Everything About Business Except The Bottom Line: FunnyBusiness

Shopkeepers in India Protest Wal-Mart

Wal-Mart executives were in India recently checking out that country's potential. They were greeted by protesters who are not keen on the idea of Wal-Mart opening stores throughout their country. According to Reuters,

In New Delhi, over 100 demonstrators waving banners and shouting slogans marched on government buildings to protest against the entry of the world's largest retailer into India. Some broke through police barricades and burned an effigy of a dummy with "Wal-Mart Down" scrawled on it. "Go back Wal-Mart," protesters shouted, waving placards saying: "Save Small Retailers."

The shopkeepers in India fear what happened to mom and pop stores in small town America will happen to them. There are an estimated 40 million people in India who depend on small retail shops for their livelihood.

"The earnings for our small store keep me, my younger brother and sister and my parents alive," said Amrit Prakash, 26, one of the protesters, who owns a small grocery store in Delhi.

"If Wal-Mart comes, they will sell goods at wholesale prices which will be cheaper and I will have no customers. I simply can't compete with these big supermarkets ... what will happen to me and my family? I'm worried we'll end up on the streets."

Meanwhile,  it was announced this week that Wal-Mart is expanding its holdings in China by agreeing to expand its holdings in Chinese retailer Trust-Mart-- a deal estimated at $1 billion.  International success is no guarantee.

"Wal-Mart's efforts to expand outside the US have not proved an unqualified success, raising questions about whether its retail formula can be replicated elsewhere.

The firm pulled out of Germany and South Korea after struggling in those markets, while its Japanese subsidiary Seiyu has made heavy losses."

Entering these markets demands some cultural adjustments. Ikea has had major struggles in China and some experts say the small number of stores indicates that things are not doing well. Maybe yes or Maybe no. Turns out that it's taken Ikea and the Chinese a while to figure out how to work together. In Tim Johnson's blog, China Rises, he shares what it was like to go to an IKEA in China in 2003.

When my family first moved to Beijing in September 2003, we made several trips to the local Ikea store to buy lamps and bedding. We were astonished by what we saw. The store was packed but nobody was buying. They were too busy lounging! In the furniture section, every single chair was taken. Shoppers weren’t trying them out, mind you, but resting. In the mattresses section, shoppers were sprawled all over the beds. My wife swears she saw one couple playing cards on a bed, looking like they had found the most comfortable place in Beijing to spend the afternoon.

We quickly realized that a) the store was air conditioned and offered a respite from the outdoor heat, and b) no employees were there trying to shoo away people camped inside.

Johnson reports IKEA just opened the largest IKEA in the world in Beijing and the store is packed. This time, they are not only lounging, they are buying. Johnson reports the restaurant was packed and the Chinese had plenty of products in their shopping cars.

"I noticed something else: Employees in various sections stood with microphones near portable amplifiers shouting out the benefits of certain products. I bet this doesn’t happen in other countries. Ikea is putting some “Chinese characteristics” into its China strategy."

Image Credit: Gurumustuk's Singh

The Skinny on the Delta Zeta Fiasco

The story is jaw-dropping. One week before finals,the national office of the largest sorority in the country sends out eviction notices to 23 of 35 members. The reason:they are not attractive enough to recruit the type of new members the national office believes meets Delta Zeta standards. As reported in The New York Times,

Worried that a negative stereotype of the sorority was contributing to a decline in membership that had left its Greek-columned house here half empty, Delta Zeta’s national officers interviewed 35 DePauw members in November, quizzing them about their dedication to recruitment. They judged 23 of the women insufficiently committed and later told them to vacate the sorority house. The 23 members included every woman who was overweight. They also included the only black, Korean and Vietnamese members. The dozen students allowed to stay were slender and popular with fraternity men — conventionally pretty women the sorority hoped could attract new recruits.

There is the expected outrage. Few, who read the article, can feel anything but disgust for the cruelty of the national office. And yet, sororities are big business. Like any business with a brand to protect they expect members to live the brand. If the sorority  doesn't meet it's bottom line, they have to close their doors just like any other business or nonprofit. Do the same people who are appalled at the hideous treatment of these young women feel the same way about businesses who routinely discriminate against the fat?

In The-F-Word Rachel Richardson writes about fat bias in the workplace.

About eight years ago, when I weighed 300 pounds, I was desperate to find a new job. I’d get called for interviews in which I thought I did relatively well, only to never get any calls back. Fast forward just a couple years later. My professional qualifications are still relatively the same, but I weigh less than half my original body weight. I am hired at one of the premier global computer corporations in its corporate human resources department. Coincidence? Maybe. But in my experiences, there is a vast difference in the way one is treated professionally when fat and when thin.

In her post, Richardson links to an MSNBC report on fat discrimination in the workplace. 

America’s TV boss Donald Trump, who has been in a war of words with Rosie O’Donnell, told Entertainment Tonight recently that: “If I were running 'The View," I’d fire Rosie. I’d look her right in that fat ugly face of hers and say, ‘Rosie, you're fired.’ ” Let’s say Trump was indeed Rosie’s boss and phrased his firing just like that, could he be charged with workplace discrimination? If he had said, “I’d look her right in that Asian ugly face” or “black ugly face” the answer would be a no-brainer. But when it comes to obesity discrimination, the rotund among us have few if any rights when it comes to being hired, fired or promoted.

The reporter of that story,, Eve Tahmincioglu, has a blog,CareerDiva -

Recently I had a stomach virus that made me, what seemed, deathly ill for about a month. I lost about 10 pounds as a result and couldn’t believe the reaction I got from some of my female friends. One friend actually said she wished she could get a stomach virus so she could lose some weight. I couldn’t believe she would say such a thing given I conveyed to her how sick I was and how I was unable to really enjoy my life for those horrible weeks.

And this from Big Fat Blog about fat discrimination in Canada

A small online poll found that 25% of human resource execs admitted weight had a role in their hiring decisions. Another 35% suggested it might, on a subconscious level. Scary to think that 60% of those surveyed ultimately thought it was fine to judge a person on one's size, isn't it? [Thanks, Sandy.]

According to Charity Froggenhall at Eh..not so much only Michigan has an anti-fat discrimination law on the books. Fat discrimination is an every day occurance in this country.

The fact that a sorority discriminates against the fat is not news. What is news is the sheer number of women they evicted. Would this be a story if they had evicted three or five girls because they were fat? Probably not. And that's the real problem.

We are fascinated with this story because of the sheer number of members the sorority was willing to get rid of to reach their ultimate goal of 90 some members by 2009. We are not truly appalled at the reason the women were evicted.

Would anyone be writing or caring about three or five fat girls told to move out? The number of girls evicted forces us to turn the spotlight on ourselves. We do not like what we see.

The actions of the Delta Zeta national office makes us take a good look at what we really believe. If we are outraged at what happened to these girls then let us be outraged at businesses that treat the fat as incompetent and less than.

Let us be outraged at ourselves for thinking it's perfectly fine for businesses to keep  fat people in the back office.
Let us be outraged at ourselves for thinking that fat people are slobs, have no self discipline,and are less qualified to do management jobs.

Will this story finally be the catalyst to implement anti-fat discrimination laws? Fat chance of that happening any time soon.

Nothing that happens to Delta Zeta can compare to the anguish that these 23 women have suffered. But if nothing happens about fat discrimination in the workplace then this will simply be another story that captured our attention for a few minutes in between Anna Nicole and Britney.

This is cross-posted at Blogher

Something smells rotten at Elizabeth Arden

One can only imagine the meetings being held over at Elizabeth Arden during the past several weeks. Not only do they already have several perfumes under the Britney Spears Celebrity label, their latest concoction just launched. For its part,according to Reuters, Elizabeth Arden says they are behind Britney 110%.

Elizabeth Arden Inc. said on Thursday it would continue to support troubled pop singer Britney Spears and her perfume line, although fans may shun the fragrances after her recent behavior and negative publicity. “We have a long-standing and very successful relationship with Britney Spears. We care about her personally and remain completely supportive of her,” the beauty company said in a statement, after a New York Post story on Wednesday outlined how her recent antics may be hurting sales.

That article, written by  Holly Sanders of the New York Post reports that the timing of Ms. Spears public meltdown couldn't come at a worse time because

the celebrity scent craze appears to have peaked and is now on the decline. Sales of women's celebrity fragrances fell 17 percent to 140 million in 2006, according to retail tracker NPD.

The article also suggests that the perfume actually started with strong sales but that recent publicity around Ms. Spears is changing projections.

Gary Giblen, research director at Brean Murray Carret & Co., said his recent store checks in the Midwest suggest Spears' wild antics are already hurting sales. While the evidence is anecdotal, Giblen said store managers also indicated that customers were returning her holiday perfume gift sets in greater numbers than anticipated. "Celebrities get cut a lot of slack," he said. "But Britney is just so self-destructive and unattractive right now." This is bad news not only for the pop princess but also for global cosmetics giant Elizabeth Arden, which has grown increasingly dependent on celebrity scents like Spears' to fuel growth.

For their part, the perfume blogs are staying away from the Britney scandal. Instead, sticking to their reviews and perfume news. Basenotes just announced their 7th Annual Basenotes Awards. Top award for Perfume blogs went to:Now Smell This which is reporting that the perfume market is out of control.    

Kate Greene, the vice president for marketing fine fragrances in North America at Givaudan, said that 800 new fragrances are expected to make their appearance in 2007. 800! That is over 2 a day, people. And strictly speaking, both figures (693 and 800) are undercounts, since they don't include the zillions of independent perfume releases that don't make it into the official counts.

As far as a review on Ms.Spear's latest scent,Now Smell This offers:

Midnight Fantasy may come as something of a surprise. The top notes, like those of Fantasy, are largely candied fruits, and as has been pointed out numerous times on MakeupAlley, it smells an awful lot like grape Kool-Aid...The original Fantasy did not strike me as a particularly sexy fragrance, but Midnight Fantasy is even less so — once the burst of fruit settles, it is comparatively bland and lacking in personality. It is is easily my least favorite of the line so far. It didn't even make me laugh (thank you, Paris Hilton Heiress).

Meanwhile, when I searched Google for information on Britney Spears perfumes I found this.

Britney Spears Perfume & Aftershave 

Image credit: Gallery of the Absurd

This is cross-posted at Blogher.

Hell has no fury like a restaurant scorned

Two years ago it would have been unheard of. Today, in the equalizing world of Web 2.0 and blogs, those that are scorned by mainstream media scorn back.

Such is the case of The New York Times food critic Frank Bruni vs restaurateur turned blogger Jeffrey Chodorow.

The short version: Bruni writes a scathing review of Chodorow's new restaurant. Chodorow takes out a full page ad in the New York Times questioning Bruni's qualifications and to announce he is starting a blog where he will among other things shadow the reviews of the NYT food critics.

Is that delicious or what?

First,  Bruni 's no star review of Chodorow's latest restaurant venture.

Hanging upside down from the ceiling in the nearly pitch-black dining room are sharp, gleaming samurai swords, about 2,000 of them. The server volunteered that number, appended with an assurance that the blades, firmly anchored, shouldn’t cause any concern. The food and the bill should. Although Kobe Club does right by the fabled flesh for which it’s named, it presents too many insipid or insulting dishes at prices that draw blood from anyone without a trust fund or an expense account.

Then came Chodorow's full page ad.

"Mr. Bruni comes to us from Rome where he was not the local “expert” on Italian cuisine; he wrote about politics. In fact, there hasn’t been a real food critic with food background (except perhaps Amanda Hesser) at the New York Times since Ruth Reichl (now editor-in-chief at Gourmet magazine). Perhaps that’s also why your reviews are so all over the lot, with great restaurants getting bad reviews, fair restaurants getting great ones, one star reviews that read like two star and three star reviews that read like one star. Your readers would not expect your drama critic to have no background in drama or your architecture critic to not be an architect. For a publication that prides itself on integrity, I feel your readers should be better informed as to this VERY IMPORTANT fact, so that they can give your reviews the weight, or lack thereof, they deserve."

Near the end of the ad, Mr. Chodorow shared his true intention. From now on, he is going to shadow the food critics at the NY Times and create his own reviews in his newly launched blog.

"In the interest of fairness, I am also introducing my personal blog, which will be a compilation of my food-related experiences and musings and a special section entitled Following Frank and After Adam, in which I will make a follow-up visit to restaurants they write about for the purpose of reviewing their reviews. My blog will appear at www.chinagrillmgt.com/blog. "

So far over 60 people have shared comments on Chodorow's blog. Their comments are mixed from calling him a cry baby to applauding him.

Nothin' like  a food fight to get you smilin' in the morning.

  to Chip Griffin who wrote a great post on the restaurant wars.

Image credit: New York Times, Robert Presutti

Year of The Pig

  It's the Chinese New Year and there seems to be a flurry of articles and blog posts about what it's like to be an American working in China.

Geoffrey Fowler of The Wall Street Journal(subscription required) has a great article about the Chinese working culture,

"I was riding the elevator a few weeks ago with a Chinese colleague here in the Journal's Asian headquarters. I smiled and said, "Hi." She responded, "You've gained weight." I might have been appalled, but at least three other Chinese co-workers also have told me I'm fat. I probably should cut back on the pork dumplings. In China, such an intimate observation from a colleague isn't necessarily an insult. It's probably just friendliness."

Fowler reports that many offices have a tea lady who constantly makes teas and heats up lunches for employees. Fowler describes this job as being like an office nanny. And, while American women may wear their tennis shoes to work and then change into their designer shoes for the office. Chinese women do the exact opposite -- wearing their stilettos on the street and slipping into slippers in the office.

While many of us have the impression that working conditions in China are abysmal, for at least one industry the working conditions in China are an improvement over life in the USA.

Dvorak Uncensored has a post about a game programmer who has opted to move to China to gain some work-life balance.

"He soon learned that China has laws in place that make such work conditions as he was enduring at home illegal. Work days there can be no longer than 11 hours, and employees are only legally allowed to work 36 hours of overtime a month. “There are places in the US games industry where the base work week is 50 hours and that doesn’t even start to account for the extended periods of ‘crunch time”, he says. “In China, you couldn’t legally run a shop that way. And heck, who wants to live their lives that way?”

Some of the work perks include:

“We will have an onsite chef for breakfast, lunch and dinner”, he boasts. Massages, dry cleaning, company supplied drivers, language and cultural tutoring (English or Chinese), haircuts, fitness memberships, car washing and maid and grocery services are just some of the other perks Balanced Worlds have in store for their development staff".

While Americans may be moving to China for the shorter work week, young Chinese  say they are working to shop.

Am I Blue?

In a logic that only sounds as if they are the students of  the "Ladies and Jellyspoons" school of logic, Jet Blue is canceling more flights today to avoid canceling flights in the future.

" Ladies and Jellyspoons, I come before you to stand behind you to tell you something I know nothing about. Next Thursday, which is Good Friday, there will be a mother's meeting for Fathers only. Admission is free, pay at the door. Find and seat and sit on the floor. It doesn't matter where you sit, the man in the gallery's sure to spit!

Having said that, the company is taking accountability for this mess.In an article in The New York Times, CEO
David G. Neeleman says,

"...his company’s management was not strong enough. And he said the current crisis, which has led to about 1,000 canceled flights in five days, was the result of a shoestring communications system that left pilots and flight attendants in the dark, and an undersize reservation system."

Neeleman said he was mortified and humiliated.  I guess. Who wouldn't be? The ice storm was last Wednesday. Visit their website and you will find an itty bitty little link that says,

TRAVEL ALERT: Operational Interruptions

Now, given the enormity of this mess, it might have been in Jet Blue's best interest to use a different home page during this crisis

Is it really helping their image to have the tiny link to the "operational interruptions" aka Flight cancellations? How about an apology on their homepage? How about a letter from the CEO promising what action they are going to take in the future? How about anything but selling more tickets for an airline that is cancelling flights.

Image Credit: Robert Stolarik for The New York Times

Back of my pink Cadillac

Russia is the latest country to enter the Pink Taxi Business. England, Australia, Japan and Dubai  also offer this women's only service. In Russia, the pink taxi company is a women owned business and seems to have been met with enthusiasm.

Russian News@Lovers Planet blog reports that the women  have more business then they can handle.

According to some Moscow women, male drivers speed, smoke and don’t really care much about the safety of the passengers.  Some women have been picked up in a cab and drugged and raped.  The founders of Pink Taxi decided to cash in on that while providing a valuable service to women...The initial fleet of taxis were two Daewoo Nexia cars with two drivers.  Now they have 20 cars and 27 drivers and are looking to upgrade to Volvo S40s.

In Dubai, the announcement of the Pink Taxis has been met with sighs and eyerolls. Unlike the entrepreneurial Russians, the Pink Taxis in Dubai serve as a screaming reminder of the limited freedom of women in Arabic countries. Miss Kelly is not impressed.

    The launch of the new service was aimed at providing a safe and comfortable means of transport to women to ensure their free movement, Mohammed Obeid Al Mulla, Executive Manager for Public Transport of the Roads and Transport Authority, said here yesterday." Free movement? Huh?     "It is also part of a plan to develop an integrated transport network, contributing to bolstering Dubai’s mark on the world map, he said, adding that in the first phase, 50 taxis, with pink roofs, pink seats and interiors, and other features to give the vehicles a feminine look, would be deployed at places frequently visited by women."     "He said that 100 female drivers had undergone extensive training to learn skills of driving, etiquette, customer service, handling emergency cases, locations of key government entities and tourist and leisure destinations."

However, when news of a planned Pink Taxi service in Australia emerged last fall, many started crying foul including Adrian Neylan who writes Cablog.

Both Brisbane cab companies admitted female drivers were turned off driving at night because of safety concerns, but dismissed the pink taxi idea as a "novelty". However those who'll decide on approval, the gummerment, are making positive noises. What about anti-discrimmination ? No worries according to the A-D commissioner, "They would have to jump through a few legal hoops but it is possible they could get the general principle of discrimination set aside." Perfect. Queensland girls will have a new option for ditching unwanted dates. Book it !

England doesn't actually have a Pink Taxi service because that would violate discrimination laws. Instead you have to be a member to use the service. As Savvy Chick says, good idea but do you really want to ride around in a pink car?

The only down side that I see is that it would draw a lot of attention. I’m more of an “off the radar” girl myself so I can’t quite imagine showing up in a Barbie car.. but then again I would definitely use a service like this for my daughters.

In Japan,the issue isn't necessarily safety,but blending the uber-popular Miss Kitty Franchise with an opportunity for children to ride in a  smoke-free taxi.

Tokyo-based taxi firm Kanachu has commissioned 10 cars complete with Hello Kitty seats, blankets and umbrellas. You can even blow your nose on a Hello Kitty tissue, and listen to Hello Kitty music through the taxi's special sound system.

As far as the pink taxi trend hitting the U.S. the only reference that popped up was last year's Dunkin Donut promotion in NYC

Image Credit: Flickr member didbygraham

This is cross-posted at Blogher.

Valentine's Day in the Workplace

Will your desk be adorned today with flowers, a mylar balloon or a teddy bear? Unlike the othe lover's holiday,New Year's Eve,a good portion of Valentine's Day is spent during working hours--creating an odd mix of silly love letters mixed with deadlines.

For some it's a day to cherish, for others its a day to call in sick. According to Howard, who blogs at Fascination Streak Valetine's Day has become a"battle-royale for romantic supremacy."

What's that? She works in an office? Looks like we're taking it up a notch. Gifts, flowers, dinner plans—you'd better have something pretty darn good planned because you're not just proving your love to her, you're proving it to her friends, her co-workers,... I know, I know, she knows how much you love her. Maybe, but Janice who sits next to her at the office is dating that guy who used to sell real estate out of his one-bedroom apartment and now lives in a mansion and drives a penile-enhancement vehicle. We'll call him Doug. See, Doug decided to send over like 4 dozen roses, a stuffed bear big enough to hibernate through the summer and a giganto mylar balloon that says "I'm beary in love with you!" ... That mylar's got shouting power. You can see it from down the hall. "This Doug guy must really love Janice" they'll say. Of course Janice has self-esteem issues ...But then again, Janice got a mylar balloon the size of the color copier. What did your girlfriend get?

Will your office have a Valentine's Day Celebration? Is it okay to hand out candy, but does exchanging valentine cards take it too far?  That's the question one male worker had for workplace advice columnist Rozanne R. Worrell in 2005.

I’m a team player but sometimes my boss takes this concept a little too far. She’s all about everybody in the office doing things together. We already have monthly birthday celebrations and an annual Christmas lunch and Halloween bash. Now she’s announced that we’re having a Valentine’s Day party, and each of us has to pull one of our coworkers’ names out of a hat, and give that person a valentine at the party. Give me a break. Maybe it’s a gender thing. My boss is a female and, obviously, I’m a male, and I think this party is going too far with the valentines. There are other guys in the office who don’t want to participate, but none of us want to discuss the matter with our boss. Do you think there is anything we can do? -Keeping my Heart out of the Workplace Dear Keeping my Heart out of the Workplace: Pick your battles. I suggest that you look at your boss’ idea in a positive light. Your boss should be applauded for her creative efforts to provide everyone in the office a break from the daily grind of work and for her willingness to orchestrate a function for all employees to get to know each other better.

For many going to work on Valentine's Day is pure torture.

It's the one day of the year you're not allowed to be single. Any other day of the year it's not unusual for me to receive the odd comment from my married friends along the lines of "You're lucky you're still living the single life." But not around Valentine's Day. Oh, no. On Valentine's Day, living la vida sola is strictly verboten." -Liv Heatherington, Hating Valentine's Day....I'll never forget the year I was having a particularly horrible post-dumping Valentine's Day, going to work, and having my boss's husband send in a barbershop quartet to serenade her while on deadline.)

Then there's the advice being promoted on Salary.com telling people to send themselves Valentines at work.

You want your coworkers to think you have an outstandingly well balanced life. You want them to know not only that you brim with self-esteem, but also that someone loves you for it. Wishing it can make it come true.     * Be your own secret admirer.     * Send yourself flowers with no card.     * Send yourself several cards, all different kinds, with the same mysterious postmark.     * Buy some of those little hearts with sayings on them and put them in a tasteful gift tin, to offer your guests.     * Get a friend with a bedroom voice and a thrilling accent to call the office while you're at lunch and have the receptionist put him or her through to your voice mailbox.     * Leave the office right at 5:00 or 5:30 on February 14, and look at your watch as you dash out the door.     * Arrive at work on February 15th with wet hair and a smile on your face.Va

Have searched to no avail to find statistics if people actually call in sick on Valentine's Day to avoid what the media seems to feel is utter humiliation if your desk is not covered with cards, candy and flowers. Haven't found them. If you know where they are...please let me know.

Image Credit:Secondhandgods  whose husband did send flowers, chocolate and a card. This is cross-posted at Blogher

Preparing To Be An Exemplar

It's been nearly 18 months since we checked on the progress  Tyler --a corporate executive turned math teacher. When last we checked, Tyler was busy doing lesson plans.

"My goal is to do two lesson plans a day, every day on Christmas,Saturdays, and Sundays. I have 540 lesson plans to do this year. If I do two every day, I should finish by the end of May."

Tyler hit is goal. This year Tyler, like most second year teachers in his state,is consumed by a project called Best Portfolio-- a requirement for certification.

"It's a joke," said Tyler. " The purpose is that you are supposed to plan a unit, teach the unit ,and then document how well you did. The portfolio is about 100-120 pages, includes up to 30 minutes of classroom teaching. Second year teachers wig out about this."

According to Tyler, when all is said and done ,94% of teachers get a passing grade.  The teachers are graded on a scale of 1-4. If you get a one you flunk and are given another year to get a passing score.

As long as you get a score of  2, you pass. Getting a score of 4 means you are Exemplar. Tyler is planning on being an Exemplar.

"Supposedly, someone once got a zero," said Tyler. "Urban legend has it that during the  videotape  segment one student opened his jacket and showed a gun." Tyler couldn't confirm the story but he definitely thinks it's a possibility."

Throughout the year, the second year teachers attend seminars and are assigned a mentor to help them through the process.  That's where, for Tyler,  the joke part comes in. Tyler has a first year Mentor who he has assessed has no idea what she is doing. Tyler's spent a good part of the summer planning his Best Portfolio project. He wanted it to be on probabilities.

His mentor  had another idea.  So Tyler changed his topic. Then they attended another workshop where an Exemplar from the previous share shared some of her insights. Turns out she had done her unit on Probabilities.

After that, Tyler's strategy was to avoid his mentor as much as possible. "I don't need her help. I know exactly what I'm doing,"

The mentor had another agenda.Like Tyler she is being assessed on the job she does mentoring this second year student. For her, being able to document that they are meeting on a regular basis is important to report to her superiors. So in  Early December the mentor sent Tyler a scathing email demanding that they have regular meetings. The email came in on a Tuesday.

"I wrote back and suggested we meet on Mondays. I figured between Christmas, New Year's Martin Luther King Day, there would be a lot of Monday's that we would have to skip." 

As it turns out, on the next Monday, the mentor forgot about the meeting.

Tyler's real beef with the BEST Portfolio has nothing to do with the mentor. It has to do with the process itself. In order to meet the requirements of the BEST Portfolio , teachers have to change their teaching style to meet the requirements of the program.

I don't give homework every night but in order to meet the requirements of the Portfolio, I have to give homework every night.  In essence, I'm altering my teaching style to accommodate the requirements of the assessment. "

"It's kind of like corporate America," said Tyler. "It's just a game. You just don't get paid as much."

Note: Tyler is a pseudonym.

Image Credit: Flickr Member Kears 10

SC Johnson not talking about Ziploc Sales

This is cross-posted at Blogher.

On average, a single Ziploc bag costs consumers around 10 cents--give or take a penny here or there. Each day around 18 million people take a commercial airline.

That's a lot of Ziplocs. From a business perspective, things must be quite jolly over at  SC Johnson -- the manufacturer of Ziploc bags. Just how jolly they are, they won't say.

Having traveled several times last month, I was struck with the inconsistencies with the Ziploc rule and wanted to chat with the good folks of SC Johnson --recognized by Fortune Magazine as the 7th best company in the country to work for. While I talked with three lovely people in media relations--they were the gatekeepers and ultimately the media relations experts at SC Johnson deemed that my questions about increased Ziploc sales didn't deserve a return call.

That's a shame. Because as a company, they've been handed a windfall. The sales of Ziploc's have to have increased significantly. If you visit the SC Johnson website, and click on the Ziploc brand you will see a little blurb that says,TheTSA says Ziploc is perfect for carrying liquids (that's paraphrased). But that's it. They haven't changed their packaging to alert consumers that it is the quart size bag that isTSA compatible, never the gallon bag.

Bloggers have shared their frustration of being rejected at the security check for not having the right size bag. Writing about the state of today's customer service, Seth Godin writes,

For example, when working your way through airport security, the TSA people don't want to negotiate with you. They don't want to discuss the absurdity of requiring a ziploc bag to hold just one item--they just want you to throw it away. That's a key part of law enforcement. The enforcement part.

When the ziploc rule first emerged Debbie Schlussel wrote about the absurdity.

In a quintessential bureaucratic bedevilment, the TSA allows small bottles and tubes of liquids to be carried aboard airplanes only if they are enclosed in a quart-size zip-top bag. No gallon bags. No fold-over sandwich bags. Even if you have only one bottle on you, it must be carried in a quart-size, zip-top plastic bag. Screeners confiscate any nonconforming items or send travelers to ticket counters to check luggage.

Depending on the airport,you can now receive a complimentary Ziploc bag. Minneapolis offers this service as do several others. At Boston, be prepared to spend 35 cents at the gift shop and if you travel out of Seattle, there's a chance the security will let you go Ziploc-less if you have just one liquid product in your carry-on.

Which gets us back to SC Johnson. They didn't ask for this windfall -whatever it is. But there are a lot of Ziplocs flying around the friendly skies and perhaps, SC Johnson could set up a scholarship fund for the children of fallen soldiers specifically from Ziploc sales. Given that they do invest 5% of pre-tax dollars for community well-being, this is in keeping with their culture.

Knowing that every Ziploc used would help these children, would make the absurdity of the policy a lot more bearable.

Update:
Update: In the afternoon of Friday February 9,Petrell Ozbay, spokesperson for AC Johnson called to (a)apologize for not returning my call  and (b) to answer my questions.

According to Ozbay, the company cannot specificaly attribute growth due to the TSA requirements. Instead she says, "the growth is due to innovation --specifically the double zip bags. She went on to say that she hoped that every flyer already had a Ziploc in their pantry.

Ozbay shared that since AC Johnson is a privately held company they do not release sales figures.