Oye. No one knows what is motivating Aharron Friedman to block his former wife Tamar Epstein from getting a Jewish divorce aka a "get". What we now all know, thanks to a vigorous social media campaign, is that Friedman is being very difficult. Unreasonable. Impossible. He's acting like a Sch%@#k.
Perhaps if Friedman worked for a small company, his personal life wouldn't be splattered all over the internets. But Friedman works for a U.S. Congressman- Dave Camp of Michigan. So supporters decided to go after Friedman via his boss.
After the failure of years of quiet efforts in the Jewish community — including a nonbinding request from D.C.’s rabbinical court for Friedman to consent to the get and a national rabbinical court’s “declaration of contempt ” against him — Epstein’s supporters have increasingly turned to more public methods, including openly pressuring the congressman to intervene.
The situation is awkward for Camp because it is rare that the personal lives of congressional staffers become political issues for members of Congress. But the influential committee chairman is being dragged into the highly unusual situation now that Friedman’s opponents have decided to thrust it into the public sphere.
No one likes to be embarassed. Especially bosses. Especially bosses who are elected officials. While it is too soon to tell whether or not Friedman will grant the divorce, it would be surprising if Friedman could now keep his job without granting it.
Regardless of what Friedman decides, this case puts everyone on notice that the game has changed. Think you are a nobody and nobody cares what you do in your personal life. Think again.
Want to be completely unreasonable in your personal life? Go ahead. Knock yourself out. But, just remember that if you annoy enough people, your boss will be hearing about it, via social media. And that, is a bad, bad, thing.
In a cue from Saturday Night Live when Tina Fey,as Sarah Palin, simply used Palin's own words to deliver a hilarious skit, Stephen Colbert used the actual memo Nabisco sent regarding the promotional use of Wheat Thins on his show.
Let me reiterate -- I cannot say this too many times -- that this is an actual memo from Wheat Thins that I received. And I just wanted to make sure you understood that before I informed you that [quoting from the memo] 'Wheat Thins are not a crusader or rebel looking to change an individual's path (or the world).'
There's more. In addition to describing in detail the product's attributes, the folks at Nabisco do not want Wheat Thins associated with over-consumption. As a result, Colbert was forbidden from showing any more than 16 Wheat Thins in a bowl...because eating 17 would be gluttony.
In the words of songwriter Paul Simon, " Sometimes You Think Too Much."
On average, my malti-doodle, Uma Thurman uses two doggy bags a day. As part of my resolution to be more eco-friendly in 2012, I decided to use biodegradable dog poo bags. It makes me feel like I'm doing my part for the environment in a very intentional way. And it reminds me daily of the need to be a good environmental citizen.
Not only are the bags biodegradable but the dispenser was made from biodegradable alternative plastic. All great. The only problem is the "clam" packaging. It's very non-biodegradable.
Whatsup with that? According to Lewis Hamowy of Greenberry Eco Industries trying to create eco-friendly packaging is a lot harder than creating eco-friendly products.
Hamowy says while he hates the "clams", (those ridiculous plastic packaging nightmares that require either really good scissors or a paper cutter to open) there really isn't an alternative out there, at this time.
Hamowy says that between pilfering(a nice word for stealing) and the general requirements for getting a product on the shelf, the company had no alternative than to use the non-environmentally friendly packaging.
Hamowy says the company is working on alternatives and hopes to have a new product launch by June.
Still, until I personally spoke with Hamowy, I was tempted to make a lot of fun of this company for packaging their eco-friendly poo bags in the despicable plastic clams. That's why I think they need to add a disclaimer on the packaging, giving a hat tip to the irony that a eco-friendly company is forced to use packaging that is not. They should also communicate to customers that they are working on a better packaging solution.
Just a thought.
Update
Received an email from Hamowy with a prototype of a new design...that eliminates the plastic clam. "
So there's this alleged resignation email tha a Whole Foods employee in Toronto, Canada sent to the entire company. You can read the email in its entirety on Gothamist.
It takes about 3 minutes to decide this is a very disturbed person and not someone you want working for you.
Yet, Gothamist redacts the employee's name. Why? Gothamist didn't redact the name of the company that the employee was writing about. The employee includes a series of emails he sent to other employees -I can certainly understand redacting their names but this is a vile and disturbing email. Here's just one of his messages to former employees/bosses
Dear [REDACTED], How you haven't been fired by now is a massive mystery to, not just me, but many people. You probably belong in a psychiatric ward. If you didn't have such a constant negative impact on everyone around you I might just feel sorry for you. BUT, you've hurt too many people. You create a hostile work environment with your flashes of insane anger and passive (I hesitate to use the word passive...) aggressive behavior. Please, just leave and piss all over the patio at [REDACTED]'s again. Maybe [REDACTED] will help this time. Her childish, two-faced personality suits you quite well. The fact that you still have a job is also a massive failure by your department's leaders as well. I'd be ashamed of being such push-overs who refuse to support good people if I were them. Quite ashamed.
When the employee sent the email to everyone in Whole Foods, you'd think that providing anonymity would not be something that the employee wanted or deserved.
The biggest problem is that the email is going viral and the headlines make it seem like this email is coming from a sane, rational and abused employee. The result - Whole Foods gets bad press and the former employee who could go postal at any moment has his privacy protected.
I would love a “no.” Don’t like my pitch? Just say no. Don’t want to write about my book? Just say no. Don’t want to date me anymore? Just say no (gently).
Nancy Reagan said it best. Just say no.
When did it become so difficult, impossible really, for people to say no? Women talk a lot about just saying “no” to taking on more work, to overextending themselves, to offering their business services for free, to lending money to people, etc. True, we do need to learn to stop saying “yes,” and start saying “no.” But it seems a lot of us have a problem saying either “yes” or “no.” And it’s driving me batty.
Sometimes silence doesn't mean no, it means a communication glitch. Recently, I sent an important document to a new company. I thought they hadn't responded and connected to them via their website. Turns out they had sent me a voicemail but my phone didn't alert me that there was a new voicemail waiting and I missed their message.
Fortunately, they sent me an email the second time and we were able to connect.
Lesson: Silence may not mean no. It may not mean Yes. It may mean nothing.
Just about every day I run into someone who tells me how much they hate Facebook. Last week it was a friend who thinks the whole thing is stupid. Her attitude, "I talk to all of my close friends so why do I have to put stuff up on Facebook?"
Today, I talked with business person who said he wanted me to drive traffic to his website, not his Facebook page. "Why should I help Facebook add 1,000 new members?"
I really don't have an answer for my friend who doesn't want to reconnect with other people, but I do have some thoughts for the business person who really wants traffic to the website instead of Facebook.
Facebook can drive traffic to that website. It's an enabler.
Hobson: There's obviously a lot of pressure for every business to be really involved in these social networking sites and what they do. On the other hand, I assume there are people at the top saying "Why are we spending all this time doing this stuff? When is it going to start translating into sales? When are a million friends on Facebook going to mean a million dollars in the account?"
Addicks: It's a great question. The truth is, as marketers, you're always looking at what you do and say, are we adding value or not? What's value added, what isn't? I would say for us as well as most marketers, they've already started answering that question, like what's the value of being a friend? What are the high value things, services we offer that consumers really like to be a part of? That journey is whether you're talking about General Mills or you're talking about Target or you're talking about Best Buy, or any kind of category that journey has started, because it's a new place to engage and talk. And so, people are trying to figure out, what are the conditions that we have that conversation? But, we do know, for instance, there are brands that have been launched or live exclusively in the social atmosphere. They don't have television commercials.
Hobson: Like what?
Addicks: Fiber One bars is one that we've done that's been hugely successful. I don't think it had any traditional media. I think it was introduced largely through the social network, was very... And it...
Hobson: Why do think it worked so well?
Addicks: Great idea, very fundamental idea. And what I think we've learned, what I learned out of that is, by knowing the brand champion, then... And what you're seeing a lot in small companies and big companies, go out and find your brand champion and engage, sample, and then they'll be highly viral.
Jo-Ann Fabrics and Crafts is the latest company to learn that social media is not always a social place. Chances are when they launched their Teacher's Reward Program they didn't anticipate that there would be any kind of blow back. After all, they're offering a 15% discount to k-12 educators including those who home school.
That's all good, isn't it?
It's a program designed to save teachers some money and provide Jo-Ann Fabrics with lots of goodwill. It should be a win-win situation. Except that in a world where companies must now accountable to their customers thanks to social media, there is a bru-ha-ha over the company's refusal to include licensed family child care providers in that program.
What seems to bother the family child care providers the most is that Jo-Ann Fabrics offers the discount to parents who home school. So, if they do that, why not extend the program to licensed family child care providers?
That is exactly the question that family child care providers have been asking on the company's Facebook page.
Whether or not Jo-Ann Fabrics should change their policy, the way they have handled the controversy is to stone wall. They have an approved corporate response and regardless of the conversation, that's their story and they are sticking to it.
At this time, our Teacher Rewards program and special event days apply to currently state certified, credentialed or licensed teacher at any K-12 public, private or parochial school or higher education learning institution or an authorized home school teacher with current documentation or proof of membership in an official home school organization.
If this changes in the future, you will be able to find the information by visiting www.joann.com/teachers and clicking on "Sign Up."
Rose Grimes' comment on their Facebook page says it all.
Rose Grimes As a licensed childcare provider, I receive a teacher's discount from Michael's, Borders, Lakeshore, Discount School Supplies, US Toys, Hobby Lobby, Office Max and Office Depot, just to name a few. We count on these discounts to keep costs down for the parents in our care.
About 18 months ago, when a group of family child care providers from Kansas were told we didn't qualify for a teacher's discount, I contacted Jo-Ann's corp. office. Sadly, I was given the very same "standard line" that everyone is being told now. "Watch our website and see if we change our policy."
Too often, when companies decide to have a Facebook page they forget that social media is not traditional advertising or public relations. That it's not just a place to get brand name exposure. When you take away all the fun tools, social media is really about having a conversation. It's about listening. It's about engaging your customers and building a relationship.
However, the customers at Jo-Ann Fabrics are finding that they might as well be talking to a wall because Jo-Ann Fabrics is trying to handle this situation as if it were old media where they can issue a corporate statement and hope the situation blows over.
Social media doesn't work that way.
Unfortunately for Jo-Ann Fabrics the conversation is happening without them. Tom Copeland,who is one of my clients, and the nation's leading authority on the business side of family child care joined the conversation after reading Jacqueline Crocker's comment about the situation. He wrote a blog post about it last week.
... she sent the store management an email asking them to include licensed family child care providers in their teacher promotions. After receiving no reply she posted her complaint on the company's Facebook page:
"I am a preschool teacher and could really use a discount at Jo-Anns. We make very little money and don't get much for supplies, any discount would help us out. Would you please consider extending the teacher appreciation discounts to preschool teachers as well?"
Jo-Ann Fabric and Craft responded by repeating that their policy excluded family child care providers. Jacqueline replied: "When a retail giant like Jo-Ann's tells us we do not have the 'right credentials' to buy the consumable items we need for our curriculum we are insulted."
As of today, family child care providers are continuing to post comments on Jo-Ann Fabrics Facebook page. Jo-Ann Fabrics is saying nothing.
The family child care providers are not limiting their conversation to Jo-Ann Fabrics Facebook page. There is a huge conversation going on in the forum section of Daycare.com as well as in Linkedin.
Catherine Scott • In the state of California we are about 47,000 Family Childcare Providers strong. In numbers we have a voice. This is something I think we should put out over the internet throughout our different chats...... We have alot of power.................
They need to get emails from all over. What do you think.?????
Samantha Daleiden • Get it started, Catherine! I have contacted NAFCC to see if they have any ideas too. Start posting on the different forums and maybe we should put together an email template? Jacque, you did so great with yours do you want to put together a generalized template for others to use?
According to Tom Copeland, the NAFCC, National Association for Family Child Care, has also sent a letter to the company asking that it change its policy.
While Jo-Ann Fabrics is sitting on the sideline with its lips sealed, it may want to listen to Simon & Garfunkel's classic hit, "Sounds of Silence" and be reminded that "silence like a cancer grows."
“North Carolina Digital Library has offered eBook downloads since 2005, and in the past year we’ve seen a tremendous increase in checkouts,” said Ruth Ann Copley, director of the Davidson County Public Library in North Carolina.
When it comes to ebooks, no other member of the publishing community faces more challenging questions than public libraries. What aspects of the publishing business model have to be rethought in order to build a sustainable ebook model for libraries? Does patron-driven purchasing have a place in the trade-public library business?
At Digital Book World 2011, Library Journal‘s Josh Hadro will moderate a panel, The Ebook Ecosystem: Where do Libraries Fit?, that will attempt to offer answers to these thorny questions. He will be joined by Ruth Liebmann, VP, Director of Account Marketing, Random House; Christopher Platt, Acting Director, Collections and Circulating Operations, The New York Public Library; and Steve Potash, President and CEO of OverDrive, Inc.
It's been nearly two years since I started reading e-books almost exclusively. First, on my iPod Touch, then my Kindle and when my library began offering ebooks in August, I book a Nook so I could get books from the library.
I spent about $200 for that Nook - including extended warranty and cover. I figured the investment would pay for itself in a few short months. It already has. Since purchasing my Nook, I have read 30 books from the library. If I had purchase even half that many books at an average of $10.00 per book I would have spent $150. But I wouldn't have read fewer books, but I would have picked up some free books on B&N and Amazon, or purchased some below $10 books.
More importantly, since I don't have to buy the books, I'm more open to experimenting with different authors, and am reading books I never would have , if I didn't have the option of getting them from the library.
I was not a big library user before. In fact, I rarely went. I found the chore of having to return books by a certain due date, tedious and stressful. Plus, since I travel quite a bit, I had no interest in carrying a bunch of hardback books in my carry-on.
So I am watching with enormous interest had libraries are going to navigate this new environment. It does challenge everything a library stands for, and at the same time, it provides an opportunity to match more authors with readers.
It is a tradition to spend some time at the end of a year to reflect back on the significant events of the year. For me , that means thinking back on the year in business.
Perhaps it was serendipity that I happen to be reading Barbara Kingsolver's "The Lacuna" while I was struggling to put the year in business into perspective. "Lacuna" is a word I didn't know about until I started reading the book. It is a word that for me, describes the year in business.
A Lacuna is a gap;or missing part,as in a manuscript,series or logical argument;hiatus
While the book is not about business or business culture or business ethics, it is an historical novel and there is a passage in the book that talks about an America during World War II that made me pause. Could/would American consumers and businesses ever rally around a cause again like they did during WWII?
ThIs description is from letter that the protagonist, Harrison Shepherd is writing to famed Mexican artist Frida Kahlo. In it, he talks about an America that is hard to visualize today.
Sacrifice is a sacrament. How we all cheered when Howard Hughes's new factory turned out a battleship just twenty-four days after laying its Keel![...] The war is on every page of every magazine. Even in the advertisements, which strangely don't encourage buying now, but the opposite. Manufacturers fly the "E" flag to show their whole prodution is needed for war use. Buy nothing but war bonds, give your blood to the Red Cross.
"Follow doctor's advice to the letter and keep appointments brief," my magazine warns because half our doctors are in the forces, leaving the home-front men with twice as may to care for. Travel for emergencies only. After victory is won, they promise us the world: a new model of radio, automobiles with synthetic rubber tires, things yet unseen by civilian eyes. [...]
The new American motto is, "We make do with nothing new, no wristwatches, new shirts, or bedsheets[...] You would not believe how cheerfully the people accept deprivation. It makes them feel brave and important. Rich or poor, the banker's wife and the secretary bring the same ration book to market and leave with the same goods.
I try to imagine the America that is described here and it feels like a foreign land.The one thing that we do seem to have in common from those days is that a lot of people have experienced significant deprivation since the economy crashed in 2008.
But, unlike the days in the 1940's, most of us have felt neither brave nor important because of it. Instead,we've felt like we were living in a lacuna, scared, alone and no way to dig ourselves out.
The experts say in 2011 the economy will continue to rebound. My question is, will American workers rebound with it?
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