some staff may have received an e-mail message purporting to come from HM Revenues and Customs and suggesting that you may be due a tax rebate. These messages are fake and are an attempt to obtain personal and financial details which could be used to commit fraud or other crimes. HMRC do not communicate with taxpayers in this way.¶ 12:05 0 comments
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
"Not a glass ceiling, sticky floor"
Gail Rebuck, CEO of Random House publishing (first female to head up a major publishing group), has won the Veuve Clicquot Business Woman of the Year. She said that she feels it's not that there is a glass ceiling stopping women getting into the higher levels (i.e. progress so far then stop) but rather that women find it difficult to rise from the lower levels of a company. She said, "Women don't particularly want to progress onto the next stage - it doesn't look very pleasant, because it is full of stress or because it might interfere with other aspects of their lives."
A couple of years ago Harvard Business Review ran an article that similarly cast doubt on the existence of a 'Glass Ceiling'. The article argued that rather than a simple barrier just below the board room women traversed a labyrinth through out the company to progress to higher levels. The HBR article itself is not publicly accessible, you need to subscribe to the magazine, but a similar article can be found here. There's also an article on Bosswoman from Susan Robinson, PhD, referencing the HBR article.
In her article Robinson makes a number of recommendations, most of which relate to the fact that women are far more likely than men to be responsible for caring for dependants and the home. In particular she recommends that women not complain about their home life at work, if they have to leave early due to a family situation they simply state that they have a commitment rather than going into details and that they be realistic about their home and standards of cleanliness, choose a home setup they can easily maintain (e.g. avoid nicknacks that are just dust traps, choose fabrics that are easy to maintain &c) and set realistic standards about cleanliness. There are 168 hours in a week so if we assume 8 hours sleep a night plus 5 days of 8 hours at work and 2 hours commute a day that leaves 62 hours for leisure, eating, socialising, networking (these days a vital part of career development), overtime, cooking, cleaning, paying bills, shopping &c. The more time you spend on cooking and cleaning the less is available for the fun stuff and career development.
The only issue I really have with Robinson's recommendations is that they are firmly entrenched in the presumption that cleaning and looking after the family are the sole responsibility of women. Maybe that's just pragmatism, or perhaps it's surrender. I see it as a social issue that needs to be addressed.
Incidentally, I'm single and live alone. If my house needs cleaning I have to clean it (although I do sometimes bung my nieces (no kids of my own, just two nieces, no nephews) twenty quid to help me with a big 'spring Clean'). I have had to settle on a standard of cleanliness that balances between how clean I want my house to be and the time I'm prepared to spend achieving it. Others may set higher standards, that's their choice but then the time taken to achieve it is therefore also their choice.
Gail Rebuck, CEO of Random House publishing (first female to head up a major publishing group), has won the Veuve Clicquot Business Woman of the Year. She said that she feels it's not that there is a glass ceiling stopping women getting into the higher levels (i.e. progress so far then stop) but rather that women find it difficult to rise from the lower levels of a company. She said, "Women don't particularly want to progress onto the next stage - it doesn't look very pleasant, because it is full of stress or because it might interfere with other aspects of their lives."
A couple of years ago Harvard Business Review ran an article that similarly cast doubt on the existence of a 'Glass Ceiling'. The article argued that rather than a simple barrier just below the board room women traversed a labyrinth through out the company to progress to higher levels. The HBR article itself is not publicly accessible, you need to subscribe to the magazine, but a similar article can be found here. There's also an article on Bosswoman from Susan Robinson, PhD, referencing the HBR article.
In her article Robinson makes a number of recommendations, most of which relate to the fact that women are far more likely than men to be responsible for caring for dependants and the home. In particular she recommends that women not complain about their home life at work, if they have to leave early due to a family situation they simply state that they have a commitment rather than going into details and that they be realistic about their home and standards of cleanliness, choose a home setup they can easily maintain (e.g. avoid nicknacks that are just dust traps, choose fabrics that are easy to maintain &c) and set realistic standards about cleanliness. There are 168 hours in a week so if we assume 8 hours sleep a night plus 5 days of 8 hours at work and 2 hours commute a day that leaves 62 hours for leisure, eating, socialising, networking (these days a vital part of career development), overtime, cooking, cleaning, paying bills, shopping &c. The more time you spend on cooking and cleaning the less is available for the fun stuff and career development.
The only issue I really have with Robinson's recommendations is that they are firmly entrenched in the presumption that cleaning and looking after the family are the sole responsibility of women. Maybe that's just pragmatism, or perhaps it's surrender. I see it as a social issue that needs to be addressed.
Incidentally, I'm single and live alone. If my house needs cleaning I have to clean it (although I do sometimes bung my nieces (no kids of my own, just two nieces, no nephews) twenty quid to help me with a big 'spring Clean'). I have had to settle on a standard of cleanliness that balances between how clean I want my house to be and the time I'm prepared to spend achieving it. Others may set higher standards, that's their choice but then the time taken to achieve it is therefore also their choice.
Labels: equality, management, pay, social change
¶ 13:09 0 comments
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
What is a manager?
A question was posted on one of the discussion forums I use asking "What is a manager?". I came up with: "A manager is a person employed to facilitate and direct the activities of their staff to deliver to the goals of the company."
A question was posted on one of the discussion forums I use asking "What is a manager?". I came up with: "A manager is a person employed to facilitate and direct the activities of their staff to deliver to the goals of the company."
Labels: management, manager tools
¶ 14:22 0 comments
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Coincidence
I discovered today that one of my colleagues at work was at the same university as me at the same time as me. Well, she started the same time as me but studied a 3 year programme where as I studied a 4 year programme so she graduated a year earlier than me.
Keele was a small university, 5,000 students, but I don't think we moved in the same circles. On the other hand, it's been getting on for 20 years ago we both started and I have a shocking memory for names so we might have met. Also, I was heavily involved in the student's union (I think I spoke at every Union General meeting during my 4 years at Keele bar one) and RAG so there's a chance that she might have seen me pontificating from the lectern or out fund raising.
I discovered today that one of my colleagues at work was at the same university as me at the same time as me. Well, she started the same time as me but studied a 3 year programme where as I studied a 4 year programme so she graduated a year earlier than me.
Keele was a small university, 5,000 students, but I don't think we moved in the same circles. On the other hand, it's been getting on for 20 years ago we both started and I have a shocking memory for names so we might have met. Also, I was heavily involved in the student's union (I think I spoke at every Union General meeting during my 4 years at Keele bar one) and RAG so there's a chance that she might have seen me pontificating from the lectern or out fund raising.
Labels: EPM, Keele, LinkedIn, SAP, Work
¶ 22:51 0 comments
New Blog - Stephen's SAP Blog
As I'm now beginning to work on SAP I've started a blog about it, mostly just somewhere to make notes about interesting/useful things I come across. If it also helps anyone else then great but if it doesn't then no worries.
One of the things I have noticed, comparing Oracle with SAP, is that whilst for Oracle you can find online free resources at pretty much any level (both official Oracle sites and individual sites and blogs) in SAP there seems to be loads of 'salesy' type sites telling you how wonderful SAP is and how it will revolutionise the way you do business (presumably for the better) and some very in depth technical sites (mostly forums), where you're sunk if you can't get in an manually edit the data and code, there's nothing anywhere in between. There certainly don't seem to be any how-tos, any pages that seem to be telling you howto when they come up in Google searches are actually saying "If you want to find out how to sign up for our course and pay us a lot of money." Of community there seems to be little, aside from the aforementioned bit twiddler forums.
http://stephenssapblog.blogspot.com/
I admit I'm a bit Leonard of Quirm when it comes to blog names.
As I'm now beginning to work on SAP I've started a blog about it, mostly just somewhere to make notes about interesting/useful things I come across. If it also helps anyone else then great but if it doesn't then no worries.
One of the things I have noticed, comparing Oracle with SAP, is that whilst for Oracle you can find online free resources at pretty much any level (both official Oracle sites and individual sites and blogs) in SAP there seems to be loads of 'salesy' type sites telling you how wonderful SAP is and how it will revolutionise the way you do business (presumably for the better) and some very in depth technical sites (mostly forums), where you're sunk if you can't get in an manually edit the data and code, there's nothing anywhere in between. There certainly don't seem to be any how-tos, any pages that seem to be telling you howto when they come up in Google searches are actually saying "If you want to find out how to sign up for our course and pay us a lot of money." Of community there seems to be little, aside from the aforementioned bit twiddler forums.
http://stephenssapblog.blogspot.com/
I admit I'm a bit Leonard of Quirm when it comes to blog names.
Labels: SAP
¶ 22:48 0 comments
Sunday, March 08, 2009
How about Free Prescriptions for England?
Having read recently about how Scotland and Norther Ireland were soon to join Wales in giving free prescription medicine to all, I thought I'd go to the Nomber10 petitions site to see if there are any petitions to extend that to England. I found 2:
http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/prescriptionfree/
http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/Prescription-s/
I would suggest that anyone (in the UK,obviously) who agrees that prescriptions throughout the UK should be free, not just in 'Everywhere that isn't England', signs these. The first closes April this year and the second closes January next year but currently has more signatures. Maybe it will do some good, maybe it won't, but it's got to be worth 5 minutes.
Only 11% of precriptions redeemed are chargable, the vast majority being exempt for any of a number of reasons. In all likelihood the added cost of those 11% being made free would not be onerous. Infact, I do wonder if the costs of administering those charges may not outweigh the income. I submitted an FOI request to the Department of health to find out:
http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/income_from_prescription_charges#incoming-19483
I fully expect them to come back with one of the normal excuses like "We don't hold that information, try the local PCTs" or "We do hold that information but it will cost too much to collate it and send it to you." Worth a try though. If anyone else wants to submit a similar request to Department of health or their own PCT, have at 'em.
Politicians work for us, if we keep bothering them they might remember it. Squeaky wheel gets oil and all that.
Having read recently about how Scotland and Norther Ireland were soon to join Wales in giving free prescription medicine to all, I thought I'd go to the Nomber10 petitions site to see if there are any petitions to extend that to England. I found 2:
http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/prescriptionfree/
http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/Prescription-s/
I would suggest that anyone (in the UK,obviously) who agrees that prescriptions throughout the UK should be free, not just in 'Everywhere that isn't England', signs these. The first closes April this year and the second closes January next year but currently has more signatures. Maybe it will do some good, maybe it won't, but it's got to be worth 5 minutes.
Only 11% of precriptions redeemed are chargable, the vast majority being exempt for any of a number of reasons. In all likelihood the added cost of those 11% being made free would not be onerous. Infact, I do wonder if the costs of administering those charges may not outweigh the income. I submitted an FOI request to the Department of health to find out:
http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/income_from_prescription_charges#incoming-19483
I fully expect them to come back with one of the normal excuses like "We don't hold that information, try the local PCTs" or "We do hold that information but it will cost too much to collate it and send it to you." Worth a try though. If anyone else wants to submit a similar request to Department of health or their own PCT, have at 'em.
Politicians work for us, if we keep bothering them they might remember it. Squeaky wheel gets oil and all that.
Labels: charges, FOI, petitions, prescriptions
¶ 11:36 0 comments
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Dumb Spammers
Just received the following spam mail to my work account:
I am not nor ever have been a Company Secretary and I don't work for and have never worked for Birmingham Air Conditioning. Not only are the spamming but also they're spamming the wrong person.
They should be drowned! ¶ 13:47 0 comments
Just received the following spam mail to my work account:
Please note: we tried to contact you several weeks ago, unfortunately we did not receive a response. You still may qualify to become a member and we are extending our invitation to you one more time. As a reminder the date below reflects the initial attempt to contact you. We are providing an additional 5 day extension through November 18, 2008.
Stephen Booth,
I am pleased to inform you that today, October 22, 2008 Emerald Who's Who for Executives and Professionals has selected you as potential candidate into our organization to represent Birmingham, , United Kingdom. Your professional experience with Birmingham Air Conditioning Ltd. as Company Secretary has been recognized and has qualified you to possibly be included. Emerald Who's Who is the authority for professional networking and recognition in virtually every industry across the globe.
Based on the research our team and our affiliates were able to find, you are the type of professional we would like to include as part of our executive and professional organization.
Our members assist each other with business and career opportunities everyday. Emerald Who's Who is consistently helping our members increase existing business, develop new ventures and acquire new contacts, locally, nationally and internationally.
Should you be inducted into Emerald Who's Who, you will also be included in the 2008-2009 edition of Emerald Who's Who for Executives and Professionals. This is an annual edition of accomplished individuals across the world.
Your inclusion into our organization requires that further professional information about you is provided within the next 5 days.
Please note there is no charge to be considered into the Emerald Who's Who for Executives and Professionals.
We have provided the below links to help you submit your information quickly and easily. Both URL's are the same, however should you not be able to click, please copy and paste #2. Please note your information will be encrypted and transferred safely over the internet as we use, the leading security service for security and protection. Your information will also be protected once stored on our secure servers.
> Click on this hyper link
1) http://ewwdirectory.com/ [MUNGED]
Or manually enter the below link into your web browser
2) http://ewwdirectory.com/ [MUNGED]
While our editorial department is continuously working on publishing timelines, I cannot assure that you will be included in our next annual publication featuring all executives and professionals like yourself. If we receive your information in the next 5 days, we can still consider your submission.
Kind regards,
Anthony Miller
Research Director
Emerald Who's Who for Executives and Professionals Inc.
954 3rd Ave, Suite 817, NY, New York, 10022
http://ewwdirectory.com/ [MUNGED]
Emerald Who's Who for Executives and Professionals is not affiliated with Marquis Who's Who or any other Who's Who organization or publication.
Thank you for your time, should you wish to no longer receive any further e-mail from us at this address, please follow the directions below.
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I am not nor ever have been a Company Secretary and I don't work for and have never worked for Birmingham Air Conditioning. Not only are the spamming but also they're spamming the wrong person.
They should be drowned! ¶ 13:47 0 comments
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Is this a scam? Calls from 01792572140
I've been getting a number of calls from people claiming to work for 3 who then ask a bunch of questions to "Confirm [my] identity", the sort of questions someone running an identity theft scam might ask. I've emailed 3 to check:
Hopefully they'll respond soon. ¶ 18:18 2 comments
I've been getting a number of calls from people claiming to work for 3 who then ask a bunch of questions to "Confirm [my] identity", the sort of questions someone running an identity theft scam might ask. I've emailed 3 to check:
Hi,
I have received a number of missed calls from a number apparently in Swansea (01792572140) today I managed to pick on up and the person on the other end identified themselves as being from yourselves. They said that someone would call me to talk about handset upgrades (despite me saying I'm quite happy with my handset and I had selected it explicitly because it is a Skype Phone and I had bought it to use Skype). they then went on to ask a series of questions, "To confirm [my] identity". These questions were the sort that an identity thief would be likely to ask (home post code, date of birth &c) and, as I pointed out to them, they called me so of the two people on the call I'm the one who's identity does not need to be confirmed.
Can you please confirm if the phone number 01792572140 is one you use for outgoing calls (this was the first thing to trigger my suspicions, it's rare for an outgoing line from a call centre to identify itself).
Thanks
Stephen
Hopefully they'll respond soon. ¶ 18:18 2 comments
The above is the work and opinions of Reverend Stephen Booth as a private individual. © Stephen Booth 2004, 2005 &c.
